I’m a 66-year-old who got turned on to Taylor by a couple of my children in the last 18 months and now consider myself a total Swiftie. One of those children lives and works in KC and the LGBT homeless shelter where they work was recently the beneficiary of a sizable contribution by Taylor to their essential work. An admirable human being and artist.
I’m a 66-year-old who got turned on to Taylor by a couple of my children in the last 18 months and now consider myself a total Swiftie. One of those children lives and works in KC and the LGBT homeless shelter where they work was recently the beneficiary of a sizable contribution by Taylor to their essential work. An admirable human being and artist.
The More Important Reason Why Taylor Swift Should be an Inspiration For Us All:
I think your point is an important one and one that JVL may perhaps have underestimated about why Taylor is an inspiration and an amazing role model.
He sometimes makes her out to be slightly more cunning than she really is. The reason she has so much sway with her audience and her fans isn’t because she “made up a her own narrative” in some “kay fabe” sense. It’s because she was harassed and bullied when she was young because she was “different” - she was the misfit romantic type who grew up in central PA but used to wear dresses and listened to country music and wrote diary entries and songs with a quill. I know a little bit about what that’s like because I used to be a lot like that girl! (She talks about this in her documentary “Miss Americana” and depicts the experience in the song “Mean”)
As a result, when she first started becoming popular at the age of 16 or 17 - which is no where near how popular she is now), she always maintained a genuine sense of gratitude for her fans. I think after her first big concert, she did a meet and greet and signed CDs for 13 hours straight! (13 is a big deal in Swiftyland for reasons I won’t go in to here). If she was trying to enjoy a meal with her friends and there was a line of people who recognized her and wanted her signature or a selfie, she would always try and please them even if meant putting her own needs last. But she’s also incredibly self aware and understands some of the pitfalls of being a “pathological people pleaser”. She still has an incredible amount of gratitude towards her fans and will go above and beyond to do extra things to make them happy- like leave coded messages in her liner notes or invite her most dedicated fans over to preview a new album and bake them homemade cookies or add 14 something extra shows to an already demanding concert tour because so many fans were upset that they didn’t get tickets. She’s not Donald Trump or Vince McMahon! The relationship she has cultivated with fans is based on genuine love and gratitude it’s mutual. Yes, she’s made a great deal of money and she deserves every penny. But she’s also given away a great deal of time, effort and money that she didn’t have to. For example, I can’t remember the exact amount of the bonuses that she gave to the dancers and production crew of her last tour but for many of them, it was enough to retire on.
Also she is nothing like Cersei Lannister! She’s more like Gretchen Carlson, who Tim interviewed not that long ago. She was basically taken advantage of by signing away the rights to her own work when she was 14 and didn’t know any better. FYI, she’s not the first person to be screwed by this system- people as famous as the Beatles and Elvis had similar issues. If you’re not a lawyer, it’s almost impossible to know what you’re giving away. Women and minorities in the music business are especially prone to this kind of abuse. I believe the singers from the 90s band TLC, ended up with something like 2% of the profits from the sale of their albums.
Taylor was just fortunate enough to live in a time where if you had a large social media following (again cultivated after years of hard work) then you had a great deal of power and leverage. She was smart enough to realize that the advent of streaming made CD recording, production, promotion, etc (all the stuff you needed a label for) pretty much irrelevant. But she was still a good and loyal person. When she realized that Scott Borchetta & Big Machine Records was taking advantage of her and she decided to leave them for Republic because they would give her the rights to her own songs and complete control over the direction she wanted to go creatively, she still offered to buy the rights to the first 6 albums. It was never her intention to screw them by making her originals worthless. But they knew she was desperate to own her own songs so they told her the only way they would sell her back her songs was by selling her the rights to an old album *if and when* she let them produce a new album (which, knowing her talent and fan base, they assumed would be a hit). So Taylor was left with an excruciating choice - letting go of her first 6 albums or being chained to the man who was holding them hostage.
This was a lot like JVL’s Donald Trump “Dune” analogy than his “Game of Thrones” one. Trump doesn’t care about the GOP. He just cares about himself and how he can manipulate the GOP to enrich himself. But he would easily destroy it if he wanted to. Establishment Republicans, OTOH, care very deeply about the GOP and can’t bring themselves to abandon it. So they made themselves slaves to a despicable and manipulative man.
Taylor Swift had more courage than the Republicans. In the end, no matter how painful it was to abandon her albums, she was willing to walk away. She didn’t even realize it was possible for her to re-record her old masters after the original contract expired and didn’t conceive of the idea until much later when Borchetta was planning on selling them to Scooter Braun, someone else who had been abusive to her in the past. Even then, she warned the third party involved (Shamrock Records) what she was planning and encouraged them to work with her instead of Borchetta and Braun because she knew how loyal her fans were and assured them that once she released her versions, it would almost certainly make the old versions worthless. They decided not to listen.
Taylor Swift should be an inspiration for all of us. But not because she’s some magical rare marketing and entrepreneurial genius (which she is) but because in many ways, she isn’t that different from the rest of us. She has lots of insecurities and codependency issues. It took her a long time to understand the industry and she was lied to and taken advantage of many times.
The real reason that Taylor Swift should be an inspiration for all us is because despite all the things she suffered, she never let it fundamentally change who she was. She never let other people define her or tell her what to do (for long). And ever since she was a little girl, she instinctively understood her own value and always held fast to that. This never made her arrogant or conceited like it often does with other (usually male) people. Rather, it helped her recognize, celebrate and uplift the truly valuable people in her own life.
Thanks you! And I meant every word. It’s nice to know there are still so many brave and good people in the world. It’s a big reason I’m a fan of the Bulwark and the community they’ve cultivated :)
I’m a 66-year-old who got turned on to Taylor by a couple of my children in the last 18 months and now consider myself a total Swiftie. One of those children lives and works in KC and the LGBT homeless shelter where they work was recently the beneficiary of a sizable contribution by Taylor to their essential work. An admirable human being and artist.
The More Important Reason Why Taylor Swift Should be an Inspiration For Us All:
I think your point is an important one and one that JVL may perhaps have underestimated about why Taylor is an inspiration and an amazing role model.
He sometimes makes her out to be slightly more cunning than she really is. The reason she has so much sway with her audience and her fans isn’t because she “made up a her own narrative” in some “kay fabe” sense. It’s because she was harassed and bullied when she was young because she was “different” - she was the misfit romantic type who grew up in central PA but used to wear dresses and listened to country music and wrote diary entries and songs with a quill. I know a little bit about what that’s like because I used to be a lot like that girl! (She talks about this in her documentary “Miss Americana” and depicts the experience in the song “Mean”)
As a result, when she first started becoming popular at the age of 16 or 17 - which is no where near how popular she is now), she always maintained a genuine sense of gratitude for her fans. I think after her first big concert, she did a meet and greet and signed CDs for 13 hours straight! (13 is a big deal in Swiftyland for reasons I won’t go in to here). If she was trying to enjoy a meal with her friends and there was a line of people who recognized her and wanted her signature or a selfie, she would always try and please them even if meant putting her own needs last. But she’s also incredibly self aware and understands some of the pitfalls of being a “pathological people pleaser”. She still has an incredible amount of gratitude towards her fans and will go above and beyond to do extra things to make them happy- like leave coded messages in her liner notes or invite her most dedicated fans over to preview a new album and bake them homemade cookies or add 14 something extra shows to an already demanding concert tour because so many fans were upset that they didn’t get tickets. She’s not Donald Trump or Vince McMahon! The relationship she has cultivated with fans is based on genuine love and gratitude it’s mutual. Yes, she’s made a great deal of money and she deserves every penny. But she’s also given away a great deal of time, effort and money that she didn’t have to. For example, I can’t remember the exact amount of the bonuses that she gave to the dancers and production crew of her last tour but for many of them, it was enough to retire on.
Also she is nothing like Cersei Lannister! She’s more like Gretchen Carlson, who Tim interviewed not that long ago. She was basically taken advantage of by signing away the rights to her own work when she was 14 and didn’t know any better. FYI, she’s not the first person to be screwed by this system- people as famous as the Beatles and Elvis had similar issues. If you’re not a lawyer, it’s almost impossible to know what you’re giving away. Women and minorities in the music business are especially prone to this kind of abuse. I believe the singers from the 90s band TLC, ended up with something like 2% of the profits from the sale of their albums.
Taylor was just fortunate enough to live in a time where if you had a large social media following (again cultivated after years of hard work) then you had a great deal of power and leverage. She was smart enough to realize that the advent of streaming made CD recording, production, promotion, etc (all the stuff you needed a label for) pretty much irrelevant. But she was still a good and loyal person. When she realized that Scott Borchetta & Big Machine Records was taking advantage of her and she decided to leave them for Republic because they would give her the rights to her own songs and complete control over the direction she wanted to go creatively, she still offered to buy the rights to the first 6 albums. It was never her intention to screw them by making her originals worthless. But they knew she was desperate to own her own songs so they told her the only way they would sell her back her songs was by selling her the rights to an old album *if and when* she let them produce a new album (which, knowing her talent and fan base, they assumed would be a hit). So Taylor was left with an excruciating choice - letting go of her first 6 albums or being chained to the man who was holding them hostage.
This was a lot like JVL’s Donald Trump “Dune” analogy than his “Game of Thrones” one. Trump doesn’t care about the GOP. He just cares about himself and how he can manipulate the GOP to enrich himself. But he would easily destroy it if he wanted to. Establishment Republicans, OTOH, care very deeply about the GOP and can’t bring themselves to abandon it. So they made themselves slaves to a despicable and manipulative man.
Taylor Swift had more courage than the Republicans. In the end, no matter how painful it was to abandon her albums, she was willing to walk away. She didn’t even realize it was possible for her to re-record her old masters after the original contract expired and didn’t conceive of the idea until much later when Borchetta was planning on selling them to Scooter Braun, someone else who had been abusive to her in the past. Even then, she warned the third party involved (Shamrock Records) what she was planning and encouraged them to work with her instead of Borchetta and Braun because she knew how loyal her fans were and assured them that once she released her versions, it would almost certainly make the old versions worthless. They decided not to listen.
Taylor Swift should be an inspiration for all of us. But not because she’s some magical rare marketing and entrepreneurial genius (which she is) but because in many ways, she isn’t that different from the rest of us. She has lots of insecurities and codependency issues. It took her a long time to understand the industry and she was lied to and taken advantage of many times.
The real reason that Taylor Swift should be an inspiration for all us is because despite all the things she suffered, she never let it fundamentally change who she was. She never let other people define her or tell her what to do (for long). And ever since she was a little girl, she instinctively understood her own value and always held fast to that. This never made her arrogant or conceited like it often does with other (usually male) people. Rather, it helped her recognize, celebrate and uplift the truly valuable people in her own life.
https://youtu.be/hyf9vJB8V3s?si=TtJPX2TDQVN1MjNy
Stunning and exquisite compliment!
Thanks you! And I meant every word. It’s nice to know there are still so many brave and good people in the world. It’s a big reason I’m a fan of the Bulwark and the community they’ve cultivated :)