Did Taylor have the worst career-killing scandal?

[LordEnigma 11,313]

Lol barely anything happened.

Did you not grow up during Britney's break down? Were you a fan of Gaga during the end of BTW through ARTPOP? Amanda Bynes? Lindsey Lohan?

Like everything Taylor does, this scandal was vanilla.

[CosmixSunshine 40]

She pulled a Alaska Thunder**** and turned those snake emojis into a t-shirt and a stadium tour. A real capitalist queen 

[Virgin Ryan 1,294]

Nah, career-killing scandal is what happened to Janet in that Superbowl. 

[Bradley 54,988]

Those people are awful but I'm glad she was able to channel her frustration through music rather than direct responses. I mean Nicki Minaj is less successful in that department.

Every major artist has gone through a breakdown at some point, it's just part of a life filled with so much instability. Katy considered suicide (By the Grace of God), Gaga considered quitting music and suffered from depression, Britney Spears suffered from bipolar disorder if I'm not mistaken (I'm not very sure).

I'm actually curious if Beyonce underwent the same thing because if she didn't, kudos to her for being such a strong woman and keeping her mental health in such good condition.

[Anderson123 31,144]

No, I feel like the world moved on a couple of weeks later but she wanted to keep the drama alive like it was high school and make record around it so we were like "OH we're still on that!"

[OMonster 14,213]

It could've been a career killer, for sure.

Come on - this scandal came at a time when the popularity of pop music drastically declined with young people, whilst the relevancy of 'influencers' (the Kardashians) and hip-hop music (Kayne) really soared. As Taylor wrote, it was like her turning up to a gunfight with a knife, pop-culturally at least.

Yet, thanks to her incredibly clever approach to marketing, Taylor was able to completely turn the drama on it's head by only ever responding through her music - in turn, giving that music an almost immediate selling-point / buzz beyond it just being a 'new Taylor release'. Thanks to her savviness, she turned her music into a moment of pop cultural relevancy that extended beyond her own name and usual audience. And in the process, in not responding with cheap jibes, tweets or non-musical sub-text, Taylor positioned herself as the talented *artist* - not a headline-hungry *celebrity*. 

So, it could've killed her career... but instead, it propelled Taylor to new heights of interest and scored her the highest grossing tour of all time. So, yeah - thanks Kimye 

Spoiler

To be honest, the 'Reputation' era and 'Cheek To Cheek' / 'Joanne' / 'ASIB' are the lessons in pop-culture damage-control  that *every* artist should pay some attention to. Two totally different approaches, but achieved the same goal.