Taylor Swift has faced her fair share of criticism over the years. There has been Kanye at the VMAs, all of the judgement about her dating life, the Apple Music streaming problem, the Kimye drama, and just the overall criticism of the person she is. She gets criticized when she stays quiet on certain issues, such as politics or making donations, but more recently she has been speaking up publicly and still seems to face judgement for it. She wanted to show support for the LGBTQ community in her new song and music video, and even created a petition to support the Equality Act, but still for some people that is not enough or she is showing support in the wrong way. At this point, I think that people don't even have an exact reason to hate Taylor, but they have been taught to by the media and the stories they have heard about her.
Taylor's most recent "scandal" has been her feud with Scooter Braun, who just bought her old record label Big Machine Records. By doing so, Braun also purchased Taylor's masters. One might think, so why is this a big deal? While Swift did leave the record label knowing that it would probably be sold along with her all of the music that she made there, there is so much more to the story. Taylor made a Tumblr post about the situation the day it was made public, stating that she heard of the purchase when everyone else did. That is just one of the many problems. Some on Braun's side of the feud argue that Taylor had the chance to stay with the label and to own her work. Taylor had fought for years to own her work, but was only given the chance to with an ultimatum that she renew her contract at Big Machine and would "earn" the ownership of her music one album at a time for each new one that she made. I'm no expert, but that is definitely not exactly having the opportunity to own her work. Not agreeing to this "deal", she left the label because she knew that when Scott Borchetta sold it, he would therefore be selling her and her future.
Scott Borchetta is another problem with this whole situation. He is the founder and now former owner of Big Machine Records who did believe in Taylor when she was just starting out as an artist and gave her the opportunity to sign to his label. Taylor was only fifteen when she signed her contract with Borchetta and she obviously trusted him at the time. We can see now that his loyalty to her was not actually genuine. In her post, Taylor stated that whenever Scott heard Scooter's name from her, she was "either crying or trying not to". So he knew what he was doing when he sold the label to Braun. He knew how Taylor felt about a man who had bullied and hurt her when she was at one of the lowest points of her life. He decided to give the label, and therefore Taylor's legacy, to someone who participated in trying to dismantle her career without even giving Taylor the proper opportunity to claim her music as her own. When she first joined Big Machine Taylor had put her trust in Scott that he was going to do what was best for her and her music, but that trust did not mean the same to him.
As everyone has probably heard about this whole "feud", Justin Bieber and others have now joined in on the topic. Bieber posted on Instagram attempting to apologize for an old post in which he was FaceTiming Scooter and Kanye West saying "taylor swift what up" which had essentially been mocking her during the whole Kimye drama. His apology took a turn when he made Taylor seem in the wrong for taking the situation to social media and trying to get people to hate on Scooter and claiming that Scooter has always been supportive of her. I will say that at first I wasn't completely sure why she decided to post about it because she knows how things like that have gone for her in the past and maybe it could have been dealt with more privately, but then I began to understand why. For starters, she learned of the purchase publicly so why shouldn't she be public about her feelings towards it and how it affects her life. A big reason I support Taylor for her speaking out about everything is that this is what is wrong with the music industry. If Taylor Swift, one of the biggest artists in the world, can't own her music then imagine the problems that other artists are facing. She needed to speak up so that people understand that what is happening to her isn't right and she's not going to just sit around and let it happen.
I think that so many people miss the entire point of Taylor's words on the situation. She isn't really feuding with Braun, she is expressing her anger and disgust with the whole situation. The fact that manipulative men who Taylor didn't want to be associated with have control over the music that she put her blood, sweat, tears, and the majority of her life into is terrifying. Men, might I add, who had no part in creating that music. It is sad that after all she has been through and worked for that there are still others trying to control and take credit for Taylor's success and trying to dismantle her character. Yes, I do not know Taylor personally (even though she does follow me on Tumblr), but I do see the things that she does for fans and has done for everyone to be treated with love, fairness, and respect. I have seen how she has handled all of the shit talking about her throughout her career, like by mending feuds, writing songs, and even changing the industry. I know that she will turn this around and is just beginning a new, healthier, happier chapter in her life. I stand with Taylor, always.
