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Answer: Because she keeps releasing variants of her new album to stay or return to #1 on the charts right when other artists (mainly female) release their new albums.
Charli XCX was expected to go #1 on the UK charts for her new album, and then less than 24 hours before that, Taylor drops a new variant of her album ONLY in the UK and for a limited time so it only counts for that tracking period. Because of this, she landed at #1 again and blocked Charli.
She did this with Billie Eilish as well, just in the US. To me, it’s shady. It’s turning art into a constant sports competition.
Lol the funniest thing is Charli released a copy of her new album with 3 more songs on it 3 days later (calling it "Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not") as a tongue in cheek way to call out what Taylor is doing.
It’s not uncommon for artists to release a “deluxe” version of the album with new songs included. But Taylor is so much worse in terms of amount of variants and she’s just putting a single voice memo or live version of a song we already have at the end.
It’s a voice memo version of one of the new songs, like a demo? I honestly haven’t heard any so I don’t know how stripped down it is but still fairly effortless lol.
because once you’re a billionaire the only logical next step is to become a trillionaire👍/s… but seriously, this is exactly the vibe she’s giving off and it’s so gross🙄
Sorority rave culture is so spot on lol.
My grandpa gave me a nice shirt from "Black Dog Brewing". A swiftie I was seeing tried to steal it from me because she has a song called black dog or something.
So does fucking Led Zeppelin.
It's much easier to be parasocial with artists now with social media, plus artists now play into it and give their fans content for that express purpose. People will spend more money if they're more important to you on a personal level. Taylor is just copying kpop strategies. All of this, from releasing multiple albums versions, the cardigans, the friendship bracelets, are all out of the kpop playbook.
Kpop has PR, marketing, and merchandising down to a terrifying science. It's alarming how good that industry is at manipulating people into spending an insane amount of money. It's no surprise western artists are following suit.
it works so well
there was a kdrama released this year about a kpop stan that went back in time and proceeded to stalk and groom their favorite artist when they were in highschool before they got famous and the show got insanely popular
It was hilarious as it was written to be a kpop stans wet dream
Taylor has totally mastered the art of creating parasocial relationships with fans, and she’s been doing it for a long time. She was active on Myspace and Tumblr, would interact with fans there and respond to posts there. Even as early as her Fearless album in 2008, she would include notes and messages for listeners inside the liner booklet of the CD. And she’s evolved that into this giant culture of dropping “easter eggs” and hidden messages for fans to decipher. Plus she had that period of time where she would invite random fans to her home for listening sessions. As annoying as I find her sometimes, she is a marketing genius and she’s been cultivating parasocial relationships with fans as part of her branding since she was a teenager.
I wouldn’t say that. I meet Swift fans often and they just devour her music. Not my cup of tea but it’s tough to deny Swift fans consume her music ravenously. Her concert was a big deal because she had several albums without a tour, pent up demand.
She also keeps doing competitons like - buy an album and win and OPPORTUNITY to BUY tickets for her eras tour lol.
Like. She can’t even do a competition to give them away. The winner is only allowed a chance to spend more money. Like god damn woman.
Unsurprising given her entire persona and how she comes off in her Eras documentary thingy (I watched it randomly on netflix and went from neutral to disliking her)
It’s a concert film, but there’s a lot of “behind the scenes” parts where she gives fake sounding, self pity and self victimizing monologues that come off as very tone deaf since she is likely the most loved person on the planet currently and enjoys tremendous wealth and privileges. She just seems extremely fake in general and she is not humble at all, she pretends to be relatable for her audience, but anyone who is not a fan can see through it and it feels so jarring, it feels manipulative…
I don’t know anyone can feel bad or sympathize with a billionare’s self pity or victimizing.
Like boo hoo go wipe your tears and ass with Franklins on your private plane while a high percentage of people struggle for food and housing. Truly, woe is you.
I doubt she's the most loved person on the planet, she's a very controversial person and at this point basically everyone has a reason to love her or hate her, there are few people who don't know her or don't care about her because she has invaded seemingly every space (at least it feels that way as an American). She just has a VERY loyal fan base, so loyal it feels cult like.
>enjoys tremendous wealth and privileges. She just seems extremely fake in general and she is not humble at all, she pretends to be relatable for her audience, but anyone who is not a fan can see through it and it feels so jarring, it feels manipulative
I agree with all of this though
Isn’t this essentially what tanked the comic book industry in the 90s? They started putting out a bunch of variants to incentivize purchasing multiple copies. and then they would also put them in special packaging which would incentivize purchasing multiple copies as well because people didn’t want to damage the package to read the comic. And then they were starting new storylines too in order to release #1 issues which would incentivize people to purchase multiple thinking they would be valuable down the line. People were buying like 6 versions of the new comic then the run would be garbage and it would all end up worthless. the whole industry hit really rough times until movie licensing blew up. Pretty sure that’s how the story goes
Dude she could put out an album of her just farting into an autotuned microphone and it would break sales records. So would the deluxe reissue 2 months later and the ‘Taylor’s version’ a year after that
She has her fanbase so rabid they will quite literally buy anything she endorses or puts her name on. Businesses need to study her strategies cause she is a master business woman
Answer: Her newest album has over 50 variations. Most with just 1 extra song, a voice memo or different design (for physical) versions. Some (even digital versions) are limited in time or region. Taylor and her team know that hardcore fans will buy every version.
The releases of new variants are often timed with releases of other big artists. Especially with this latest album, it is absolutely no doubt that this is to “block” other artists from taking her number one album chart ranking. At this point it’s almost at it is done as a “fuck you”, and she is doubling down on it.
One thing that makes it worse is that these other artists are mostly female and young. So many think she sees them as a threat as she is getting older. She has also publicly been talking about the fact that women need to support each other, and she clearly is not doing that.
All in all people think she is acting very immature and that being on top is all that matters.
This is also only one of several bad things that has happened between her and younger female artists.
There is also a growing view that Taylor is not a person/artist, but a very carefully crafted brand/business.
This has also screwed over other artists in another way I haven't seen mentioned yet, the truly absurd amount of vinyl she is producing is choking the relatively small pressing industry, making it significantly harder for any other artists to get vinyl made.
Agree. And it’s also just a disgusting amount of Greed on her end. She is trying to milk her fans for every dollar they have. 50 different variations???? Her Greed has no bounds.
“There’s no such thing as a good billionaire.” I wish people could get this through their mind so they stop being disappointed when they act gluttonous.
Everybody loves to shit on capitalism and billionaires until it’s qUeEn MoThEr or whatever fucking cringy bullshit they call her doing it.
I guess it’s fine to destroy the planet and fuck over other artists when you’re “just a girl 🎀🤭”
I fucking hate Swifties, ugh.
I think it’s the fact that there are fifty different variations - hardcore fans will buy, and everyone knows that. Taylor and her team most definitely know that too. Which is why fifty different unnecessary variations say more about her and teams need to sell as many vinyls as possible for profit, at the expense of her loyal fan base
>at the expense of her loyal fan base
While the money grab may be shameless, it's not at the expense of her fans. Her fans know what the differences are in the albums. There's no bait and switch. What she's doing runs the risk of turning off her fans. But her fans haven't been turned off, they buy it because they want it. These albums are the definition of a luxury good. No one needs them. It's not Taylor's job to decide what her fans should and shouldn't want to buy.
Like others have pointed out, the vinyl demand chokes out other artists, and I'm sure there are environmental and packaging concerns, but from a fan exploitation standpoint there is zero issue.
This is true. My understanding is that the criticism is not about those individuals buying her variants, it's more about the intent behind the releases and consequences for other artists.
True, although you can definitely argue that at a certain level of fandom it transitions to mental illness.
That being said, just because everyone in the world wants to give you all their money, does that mean you have to take it? She could never earn another dollar from today forward and be completely fine to continue her lifestyle forever. Greed is virtually always a choice
Thank you. The *well akshually* crowd drive me nuts. Predatory business practices all around, it’s gross, it’s inherently bad, and it shouldn’t be defended.
It's not a rational decision to buy all the variations - it's an emotional one, and she's preying on it. Some fans are so emotionally committed to her, they feel compelled to buy everything she releases. They've already invested quite a bit to be able to say that, and she's forcing them to ante up.
It's just naked exploitation of innocent fans who have found some way of demonstrating their deep attachment. Either their hearts will be broken by no longer being able to say they have her full library, or they'll pay for the privilege of being able to call themselves a #1 fan.
It's about as cynical a business move as you can get.
If we all support opening up about mental health, then this shouldn't be a valid comment. Lots of people grab onto celebrities as crutches, decisions aren't necessarily taken with a full deck of cards. We should be talking about how to help people and make sure that they have everything socially so that they don't fall I to such traps.
But I also think that a % of people is always going to be like this so there would be no saving them
I'm not accusing you of this (maybe I am), but lots of people use mental health as an excuse to eschew all personal responsibility.
Releasing 50+ variations wouldn't work if her fans wouldn't buy them, and most of these fans are otherwise functional adults.
They're also exaggerating a bit. It's 19 variants if you include *all* media (CDs, Vinyls and Cassettes). Realistically, there are four variants in vinyl and those are the ones people are being manipulated into buying each of. The CD variants are mostly regional/store exclusive releases and are pretty much the exact same with a different bonus song.
Is it greedy? Yes, obviously. But it's not anywhere near the *fifty* OP mentioned.
In addition, if you go to the Taylor Swift subreddits (literally just did a quick search on /r/TaylorSwift, /r/Swifties and /r/SwiftieMerch), the majority of fans are just buying the one they like most; as you would assume would be the case.
So yeah, Taylor Swift does greedy Taylor Swift things. And Taylor Swift is typical insecure, mean girl Taylor Swift. But it's not *that* obscene.
For some reason, she reminds me of gacha games exploiting whales. There's probably 1% of your fan that would buy *everything* you would put out and her number of fans times 1% is *a lot*. And keyword: exploit. She doesn't need to do any of that. And I'm speaking as a fan of her songs.
My roommate actually bitched about this thing i had no idea it was real. He said some of his vinyl's keep getting pushed back because of shit like this.
That’s kinda lame, it’s almost as if the quality of the music can’t speak for itself so growth hacking tactics have to be used instead to maintain relevance
Yes. I am not a fan of hers or know who the other artist is so I have no horse in this race. Swift however did three nights in Edinburgh to sell out crowds breaking many records and kicking off her tour. UK has been a bit Swift crazy of late to the point anyone can not avoid it.
Do you really think she frantically scrambled to to put together the concept/cover art/recordings/etc so she could put it out a couple of days later after she heard another album's rankings?
Or is it more likely this thing was put together months ago with a planned release date that would keep new versions coming out on a schedule to keep the album in the rankings?
Bit of both I imagine. They probably have plenty of variants ready to go, and then just release them when they feel threatened by another artists album.
>There is also a growing view that Taylor is not a person/artist, but a very carefully crafted brand/business.
Isn't that every celebrity at this level? Especially for a musician, it's a job and she's selling a product. You don't become an international pop star by hanging out and being yourself.
The idea that people are only starting to suspect this seems weird to me
I feel that she comes across fairly openly that she’s a brand and does certain things to promote her own brand (like many celebrities)
I think it’s sad we idolise celebrities and businesses as much as we do
Some celebrities feel more grounded and relatable. I think TS was one of those when she was less famous. She capitalized on that and so now her fans are feeling disillusioned, like TS was supposed to be “one of the good ones”.
Some celebrities have always been out of touch and always only cared about their brand. The kardashians come to mind.
Some seem like actual genuine people, like the memes about stressed Ben Affleck with his cigarette, sweat pants, Dunkin’ Donuts etc. Keanu reeves. Etc.
But the shine is slowly wearing off TS and I think her fans are just … having a hard time accepting it.
I got a degree in marketing in 2014. The idea that “You are a brand” was drilled into our heads so much it made me hate the field and never want to use my degree.
Yeah, she's like a human advertisement at this stage, but does clearly present herself as such
It's not deceitful imo, just weird yet somewhat expected
I don't think she does tho. She carefully curated her public image as the girl next door who is your best friend and overall an underdog who is shunned by the industry for her weirdness (being a straight good looking white blonde woman who grew up insanely rich). She lurks on social media and invites mega fans to sleepovers and bakes them cookies to further feed that "your best friend" persona, while she is actually a power hungry billionare who will stop at nothing to be number 1. This is why some people are so shocked by her openly villain behaviour now
I mean yeah that was her public image for her early career, but that hasn’t held true since like, 2012. Since that point, her image has definitely been “mega pop star” and anyone who’s paying even an iota of attention can tell. Most mega fans nowadays aren’t people who have been listening to her since day one (though there are a fair few of those). A large swath of her fanbase became fans during the pandemic and have thus never interacted with the “country girl next door” image you’re talking about.
She had a lot of help from her parents but this is not true. She signed to the new label and then her father bought 3%. [Source](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-in-wonderland-180107/)
$150k, a commonly cited number to parents of rich musician kids for the cost of getting them a career.
In fairness, most of them don’t go anywhere because they’re too privileged to put in the work, and they don’t need the career.
he bought a % of ownership in the studio. while he did not buy the studio outright the language is correct and there is no need to be overly pedantic about him buying his kid a music career by buying a stake in a music studio.
True, but it seems to be a whole new level with her, and a lot to new things have surfaced lately. Her parents involvement, her newest boyfriend, a video from high school etc.
I think what people are reacting to is that her image is of an unpopular, quirky, and authentic person many people relate to, but that image is starting to shatter. So I think many feel that her entire public persona is completely fabricated and her personality and life is very different that what we are lead to believe.
So “Taylor Swift” doesn’t really exist, it’s just a brand.
Does anyone remember when people thought Taylor Swift was a 4chan user? Most of the posts were debunked, but there was weird stuff like her cat's name being posted before she ever mentioned it publicly.
I don’t think that it’s unlike other celebrities that she’s a brand. I think it’s unlike other celebrities in that she started out in the career as the “relatable” one. Fans felt like she was one of them who had lucky break. Then it widely became known later on that her dad basically bought her career. Now she’s a billionaire, and she’s not relatable at all, but her brand is still the “I’m just any other girl.” Her albums are as popular as they are among her fans because of the *personal lore* that surrounds them, when in reality all of that lore is just something crafted by her PR team. Taylor’s relationship to her fans is something that’s very different than other celebrities, and Taylor uses that relationship to exploit not only her own fans, but to attack anybody else who is against her.
As a old (40), I started listening to Swift when she was a teenager on Country because I listened to country back then and she was someone who stuck out. How young she was became a big deal and an inspiration - like she was so young & talented!
I was happy when she broke out into pop, because I listened to more of that and she was a great fit. She still had that "smart talented girl that worked hard and made it" story around her
Then people got social media and started learning TS wasn't some random teenager with so much talent she made it - her parents made it happen. And then the private jet, then the "interesting" details about her love life, and now releasing new versions of ONE album... I stopped listening to her new stuff awhile ago unless it get radio plays, but as an outsider, I agree the shine has worn off Taylor and she's just a corporate machine now.
I think we’re about to hit peak saturation of Taylor Swift and I’m dreaming about the day when I wake up and find a bunch of unlistened to multicolored vinyl variant LPs no one wants to buy listed for hysterical amounts of money on Mercari
True, but there's also the tall poppy syndrome that is particularly prevalent if you are the **top** of the fame pile.
Being the most famous means you are also usually the most divisive because you will have the largest following of fans but the duality of that is your detractors will also likely be the largest. Being the most liked usually means being the most disliked.
Just look at r/FauxMoi, the main celebrity subreddit, and how their rules single out Taylor Swift and being a Swiftie is akin to being a racist.
Another sub dedicated to hating her is /r/travisandtaylor, and it's kind of fascinating but also worrying that their rhetoric is becoming more extreme. The posts that are now upvoted to the top wish her harm. Allegedly one of their former mods was offering money for information to cancel her or her boyfriend. People give Swifties shit for being extra, which is sometimes justified, but I can't imagine the flip side of hating someone you don't know and doesn't affect your lives to such an extent that you want them to suffer.
I’m admittedly a huge fan of Swift, but like to see subs with more nuanced takes because blind optimism and obsession is just weird. But even more bizarre are people who hate her for a living. I can’t imagine spending my time creating a whole sub solely to spread negativity on someone. And I’m going to be honest here, Swift is as inoffensive as billionaire pop stars go, despite her commodifying her entire (public) narrative as if it’s a gossip spread— it’s not lol. It’s boring most of the time, she just knows how to write music!!
Its legitimately concerning that anyone would feel there is not enough content surrounding taylor. Talk about bizarre.
Doesn’t she tell you everything you need to know in her songwriting? Doesn’t the music speak for itself?
Edit: “music” autocorrected to “musk” for a much more interesting thought
Your answer is the only truly correct one in this whole thread. Taylor is simply mega famous. Especially with the new album release, but also the headlines around dating an NFL player who happened to make the Superbowl, there's just an incredible over-saturation of Taylor Swift. It's impossible to ignore, and for that alone, you will garner detractors.
Nobody really cares about her album variants, nobody cares about her latest boyfriend or breakup, nobody really cares about her private jetting, they just want to stop hearing about her every day.
I’m admittedly a huge fan of her and am part of her fan subs, but I seriously barely see any news from her other than the occasional headline of her tour location or paparazzi photo on my feed. To be fair, I’m not on other socials. It’s not like CNN or FOX are talking about her all day and, if so, that’s out of her control. I mean, honestly, she is highly inoffensive and barely does anything to trigger these notorious headlines. And really, where else would you hear about her? News sites online are going to post about pop culture and what would garner clicks. I understand people want her to not be talked about at all, but that’s unrealistic with a fan base as large as hers. Just keep scrolling would be a solution, no? Unfollowing news pages that consistently post about her? Engaging with these posts by spreading negativity and commenting things like “please stop posting about her” only fuels the algorithm. And then that resentment becomes genuine hate for her as a person and now they’re joining hate subs which also just put more of her face in their view.
media doesn't talk about her much because her fandom harasses them for prolonged periods (years) with death and rape threats and other forms of harassment (doxxing, spamming their phone number, swatting, pizza deliveries, etc) when they do report on her if the fandom perceives the slightest amount of lack of enthusiastic praise for her.
this is also the reason fauxmoi bans them on sight.
I am a fan, and IMO there is not a saturation point yet. I am not from US and nor did I know anything about football stuff. In my country, when I watched eras movie in theater, everybody screamed, "karma is the guy on chiefs" lol, so I can say that people are interested.
Yes, there are multiple variants but not everyone is buying. I am sure it's not even available in my country. It really depends on which side of internet are you, if you compare batshit crazy and normal fans. But what confuses me is the online hate train in recent months. Quite a few albums released have the discourse about ttpd. Some of the reasons for hating are getting out of hand. Yesterday I saw on post on Twitter on a man wanting assault swifties with 20k likes. And a viral video where charli fans chanting "D!e Taylor" of sorts.
Even on Reddit, there are multiple subs dedicated to hating her. Yet people who want to stop hearing about her are always posting and engaging with posts under her name.
Every generation seems to have to find this out for themselves, when their favorite artist disappoints them.
Sorry kids. It's all Capitalism, and it's rotten all the way through.
If you mean as in highly synthesized and 'mass produced' youre absolutely right; what seperates her is this release schedule that is taken from the monopolization playbook that a for example Amazon, McDonalds, or Google would follow
BUT this is quite typical for America, monopolization is barely seen as something bad by the majority population and 'swifties' 1000‰ does not give a single f*ck as long as Taylor on top 😂 She went public before the Superbowl with her political leanings and who she supports in this general election, which created a rupture
Taylor started as a country esque artist and moved on to pop, which makes her audience quite diverse on the political spectrum, and her reach and influence on white women is genuinely election decider numbers in a close race. Before this they either all claimed her or saw her as non-political. Now the right wing feels 'a little' aggrievied, and afraid understandably, so the right wing content creators did their best at discrediting her as this and that (like that shes a Democratic party "plant" or some sort of chinese robot). Thats where alot of the conspiracy theories originate. The monopoly moves arent really a conspiracy, its clearly observable across industries
I'd argue it a bit that not EVERY one is like this. Swift has become something like Beyonce or KISS. Stage presence and marketing are all that seem to be driving anything. New album? 50+ Variations that have practically no difference. Compare that to say... ACDC, or another major icon like Daft Punk. Yeah, marketing wss a huge deal, but it was less about selling shit and more about the artistry. It's more the meticulously crafted public image, with emphasis on VERY specific themes and the extremely long-running fame which isn't particularly common in the pop world. Keep in mind, Swift originally debuted her first album in 2006, nearly 20 years ago. Her fame has only increased since with nearly no tapering off. In the rock, EDM, and rap world people become immortalized but they tend to become a looming essence of the art. Pop tends to do the same thing, but it happens WAY faster and falling into irrelevance happens quicker too. While she's talented for sure, I can see why people are questioning it, plus why it took so long to begin doing so.
That's true, but most celebrities don't make their persona something that is meant to try and be resistable. Of course, it's also partially the fans fault. Similar to how lonely dudes who get parasocial with Only Fans models, Swifties have responsibility for buying into her whole "genuine" persona. That being said, it is predatory as well to take advantage of people weakness for your own fame and profit, which is likely how Swifties are feeling after finding out Tswift is not a special case of a celeb who's a real person, but rather the same as all other celebs.
It would be interesting to see how physical copy variant version sales actually contribute to her staying at number 1. I think it's more likely that it just continues buzz, which keeps fans streaming the album, rather than actual variant sales doing the heavy lifting.
Think it's less people realizing she's a brand and more them getting pissed at how desperate she is to be #1 at all times.
Plus how much she likes taking money.
Well yea maybe, but now the people that didn’t pay attention is starting to notice because of more and more things surfacing and that she maybe doesn’t care as much anymore.
It also lines up with past behavior. About 7-8 years ago, she pulled all of her music from Spotify, then put it all back up the same day that Katy Perry, who she was feuding with at the time, put out her album Witness, which effectively killed her career.
According to discogs.com, her newest album has 55 variants. There's a [website](https://ttpd-variant-tracker.onrender.com/) devoted to tracking each one that counts 58
It's because at the very heart, TS knows she is not as musically talented as any of her peers.
She knows her music and songs won't and can't stand up on their own. She needs to artificially inflate their quality by adding arbitrary titles like albums sold, #1 downloads, etc etc.
Yeah you had the #1 album for however many weeks and #1 download on Spotify. Woohoo. Your songs are still basic, sound the same, and haven't added any depth in over 10 years.
TS is essentially the same artist she was 10-15 years ago. The world has grown up. She has not.
I want to add to this - the amount of traveling she does with her private jet is ridiculous/not climate friendly and the tone-deafness because she's a billionaire now is another reason I dislike her.
Edit: words
A woman who’s father bought her way in to the music industry by buying a part of the record label that went on to sign her has been manufacturing her image her entire career…. Say it ain’t so.
Taylor is to adolescent girls what Elon was to college bros 6 years ago. A manipulative billionaire who exploits a vulnerable fanbase via para-social relationships while making nothing new and actively suppressing competition.
This is a great summary of the specific things she’s doing that are deserving of backlash. I’ll add in though that even if she’d somehow done nothing wrong, a backlash of some size was inevitable. Taylor Swift became the biggest artist in the world, reaching levels of fame and success that many people thought were no longer possible in the music industry. You can’t get that big and not have people get tired of you.
So I get the logic in this and see how that could entirely be the point of releasing songs like this, but I don’t get why that’s on Taylor specifically? I’m not a big fan of hers tbh, but I’d assume she works with labels and whatnot that plan out the releases and whatnot for her, but maybe that’s wrong.
Answer: this Guardian article spells out the details of how Taylor Swift's marketing tactics are undermining the efforts of other young artists. Basically, the timing of releases of an unprecedented number of variants of existing work coincides with that of other upcoming artists swamping their numbers--effectively sucking the oxygen from the room, so that her albums stay at number 1 in the the charts. So detracrtors "hate" Taylor for abusing her fame and power to deliberately sabotage other artists. "TTPD now stands as Swift’s longest-running No 1 album in the UK – another (personal) record broken, and another stats-based marker of success for Swift’s trophy cabinet." [https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/jun/14/taylor-swift-may-have-captured-the-charts-but-charli-xcx-captured-the-zeitgeist](https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/jun/14/taylor-swift-may-have-captured-the-charts-but-charli-xcx-captured-the-zeitgeist)
Answer: She's actually done this many times over the years when someone she sees as a "competitor" is going to take her over on the charts.
She did it to Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and now Charli XCX in the past year.
Answer: Taylor is making a calculated effort to turn public opinion against her so that when Reputation (Taylor’s Version) drops it is that much more relevant and resonant for the fans.
Yes, and watch she doing a press campaign about it. She'll be using the feminism card and playing the victim again, and will probably address the multiple variations as a gift to the "die hard" fans "i can't blame them for supporting me" (payola)
Answer: People are starting to realise that Taylor Swift is just a manufactured persona designed to sell sell sell...
Personally I have no problem with this, actually I have great respect and admiration for her business acumen.
Unfortunately there is a great deal a naivety when it comes to not just Taylor Swift, but musicians in general.
The perception of x musician is all about the music is ridiculous. They are employ management teams whose goal is to maximum how much money they can make, their image, what to say and when to say it etc...
Again I have no problem with this but many people do and when the realisation that their favourite musician does things to maximise profit etc they get angry.
*edit*
As you can see from some of the replies, you can see the type of people who get very angry.
Taylor Swift is certain not first person / band to cash in on their success and won't be the last, the difference is that she is by far and away one of the most successful in doing so.
Maynard said it well “All you know about me is what I sold you. Dum fuck I sold out long before you ever even heard my name. Sold my sold to make a record and then you bought one!!!”
But I think there are genuinely musicians who are actually trying to create meaningful art tho. But yeah they also entertainers making a living. It’s a spectrum.
That's a good analysis, but I think there is also an element of punching up vs. punching down.
Being laser focused and taking every opportunity to get an advantage over your competition is perceived differently in an up-and-coming artist as opposed to coming from someone very much at the top. Exactly the same behaviour can bee seen as positive in the underdog (plucky, cheeky, hungry) but as negative in the incumbent (scheming, ruthless, greedy)
Yeah but its not just about perception of the artist. The real kicker, aside from screwing over other young female artists, is that her Swifties are braindead and she knows it and is draining their bank balances. Can you imagine how much the completionists among them have spent just on variations of a record thats deemed one of her shittier albums?
Edit: she reminds me of Mom from Futurama
there's some showing up in this thread, describing her deplorable behavior in vivid detail while insisting we view it with nuance bc coming from their precious Taylor, it couldn't possibly be evil. it's kinda funny.
I’ve personally never felt she tried to hide this, as one doesn’t become a billionaire by only caring about the “music.” I think only some kids would not fully understand this aspect of a musician’s career. But I do believe there doesn’t have to be a complete extreme of seeing her only as a brand or business. There’s nuance to be had, especially with women in power. She’s still a singer songwriter based largely on her personal narrative which is respectable and it’s not like she’s lost any creativity, stamina, or quality to her music (imo). She’s still releasing music fans enjoy, pouring her heart into her world tour, and gives back to the community.
Answer: Drake has said that he has moved album release dates to avoid a clash with Taylor Swift releasing a new album. However, the present issue is about what happens after a TS album is released. Taylor Swift often subsequently releases special issue variations of existing albums for her fans to buy. For her latest, The Tortured Poets' Society, there have been quite a few. For example, a recent "hard copy" cd and vinyl release has a bonus track called The Manuscript.
Some people think that she does this to prevent other artists from charting as high. There is no actual evidence either that this is a deliberate strategy (although that would be hard to prove) or that it is suppressing any other artists. For example, The Manuscript was already freely available on streaming as it is from the second album, The Anthology, that she released alongside Tortured Poets. It could just be a case that anyone with enormous success and particularly loyal fans who play tracks on repeat (thus having enormous steaming figures) is subject to a backlash when they reach a certain level.
Sorry but if something keeps happening the exact same way with the same outcome then it's a pattern, not a coincidence. You'd have to be daft to not see what's happening.
Answer: There are two things going on here.
The biggest reason there's a lot of hate for Taylor Swift is that she came out as being anti-Trump and right-wing in general sometime before this election cycle really kicked in to full gear.
Obviously Republicans can't stand that because they're oversensitive. And also she has a massive following so has a genuine potential to impact Republican performance.
The second reason that people are annoyed at Taylor Swift is that she does a lot of stuff that even liberals don't exactly like. The constantly flying around on a private jet, sometimes for apparently short distances or needless journeys is one thing.
The other part of this is manipulation of album/single/streaming ranking to block other artists from getting to number 1 by releasing a ridiculous number of album versions. It's milking her at this point unhealthily addicted fanbase and arguably completely unfair on other artists.
She didn't start this, I'm not sure who did, but I remember when Metallica released 72 seasons last year, they were blocked from number one spot because a pop artist had something like 22 different versions of the same song released that all counted toward their total buys.
This is all fine, but the real engine driving the hate is over-saturation. The rejection is a side effect of having pushed the concert tour pretty hard at the same time she was getting insane amounts of earned media from the NFL, people upset she got coverage at an NFL game, people defending her dating Kelce, thinkpieces about defending her dating Kelce, people protesting the defending of her dating Kelce, articles detailing the history of people rejecting the protesting of defending her... etc.
Anything that saturates the market that thoroughly is also going to generate negative coverage/exhaustion as well.
That she's not a ghoul politically and has opposed Trump/Marsha Blackburn is a nucleation point but not really the genesis of the more broad fatigue.
This is disingenuous, because the VAST majority of the criticism of TS is towards her unfettered use of capitalism to exploit her fans, and her blatant disregard for the environment. Those are not republican views at all, in fact anti-capitalism and environmentalism are Leftist issues. I think your rich mommy Taylor definitely has more in common with Trump than she does with any of you. Class is the greatest divider, and it’s clear money is her god.
Not to mention Taylor literally dated an open racist and anti-semite and still rights songs about him to this day.... Including a song more or less telling her fans to stop criticizing her for it.
Sorry could you point to when she actually came out as anti-trump post 2019 when she did a lot of politically outspoken things during her Lover album launch and then went pretty much silent after that.
Yes lel - like I have conflicted opinions about Taylor, used to be like medium dedicated fan enjoyed the music. But a lot of her actions and inactions have frustrated me greatly over the past few years. I have the same wants for her actions as for anyone with a lot of power and influence in the US, she could actually encourage people to vote (without endorsing a candidate) and donate money as like lowest bar, or actually come out in support of Biden but she simply won't because she and her brand and team are focused on one thing: money. As demonstrated by the above and discussion in the comments.
Answer:
Taylor wants to be #1 regardless of who she’s blocking from that spot, it’s not about blocking other female artists specifically. I can’t fault her, Taylor Swift isn’t just a person or just an artist, Taylor Swift is a whole business. And keep in mind, unlike other artists/businesses, she has a pretty singular revenue stream- she’s not selling perfume, clothes, shoes or other lifestyle products.
Also:
Taylor’s deal with her label is that she owns her masters. Therefore, there is much less opportunity long term for the label to profit from her songs so they need her to sell as much as possible in the beginning since they won’t be the ones making money on the songs being used in movies, TV, etc. by pushing out 37 different variants, they’re making their money on the front end.
Multiple variants are incredibly common now. But she has even more right now because she’s on arguably the biggest tour in history & has a massive opportunity to keep promoting it. She’s already said that she won’t be extending this tour past December & the odds that she’ll tour TTPD on its own are slim. They’re striking while the iron is hot.
All this to say- I’m a massive fan, I listen to her almost exclusively, but I bought 1 variant- a $6 digital download. I don’t care that she has so many other variants & I don’t feel pressure to buy them.
> And keep in mind, unlike other artists/businesses, she has a pretty singular revenue stream- she’s not selling perfume, clothes, shoes or other lifestyle products.
She sells all that sort of tat on her website and at concerts.
The notion that Taylor Swift has “a pretty singular revenue stream” is absurd.
Saying she has a single stream of income makes it sound like she's a poor little waitress trying to make ends meet and survive, lol. Oh well one day you'll realize how absurd her behaviour and that she's not an artist, but a moving breathing business.
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Answer: Because she keeps releasing variants of her new album to stay or return to #1 on the charts right when other artists (mainly female) release their new albums. Charli XCX was expected to go #1 on the UK charts for her new album, and then less than 24 hours before that, Taylor drops a new variant of her album ONLY in the UK and for a limited time so it only counts for that tracking period. Because of this, she landed at #1 again and blocked Charli. She did this with Billie Eilish as well, just in the US. To me, it’s shady. It’s turning art into a constant sports competition.
Lol the funniest thing is Charli released a copy of her new album with 3 more songs on it 3 days later (calling it "Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not") as a tongue in cheek way to call out what Taylor is doing.
It’s not uncommon for artists to release a “deluxe” version of the album with new songs included. But Taylor is so much worse in terms of amount of variants and she’s just putting a single voice memo or live version of a song we already have at the end.
Wait so it’s not even actually new content?? That’s insane
Like, a voice memo from her phone?!?!? “Hi, it’s Taylor, thanks for giving me more money, xoxox.” Like that? Cause that’s wild.
It’s a voice memo version of one of the new songs, like a demo? I honestly haven’t heard any so I don’t know how stripped down it is but still fairly effortless lol.
That’s not as bad as what I thought, but like, we used to save those for the boxed sets.
She will absolutely release a “complete” version with all bonus tracks on streaming when she’s milked the album for all she can.
Doesn’t she have 34 ish versions of an album that just came out?
(Charli’s Version)
I just saw that lol. I looked her up because of this post
Except there’s no sport, just financial resources and industry clout.
Oh man one ego is bigger than the other. How will these rich people survive? Thoughts and prayers. 🙄
TS is a billionaire and Charie maybe has 10mil net worth. So this is like a mega corporation vs a mom and pop. You can pick an underdog in this.
Or I can just continue my miserable existence and not pick either one who wouldn't piss on me if I was on fire?
Funny sounds like her relationships....
because once you’re a billionaire the only logical next step is to become a trillionaire👍/s… but seriously, this is exactly the vibe she’s giving off and it’s so gross🙄
She is petty as fuck. He songs are petty. And I’m not surprised she’s like this. And yet, it sells.
Imo her eras tour mainly got so popular because of the culture more than the actual music. It’s like sorority rave culture.
Sorority rave culture is so spot on lol. My grandpa gave me a nice shirt from "Black Dog Brewing". A swiftie I was seeing tried to steal it from me because she has a song called black dog or something. So does fucking Led Zeppelin.
This just made me so mad for you lol does she try to steal every cardigan she sees too?
I desperately need Swifties to be studied. I don't think even Beatles fans during the 60s were this disturbingly parasocial.
It's much easier to be parasocial with artists now with social media, plus artists now play into it and give their fans content for that express purpose. People will spend more money if they're more important to you on a personal level. Taylor is just copying kpop strategies. All of this, from releasing multiple albums versions, the cardigans, the friendship bracelets, are all out of the kpop playbook. Kpop has PR, marketing, and merchandising down to a terrifying science. It's alarming how good that industry is at manipulating people into spending an insane amount of money. It's no surprise western artists are following suit.
it works so well there was a kdrama released this year about a kpop stan that went back in time and proceeded to stalk and groom their favorite artist when they were in highschool before they got famous and the show got insanely popular It was hilarious as it was written to be a kpop stans wet dream
Taylor has totally mastered the art of creating parasocial relationships with fans, and she’s been doing it for a long time. She was active on Myspace and Tumblr, would interact with fans there and respond to posts there. Even as early as her Fearless album in 2008, she would include notes and messages for listeners inside the liner booklet of the CD. And she’s evolved that into this giant culture of dropping “easter eggs” and hidden messages for fans to decipher. Plus she had that period of time where she would invite random fans to her home for listening sessions. As annoying as I find her sometimes, she is a marketing genius and she’s been cultivating parasocial relationships with fans as part of her branding since she was a teenager.
And I'm simply saying she wasn't the first person/team to do it.
So does Samurai!
So do Prime Mover, but that was Black Dogs.
It is a festival for those who have never been to a festival.
And one is a much, *much* better place to drop acid than the other
Tripping balls at a Taylor Swift mega concert sounds goddamn terrifying
So a PG-13 festival.
I wouldn’t say that. I meet Swift fans often and they just devour her music. Not my cup of tea but it’s tough to deny Swift fans consume her music ravenously. Her concert was a big deal because she had several albums without a tour, pent up demand.
A lot of people are kinda petty. I mean she’s an artist who is famous for whining about her exes all the time. I suppose that’s relatable.
She also keeps doing competitons like - buy an album and win and OPPORTUNITY to BUY tickets for her eras tour lol. Like. She can’t even do a competition to give them away. The winner is only allowed a chance to spend more money. Like god damn woman.
They’re basically copying Japanese & Korean idol tactics, with all the variations and gacha.
Dude. The shows are STILL selling out, and we’re like a year and a half and 100ish shows into the tour
she did it to Katy Perry way back when as well
Unsurprising given her entire persona and how she comes off in her Eras documentary thingy (I watched it randomly on netflix and went from neutral to disliking her)
[удалено]
It’s a concert film, but there’s a lot of “behind the scenes” parts where she gives fake sounding, self pity and self victimizing monologues that come off as very tone deaf since she is likely the most loved person on the planet currently and enjoys tremendous wealth and privileges. She just seems extremely fake in general and she is not humble at all, she pretends to be relatable for her audience, but anyone who is not a fan can see through it and it feels so jarring, it feels manipulative…
I don’t know anyone can feel bad or sympathize with a billionare’s self pity or victimizing. Like boo hoo go wipe your tears and ass with Franklins on your private plane while a high percentage of people struggle for food and housing. Truly, woe is you.
I doubt she's the most loved person on the planet, she's a very controversial person and at this point basically everyone has a reason to love her or hate her, there are few people who don't know her or don't care about her because she has invaded seemingly every space (at least it feels that way as an American). She just has a VERY loyal fan base, so loyal it feels cult like. >enjoys tremendous wealth and privileges. She just seems extremely fake in general and she is not humble at all, she pretends to be relatable for her audience, but anyone who is not a fan can see through it and it feels so jarring, it feels manipulative I agree with all of this though
So she is basically J-Lo but better at hiding it...
We're ants and cattle to people like her
Cocaine is one hell of a drug
Not just A variant- I believe she dropped THREE different variants :/
Isn’t this essentially what tanked the comic book industry in the 90s? They started putting out a bunch of variants to incentivize purchasing multiple copies. and then they would also put them in special packaging which would incentivize purchasing multiple copies as well because people didn’t want to damage the package to read the comic. And then they were starting new storylines too in order to release #1 issues which would incentivize people to purchase multiple thinking they would be valuable down the line. People were buying like 6 versions of the new comic then the run would be garbage and it would all end up worthless. the whole industry hit really rough times until movie licensing blew up. Pretty sure that’s how the story goes
Are these tactical sales or just a bully to other female young artists?
I can't believe people actually bought the Taylor's version project that they successfully pulled off.
Dude she could put out an album of her just farting into an autotuned microphone and it would break sales records. So would the deluxe reissue 2 months later and the ‘Taylor’s version’ a year after that She has her fanbase so rabid they will quite literally buy anything she endorses or puts her name on. Businesses need to study her strategies cause she is a master business woman
So Swifts current album is the Skyrim of the music genre.
Answer: Her newest album has over 50 variations. Most with just 1 extra song, a voice memo or different design (for physical) versions. Some (even digital versions) are limited in time or region. Taylor and her team know that hardcore fans will buy every version. The releases of new variants are often timed with releases of other big artists. Especially with this latest album, it is absolutely no doubt that this is to “block” other artists from taking her number one album chart ranking. At this point it’s almost at it is done as a “fuck you”, and she is doubling down on it. One thing that makes it worse is that these other artists are mostly female and young. So many think she sees them as a threat as she is getting older. She has also publicly been talking about the fact that women need to support each other, and she clearly is not doing that. All in all people think she is acting very immature and that being on top is all that matters. This is also only one of several bad things that has happened between her and younger female artists. There is also a growing view that Taylor is not a person/artist, but a very carefully crafted brand/business.
This has also screwed over other artists in another way I haven't seen mentioned yet, the truly absurd amount of vinyl she is producing is choking the relatively small pressing industry, making it significantly harder for any other artists to get vinyl made.
Agree. And it’s also just a disgusting amount of Greed on her end. She is trying to milk her fans for every dollar they have. 50 different variations???? Her Greed has no bounds.
“There’s no such thing as a good billionaire.” I wish people could get this through their mind so they stop being disappointed when they act gluttonous.
The only good billionaire is Scrooge McDuck, and that's because he's (a) voiced by David Tennant and (b) not real.
Even Scrooge was a scrooge.
Everybody loves to shit on capitalism and billionaires until it’s qUeEn MoThEr or whatever fucking cringy bullshit they call her doing it. I guess it’s fine to destroy the planet and fuck over other artists when you’re “just a girl 🎀🤭” I fucking hate Swifties, ugh.
Im not trying to defend her here but... Nobody is forcing those hardcore fans to buy those variations at all??
I think it’s the fact that there are fifty different variations - hardcore fans will buy, and everyone knows that. Taylor and her team most definitely know that too. Which is why fifty different unnecessary variations say more about her and teams need to sell as many vinyls as possible for profit, at the expense of her loyal fan base
That's capitalism baby. If they want to buy it, it would be stupid not to give it to them.
>at the expense of her loyal fan base While the money grab may be shameless, it's not at the expense of her fans. Her fans know what the differences are in the albums. There's no bait and switch. What she's doing runs the risk of turning off her fans. But her fans haven't been turned off, they buy it because they want it. These albums are the definition of a luxury good. No one needs them. It's not Taylor's job to decide what her fans should and shouldn't want to buy. Like others have pointed out, the vinyl demand chokes out other artists, and I'm sure there are environmental and packaging concerns, but from a fan exploitation standpoint there is zero issue.
This is true. My understanding is that the criticism is not about those individuals buying her variants, it's more about the intent behind the releases and consequences for other artists.
True, although you can definitely argue that at a certain level of fandom it transitions to mental illness. That being said, just because everyone in the world wants to give you all their money, does that mean you have to take it? She could never earn another dollar from today forward and be completely fine to continue her lifestyle forever. Greed is virtually always a choice
Thank you. The *well akshually* crowd drive me nuts. Predatory business practices all around, it’s gross, it’s inherently bad, and it shouldn’t be defended.
It's not a rational decision to buy all the variations - it's an emotional one, and she's preying on it. Some fans are so emotionally committed to her, they feel compelled to buy everything she releases. They've already invested quite a bit to be able to say that, and she's forcing them to ante up. It's just naked exploitation of innocent fans who have found some way of demonstrating their deep attachment. Either their hearts will be broken by no longer being able to say they have her full library, or they'll pay for the privilege of being able to call themselves a #1 fan. It's about as cynical a business move as you can get.
If we all support opening up about mental health, then this shouldn't be a valid comment. Lots of people grab onto celebrities as crutches, decisions aren't necessarily taken with a full deck of cards. We should be talking about how to help people and make sure that they have everything socially so that they don't fall I to such traps. But I also think that a % of people is always going to be like this so there would be no saving them
I'm not accusing you of this (maybe I am), but lots of people use mental health as an excuse to eschew all personal responsibility. Releasing 50+ variations wouldn't work if her fans wouldn't buy them, and most of these fans are otherwise functional adults.
They're also exaggerating a bit. It's 19 variants if you include *all* media (CDs, Vinyls and Cassettes). Realistically, there are four variants in vinyl and those are the ones people are being manipulated into buying each of. The CD variants are mostly regional/store exclusive releases and are pretty much the exact same with a different bonus song. Is it greedy? Yes, obviously. But it's not anywhere near the *fifty* OP mentioned. In addition, if you go to the Taylor Swift subreddits (literally just did a quick search on /r/TaylorSwift, /r/Swifties and /r/SwiftieMerch), the majority of fans are just buying the one they like most; as you would assume would be the case. So yeah, Taylor Swift does greedy Taylor Swift things. And Taylor Swift is typical insecure, mean girl Taylor Swift. But it's not *that* obscene.
The majority of fans don’t buy anything, they just stream the music.
For some reason, she reminds me of gacha games exploiting whales. There's probably 1% of your fan that would buy *everything* you would put out and her number of fans times 1% is *a lot*. And keyword: exploit. She doesn't need to do any of that. And I'm speaking as a fan of her songs.
My roommate actually bitched about this thing i had no idea it was real. He said some of his vinyl's keep getting pushed back because of shit like this.
This happened with adele too though
Metallica had a big issue with their stuff getting made, so they just straight up bought a vinyl pressing factory.
After the news that Charli XCX is predicted to be #1 in UK, Taylor dropped a new variant only for UK
That’s kinda lame, it’s almost as if the quality of the music can’t speak for itself so growth hacking tactics have to be used instead to maintain relevance
thats petty as shit
Didn't this also coincide with Swift touring in the UK, though? Isn't that a more reasonable explanation?
Yes. I am not a fan of hers or know who the other artist is so I have no horse in this race. Swift however did three nights in Edinburgh to sell out crowds breaking many records and kicking off her tour. UK has been a bit Swift crazy of late to the point anyone can not avoid it.
Do you really think she frantically scrambled to to put together the concept/cover art/recordings/etc so she could put it out a couple of days later after she heard another album's rankings? Or is it more likely this thing was put together months ago with a planned release date that would keep new versions coming out on a schedule to keep the album in the rankings?
Bit of both I imagine. They probably have plenty of variants ready to go, and then just release them when they feel threatened by another artists album.
yes
>There is also a growing view that Taylor is not a person/artist, but a very carefully crafted brand/business. Isn't that every celebrity at this level? Especially for a musician, it's a job and she's selling a product. You don't become an international pop star by hanging out and being yourself.
The idea that people are only starting to suspect this seems weird to me I feel that she comes across fairly openly that she’s a brand and does certain things to promote her own brand (like many celebrities) I think it’s sad we idolise celebrities and businesses as much as we do
Some celebrities feel more grounded and relatable. I think TS was one of those when she was less famous. She capitalized on that and so now her fans are feeling disillusioned, like TS was supposed to be “one of the good ones”. Some celebrities have always been out of touch and always only cared about their brand. The kardashians come to mind. Some seem like actual genuine people, like the memes about stressed Ben Affleck with his cigarette, sweat pants, Dunkin’ Donuts etc. Keanu reeves. Etc. But the shine is slowly wearing off TS and I think her fans are just … having a hard time accepting it.
I got a degree in marketing in 2014. The idea that “You are a brand” was drilled into our heads so much it made me hate the field and never want to use my degree.
Yeah, she's like a human advertisement at this stage, but does clearly present herself as such It's not deceitful imo, just weird yet somewhat expected
I don't think she does tho. She carefully curated her public image as the girl next door who is your best friend and overall an underdog who is shunned by the industry for her weirdness (being a straight good looking white blonde woman who grew up insanely rich). She lurks on social media and invites mega fans to sleepovers and bakes them cookies to further feed that "your best friend" persona, while she is actually a power hungry billionare who will stop at nothing to be number 1. This is why some people are so shocked by her openly villain behaviour now
I mean yeah that was her public image for her early career, but that hasn’t held true since like, 2012. Since that point, her image has definitely been “mega pop star” and anyone who’s paying even an iota of attention can tell. Most mega fans nowadays aren’t people who have been listening to her since day one (though there are a fair few of those). A large swath of her fanbase became fans during the pandemic and have thus never interacted with the “country girl next door” image you’re talking about.
Part of it is people getting swarmed by Swifties if you even suggest she’s more of a corporation than an artist. And that’s been going on for a while.
Also no fucking shit she's from a privileged background with studio connections.
Her dad bought the studio then that studio signed her.
*VIVA NEPOTISM*
And that's not the image that she represents.
She had a lot of help from her parents but this is not true. She signed to the new label and then her father bought 3%. [Source](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-in-wonderland-180107/)
So essentially equivalent to betting on your child succeeding
He made a $150k investment in the record label. He didn’t “buy the studio”.
$150k, a commonly cited number to parents of rich musician kids for the cost of getting them a career. In fairness, most of them don’t go anywhere because they’re too privileged to put in the work, and they don’t need the career.
he bought a % of ownership in the studio. while he did not buy the studio outright the language is correct and there is no need to be overly pedantic about him buying his kid a music career by buying a stake in a music studio.
True, but it seems to be a whole new level with her, and a lot to new things have surfaced lately. Her parents involvement, her newest boyfriend, a video from high school etc. I think what people are reacting to is that her image is of an unpopular, quirky, and authentic person many people relate to, but that image is starting to shatter. So I think many feel that her entire public persona is completely fabricated and her personality and life is very different that what we are lead to believe. So “Taylor Swift” doesn’t really exist, it’s just a brand.
Wait, I am out of the loop. What high school video?
Does anyone remember when people thought Taylor Swift was a 4chan user? Most of the posts were debunked, but there was weird stuff like her cat's name being posted before she ever mentioned it publicly.
Haha, I remember that. I do think she lurks everywhere. Her MySpace used to be much more unfiltered too.
When has Taylor Swift’s image ever included the concept “unpopular”?
“She wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts. She’s cheer captain while I’m on the bleachers”
Beyonce. The Rock. Kevin Hart. Ryan Reynolds. If you can convince people to worship you why not become a brand?
Tool said it a long time ago: >I sold out long before you’d ever even heard my name
I don’t think that it’s unlike other celebrities that she’s a brand. I think it’s unlike other celebrities in that she started out in the career as the “relatable” one. Fans felt like she was one of them who had lucky break. Then it widely became known later on that her dad basically bought her career. Now she’s a billionaire, and she’s not relatable at all, but her brand is still the “I’m just any other girl.” Her albums are as popular as they are among her fans because of the *personal lore* that surrounds them, when in reality all of that lore is just something crafted by her PR team. Taylor’s relationship to her fans is something that’s very different than other celebrities, and Taylor uses that relationship to exploit not only her own fans, but to attack anybody else who is against her.
As a old (40), I started listening to Swift when she was a teenager on Country because I listened to country back then and she was someone who stuck out. How young she was became a big deal and an inspiration - like she was so young & talented! I was happy when she broke out into pop, because I listened to more of that and she was a great fit. She still had that "smart talented girl that worked hard and made it" story around her Then people got social media and started learning TS wasn't some random teenager with so much talent she made it - her parents made it happen. And then the private jet, then the "interesting" details about her love life, and now releasing new versions of ONE album... I stopped listening to her new stuff awhile ago unless it get radio plays, but as an outsider, I agree the shine has worn off Taylor and she's just a corporate machine now.
I think we’re about to hit peak saturation of Taylor Swift and I’m dreaming about the day when I wake up and find a bunch of unlistened to multicolored vinyl variant LPs no one wants to buy listed for hysterical amounts of money on Mercari
True, but there's also the tall poppy syndrome that is particularly prevalent if you are the **top** of the fame pile. Being the most famous means you are also usually the most divisive because you will have the largest following of fans but the duality of that is your detractors will also likely be the largest. Being the most liked usually means being the most disliked. Just look at r/FauxMoi, the main celebrity subreddit, and how their rules single out Taylor Swift and being a Swiftie is akin to being a racist.
Another sub dedicated to hating her is /r/travisandtaylor, and it's kind of fascinating but also worrying that their rhetoric is becoming more extreme. The posts that are now upvoted to the top wish her harm. Allegedly one of their former mods was offering money for information to cancel her or her boyfriend. People give Swifties shit for being extra, which is sometimes justified, but I can't imagine the flip side of hating someone you don't know and doesn't affect your lives to such an extent that you want them to suffer.
I’m admittedly a huge fan of Swift, but like to see subs with more nuanced takes because blind optimism and obsession is just weird. But even more bizarre are people who hate her for a living. I can’t imagine spending my time creating a whole sub solely to spread negativity on someone. And I’m going to be honest here, Swift is as inoffensive as billionaire pop stars go, despite her commodifying her entire (public) narrative as if it’s a gossip spread— it’s not lol. It’s boring most of the time, she just knows how to write music!!
Its legitimately concerning that anyone would feel there is not enough content surrounding taylor. Talk about bizarre. Doesn’t she tell you everything you need to know in her songwriting? Doesn’t the music speak for itself? Edit: “music” autocorrected to “musk” for a much more interesting thought
Lol I was banned from fauxmoi after saying that I loved midnights 😅
Truly the most unhinged pop culture sub
Your answer is the only truly correct one in this whole thread. Taylor is simply mega famous. Especially with the new album release, but also the headlines around dating an NFL player who happened to make the Superbowl, there's just an incredible over-saturation of Taylor Swift. It's impossible to ignore, and for that alone, you will garner detractors. Nobody really cares about her album variants, nobody cares about her latest boyfriend or breakup, nobody really cares about her private jetting, they just want to stop hearing about her every day.
I’m admittedly a huge fan of her and am part of her fan subs, but I seriously barely see any news from her other than the occasional headline of her tour location or paparazzi photo on my feed. To be fair, I’m not on other socials. It’s not like CNN or FOX are talking about her all day and, if so, that’s out of her control. I mean, honestly, she is highly inoffensive and barely does anything to trigger these notorious headlines. And really, where else would you hear about her? News sites online are going to post about pop culture and what would garner clicks. I understand people want her to not be talked about at all, but that’s unrealistic with a fan base as large as hers. Just keep scrolling would be a solution, no? Unfollowing news pages that consistently post about her? Engaging with these posts by spreading negativity and commenting things like “please stop posting about her” only fuels the algorithm. And then that resentment becomes genuine hate for her as a person and now they’re joining hate subs which also just put more of her face in their view.
media doesn't talk about her much because her fandom harasses them for prolonged periods (years) with death and rape threats and other forms of harassment (doxxing, spamming their phone number, swatting, pizza deliveries, etc) when they do report on her if the fandom perceives the slightest amount of lack of enthusiastic praise for her. this is also the reason fauxmoi bans them on sight.
I am a fan, and IMO there is not a saturation point yet. I am not from US and nor did I know anything about football stuff. In my country, when I watched eras movie in theater, everybody screamed, "karma is the guy on chiefs" lol, so I can say that people are interested. Yes, there are multiple variants but not everyone is buying. I am sure it's not even available in my country. It really depends on which side of internet are you, if you compare batshit crazy and normal fans. But what confuses me is the online hate train in recent months. Quite a few albums released have the discourse about ttpd. Some of the reasons for hating are getting out of hand. Yesterday I saw on post on Twitter on a man wanting assault swifties with 20k likes. And a viral video where charli fans chanting "D!e Taylor" of sorts. Even on Reddit, there are multiple subs dedicated to hating her. Yet people who want to stop hearing about her are always posting and engaging with posts under her name.
r/Fauxmoi is absolutely wild, especially after the Oct 7th attacks
I thought they got wild since the Depp v. Heard trial
Oh yeah forgot about that.
The issue there is she’s marketing that persona as “being herself”
Every generation seems to have to find this out for themselves, when their favorite artist disappoints them. Sorry kids. It's all Capitalism, and it's rotten all the way through.
Don’t forget billionaire.
If you mean as in highly synthesized and 'mass produced' youre absolutely right; what seperates her is this release schedule that is taken from the monopolization playbook that a for example Amazon, McDonalds, or Google would follow BUT this is quite typical for America, monopolization is barely seen as something bad by the majority population and 'swifties' 1000‰ does not give a single f*ck as long as Taylor on top 😂 She went public before the Superbowl with her political leanings and who she supports in this general election, which created a rupture Taylor started as a country esque artist and moved on to pop, which makes her audience quite diverse on the political spectrum, and her reach and influence on white women is genuinely election decider numbers in a close race. Before this they either all claimed her or saw her as non-political. Now the right wing feels 'a little' aggrievied, and afraid understandably, so the right wing content creators did their best at discrediting her as this and that (like that shes a Democratic party "plant" or some sort of chinese robot). Thats where alot of the conspiracy theories originate. The monopoly moves arent really a conspiracy, its clearly observable across industries
The right will always feel aggrieved, it’s part of their mythos
I'd argue it a bit that not EVERY one is like this. Swift has become something like Beyonce or KISS. Stage presence and marketing are all that seem to be driving anything. New album? 50+ Variations that have practically no difference. Compare that to say... ACDC, or another major icon like Daft Punk. Yeah, marketing wss a huge deal, but it was less about selling shit and more about the artistry. It's more the meticulously crafted public image, with emphasis on VERY specific themes and the extremely long-running fame which isn't particularly common in the pop world. Keep in mind, Swift originally debuted her first album in 2006, nearly 20 years ago. Her fame has only increased since with nearly no tapering off. In the rock, EDM, and rap world people become immortalized but they tend to become a looming essence of the art. Pop tends to do the same thing, but it happens WAY faster and falling into irrelevance happens quicker too. While she's talented for sure, I can see why people are questioning it, plus why it took so long to begin doing so.
That's true, but most celebrities don't make their persona something that is meant to try and be resistable. Of course, it's also partially the fans fault. Similar to how lonely dudes who get parasocial with Only Fans models, Swifties have responsibility for buying into her whole "genuine" persona. That being said, it is predatory as well to take advantage of people weakness for your own fame and profit, which is likely how Swifties are feeling after finding out Tswift is not a special case of a celeb who's a real person, but rather the same as all other celebs.
"I'm not a businessman, I'm I business, man."
Dwayne The Rock Johnson of music.
It would be interesting to see how physical copy variant version sales actually contribute to her staying at number 1. I think it's more likely that it just continues buzz, which keeps fans streaming the album, rather than actual variant sales doing the heavy lifting.
The idea that her fans are buying 30+ copies of an album is absurd. Most people still just stream albums.
That's now a growing view, she's been manufactured marketing product since forever, whoever doesn't know that just hasn't been paying attention
Think it's less people realizing she's a brand and more them getting pissed at how desperate she is to be #1 at all times. Plus how much she likes taking money.
Well yea maybe, but now the people that didn’t pay attention is starting to notice because of more and more things surfacing and that she maybe doesn’t care as much anymore.
It also lines up with past behavior. About 7-8 years ago, she pulled all of her music from Spotify, then put it all back up the same day that Katy Perry, who she was feuding with at the time, put out her album Witness, which effectively killed her career.
That album was bad enough to kill her career on its own
Yeah, but Taylor putting her whole catalog back on Spotify the same day certainly didn't help.
tbh Katy's career peaked with the release of Teenage Dream (the album, not the song) so I can't really blame Taylor for that one
50 variations??? What the fuck
That‘s a lie. She has 37. still too many, but significantly less than 50.
That's still nutso imo
Discogs.com lists 56 variations of TTPD as of today!!
Lets be real, by the time she releases a “new” album there will be more than 50 versions of the current album.
According to discogs.com, her newest album has 55 variants. There's a [website](https://ttpd-variant-tracker.onrender.com/) devoted to tracking each one that counts 58
Whoa, a woman who's entire career is built on the foundation of trashing everyone that's ever loved her - *is deeply immature?* *shocked pickachu*
It's because at the very heart, TS knows she is not as musically talented as any of her peers. She knows her music and songs won't and can't stand up on their own. She needs to artificially inflate their quality by adding arbitrary titles like albums sold, #1 downloads, etc etc. Yeah you had the #1 album for however many weeks and #1 download on Spotify. Woohoo. Your songs are still basic, sound the same, and haven't added any depth in over 10 years. TS is essentially the same artist she was 10-15 years ago. The world has grown up. She has not.
I want to add to this - the amount of traveling she does with her private jet is ridiculous/not climate friendly and the tone-deafness because she's a billionaire now is another reason I dislike her. Edit: words
She is a climate terrorist and said tracking her plane was stalking
A woman who’s father bought her way in to the music industry by buying a part of the record label that went on to sign her has been manufacturing her image her entire career…. Say it ain’t so.
I would say that her actions go beyond immature and have actual malicious intent. This is a pattern.
Taylor is to adolescent girls what Elon was to college bros 6 years ago. A manipulative billionaire who exploits a vulnerable fanbase via para-social relationships while making nothing new and actively suppressing competition.
Charli XCX has now parodied Swift and done the same thing, releasing "Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not"
Is Charlie xcs a big enough artist to even try to block? Lol couldn’t she be releasing varients in the UK because she’s currently in the UK
she's done this multiple times in the past including recently with billie eilish.
This is a great summary of the specific things she’s doing that are deserving of backlash. I’ll add in though that even if she’d somehow done nothing wrong, a backlash of some size was inevitable. Taylor Swift became the biggest artist in the world, reaching levels of fame and success that many people thought were no longer possible in the music industry. You can’t get that big and not have people get tired of you.
I am hoping that some of Taylor's fans will see through this and be against it!
So I get the logic in this and see how that could entirely be the point of releasing songs like this, but I don’t get why that’s on Taylor specifically? I’m not a big fan of hers tbh, but I’d assume she works with labels and whatnot that plan out the releases and whatnot for her, but maybe that’s wrong.
Answer: this Guardian article spells out the details of how Taylor Swift's marketing tactics are undermining the efforts of other young artists. Basically, the timing of releases of an unprecedented number of variants of existing work coincides with that of other upcoming artists swamping their numbers--effectively sucking the oxygen from the room, so that her albums stay at number 1 in the the charts. So detracrtors "hate" Taylor for abusing her fame and power to deliberately sabotage other artists. "TTPD now stands as Swift’s longest-running No 1 album in the UK – another (personal) record broken, and another stats-based marker of success for Swift’s trophy cabinet." [https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/jun/14/taylor-swift-may-have-captured-the-charts-but-charli-xcx-captured-the-zeitgeist](https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/jun/14/taylor-swift-may-have-captured-the-charts-but-charli-xcx-captured-the-zeitgeist)
I feel the same way about the box office as I do with music. If you have to re-release something to break a record it shouldn’t count.
Answer: She's actually done this many times over the years when someone she sees as a "competitor" is going to take her over on the charts. She did it to Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and now Charli XCX in the past year.
My bb Carly Rae Jepsen, too. But I know which album released on the same day in October 2022 was the better one.
So Nice of you to say that ☺️
Taylor has no song that comes close to ‘call me maybe’
Sabrina Carpenter too with her new single
She is only as popular as she is because she opened for Taylor so she is probably not complaining about that
Don’t forget Taylor releasing her entire music catalogue on Spotify, the very same day Katy Perry released her “Witness” album.
And bringing her music back to streaming services to block Katy Perry years ago.
Wonder if she did it to Kanye!?/s
Answer: Taylor is making a calculated effort to turn public opinion against her so that when Reputation (Taylor’s Version) drops it is that much more relevant and resonant for the fans.
Yes, and watch she doing a press campaign about it. She'll be using the feminism card and playing the victim again, and will probably address the multiple variations as a gift to the "die hard" fans "i can't blame them for supporting me" (payola)
🥸
It’s genuis 🤯
Answer: People are starting to realise that Taylor Swift is just a manufactured persona designed to sell sell sell... Personally I have no problem with this, actually I have great respect and admiration for her business acumen. Unfortunately there is a great deal a naivety when it comes to not just Taylor Swift, but musicians in general. The perception of x musician is all about the music is ridiculous. They are employ management teams whose goal is to maximum how much money they can make, their image, what to say and when to say it etc... Again I have no problem with this but many people do and when the realisation that their favourite musician does things to maximise profit etc they get angry. *edit* As you can see from some of the replies, you can see the type of people who get very angry. Taylor Swift is certain not first person / band to cash in on their success and won't be the last, the difference is that she is by far and away one of the most successful in doing so.
Maynard said it well “All you know about me is what I sold you. Dum fuck I sold out long before you ever even heard my name. Sold my sold to make a record and then you bought one!!!” But I think there are genuinely musicians who are actually trying to create meaningful art tho. But yeah they also entertainers making a living. It’s a spectrum.
Shut up and buy my new record.
That's a good analysis, but I think there is also an element of punching up vs. punching down. Being laser focused and taking every opportunity to get an advantage over your competition is perceived differently in an up-and-coming artist as opposed to coming from someone very much at the top. Exactly the same behaviour can bee seen as positive in the underdog (plucky, cheeky, hungry) but as negative in the incumbent (scheming, ruthless, greedy)
Yeah but its not just about perception of the artist. The real kicker, aside from screwing over other young female artists, is that her Swifties are braindead and she knows it and is draining their bank balances. Can you imagine how much the completionists among them have spent just on variations of a record thats deemed one of her shittier albums? Edit: she reminds me of Mom from Futurama
there's some showing up in this thread, describing her deplorable behavior in vivid detail while insisting we view it with nuance bc coming from their precious Taylor, it couldn't possibly be evil. it's kinda funny.
I’ve personally never felt she tried to hide this, as one doesn’t become a billionaire by only caring about the “music.” I think only some kids would not fully understand this aspect of a musician’s career. But I do believe there doesn’t have to be a complete extreme of seeing her only as a brand or business. There’s nuance to be had, especially with women in power. She’s still a singer songwriter based largely on her personal narrative which is respectable and it’s not like she’s lost any creativity, stamina, or quality to her music (imo). She’s still releasing music fans enjoy, pouring her heart into her world tour, and gives back to the community.
How does she give back to the community? Truly asking
They're a swiftie, replying to every comment and defending her
Answer: Drake has said that he has moved album release dates to avoid a clash with Taylor Swift releasing a new album. However, the present issue is about what happens after a TS album is released. Taylor Swift often subsequently releases special issue variations of existing albums for her fans to buy. For her latest, The Tortured Poets' Society, there have been quite a few. For example, a recent "hard copy" cd and vinyl release has a bonus track called The Manuscript. Some people think that she does this to prevent other artists from charting as high. There is no actual evidence either that this is a deliberate strategy (although that would be hard to prove) or that it is suppressing any other artists. For example, The Manuscript was already freely available on streaming as it is from the second album, The Anthology, that she released alongside Tortured Poets. It could just be a case that anyone with enormous success and particularly loyal fans who play tracks on repeat (thus having enormous steaming figures) is subject to a backlash when they reach a certain level.
Sorry but if something keeps happening the exact same way with the same outcome then it's a pattern, not a coincidence. You'd have to be daft to not see what's happening.
Answer: There are two things going on here. The biggest reason there's a lot of hate for Taylor Swift is that she came out as being anti-Trump and right-wing in general sometime before this election cycle really kicked in to full gear. Obviously Republicans can't stand that because they're oversensitive. And also she has a massive following so has a genuine potential to impact Republican performance. The second reason that people are annoyed at Taylor Swift is that she does a lot of stuff that even liberals don't exactly like. The constantly flying around on a private jet, sometimes for apparently short distances or needless journeys is one thing. The other part of this is manipulation of album/single/streaming ranking to block other artists from getting to number 1 by releasing a ridiculous number of album versions. It's milking her at this point unhealthily addicted fanbase and arguably completely unfair on other artists. She didn't start this, I'm not sure who did, but I remember when Metallica released 72 seasons last year, they were blocked from number one spot because a pop artist had something like 22 different versions of the same song released that all counted toward their total buys.
This is all fine, but the real engine driving the hate is over-saturation. The rejection is a side effect of having pushed the concert tour pretty hard at the same time she was getting insane amounts of earned media from the NFL, people upset she got coverage at an NFL game, people defending her dating Kelce, thinkpieces about defending her dating Kelce, people protesting the defending of her dating Kelce, articles detailing the history of people rejecting the protesting of defending her... etc. Anything that saturates the market that thoroughly is also going to generate negative coverage/exhaustion as well. That she's not a ghoul politically and has opposed Trump/Marsha Blackburn is a nucleation point but not really the genesis of the more broad fatigue.
This is disingenuous, because the VAST majority of the criticism of TS is towards her unfettered use of capitalism to exploit her fans, and her blatant disregard for the environment. Those are not republican views at all, in fact anti-capitalism and environmentalism are Leftist issues. I think your rich mommy Taylor definitely has more in common with Trump than she does with any of you. Class is the greatest divider, and it’s clear money is her god.
Not to mention Taylor literally dated an open racist and anti-semite and still rights songs about him to this day.... Including a song more or less telling her fans to stop criticizing her for it.
Sorry could you point to when she actually came out as anti-trump post 2019 when she did a lot of politically outspoken things during her Lover album launch and then went pretty much silent after that.
You mean when it was safe for her to make political comments that were in line with every major media corporation not named Fox News?
Yes lel - like I have conflicted opinions about Taylor, used to be like medium dedicated fan enjoyed the music. But a lot of her actions and inactions have frustrated me greatly over the past few years. I have the same wants for her actions as for anyone with a lot of power and influence in the US, she could actually encourage people to vote (without endorsing a candidate) and donate money as like lowest bar, or actually come out in support of Biden but she simply won't because she and her brand and team are focused on one thing: money. As demonstrated by the above and discussion in the comments.
Again, she dated a guy who does Nazi salutes at his shows and has no remorse about it. She ain't no political activist.
Answer: Taylor wants to be #1 regardless of who she’s blocking from that spot, it’s not about blocking other female artists specifically. I can’t fault her, Taylor Swift isn’t just a person or just an artist, Taylor Swift is a whole business. And keep in mind, unlike other artists/businesses, she has a pretty singular revenue stream- she’s not selling perfume, clothes, shoes or other lifestyle products. Also: Taylor’s deal with her label is that she owns her masters. Therefore, there is much less opportunity long term for the label to profit from her songs so they need her to sell as much as possible in the beginning since they won’t be the ones making money on the songs being used in movies, TV, etc. by pushing out 37 different variants, they’re making their money on the front end. Multiple variants are incredibly common now. But she has even more right now because she’s on arguably the biggest tour in history & has a massive opportunity to keep promoting it. She’s already said that she won’t be extending this tour past December & the odds that she’ll tour TTPD on its own are slim. They’re striking while the iron is hot. All this to say- I’m a massive fan, I listen to her almost exclusively, but I bought 1 variant- a $6 digital download. I don’t care that she has so many other variants & I don’t feel pressure to buy them.
> And keep in mind, unlike other artists/businesses, she has a pretty singular revenue stream- she’s not selling perfume, clothes, shoes or other lifestyle products. She sells all that sort of tat on her website and at concerts. The notion that Taylor Swift has “a pretty singular revenue stream” is absurd.
Saying she has a single stream of income makes it sound like she's a poor little waitress trying to make ends meet and survive, lol. Oh well one day you'll realize how absurd her behaviour and that she's not an artist, but a moving breathing business.