Taylor for Elle - Label Disputes *New Snippets*

[disneyhigh 43]

​Reading through this thread, I was quite stunned by your responses. You seem hung up on Taylor's public relationships, yet you are on a Lady Gaga fan site with a Lana Del Rey avatar. I admire Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey, and Taylor Swift, but I'd like to argue that Taylor Swift's 'three-month' relationships are a bit more respectable than Gaga's go-go dancing, d--g-abusing past and Del Rey's nods towards submissive and abusive relationships and prostitution.

Taylor grew up within the reach of the public eye (just like Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Britney Spears, etc.), and her relationship troubles are such petty things to get caught up on compared to her contemporaries' problems. Failed relationships are really nothing to be ashamed of.

Everyone has struggles in life. It's insensitive to say that her criticisms are supposedly not as significant as those thrown toward Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera, and so on. Her platform is huge, which gives more room for people to find fault: she sings flat live, she writes a bunch of songs about guys, she dates a lot of guys, she had the body shape of a 2x4, she dances awkwardly, etc. The only reason why she hasn't been criticized for a flop era like the artists you listed is because she won't allow herself to risk her success. She's an incredibly smart businesswoman and knows how to stay at the forefront of the public eye, which is probably why Big Machine rightfully gives her free reign. She sets high standards for herself and clearly knows how to achieve them without some record executives shooting her in another direction.

You may see her as the 'thinnest-skinned' celebrity on the scene, but she's not the artist that threw herself into two whiny, self-loathing blackout periods because she was heavily criticized. She can transform any criticism she gets into multi-platinum pieces of work (see: Blank Space, in which she is able to poke fun at herself and media response to her) instead of melting down and blocking the world out. With this brainpower, she will always come out on top.

​I don't think the Gaga shade was necessary. Especially considering this is a Gaga forum and not everyone is expected to like Taylor. And if You read that person's whole response you would know he said that in regards to thinking she was a failure because she didn't win AOTY for the second time. 

​I like Taylor but oh my god this is so true. When Shake it Off came out I was like.. really? Do you really need to shake it off? There was barely negativity around her.

​Lol same. I'm like what negativity is surrounding her? oh Okay yeah so what she has had a million boyfriends in the past. Maybe she has relationship issues but what exactly is surrounding her life that she needs to "shake it off"

 

[yASSsss 35,510]

​i hope so

idk whats so special about 1998

anyway her story reminds me of gaga when adele ruined her special night

Nooo,don't post this gif ...it hurts so much  

[blacklistedd 599]

she was making pop anyway, you could've labeled the last 2 albums pop as well and it wouldn't have made any difference. everytime someone went on about how she crossed over or whatever i just say wtf and reading this makes me say wtf because its not like this album was a stretch or much of a departure for her from RED. like what is it with everyone and taylor swift and acting like shes some sort of pop pioneer or some ****. like i dont have a problem with her, shes whatever, but people talk her up like crazy. it makes no sense to me.

[Stephen 30,420]

You may see her as the 'thinnest-skinned' celebrity on the scene, but she's not the artist that threw herself into two whiny, self-loathing blackout periods because she was heavily criticized. She can transform any criticism she gets into multi-platinum pieces of work (see: Blank Space, in which she is able to poke fun at herself and media response to her) instead of melting down and blocking the world out. With this brainpower, she will always come out on top.

​oh my god. How dare you... I swear I'll never understand why people on this site insist on tearing gaga down to make their fave look better. 

You know damn well Gaga's first blackout was bc of her injury and the second was bc her manager abandoned her and she was severely depressed. It wasn't just some people cracking jokes on Twitter or at award shows. If that was the case she would have gone on a "blackout" in 2009 when they said she was a man, and in 2011 when they said she was stealing from Madonna, and in 2012 when they said she was fat. 

The audacity 

[Nein 508]

Good for Taylor because 1989 slays the world, and obviously some delusional haters in this thread

[BornAsUnic0rn 2,046]

​oh my god. How dare you... I swear I'll never understand why people on this site insist on tearing gaga down to make their fave look better. 

You know damn well Gaga's first blackout was bc of her injury and the second was bc her manager abandoned her and she was severely depressed. It wasn't just some people cracking jokes on Twitter or at award shows. If that was the case she would have gone on a "blackout" in 2009 when they said she was a man, and in 2011 when they said she was stealing from Madonna, and in 2012 when they said she was fat. 

The audacity ​

And Taylor must be alright because she isn't talking about her feelings 

[LoveandMagic 1,731]

What a nice article. It's always good to see the silver lining in things. I like how she was able to look back at her loss in such a mature fashion. The rest of the article excerpt is nice as well. 

[Kermit 15,807]

not me thinking daddy kinney was leaking mommy's album.

[Haroon 49,685]

Wow it's interesting to hear how an experience like that dominoed into something we know today, it surprised me  Also that thing about the label expecting and wanting nothing less than a million seems ridiculous to me, I really hope they lower their expectations because one day Taylor may not be selling 1m+ in her debut week and I wouldn't want them raining on her parade and giving her grief  Glad she stuck to her guns and fought it out, she came out a winner in all aspects it seems   

[KaanBTW 5,244]

Good for her. 

 

 

[Creyk 17,758]

​i hope so

idk whats so special about 1998

anyway her story reminds me of gaga when adele ruined her special night

​i love for her reactions on award shows

she's always so reserved

[StrawberryBlond 14,670]

​

I could refute every single point you made but I'm not going to continue wasting my time with all this pointless essay writing. I'm defending her because people have been using the "OMERHGERD she has so many ex-boyfriends!111" drag since 2009 and it's stupid, s-xist and tired, but you obviously don't think so. You may think you're a critic and writing impartially, but everything you say about Taylor is always full of negative opinions that you want to pass of as facts. So yeah, whatever, I'm done.

​Writing negatively about Taylor is me being impartial. I admit when she has her good moments too, it's just you don't see too much of that. Like every critic, I critique the good and the bad. If Taylor ever makes an album that truly surprises me, I'll eat some humble pie. It's just she hasn't done it yet. I feel like a lot of critics must be getting paid to write good reviews for her as I find it very difficult to imagine that respected middle aged critics think that Taylor's elementery, basic songwriting and over-done topics is anything amazing. I feel some negative reviews might help her get better. And please note that my opinion and facts are different things. I make it clear when I'm referring to opinions and facts.

It's so aggravating that every single Taylor related thread, people need to come in and hijack it. If you don't like someone why do they obviously get you so bothered. Please LMK! 

This is a topic posted in a general entertainment section, not on Taylor's fan section, so anyone can post. A thread cannot be deemed hijacked just because there's an opinion in it you don't like. And in answer to your question, haven't you already answered it? If someone bothers you, you want to vent about it. Some people prefer to smother their frustrations by keeping quiet, others prefer to get them out. I'm in the latter category, as you can see. It's not always the nicest course of action, but free speech and all. If everyone followed the wisdom of "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all," nobody would know how to better themselves, nothing could be improved, nothing would get done.

​Reading through this thread, I was quite stunned by your responses. You seem hung up on Taylor's public relationships, yet you are on a Lady Gaga fan site with a Lana Del Rey avatar. I admire Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey, and Taylor Swift, but I'd like to argue that Taylor Swift's 'three-month' relationships are a bit more respectable than Gaga's go-go dancing, d--g-abusing past and Del Rey's nods towards submissive and abusive relationships and prostitution.

Taylor grew up within the reach of the public eye (just like Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Britney Spears, etc.), and her relationship troubles are such petty things to get caught up on compared to her contemporaries' problems. Failed relationships are really nothing to be ashamed of.

Everyone has struggles in life. It's insensitive to say that her criticisms are supposedly not as significant as those thrown toward Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera, and so on. Her platform is huge, which gives more room for people to find fault: she sings flat live, she writes a bunch of songs about guys, she dates a lot of guys, she had the body shape of a 2x4, she dances awkwardly, etc. The only reason why she hasn't been criticized for a flop era like the artists you listed is because she won't allow herself to risk her success. She's an incredibly smart businesswoman and knows how to stay at the forefront of the public eye, which is probably why Big Machine rightfully gives her free reign. She sets high standards for herself and clearly knows how to achieve them without some record executives shooting her in another direction.

You may see her as the 'thinnest-skinned' celebrity on the scene, but she's not the artist that threw herself into two whiny, self-loathing blackout periods because she was heavily criticized. She can transform any criticism she gets into multi-platinum pieces of work (see: Blank Space, in which she is able to poke fun at herself and media response to her) instead of melting down and blocking the world out. With this brainpower, she will always come out on top.

​I'm critical of some things Gaga and Lana have done too. Gaga had some dodgy relationships in the past, yes, but she's only had two known boyfriends since she became famous. One of them was an old ex and the other is the one she is currently engaged to after 3 years together. That sounds pretty respectable for me. Gaga hasn't dated much for a popstar. And Lana has only had one known boyfriend since she became famous too and keeps her private life private. Yes, she had some eyebrow raising relationships in the past that we don't know the full story on, but she's left all that behind. What I like about both of them is that they don't let their relationships be of such importantce to the public. We know a bit too much about Taylor's past boyfriends and I feel like she uses that to her advantage when she creates her breakup songs, as it keeps the public guessing and wanting to tune in. Just because her contemporaries may have worse issues doesn't mean that her issues aren't concerning.

Actually yes, I do think her "criticisms" aren't as significant as those thrown at other popstars. She has known nothing but success until this moment. Someone like that has only experienced the most basic of criticism, if any. And yes, she hasn't flopped because she won't take risks, another one of her flaws. That may be smart business sense, but it doesn't half make for a limiting sense of creativity and being true to oneself.

Gaga went into blackout periods (the post AP era was hardly a blackout, though, as she went straight into promoting C2C afterwards and did her Oscars performance) because she had real reasons. The one after BTW was because she broke her hip and needed to rest, plus she needed to work hard to make an album that could redeem her for the public. And after AP, she was in a very bad place. Nothing in that era had gone right, she had fired her manager and she had suffered the worst public backlash yet (her album being posied to flop before it had even been released, being called fat, not even the fans loving her new work, being compared to more popular popstars, being told her career was over...). Taylor has never gone through such an experience, so how do you know that she would turn it into something positive? Fact is that a lot of artists take a break to relax and re-group after going through a bad era. It's not something that just Gaga does. It's a natural reaction and it doesn't make you weak. On the contrary, some artists are actually pulled away from the public eye by their labels if they go through a bad patch, purely for damage control.

I have a hard time believing that Taylor has a thick skin when she dedicated her song, Mean, to ONE critic who said she couldn't sing (she'd have a field day with me, huh?), writes scathing songs about all her exes and anyone who's ever "wronged" her, got a Shane Dawson parody of Blank Space taken down because she simply didn't like it, considers not winning the AOTY title for the SECOND time to be a failure and considers a parody of her 3-month relationship pattern by two comedians to be heavy criticism. That's the definition of having a thin skin.

[Stephen 30,420]

I have a hard time believing that Taylor has a thick skin when she dedicated her song, Mean, to ONE critic who said she couldn't sing (she'd have a field day with me, huh?), writes scathing songs about all her exes and anyone who's ever "wronged" her, got a Shane Dawson parody of Blank Space taken down because she simply didn't like it, considers not winning the AOTY title for the SECOND time to be a failure and considers a parody of her 3-month relationship pattern by two comedians to be heavy criticism. That's the definition of having a thin skin.

[Jester 6,302]

I never really cared about her, but she seems pretty smart and creative tbh

[Paper Planes 340]

​I'm critical of some things Gaga and Lana have done too. Gaga had some dodgy relationships in the past, yes, but she's only had two known boyfriends since she became famous. One of them was an old ex and the other is the one she is currently engaged to after 3 years together. That sounds pretty respectable for me. Gaga hasn't dated much for a popstar. And Lana has only had one known boyfriend since she became famous too and keeps her private life private. Yes, she had some eyebrow raising relationships in the past that we don't know the full story on, but she's left all that behind. What I like about both of them is that they don't let their relationships be of such importantce to the public. We know a bit too much about Taylor's past boyfriends and I feel like she uses that to her advantage when she creates her breakup songs, as it keeps the public guessing and wanting to tune in. Just because her contemporaries may have worse issues doesn't mean that her issues aren't concerning.

Actually yes, I do think her "criticisms" aren't as significant as those thrown at other popstars. She has known nothing but success until this moment. Someone like that has only experienced the most basic of criticism, if any. And yes, she hasn't flopped because she won't take risks, another one of her flaws. That may be smart business sense, but it doesn't half make for a limiting sense of creativity and being true to oneself.

Gaga went into blackout periods (the post AP era was hardly a blackout, though, as she went straight into promoting C2C afterwards and did her Oscars performance) because she had real reasons. The one after BTW was because she broke her hip and needed to rest, plus she needed to work hard to make an album that could redeem her for the public. And after AP, she was in a very bad place. Nothing in that era had gone right, she had fired her manager and she had suffered the worst public backlash yet (her album being posied to flop before it had even been released, being called fat, not even the fans loving her new work, being compared to more popular popstars, being told her career was over...). Taylor has never gone through such an experience, so how do you know that she would turn it into something positive? Fact is that a lot of artists take a break to relax and re-group after going through a bad era. It's not something that just Gaga does. It's a natural reaction and it doesn't make you weak. On the contrary, some artists are actually pulled away from the public eye by their labels if they go through a bad patch, purely for damage control.

I have a hard time believing that Taylor has a thick skin when she dedicated her song, Mean, to ONE critic who said she couldn't sing (she'd have a field day with me, huh?), writes scathing songs about all her exes and anyone who's ever "wronged" her, got a Shane Dawson parody of Blank Space taken down because she simply didn't like it, considers not winning the AOTY title for the SECOND time to be a failure and considers a parody of her 3-month relationship pattern by two comedians to be heavy criticism. That's the definition of having a thin skin.

​But what does "Gaga hasn't dated much for a popstar" insinuate? Do pop stars and us normal folk have different dating standards? Should she have dated more before getting engaged so people could slam her as a slut like they do Taylor? The only reason Taylor's relationships are on public display is because the paparazzi cannot leave celebrities alone for more than six seconds, and every guy she's photographed with is automatically assumed as a **** buddy. It's not like she drags them around to every awards show and has s-x in the front lawn; her relationships would be just as private as, say, Lana Del Rey's, but she's on a much bigger platform than Lana. She always steers away from specific relationship questions in interviews; most song-partner relationships are just assumed. Up until she was spotted with Calvin, she had been single for a long while in fear of people poking holes in her relationship's strength.

I never said she doesn't take risks (because the finalized transfer to pop was a huge risk in itself, as she said in this interview), but I don't see her putting more than two years between her albums, transferring to stupid lyrics that take a translator to interpret, or pole-dancing at the VMAs. I doubt she's holding back much of her inner creativity, and there's no reason for her to resort to stupid stunts when being herself is working just fine for her.

Gaga's first blackout was injury-induced, but she blew the whole ordeal way out of proportion during the few weeks that she actually promoted ARTPOP before meltdown 2.0. Have you noticed that all of the criticisms (some of which that are just petty) that have been hurled at Gaga (her album being posied to flop before it had even been released, being called fat, not even the fans loving her new work, being compared to more popular popstars, being told her career was over) have also been hurled at some other stars? In particular, does Christina Aguilera ring a bell? Yet, it seems as if she still is managing to survive without building her own website to #PromoteOnlineKindness and block out any opposing opinion to her work.

As for her composition of Mean and break-up songs, what constitutes a worthy situation for basing a song off of? She didn't invent the break-up song, but she's one of the few artists that has the integrity to write her own. Half of the artists on the scene today can't even write their own songs or write anything deeper than "pop that kitty down low, drop that kitty down low." Taylor may have written Mean about being told that she can't sing, but let's look at Gaga again, who wrote Do What U Want because some people called her fat. "You can't sing" and "You're fat" are both on the same caliber, so what makes Do What U Want and Mean so different?