Homophobia in Picture to Burn? She was sixteen, and she changed the lyric. Racism in Shake it Off? The video features a variety of different dance styles and dancers from many different backgrounds. Is it really appropriation to feature accomplished dancers in a genre of dance with you sprawls alongside them attempting the same moves?
How dare she take her music off Spotify? It's her music. She can do whatever she wants with it.
So I hope you understand where I'm coming from is not a place of hate or ignorance. This is coming from somebody who knows a lot about Taylor - perhaps an unhealthy amount - and can still somehow look at some aspects of her career objectively.
As I'm writing this I have just viewed this charming video in which Taylor sent a bunch of her fans Christmas presents. Of course, most of us were aware that this happened, but what I wasn't aware of was that it was more or less a publicity stunt.
I have no doubt that Taylor personally chose each present and probably put a lot of thought and effort into each gift, but the fact that so many of the recipients had conveniently recorded their reactions and that there was footage of the gift wrapping and everything seems suspiciously strategic to me. I don't know. Maybe this is just the skeptic in me. Maybe age has made me cynical.
Maybe nineteen year old Daniella would bitch-slap me for even suggesting something bad about Taylor. But here's the thing. It's not really bad to suggest that a musical artist is trying to promote herself and her music. That's part of her job, and in case you haven't noticed, she's very, very good at it.
In this era, people are wont to record and share their reactions to things, and Taylor used to be very vloggy, so perhaps that's all it is. Either way it doesn't really matter, but I guess I want to see less "No, it's Beccy" t-shirts and more spontaneous hand-puppets trying to devour Luke Jacobz's head after a tv performance. Both are brilliant and display a wonderful sense of humour, but one is planned, and one is something that Taylor did in the moment, just because she felt like it.
