Time Magazine dropped their Time 100 feature this week, and I’m just reminded of how I find this feature SO mediocre. The Person of the Year thing is a big deal and I’m always interested in seeing who Time Magazine highlights, but the Time 100 thing is just “let’s create a Buzzfeed list of who we think is cool.” And they get other famous people to talk about why those people are cool. The idea behind trying to quantify “influence” is always tricky and just my opinion, Time does a sh-tty job of it. Maybe I just think this year’s Time 100 is mediocre because wouldn’t you know, Taylor Swift got a cover. She really is releasing new music, you guys. And the press is lining up to help her shill and she barely has to lift a finger. Most of all, I’m mad at her hair on that cover. Good lord, how damaged is her hair these days? Snake needs a hot oil treatment or something.
Other covers: Gayle King, The Rock, Sandra Oh, Nancy Pelosi and Mohamed Salah. Other people on this year’s Time 100 list: Michelle Obama (with a piece written by Beyonce), Chrissy Teigen, LeBron James (written by Warren Buffet), Robert Mueller, Lady Gaga, Brie Larson, Ariana Grande, Naomi Osaka, Rami Malek, Jane Goodall (written by Leo DiCaprio), Khalid, Emilia Clarke, Chip and Joanna Gaines and more. You can see the full Time 100 package here.
Also: Time Magazine put Christine Blasey Ford on the list. They also put Brett Kavanaugh on the list. Poorly played.
TIME magazine profiling Christine Blasey Ford alongside the man who sexually assaulted her is peak "both sides" and I'm so tired.
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) April 17, 2019
You put her on the same list as the man she said assaulted her.
So disappointing @TIME
Christine Blasey Ford > Brett Kavanaugh pic.twitter.com/O91vmY8E6G— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) April 17, 2019
.@Beyonce: “I am so grateful that my daughters and my son live in a world where @MichelleObama shines as a beacon of hope who inspires all of us to do better and to be better” #TIME100 https://t.co/xszSg8J5In
— TIME (@TIME) April 17, 2019
.@KamalaHarris on Christine Blasey Ford: “Through her courage, she forced the country to reckon with an issue that has too often been ignored and kept in the dark” #TIME100 https://t.co/oGvaKmCfbf pic.twitter.com/3CI34H3mos
— TIME (@TIME) April 17, 2019
Covers courtesy of Time Magazine.
Brett Kavanaugh’s inclusion is a failure on many levels.
I’d like to be upset about the TayTay cover but JFC this is so unacceptable that any other objections I have to the list pale by comparison.
Like “Person of the Year” presumably influential doesn’t necessarily mean “good” or “positive”. As people are fond of pointing out, Hitler was POTY.
Taylor Swift’s PR is so massive. Of course she has tons of fans, but she has not done anything as of late that effected the general public. It’s just a payout, and it’s exhausting. Don’t even get me started on Brett Kavanugh. Absolutely disgusting.
“she has not done anything as of late that effected the general public.” Her posts before the midterm elections last year led to a bump in voter registration among younger people in Tennessee, and even though the candidate she supported didn’t win she did a lot to raise awareness. Plus she just donated over $100,000 to a LGBT advocacy group that will help fund the fight against a slew of horrible, anti-LGBT legislature the state is trying to push through.
You may not like her, or her music, but she has an undeniable impact on pop culture and among the general public.
No, those were her fans. No one in the general public registered to vote because Taylor promoted it. Of course she’s huge in pop culture, she has millions of fans. But do I think she has made a big splash outside of that fandom in the last couple years? No.
I’m not a fan of Taylor’s cover. She looks very intentionally angelic. I thought we were past that with her? She’s a 29 year old adult woman and I feel like this cover is quite childish.
I just now learned from reading this post that they also featured Brett Kavanaugh. That is some BS. I was planning on reading the articles on the people I like but now I’m second guessing that because I don’t want to give Time the clicks. And The Rock??? Come on now. Who is the Rock influencing?
How in the seven hells did Taylor Swift get a cover over Ariana Grande? Ariana is the biggest popstar in the world right now, she had a massive 2017 and 2018 and released the best music of her career, whereas Taylor gave us a tepid album with some of the lowest sales she’s ever had…
ACTUAL FACT. I bought both albums but it’s ridiculous to say that Taylor was more influential this year than Ariana, who broke a million records and was constantly in the news cycle and on the radio.
Maybe it’s the recent political activism thing? She got a lot of people to register to vote and I think has made some major donations too? Just tossing ideas out there, I do not know how they decide these things.
Ariana is political activist too, actually, longer than Taylor, and right now she invites people to register to vote during her tour.
Ariana isn’t a particularly interesting performer and she’s pretty boring so I guess that’s why ? Girl can sing better than any pop star out right now and insists on putting out such awful lazy music . I get her appeal but at the same time I don’t , and for the love of God she needs to retire that ponytail. She’s gorgeous but that hair takes away from that .
I agree on all points, @Rose. I’ll give Ariana Grande the TIME cover when she starts enunciating the words in her songs so I can freaking understand them. Surely her lyrics aren’t all vowels! Surely not!
That being said, I don’t know why Taylor is on there. I guess they had to include at least one songbird.
Ditto to @Dirtnap. Her enunciation is the worst!! I can’t even listen to a full song when it’s on the radio. I can’t understand why a vocal coach has never addressed it.
The enunciation critique is so 2015. That’s fine if you feel the way you do about her but you’re in the minority when it comes to your thoughts on her music. Both of her recent albums were critically acclaimed, by virtually every major music critic who heard the albums. And if she’s not a particularly interesting performer/pretty boring, what does that make Taylor? Taylor’s an awful dancer, awful vocalist, and a marginal songwriter… So I still don’t get why Taylor got a cover.
Ariana probably didn’t get a cover because she was on the cover in May 2018. The only people who tend to feature repeatedly on the Time cover are politicians or world leaders
it’s even in the color scheme she’s been rolling out! her hair has looked fried and sad since the “Bleachella’ place, I think.
These covers are all lovely. It’s obvious that Taylor is included because she’s dropping new music, and I don’t see anything wrong with that? It’s not new for artists to get media coverage when they’re promoting something. Maybe Ariana deserved it more, but her people need to work with TIME in order for that to happen, and maybe they weren’t interested. I love TIME, but these lists aren’t about journalistic standards and who deserves it most, lol, they’re about business and who is willing to participate.
she also signed a major new record deal that gives her control over her own music, the first of its kind. I think much of her influence is in the business-side of things – her Apple contract and Spotify, if I remember correctly.
Time needed to spend more time on this list. Bullshit….
Brett Kavanaugh being included isn’t just offensive, it’s just flat out stupid. The only reason his name has any recognition attached to it is BECAUSE of Dr. Ford. Otherwise, he’d just be a mediocre, run-of-the-mill conservative misogynist on the court. Instead, because of her testimony, we know him to be an absolute misogynist with a history of abusive behavior and sexual assault. And we have to live with it.
I hate Taylor’s hair but she still looks so pretty! I don’t know why she’s on this list but oh well it’s not like it’s an important one anyway . I am loving her new pretty pastel colour palette she has going for though. So much better than the fake I am so badass reputation look.
Do the people honored have to agree to it? Is it like the People’s Choice Awards or Sexiest Man/Most Beautiful Woman thing where the honorees agree to participate or can turn it down?
That cover of Taylor is bizarre to me, and I am a Taylor fan….both for her inclusion but especially the cover!!!! Damaged, unkempt hair and the angle shot from below which just emphasizes one of her eyebags is AWFUL. She’s had other really unflattering covers at TIME, too. Someone in the art department doesn’t like her. Also, the heart ring is related to the album drop, I think. One of her hints recently was a sparkling heart.
You can tell how narcissistic the writer is by how much they made the tribute about themselves. Some of them made the focus 100% the universal appeal/power of the honoree, and others made it “this is how the honoree affects me personally, so that’s why they’re powerful.”
Like is it really necessary for Justin Timberlake to mention that his 4 year old son is discovering what he does? Or for Jessica Lange to mention the acclaim Ryan Murphy has helped bring her? I like Jessica Lange, but there’s a way to shine the light completely on the person you’re honoring without centering yourself as well. They should take notes from Jordan Peele and Ava Duvernay.
Seriously no David Attenborough???
I’ve had a soft spot for Tay Tay ever since her great testimony at her trial against the ass grabbing disc jockey.