Here are more photos of Taylor Swift in London last week, at the ELLE Style Awards and at the BRIT Awards. Neither look – the dragon-y Cavalli or the green Julien Macdonald – was her best look, but I applaud her for trying out some new stuff. Swifty also had a lengthy new interview with The Telegraph this week and it’s just full of interesting quotes. Most of the piece is about Swifty’s anxiety about everything and her overwhelming fan-love, but there’s some edge there too. Especially when The Telegraph reporter brings up Swifty’s long-standing feud with Katy Perry. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
Whether she’s made a successful business model for other artists to copy: ‘It’s possible. We all have to step up and make albums that are good, top to bottom, if selling albums is still important. It is to me, but a lot of artists have already given up on that. I have friends who just think it’s not attainable, which I feel is a very defeatist way to look at life.’
Embracing feminism: It wasn’t ‘some strategy – being a feminist is just part of my life’.
Turning away from primness: ‘My point is not to be sexy, my point is not to turn masses of people on.’
She wants to ‘change the narrative’: ‘There was a bit of a reputation for having a lot of boy-bashing songs. Which is a sexist way of saying heartbreak songs. To trivialise someone who’s heartbroken is really cruel. But people have to simplify things. Everybody’s got busy lives, they don’t have time to form a complex opinion of me and my music. I’m in a different place in my life, where love isn’t really a priority. I haven’t dated anyone in years so there’s less chatter about the serial dater thing. I’m just really excited at an awards show when they don’t make some weird joke about my dating life.’
Is she really this nice all the time? ‘No, because that’s annoying, too. And it’s not real if someone appears to never have any issues with anyone. I have my friends, I have enemies. I have bad days when I don’t want to go to a photo shoot, but I’m not going to show up four hours late, I’m going to be there on time. I’m not nice all the time but I try not to be carelessly rude to people who don’t deserve it. When I’m with my friends, we don’t say glowing things about everybody. We’re not sitting around going [adopts Stepford Wives-esque voice and posture], “You know who’s really special and wonderful?” That’s not what we talk about – we’re normal girlfriends.’
Her feud with Katy Perry: ‘I’m not giving them anything to write about,’ she says, smiling steelily. ‘I’m not walking up the street with boys, I’m not stumbling out of clubs drunk. But I’m never going to talk about her in my interview. It’s not going to happen.’
Where she’ll be in five years: ‘I’ll be 30. I’ll probably still be single, let’s be honest. No one’s going to sign up for this and everything that goes with it. Like, “Hi, nice to meet you, want a date? Do you love camera flashes? I hope you do!” I don’t know what’s going to happen if I’m ever content in a relationship – no idea how that’s going to work. I don’t even know if that’s possible with the life I have.
“I have my friends, I have my enemies…” Oh, girl. Same crazy, different outlet. What I keep feeling with this New Swifty is that she just replaced one unhinged focus for another. Four years ago, she was obsessed with calling out ex-boyfriends with her blind-item songs. Now she’s obsessed with Mean Girl-ing her perceived enemies and trying to out-maneuver Katy Perry for all of the “cool” celebrity friends. And why? Because of John Mayer. Seriously.
Oh, and she also goes on and on about her “cool and smart” fans and how she loves to cyberstalk their social media pages so she can personalize gifts for them. It’s half-creepy and half-cool. I mean, it must be lovely for one of her teenage fans to receive a personal and well-thought-out gift from Taylor Swift. But still… it’s slightly creepy to think that Swifty is online, obsessively reading the Facebooks, Twitters and Instagrams of her favorite 900 Swiftlunatics.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Seems to me, she just ‘buys’ all of her friends – does she have a genuine friendship with anyone? Go away, you reedy-voiced mean girl, no-one buys your b.s. here.
In her defense, I think these are more business relationships than friendships.
Good point 😀
Can you have genuine friendships when you’re a multi-millionaire pop star whose life has to be carefully crafted and controlled to fit a certain image?
I buy it, I love her and think she’s great!
She’s never going to now that she already has once, an action which (quite fairly) prompted the media’s interest.
I like some of Taylor’s music (I love Style – very 80s) but she’s got a very interesting attitude with the media – I’ll throw out hints in interviews, I’ll write songs about my personal life to my advantage, I’ll basically force you to ask me about it. But when you ask me about it, I’ll refuse to cooperate in an effort to seem like I’m taking the higher ground.
I often wonder how Jake and Harry and gross John and Joe truly feel about her being so obvious about them in her music. I get that it’s an outlet for her but it’s got to suck to be on the other end. But I guess some of them knew what they signed up for.
I don’t understand her mentality of not being able to date because of her celebrity. Many famous people can maintain normal (semi-normal) relationships. Sure they get papped, but she kinda sets herself up for that and seems to enjoy it. You can’t tell me her fame scale is so much higher than other celebrities that she just couldn’t ever find someone who could handle it.
Yeah,
If William Bradley Pitt and his lady-friend what’s her name can manage to go underground I think that she could to if she wanted.
Yep. There are plenty of A-listers who can balance it. Taylor just enjoys fame and constant adoration for her fans too much to want to leave the public eye. It seems as if she’s saying she’s just TOO popular, TOO famous, TOO well known for anyone else to ever be able understand and cope with her life. If she went 2 weeks without a pap stroll or scrolling through all her fans praise on social media I’m sure she’d see it a lot more achievable.
too…not to 🙁
And yes Meryl, I agree that she just loves the attention and doesn’t want to give it up.
Arg. People conveniently forget that there was a big adjustment period for Brad and Angie when dealing with the press. Angelina even made comments about how difficult it was to go from being unknown and able to eat lunch in the park with Maddox everyday to having her every movement stalked. They’ve got a lot of years and experience on Taylor, and while she’s not my favorite person, I think your comment is unfair.
@Renee (off topic),
You said ‘William Bradley Pitt’ and I’m like new Jolie-Pitt kid o wat?
Say, Brad Pitt.
I like seeing the Jolie-Pitt kids from time to time. So your’re unnecessarily getting some of us excited and then breaking our hearts. Sob!
@ Goats on the Roof.
Sure there would be an adjustment period, because everything in life requires adjustments. But it’s not like she is brand new at this, or is going to attempt to date bagel makers or average joes like Cher in the 90s (Shout-out to all the olds like me who remember that bit of gossip nostalgia!!!) She would likely be dating other famous people. I remember when there was more interest in Avril Lavigne and Hilary Duff, when they were both big, and they both made declarations that the public would not see them drunk and falling out of clubs. And Avril was drunk and in clubs it’s just that she managed to not be documented while she was. And Hilary said pretty much the same thing, not that she was drunk but that she went out to clubs and managed to not get caught. So I think that it can be done.
And while we can’t say for certain why her relationships ended it seemed less to do with her status/exposure as a celebrity as due to her being matched with inappropriate partners or her immaturity or expectations of her partners not adhering to the narrative that she constructed for them. (Except for John Mayer, he was/is a straight up D*CK) coupled with the fact that if and when sh*t turns sour, she is going to write a song about them, airing their dirty laundry and exposing them to public ridicule. And that has nothing to do with people not wanting to be in high-profile celebrity relationship. This, I’m not dating due to living under a microscope is a fiction that she’s created as part of her current pr spin.
I took it as her saying that, yes, she likes the paps and the adoration and is not willing to leave it for a guy, so she’d have to find a guy who is fine with being Mr. Swift. Which is not gonna happen. Nothing wrong with it, if you ask me.
I took it that way too @Josefa – right now she is building a career, it is very visible because of her social media reach, and that is not something anyone outside of that would be able to anticipate and navigate easily. Angie and Brad didn’t have that following them when they started dating, they had long lens photos. They had established careers that didn’t require social media integration when they got together.
I can see where Taylor is focused on building a brand and connecting to fans and other brands – she has the opportunity to push boundaries and see how far she can go – why shouldn’t she? If she can set new records and have an impact on the industry, I encourage her to try.
Does that mean her image in very manufactured and one, maybe two dimensional? yes. So was Madonna’s, so was Mariah Carey’s, so was Whitney Houston’s. I find Bono’s to be as well (very humanitarian but he’s still amassing a huge fortune for himself), same with One Direction, Toby Keith, Luke Bryan, – they all do.
I don’t mind her drive. I do think she lacks a sense of self, and comfortable-ness just being chill, but I would too if my job was curating and presenting an image and started at the age of 13.
There is something creepy about her…she gives me bad vibes, like it’s even hard to look at her pictures. Weird.
Something nice: she comes across as fairly articulate here. I think that she likely reads materials other than blog postings about herself.
I know what you mean, I just can’t warm up to her….and I get especially stabby when I see footage of her performing. She talks WAY too much when introducing songs, there’s no clever or light-hearted banter…and this is mean, so I apologize but I HAAATE when she dances, she is just so awkward in a way that I don’t find endearing. I think that she is very disciplined and hardworking but I think that her talent is overrated. Since when is mimicry (all of her songs sound like hits from previous eras) lauded as ingenuity???
Nothing about her seems genuine. She seems like someone who will be good to you as long as you toe the line but if you make her mad she’ll hold a grudge forever.
i remember watching an interview with TS on 60 minutes, i think, shortly after she shot to stardom and thinking how incredibly grounded, mature and wise she seemed…
quite a lovely, well-adjusted young lady.
the excerpts from this interview with her sound like she’s scattered, not as focused and grown up, a bit paranoid and defensive and entirelly self-absorbed.
sure, all stars have to be self-absorbed…but she had previously managed to appear she wasn’t.
not now.
disappointing.
When is that damn victim card of hers going to expire?
She’s the one who aired her feud with Katy out to the media to sell records. Reap what you sow.
I don’t understand why more people aren’t calling her out on her crap. She’s already talked about Katy perry. Now that she got the attention from it, she’s taking the higher road? The public wasn’t blasting her for writing about exes, they made fun of her because she put clues in her songs so people would try and figure out who they were about. And she’s still doing that. Her entire new album is basically an ode to harry styles. Do you really think they were crazy in love, or do you think she did that because he’s super popular and she knew that her album would be talked about more? And before the crazy swift fans yell at me, I do not think she needs harry or any other guy to get more sales. But it seems like she thinks that. Hence her releasing ‘out of the woods’, even though it wasn’t a single but a song obviously written about Harry.
Not denying any of that (I have no investment in Taylor Swift, her personality or her love life) but artists don’t get a say in what gets released as a single, or when. In many ways, they are mere industry cogs. Even exceptional and wildly popular artists are treated that way.
They had a series of arranged pap appearances over a 2 month period 2 years ago when Harry Styles was 18. And Harry’s gay. So no, I don’t think they were crazy in love or that they were more than passing acquaintances.
Now if she could just continue on the not talking path and include ex boyfriends in her songs…
She is so young. If I was interviewed and quoted at her age I would have also sounded silly or crazy at times. and many people I know have one ex from their formative years that drives them nuts, even years later. I guess I am saying, she seems pretty normal- I run across grown women with kids at PTA that are even worse. Whether it is advisable to use those experiences as a marketing strategy is an entirely different question.
I rediscovered Fearless recently with my kids, and was again impressed with how well that album captures the feelings of being in high school. I also love the current album, which is also top to bottom good. She is very talented, and I think her music grows with her, which is good.
So young? She’s 25 and has been in the business for a decade. I don’t think being young/naive/ingenue can really be used as an excuse for her anymore.
I agree. I like Swifty (now, at least) but I’m always shocked to learn she’s my age. She has the same mentality as my cousins – who are just finishing HS or starting college.
I still think that she is mature and grounded, and one of the very few young super stars who is indeed, not photographed stumbling drunk out of bars, without underwear, and an incoherent mess. She seems to have a fantastic work ethic, she controls her image really well and sells a lot of music without oiling her body and twerking on stage. Good for her.
Is she perfect? Probably not, no one is. I can’t even really call myself a fan (I buy very little music, personally) but I think as a role model for young women she is great. Treating her fans nicely – why is that a problem?? I don’t follow any celebrity on any social media, but if I did, it would be nice to feel that it is a two way street. And whatever she writes songs about, seems she can’t win… She gets bashed for heartbreak songs, she gets bashed for mean girling whatever… What is she supposed to write about? I actually think it is impressive that instead of having 20 people write her songs she does it all, or most of it, herself.
And as far as relationships go, I think in her case the problem is not the being in it after meeting and dating and settling in, it is the getting to a relationship – think about when you first meet someone, you start casually dating, you may have some bumps, you take it to the next level… She has to do that under scrutiny and when I remember my twenties, well, that would be pretty scary. I do hope she finds the right guy who can navigate that process well!
I agree with everything you said.
I agree with @vauvert as well. You write about what you know – if that’s dating woes, that’s what you write. I think she’s great.
She gets so much hate but I appreciate Tswift…legitimate singing and songwriting talent, no sex tapes, no abusive relationships, gives to charities, not portraying a crazy body image. So she cares about her fans and writes about breakups? So what?
+1.
+1
Hear, hear.
I don’t know that all that absolves her of any criticism. I can appreciate she doesn’t flash her underwear and that she can put together a great song. But at the same time, I recognize that it seems awfully unfair for her to play victim, drop clues and hints, force others she writes about to publicly respond (which they thankfully haven’t so far. As far I can tell, her exes from years ago still get asked to defend themselves), then play coy when the media asks about things she herself brought up before (through music or previous interviews). That kind of behavior, while certainly lucrative for her, is childish.
What you said is true. But it doesn’t make the criticism unwarranted.
@LB man oh man…absolves?! If only we held politicians to the same standard as 20 something celebrities
Preaching to the choir. It’s clear the press and public has lost focus in their attention. But as your apt name says, it is what it is. We are at a site that focuses mainly on celebrities. So no one gets a free pass just because they manage to be polite, write catchy lyrics, and keep their legs together lol.
+1
I agree. I’ll take her over a lot of other celebs. She’s not perfect, but I think she tries to be a decent human being.
well, not having an abusive relationship just means she was raised in a better environment and had better people as role models while growing up. like, good for her but i mean, its not really the fault of peopme who were not as fortunate as she was to be in such a healthy environment? I mean, how can you “fault” someone for being in or unknowingly entering an abusive relationship, why is it listed like it’s a “flaw”, are people in abusive relationships people to look down to and not you know, actually sympathize with? I’m sorry, I just do not understand how this is listed with the other “negative” behaviour.
+1. Nothing against Swift, but having supportive and not-overbearing parents is a huge advantage. Not saying that people can’t overcome being raised in a bad environment, but it’s harder to overcome. And a lot of the famous people who have exhibited those behaviors didn’t come from stable backgrounds.
She takes so much more crap than male stars her age. I like her. This is a girl who has a brand and sticks with it. She strives for perfection and she writes her own music and plays instruments. She’s not just a pretty face engineered pop star. She has a lot of growing up to do IMO. And she’s so in our faces about her friends, it can be a lot for non-fans to swallow. She seems like a girl who really wants more than anything just to be liked. Spoiler alert, Taylor: you can’t make everyone love you.
As someone who admittedly stalks her friends’ facebook pages and pinterest boards for gift ideas, I don’t think what Taylor is doing is that bad. Either that or I’m a creeper and no one wants to call me out on it. A big ol’ “MEH” to everything else.
Taylor is such a naturally talented songwriter it’s difficult for me think of her in a negative way. I like that she doesn’t stumble out of nightclubs, have ‘accidental’ nipple slips or forget her knickers. She’s a good role model who seems to genuinely care about her fans. No shade from me.
She has enemies? Of course there will always be people you don’t care about or dislike, but the word enemies makes me roll my eyes.
I actually like Taylor Swift, but I will say this much, her incessant need to collect friends is odd to me. I’ve known girls like her and they’re usually phony because they put on a front to make people like them. I just don’t understand people who don’t have “standards” so to speak, like I just don’t believe she has that much in common with all of these people. So I’ll agree that Taylor has some issues, but mainly that she’s desperate to be liked.
I would attribute it to the loneliness and lack of ease in meeting authentic people. Imagine having a famous friend – they want to fly to Jamaica for the week, can you take a week off work to go? They want to stay in luxury hotels with high security – can you afford? They invite you to a party or fashion week – do you have something appropriate to wear? I don’t think there are meaningful, authentic connections to people who have to stay on a work schedule and put money towards the basics. So their friendship circles are with other famous people who lead similar lifestyles. And those people get busy, have intense away-at-work times, you lose the deeper connection, you need to find new friends. I think that finding and maintaining honest, true friendships in this lifestyle would be hard.
love how suddenly she’s all for the feminist label when a year or two ago she gave the asinine statement about feminism being about guys vs. girls and all women need to do is work harder! ugh… i get that people grow up and their opinions change, but she acts like she’s been this empowering feminist this whole time when that’s really not the case.
also, she gives me michael jackson-style creepy vibes. she’s too old to act the way she does. it’s like she’s stuck in middle school.
Yes, much better for her to stay anti-feminist for the rest of her life so that you can remain mad.
: )
some people are not supposed to grow and develop, find a more articulate way to discuss a topic @Kitten. They need to stay uninformed and inarticulate forever so that people can stay mad at that, too.
Did you read sars comment ? Because that’s not what she said at all. She says that she understands that people do grow and change opinions. But their problem with Taylor is acts like she always had this pro feminist opinion which she didn’t.
My opinion is that Taylor Views on feminism other thing change when she change her image. Before her image was being in a relationship, being a girlfriend, writing songs about her ex’s so being a feminist = bad. When she got crap about that she changed her image and now it’s all about girl power, being single, talking crap about other females in songs so feminism = good.
@ first reply- How was what I said inarticulate? Curt yes but hardly inarticulate.
“some people are not supposed to grow and develop”
Well, that’s a healthy outlook on life.
@KellyBee Really, who cares how and why she decided to become a feminist? The point is that she’s a high-profile role model to millions of young women who look up to her. She proudly embraces the title of feminist and that’s a good thing for young women to see. Hate her all you want, but don’t get on her for not being afraid to change her mind about feminism.
@Kitten… that first reply was clearly sarcastic and in agreement with yours. Apparently it flew right over your head.
And once again you’re missing the point of the other posters. Everyone agrees that it’s great she has become educated about feminism, but she should own that by saying “I used to be ignorant and now I’m not.” Instead she acts like she has been this big empowering activist for women this whole time. Doesn’t really bother me tbh, but I can see how some people would find that annoying.
Perhaps she does please everyone by making the “I was ignorant” announcement and it’s been edited out because nobody cares that she educated herself and changed her opinion?
@Jay-“but she should own that by saying ‘I used to be ignorant and now I’m not.’ ”
Actually, I think you’re missing MY point: how someone comes to embrace feminism is pretty irrelevant when we have celebrities out there claiming that “feminism = hating men” or “feminism = not liking to bake” and other nonsense.
The point you are all making is that she should be required to issue some sort of preamble every time she says that she’s a feminist explaining that she didn’t used to feel that way just to satisfy you. I think that’s a bit…ridiculous and unnecessary.
So yeah, I get the “points” being made, I just happen to think it’s a silly thing to get hung up on in light of the greater message of pro-feminism that she’s putting out there.
Who cares if she didn’t used to be a feminist? The point is that she is one NOW.
*shrugs*
@ Kittten, I agree it’s silly to get hung up on. Like I said, it doesn’t really bother me that she acts this way. I think it’s a lot better for her to promote her new found feminism than to spew all the dumb crap she used to. I can see where people get annoyed with her shtick though. It’s not just that she wasn’t a feminist before; it’s that she bluntly spoke out AGAINST feminism and made ignorant comments about it. She has yet to own that, just ONE time. I reiterate, that doesn’t really bother me, but I can see how some would roll their eyes at her.
I am eagerly awaiting the day Swifty drops this innocent Little Miss Mary Sunshine persona and comes out as the shrewd, controlling, ruthless businesswoman she is.
Being a princess is fun Swifty, but queens have all the power.
Wow, she’s still making remarks about the awards show joke Tina and Amy did at the Golden Globes a couple of years ago. Lighten up, Taylor. I think this is one of the main reasons why I could never really warm up to her. I will fight to the death for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and anyone who questions their support of women is off their rocker.
I wonder if Amy and Tina realise their power over people. They made George Clooney marry and Taylor Swift swear off boys! AMAZE.
I actually met Taylor, my daughter was one of the 89 for NYC and because she was under 18, I got to go along for the ride…while I do think no one can be “on” all the time, I will say the 6 hours I was there (and there were people there longer than that, we were just the first group to leave), she was as nice as could be, you could tell she loved her fans, no one was concerned she followed them – they want her to follow them and not for gifts. She met with each and every fan for at least 5 minutes, then if there was another person with them, she met with that person for a couple minutes. Shortly after this, she got grief for not wanting to talk to limo drivers. Really? She has to talk to everyone? This is her time to chill because when she meets her fans, she is amazing to them. I say, you can like her or not, she does things not everyone agrees with, so do I and so does everyone else. I have no problem with my daughter following her…in my early 20’s, I was in love with so many people.
I don’t care one way or another about her but can grown women please stop calling men BOYS! Here are a few other words that I wish would die already! I could go on and on!!
Dude
It was ah-mazing
Prolly