by Is Taylor Swift the last big pop troublemaker? Or was it always the thing done for the Time magazine person of the year to use their illustrious anointing to air an old beef?
The magazine has indeed chosen Swift as 2023 Time person of the year The global music phenomenon joins the roll call of presidents, popes, pacifists and the Pick of the year 2022, the leader of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Swift is the first person to demonstrate participation in the arts, and the first woman to be honored twice (she was part of the #MeToo “silence breakers” group in 2017).
You start reading the interview, expecting the standard hyper-controlled mega-celeb PR puffery. Then, suddenly, in a great flurry of words, Swift begins to slate Kanye West (now Ye) and his then-wife Kim Kardashian for a complicated situation that goes back 14 years (when West gate broke Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards, saying her award should have gone to Beyoncé).
For the sake of obscurity, years later, Ye released the song Famous, which features lyrics about how he and Swift could have sex (“I made that shit famous”). Swift denied approving the lyrics (everything). Kardashian released a recording that indicated she agreed. It later emerged that the (alleged) recording had been edited, but not before Swift was denounced as a snake (appropriate to a global infestation of snake emojis on social media).
Although the situation seems terrible, I have a doubt: why is Swift throwing shade at Ye and Kardashian?
Now, without mentioning any names, Swift is talking in the Time interview on “career death”, “in hiding”, “vanishing within an inch of my life and sanity”, “my life’s work has been taken away by someone who hates me”. Although the situation seems terrible, I have a doubt: why is Swift throwing shade at Ye and Kardashian? And, in all the inappropriate places, her Time interview with person of the year? In contrast to the zenith of the event, you could be in the toilet of a nightclub listening to someone who has sex. What a 21st century pop culture icon does this?
Her talent aside, is Swift changing what a megastar should be, how they should behave in a public space? And, considering the times, isn’t it rather refreshing?
I would be too old and too late to join the “Swifties” (uber-loyal Swift fans, who turn every little thing against their self-proclaimed queen into online Armageddon). Swift’s recent feats are head-turning. Mega-selling album. The ongoing Eras tour, which has fallen in demand on the Ticketmaster site and boosted local economies, is reported to be the first to cross the billion dollar mark. She has just been announced as the most streamed artist of 2023. The list goes on.
Related: Taylor Swift’s Eras tour becomes first to top $1bn – report
The upshot is a life spent under constant surveillance. Her relationship (she is now with the American football player, Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs) does not play so much under the scrutiny of the media, as there is fry, scorch and carbonise. Every word is monitored, tagged and sent back out into the wild to multiply. Swift knows this, but still refuses to keep her trap shut.
Indeed, this is not Swift’s first challenging rodeo. She has taken many stands, including when music manager Scooter Braun acquired the rights to her early material (another complicated case). Ignoring those of us who shrugged, sighed and patronized (this is how the music industry works, pull it up, sweetie!), Swift re-recorded a lot to fight back control. In addition, creatively, an entire wing of Swift’s oeuvre is dedicated to conveying considerable guidance to her exes: using the art of songwriting as a kind of sage ritual, post-relationship cleansing rituals – and why not?
In some ways, this goes beyond Swift, and involves the wider machinations of modern artist engagement. The ever-increasing PR interference (“Move on!”; “Next question!”). The no-go areas. The roadblocks put in place to ensure that nothing interesting is ever said or (God forbid) printed. In this stifled era of public fame, Swift’s Time The interview is the equivalent of her throwing a grenade, then walking away whistling.
This time, the PR gatekeepers may have had a point. Given Ye’s public embarrassment (after he made anti-Semitic and other statements, companies withdrew collaborations and endorsements), now is not the time to blow the dust off an ancient spat, so for brands that reweaving. One might also question the optics of weaving a story of great personal suffering as you get older. Time person of the year and continue your billion dollar journey.
It does the soul good to see this streak in someone so famous. The unstoppable mouth, the mob-level demand for revenge
In fact, some might view Swift’s behavior as flagrant, elitist, throwing a toy out of the pram, a sign that she has (gasp!) turned into a monster in some ways. The only logical answer to him is: even if she is, in a strange way, kind of wonderful, isn’t she?
Outside of journalism, it’s good to see this streak in someone so famous. The unstoppable mouth, the mob-level demand for revenge. The rejection of the fall of beef. Even if you felt inclined to frame Swift as some kind of pop Catherine de Medici (the revenge philosophy of a meat-woman, who can’t be calmed down), in this climate of whining, censoring, mouthing celebrities. , it feels like a radical, revolutionary act.
Then there is the age factor. Most hot/motor heads grow out of it. At 33, Swift should have “learned”. She should be at her peak of self-censorship, brand-protection. Instead, recent events suggest that his outbursts were not simply the excesses of youth. For good, ill, and everything in between, this is how La Swift rolls; she is who she is.
All of which makes Taylor that much more interesting to this modern Swiftie. Even more than a mega-successful performer, pop-culture comet, and Time person of the year 2023, she has been herself all along. Isn’t this all we ask of artists?
• Barbara Ellen is a columnist
