This is maybe the problem with “documentary” films where the artist has a ton of oversight on how they are portrayed.
the doc was also basically her saying my Republican dad told me that being vocal would hurt my career when she had to notice how vocal everyone else but her was, I know she mentioned the chicks but she stopped being country awhile ago
Minimal promotion and new items in the merch store every day, no real bonus tracks, just scraps and stems. It’s fine if you like it, but also it’s really pretty clearly a cash-in. Her speaking out in first term and 2020 was in the era of speaking out, Taylor swift the billionaire and brand is just capitulating as we already have seen a shameful amount of
I forgot she also did a couple of talk shows too. I guess it’s just her being 20 years into her career, she built her brand on engaging with her fanbase and now, it’s, I guess, different because it feels like she rarely engages with them, outside of her selling something. Like when she posted a story saying how much she loved “Happy Gilmore 2,” I thought that was kind of random and funny, until I realized it’s because Travis is in it. It just feels like she’s being lapped when Olivia, Hayley, Jack White and Daughtry have all been speaking out against the use of their music and MAGA and it’s weird to not do the bare minimum and release a statement. But I guess we can say that about pretty much any billionaire that was anti-MAGA the first term and totally fine with how things are going now.
Taylor Allison 'Cares More About Optics Than Anyone in the World' Swift not saying anything about this is telling.
Docs like miss americana should be seen as nothing more than fluff pieces anyway. It's like popaganda. It's whatever the artist wants conveyed and is intended to put them in a good light. But I agree, she put that expectation on herself. This whole era just feels out of touch in so many ways for me
Unrelated to all of this conversation that I just caught up on, I woke up singing “Honey” this morning. Still surprised that one didn’t catch on more
The fact that she only posts about something if it has something to do with her or Travis is frustrating, and doesn't help deflect the accusations that she's being extremely self-centered in a time when she shouldn't be. I like this album, as you know, but it was the wrong album at the wrong time, and that's going to cast a shadow on the songs...forever? She's been the best marketer in music for so long, but completely failing to meet the moment, and doing it when people were already feeling Taylor Swift fatigue anyway, was an error. It's one thing to say that we don't really want a Taylor protest album, but I cannot make an excuse for her not speaking the fuck up about her music being used by fascists. There is no reason NOT to say something, and for someone who has been borderline obsessive about guarding her ownership of her own art, I'm having trouble grappling with the fact that she hasn't.
I've been checked out from her all year considering she hasn't said shit about anything that's going on--nothing on Gaza, ICE, ripping away folks' healthcare, this administration's daily actions, etc etc. She worked so hard to get to the position she is in now, the most popular musician on the planet, and she's not using her voice to say anything?? That level of stardom, celebrity and power comes with responsibilities. Esp at a time when so much attention is pointed at how selfish, useless and out of touch billionaires are, it's a bizarre move. The person who cried during the Miss Americana doc, saying she didn't want to just sit on the sidelines and be quiet during that time period, is really missing the moment here and it's beyond frustrating.
I don’t disagree with any of you. I suspect there’s a fair amount of “if I don’t piss off anyone, I still win” and some fear of death threats and stalking because she already deals with that and as we’ve seen with MTG this week, you speak out against DT and the worst of the worst appear. (Never would’ve thought I’d write a sentence like that where MTG was the victim. Not that she’s really earned an ounce of goodwill either.) But again, she’s got the money to mitigate all of that. Is Disney forcing her into silence because of the doc? Screw them. Any platform would beg to have your doc revenue. Even with his allies controlling most of them. Your money speaks louder than his retributive nature the vast majority of the time. I highly doubt she’s this caught up in wedding planning to not have noticed. One thing I’ve found interesting is Boomers/Xers have always seemed to have this ethos of “celebrities shut up and stay in your lane” when it comes to politics. Millennials have ridden the line for awhile, but Z and Alpha seem to be all in on using platform.
I think for me, the annoyance stems from three things: 1) As others have said, the narrative she spun in the movie is that she wanted to speak out/regretted not doing it sooner. She caught a lot of heat for staying silent during the 2016 election, and by her own admission regretted that. Well, things are a lot worse now than they were then; why's she quiet now? 2) Calling out the president for using your song in a TikTok is the bare minimum. Staying silent is tacit permission. 3) Staying the course with her "buy 50 variants!" strategy at a time when a whole lot of people are struggling, economically, just feels more tone-deaf than it did 2-3 years ago, for me. If you're going to do that, make a big fucking show of giving all that money away to good causes once you get the record. You do not fucking need it.
she's so out of touch with anything happening outside of her socioeconomic/sociopolitical bubble. anything she perceives as some sort of social or financial detriment she's probably going to avoid, as long as she can capture the attention of her fanbase and the unsuspecting centrist/apolitical listener. but even that still feels weird when she's been up in arms in the past about how she's perceived. maybe it's enough for that middle ground to occasionally tell people who she's voting for or to get people registered, and those breadcrumbs might be perceived by those crowds as being politically active. but to everyone else, combined with the overexposure these past 5-6 years, it's just more of the same White feminist bullshit.
I unfollowed her for a while just from the constant stream of marketing different variants… versions.. etc. I know it’s not new with her but nothing feels genuine when everything is just her selling something. It doesn’t help that TLOAS is her most forgettable album yet. And it seems fair to expect she would ask the Trump admin not to use her songs. It’s weird that she wouldn’t.
I've seen a bunch of people going "the administration said they were specifically doing it to bait and goad her into a reaction, so why would she acknowledge it"....it's wild how incredibly stupid people are
as if not telling a fascist "hey, don't use my fucking music" is some sort of morally upstanding, politically calculated move. ridiculous mental gymnastics
It's one thing to be like 'hey, don't use my music you fascist piece of shit' and it's another to be suspiciously quiet when said fascist piece of shit administration uses it. Easiest thing in the world to distance oneself from such things, losing part of a fanbase that would still be a drop in the ocean for someone as astronomically popular as Taylor Swift.
The closest she has ever gotten to the Gaza situation was Travis mentioning Israeli restaurants she would take him to. Tells me enough lol
Maybe we're all wrong, maybe they actually licensed the songs legally and she's not saying anything because she made money off it
my guess is that if she spoke out, she'd probably vouch for a two-state solution, foolishly thinking it'd probably be the choice that offends the least amount of people. taking the middle ground seems to be her MO.
I wondered this, but I've also wondered why they'd use her music at all after all the potshots Trump took at her awhile back.