The Corporate Rise of Taylor Swift

Jack Ewer

Staff Writer

I want to like Taylor Swift and for her to be America’s homegrown country music heart throb, but she declared herself a popstar a decade ago, and at this point in her career she herself feels more like a dominant corporation the cutthroat way she maintains the bottom line.

Her fault or not, the constant exposure that the average person has had to her career is crazy and her being booed at the Super Bowl is a public sign of some resentment.

She grew up as an Eagles fan as is originally from Northern Pennsylvania and even references them in a few songs, but that didn’t stop the hate which most likely stemmed from the overexposure from her relationship with Travis Kelce. Their relation strikes me and, I’m sure, others as stemming from a need for attention both from Travis and herself. I could be very wrong, but Hailee Steinfeld dates a prominent NFL player, and that relationship feels so much more authentic. Swift’s relationships just feel calculated for maximum publicity.

I don’t want to accuse her of keeping company only for the attention they bring, and she should be allowed to associate with anyone. Given that, I cannot understand why she seems to drag Ice Spice to every other Chiefs game.

They describe their relationship as mentor driven, but they also share a manager. I could very well see their relationship as described, they do have a song together, and people help people, but then why threaten to sue up and comer Olivia Rodrigo off her first album.

Taylors first act as a corporation other than protecting her copyright was the rerecording of her music and the subsequent Era’s tour. They were amazing and she was in the limelight for well over a year.

The narrative she presents is one that can easily be championed by her fans. That the master recordings for her original albums were sold when the original label Big Machine Records collapsed, and Taylor was never offered a chance to purchase them. She owns the writing but not the physical recording.

Those recordings could be licensed without her approval and that reality and not being able to purchase the music motivated Taylor to re-record and release her old material. This time being the sole owner.

I am sympathetic to Taylor Swift wanting to own her songs, but her and her fans have ridden the goodwill this story grants to death and then some. At this point if I listen to a Swift song, you bet I want Scooter Braun to get his share. I am not pro-music label. I have been driven to this point because Taylor Swift should no longer be considered a person if she acts like a brand.

Her release strategies, aggressive use of the cease and desist and the pouring in of collectable merchandise are tactics just as cutthroat as the industry she claims to detest. In poor taste she formally announced The Tortured Poets Department. Artists

have teased works, but even that is a rarity reserved for Prince, a formal announcement was bold. No bolder than releasing a ten-minute version of an old song and bringing up a relationship that ended fourteen years ago and only lasted three months.

The age gap between the twenty and twenty-nine-year-old is a bit weird, and I don’t get a feeling Jake is a good guy, but it is Ms. Swift who brings the relationship up in her song. I don’t think it’s a stretch to insinuate that she wanted to use that controversy to sell her remake of Red.

I want for Taylor swift to be the triumphant small town all American girl, who grew up singing and little girls can have posters off on their wall but her business tactics, and general antics as of late are more befitting of a title she’s earned, Billionaire.