How Taylor Swift Won
- Fred
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
She became a billionaire.
The End.
I'm serious, that's the story. Go ahead and move on.
What's my problem? Well, if you mean today specifically, it's because Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield rolled out of bed this morning and tried to convince me that Taylor Swift was some sort of genius.
She's not.
This was his opening line: "Taylor owns everything. All her songs, all her masters, her life’s work. She won. Eight years after her label Big Machine sold off her catalog, Taylor Swift has finally achieved her goal of buying it back herself. The most impossible battle of her career, the most invincible dragon she’s ever picked a fight with, the most doomed leap she’s ever taken. As she announced in her bombshell public statement today, she bought her catalog from Shamrock Capital, after a six-year struggle for control over her own music...."
I had to stop there because I was going to puke.
Now don't get me wrong, Taylor Swift is talented for what she does. And, no offense, she seems to be nothing but a hard worker. But she became a billionaire because she sold her masters in the first place.
Taylor Swift is like someone who sold their soul to the Devil, then gloated that they were able to buy it back.
And, hey, that's quite an accomplishment. That doesn't happen very often.
But unless you're the Beatles, the music industry basically screws everybody.
You know who else in this country owns their masters? Broke musicians that barely make enough money to survive. You know why they have no money? Either they weren't good enough, or they were too principled to sell their music for compromises that they may or may not have had to make during the recording process. Many musicians fear meddlesome record labels.
during the recording process.
You argue she started writing hits as a teenager? So did the Beatles. Exploiting teens for money didn't start with Taylor Swift. I never thought of Swift as being exploited more than any other musical artist. A lot of very talented musicians never became billionaires. How many billionaires exactly would you term as "exploited?"
She sold her music to Big Machine Records. Capitalism is right there in the title.
Rob Sheffield wrote a love letter to a billionaire....
Rolling Stone used to be above that.
Does Sheffield realize that this business move will probably allow Swift to parlay her Billionaire Status into Multi-Billionaire Status? What other billionaires does he celebrate with adoring poetry?
Why did I hedge on my language? I don't need an Army of Swifties on my lawn.
I don't hate Taylor Swift per se, I'm sure she's a fine gal. I just don't like pop music.
I prefer my music just a bit, uh, edgier.
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