taylor swift iridescent smoke bombs thread 2019 - lover

I think back to Prince's battle with Warner Bros. Why did he re-sign with Warner Brothers in the first place? Because they gave him a shit ton of money. Ironically, with Prince, when he was releasing music himself he kind of did a shitty job of it.

But corporate properties change hands all the time. she should have just partnered up with someone and bought big machine herself.

yes, if only Taylor could've seen into the future at that time and saw that her life's work thus far would be sold to Scooter Braun

Is Braun a known bad guy? The little I had read about him before this mention anything particularly negative... (tho someone upthread mentioned an unflattering New Yorker profile that I wasn't aware of).

*"didn't mention anything..."

Even the New Yorker profile wasn't that unfattering. But again, what difference does it make that she doesn't like the guy? Whoever gets to make those decisions? I'm at peace with you selling my masters ... except to Scooter Braun! There is definitely more to this story, more we don't know. It's weird that she made that Tumblr post in the first place, coming out guns blazing, and then going silent. Doesn't she often stir up attention getting controversies before each album release?

I mean the post does literally end with a "call to action" to buy her new album.

Nihilistic hot take: the way it's framed in the media™ is just as important as what's 'actually' going on.

'All recording artists should own their masters' is a perfectly reasonable stance, regardless of who said recording artist happens to be.

There's a very easy* way to make sure you own your masters: FUND THE PROJECT YOURSELF, IN FULL, FROM BEGINNING TO END. "Hey, Giant Corporation - I want you to loan me a bunch of money to record, market, and promote an album...but I want to own it outright afterward" is not a perfectly reasonable stance, regardless of which giant corporation it happens to be.

*not actually easy at all

There's a very easy*

I do agree that it's rich (pun intended) coming from her, as she could have indeed funded herself (or rather her father could have funded her) from the get-go. It's just that a public scandal microscopically increases the likelihood that this very real issue will be discussed and debated in terms that have an infinitesimal (and I wish to stress this) chance of maybe (although probably not) changing something. (I don't know what's wrong with me, I want to be vaguely optimistic about this for once.)

She should pull a Fogerty and just refuse to play any of those Big Machine songs.

I was wondering if she'll record a "Zanz(/Vanz) Kant Danz" type song.

Most of her songs are like that.

i think this might become an inflection point in a post-me too world about the rights of women in the music industry and the way contracts in the pop/major label world are designed. if anything it will at least have raised some level of awareness for artists who are unsigned going forward.... of course that's a pretty small slice of the industry, and would do nothing to address i.e. the myriad number of rappers who get signed to deals by shady dudes when they're 15 or whatever before they even get approached by majors in the first place

What does this have to do with the rights of women specifically?

Does Jay Z own all his masters? For some reason I think he does. If so, how did he pull that off? Does Beyonce own her masters? She might!

if you can't see the fault lines this discussion is breaking along, you're very dense

by "this discussion" i mean about taylor and scooter in broader society, not the one happening specifically in this thread

A summary of "unfollows," etc.: https://hollywoodlife.com/2019/07/01/taylor-swift-blocks-justin-bieber-demi-lovato-spotify/

"Kacey is also taking major heat from Tay and her Swifties after she hit the like button on Scooter’s wife’s post defending him."

xpost I guess I am just very dense. This all seems like a mess of rich people feuding in public about petty grade-school bullshit.

The news comes from the ‘Taylor Swift Spotify’ Twitter account, which claims to ‘pull data using Spotify’s Web-API to identify’ Taylor’s Spotify account activity.

Not creepy at all!

Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Camila Cabello, Selena Gomez, Adele, and Gwen Stefani have all have reportedly unfollowed Scooter on social media after his acquisition of Taylor’s life’s work. Even his own client, Ariana Grande, deleted her Instagram story congratulating Scooter on the purchase after seeing Tayor’s message. Halsey wrote a lengthy tweet describing how Taylor was the inspiration behind why she writes all of her own music and ended with “I am standing with her” with a broken heart emoji.

I mean, just reading that is kind of ridiculous. Unfollowed on social media! A lengthy tweet! This is truly the worst, stupidest era of everything.

the media's focus is often not on the core issues because the core issues are a bit more complex and less trashy

anyway Jordan otm i think, also the fact is women are disproportionately affected by the way major label artists are dealt with largely because there's little representation of women within the industry, so there are fewer people to advocate for them. i'm not sure if this is what he was getting at but there's that too.

Is Braun a known bad guy? The little I had read about him before this mention anything particularly negative... (tho someone upthread mentioned an unflattering New Yorker profile that I wasn't aware of).

― stan by me (morrisp), Tuesday, July 2, 2019 12:53 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is what I was wondering, besides that tweet about k-pop fans I haven't heard anything

assuming the kpop thing is just his mismanagement of CL's western pop career, or something related

Like if you read Justin Bieber's bro-ish, culty Instagram post ("One thing i know is both scooter and i love you (...) Neither scooter or i have anything negative to say about you we truly want the best for you."), he (Bieb) seems to take all responsibility for taunting Taylor with that screenshot; and it does seem kind of bizarre to think that a biz guy like Braun would personally get involved in something like that? But these are all bizarre people, so who knows.

what i was saying is that, generally speaking, i think the kinds of pop artists who sign deals as young artists -- taylor references the deal being signed when she was 15 -- are women, and obv we're currently in a time where the treatment of women by powerful men is a major topic of discussion in both culture & politics. taylor's framing of the story -- whether it's accurate or not -- is framed along those lines. to me that is pretty obvious... i guess the men on the big machine side of the story (and they are principally men) might call it cynical, but we've already seen a lot of major women pop stars take taylor's side, either on the issue of scooter specifically or on the subject of who owns art and the position women artists are put in by labels at a young age (i.e. sky ferreira) more generally. i posted that excerpt of the hollywood life blog to illustrate which people are even tacitly taking taylor's side: "Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Camila Cabello, Selena Gomez, Adele, and Gwen Stefani" etc. the sexual and emotional abuse alleged in the kesha vs dr luke battle is what got most of the headlines, but at its heart -- or legally at least -- it was about a woman who had signed a legal but almost certainly predatory contract with an older man, who had mostly kept the profits from that music for himself. so when i said that i think this could be an inflection point for the rights of women in the music industry, that's what i was talking about.

Like if you read Justin Bieber's bro-ish, culty Instagram post ("One thing i know is both scooter and i love you (...) Neither scooter or i have anything negative to say about you we truly want the best for you."), he (Bieb) seems to take all responsibility for taunting Taylor with that screenshot; and it does seem kind of bizarre to think that a biz guy like Braun would personally get involved in something like that? But these are all bizarre people, so who knows.

― stan by me (morrisp), Tuesday, July 2, 2019 4:05 PM (fifteen minutes ago)

it's hard to tell for her post whether taylor's claim of being bullied by scooter relates back only to that one instagram post -- because it's pretty easy to believe that he didn't know it was going to be used to taunt her -- or if there's other stuff she didn't want to bring up.

Depends if you see Kanye and his manager bullying her with the "Famous" video.

(Let alone the "Famous" lyrics themselves.)

the timeline of when scooter was reported to have taken on kanye and when the "famous" video came out is just in this specific time frame where you could easily argue that he would've known, or that he wouldn't have or wasn't formally managing him yet

Looks like he was managing Kanye by May 2016 and the video with a deepfake naked Taylor Swift dropped in July 2016, and the taunting “Taylor Swift what up” Instagram post from the bros was posted on August 2.

That was some bullshit, but does every pop star taking a shot at another pop star constitute bullying? I dunno. In her case that implies she was in some vulnerable, weaker position of power, which she most certainly was not. She may have been mad, and rightly so, but I don't see how she was bullied. If you are one of the most famous and successful people in the entire world and you are upset that Kim Kardashian called you a name, you really need to prioritize your outrage.

They showed a nude Swift lookalike taking part in a big group sex thing w/Kanye & Kim in the video

Yeah, that was fucked up. But I don't think it's bullying. And I think reflected more poorly on Kanye et al. than it affected Taylor.

I was commenting more specifically on Kim Kardashian apparently calling Taylor Swift a snake, and Taylor Swift reacting by saying it was the most hurt she had ever felt in her life or something.

well.... taylor was one of a number of celebs.... i think you could at least say there's some sort of artistic statement being made by the video. the song lyric tho is just bad aside from being wrong on the facts

If it were your wife or daughter, would you feel the same way?

(or sister or mother, whatever is appropriate)

I don't know, I don't think that is a fair comparison. If my mom or daughter were being bullied in school for being fat or ugly or unsuccessful or whatever, I would absolutely be mad. But if my mom or daughter was a massively successful pop star, and she was being made fun of in the most juvenile way by a bunch of equally famous and successful idiots simply for being a massively successful pop star, I think I could probably ignore them. I don't Even know what Kim Kardashian's voice sounds like. But, like, how much shit does Taylor Swift get on a daily basis? Just for being rich and famous and pretty. Not long ago people were debating whether or not she was affiliated with the alt right. That would be far more anger inducing then Kanye West farting out his mouth or whatever.

right but i mean i think the point isn't how you would yourself feel about them being attacked, but how you would feel if they were hurt about being attacked.

But attacked for what? What was Taylor Swift "attacked" for? She could feel sad or mad, but she came out the other end in an equal or greater position of power. I can't call that bullying.

That's why this is all so silly. There are no victims here, just a bunch of rich people fighting. Was Jay Z bullying Nas?

i think for a female pop star to have her image used in a way that she might find degrading by someone who is an equally famous and maybe even more famous male pop star *could* be called bullying.....

How has this turned into "did Kanye bully Tay in his video from... *checks wiki* 2016"? Asking JiC if he'd feel the same if x happened to his mother or daughter? Bonkers derail.

it is considerably different for women imo, no matter their level of fame

Probably. I can only imagine the pressure she feels on a daily basis. I'm saying, of all the bs she has to put up with, as a woman or otherwise, bs from Kanye West, who these days is most famous for bs, seems the easiest to ignore.

I haven't followed this story, and I'd no idea who "Scooter" was, so I assumed "Scooter" Libby got involved with several pop stars so I was like, "Yay, Taylor!" when she blocked him.