Taylor Swift’s conglomerate empire

There is no denying that Taylor Swift is currently the most famous name in the world. The “Tortured Poets” section holds the record for the biggest Spotify debut of all time, surpassing Swift’s first-week sales record by more than 600,000 sales. Her hugely successful Eras Tour is still on victory lap and has successfully completed its remaining European dates. The accompanying theatrical film is the highest-grossing concert film of all time, and her romance with Travis Kelce has dominated the gossip magazines for the past year. Swiftmania has reached new heights and she is unstoppable.

If you’ve been on Twitter in the last two months, you’ve probably heard the story of the Wicked Witch of the West, but if not, here’s how it continues. On May 17, Billie Eilish released her third studio album HIT ME HARD AND SOFTJust one day earlier, Taylor Nation – Swift’s official fan account – announced that she would release three special digital albums, TTPDeach with a demo vocal version detailing her writing process. The Eilish camp responded with sped up and slowed down versions of all HMHASsealing the race for number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. Swift ultimately won, securing a fifth week at the top, while Eilish spent the following weeks in a reluctant second place.

Once could be an accident, twice is a coincidence. When Charli xcx released her cultural phenomenon, BRATAt the beginning of June, she was also in the running for the number one spot on the UK album charts. Originally, Swift wasn’t even a player, and Charli was competing with legendary rock band Bon Jovi. But seemingly coinciding with Swift’s UK tour dates, the Swift camp released six UK-only digital albums on Thursday night, hours before the end of the tracking period for the week. Of course, it’s worth noting that Charli also released a deluxe release, Brat and it’s the same, but there are three more songs, so it’s not, the same week, which further increased the stakes of the race. But Swift was once again the undisputed winner, and TTPD stayed at number one in the UK for another week, making it her longest-running number one album in the region.

All of the players in the two scenarios above have done nothing particularly unusual, and the most dedicated Swifties on the internet will tell you that this is just friendly competition. They may be right, but the internet backlash against Swift has been building and, frankly, is worth investigating. It begs the question: has Taylor Swift become a victim of her own success?

One of the core points behind the backlash is that Swift is redefining what it means for there to be reissues and variants of an album. Several artists have experimented with various chart tactics in the past to gain an edge on the music charts, such as discounting digital song sales, releasing exclusive CDs, and repackaging songs with sped up, slowed down, acapella, and instrumental versions, to name a few. Reissues and deluxe albums traditionally include a variety of bonus material; think of Lady Gaga, who repackaged her debut The fame with a complete conceptual EP The Fame Monsterthat serve as the yin and yang of an overall project. This is not a new phenomenon, and the “tour t-shirt with CD package” of old served the same purpose as the modern “Espresso EP” with its “Double Shot” and “Decaf” versions: to increase chart performance.

What is unique about Swift is the capitalist-purist ideals of her team. In the weeks leading up to the release TTPDher team announced four vinyl variants: “The Manuscript,” “The Albatross,” “The Bolter,” and “The Black Dog,” each of which included an additional track in the tracklist corresponding to the variant name. Fans thought they would get an exclusive bonus track with their vinyl record. Surprise! That was not the case. All four of these songs were available after the full version was released. anthology album that was released just two hours after the original. Subsequent digital-only versions follow the same practice: You have to buy the entire standard album to get an additional voice memo or acoustic track. In total, Swift and her team have created 34 versions of The “Tortured Poets” sectionwith who knows how many more, since they have not yet done the same with the anthology album.

It’s fair to say that not everyone is a dedicated Swiftie and will buy all 34 issues. But there are still enough who perpetuate this practice for the sake of the charts and continue to give Swift money at the drop of a hat. Swift has built such a large fan base that each of her releases is consumed quickly and exponentially, and any criticism of such practices is denounced as misogynistic. In reality, this exploitative practice requires fans to re-purchase multiple versions of songs they will never hear again for a bonus song at the hefty price of $4.99. (The normal purchase of a single song on iTunes costs $1.29.)

But let’s say you don’t mind the money-grabbing outlook of a billionaire. After all, it’s your money to spend however you want. What should bother you, at the very least, is Swift’s (or at least her team’s) duplicitous behavior toward other female artists. For a girl who once sang “We all got crowns,” she doesn’t seem thrilled about sharing her crown with another woman, even for a week. There was no reason for Swift to block Eilish, a younger artist just coming out of a sophomore year slump. Swift released her first single during the BRATThe debut week of also seems to be well timed, as the first predictions are already in Swift’s favor.

Defenders of this argument will point out that Swift has every right to remain number one if she can do so. One might even point out that she “graciously” allowed Dua Lipa’s Radical optimism and Gracie Abrams’ The secret of us to reach number one in the UK for a week. In addition, Eilish’s comments about excessive vinyl production were interpreted as a dig at Swift’s release practices. midnight. But as a woman whose messages are about encouraging other women, as she did in her acceptance speech for the Woman of the Decade award at the 2019 Billboard Women in Music Awards, her actions don’t match her messages. Is it supposed to be a sign of her “grace” that she allows other women to top the charts, or should it be a representation of strong women in music? Why can’t she allow other women to lead unless she’s the one leading them?

It’s even stranger considering that Charli xcx opened for Swift’s Reputation Stadium Tour a few years ago. Still, it took an album for the two to start a full-blown cold war. It also wouldn’t be the first time Swift has given the cold shoulder to an artist she previously claimed to support—Olivia Rodrigo frequently comes up in the same conversation due to a sampling dispute. Rodrigo, who was a huge Swift fan, had to give up a large portion of the royalties from “deju vu” to the Swift camp because it sounded “similar” to “Cruel Summer,” even if the similarities border on inspiration rather than direct sampling. While Charli has openly said she has no falling out with Swift, that still doesn’t rule out possible foul play from an artist who wanted to support other female artists.

These concerns are big, and are often used as fodder for the everyday stan Twitter debate. What worries me more as a semi-committed Swiftie is what comes next. Swift still has two more albums to re-record—Call and her self-titled debut. There are already reports that she is creating TS12, which is set to be released next year. Keep in mind that she has released eight projects since 2020, all of which have broken one record after another, usually all of her own previous successes.

All this would be great and amazing if the quality of all these projects matched the caliber of sales and records. folklore And always He certainly did, and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) And Red (Taylor’s Version) captured the magic that made the original albums the high points of their career. Somewhere along the way, compromises were made. midnight was decent, but TTPD sounded like a Folklore/forever Infusion without its original soul. 1989 (Taylor’s version) faced a variety of production problems and lacked the depth of the original blockbuster. The Epoch Tour The film alone was available in three separate cuts, the full version can only be found on Disney+.

Worse still is that Swift continues to be rewarded for her efforts, however small they may be. With no one else currently able to match Swift’s caliber, there is a danger of becoming complacent in her art. What made her a star in the first place were her bold decisions to expand her craft. Her transition into pop music in 1989 was her letting go of her homeland past and folklore redefined her abilities as a songwriter, especially after the lukewarm reception of Lover. Other stars like Charli xcx are able to capture the cultural zeitgeist by performing unabashedly and without fear of failure. Even Charli’s “chart-boosting behavior,” like her remixes with Addison Rae, Robyn, and Lorde, adds to her art and makes her a more versatile and exciting artist; Swift’s stars like Post Malone and Lana Del Rey are relegated to background singers.

I’m sure Swifties who come across this article will try to find my information online to label me a “misogynist” or someone jumping on the “Taylor hate bandwagon.” I’m not. Swift makes music that I enjoy and that captures formative experiences from my childhood. I worry that an artist so culturally relevant is normalizing behavior that we would normally denounce and call him to do better. If you’re on top all the time, who’s going to give you the reality check you so desperately need? That’s the question I don’t have the answer to, but I really hope Taylor Alison Swift can come up with an answer. Otherwise, it’s only a matter of time before the Swiftmania spaceship crashes again.