Taylor Swift walked into the American Music Awards last night knowing that she was the center of attention, knowing that people were tuning in just to see what she would say or do about Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, and whether she would perform her old songs. After all of the orchestrated drama and after inciting her fans to doxx, harass and threaten people, Taylor “played it safe.” I guess? My snake meter seems to be off, because I didn’t really think she did or said anything notably shady in her performance or in any of the many speeches she made when she picked up trophies for Artist of the Decade, Artist of the Year and Favorite Pop Rock Album. Her red carpet outfit was by Julien Macdonald – I felt like she was actually trying to look “snakey” is that just me?
As for the performance of a medley of her hits… there were a lot of songs from 1989, and the bulk of the medley was devoted to Big Machine-era music, which is the bulk of her catalogue, so that makes sense. It’s still not clear if she was really being “blocked” at any time from performing those songs live, but whatever. The last song she performed was “Lover” from her latest album. It was a pretty typical Taylor Swift performance through and through. I guess the “classy shade” part was the beginning, when she and some dancers wore smocks with all of her old album titles written on the smocks, all as Taylor sang “The Man,” and then she quickly “shed” the past.
Here are her speeches throughout the night… I know Carole King has always praised Taylor as a songwriter and all that, but… whew, it was A LOT.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Taylor would never make a career highlight like this about SB2. She just needed to perform her work.
Page 6 was the outlet saying she was going to drag them, page 6 is a scooter-friendly source.
The only reference was the opening outfit. The white shirt with her first 6 album titles printed in it. That look could be interpreted as a prison outfit or straitjacket
The white shirts looked like a last minute idea. The placement of the album title was so wonky.
Her piano at the end was also covered in Album titles and some lyrics I believe .
I saw a theory on Twitter that the white shirt was an allusion to the cover of Shut Up & Sing and the Dixie Chicks, which seems plausible:
https://twitter.com/tswiftnz/status/1198874525737177088?s=21
her singing The Man while wearing that was definitely a pointed reference.
I was just disappointed – it was what, three 1989 songs, 2 Lover songs, and 1 Fearless song? who picked that set list?!
She has no fashion sense and what is that hairstyle..? Oh Tay Tay..
She used to be really good pre 1989 era. It’s a bit princessy but fit to her concept at the time.
the dress with those boots did not work for me at all.
It somehow makes her look dumpy and FFS she’s extremely tall.
I really like her outfit.
I don’t know what Carole King is smoking to think that Swift is such a phenomenal songwriter. She’s very good at crafting pop songs, but there’s not exactly much depth or variation in her lyrics. Every song is on one of two themes: “poor me, I have so many haters, I just don’t understand why everyone doesn’t love me” or “I had a crappy, drama-filled relationship and it’s all the guy’s fault.”
I’m not a Taylor stan by any stretch of the imagination but there really arent a lot of pop artists who truly write their own music these days so maybe it’s more of she’s good bc she’s on the few that does write her own music?
My generation of pop stars seemed to write less of their own work than younger generations
Adele, sia, meghan trainor, Harry styles, Niall horan, Taylor swift
All write their own stuff which seemed more than who i was listening to growing up nsync britney christina
I believe Adele’s most acclaimed album was all the latter?
I still think this woman needs to grow up and seek help for her mental issues. The level of drama that surrounds her and her constant issues with others is NOT normal. Somehow she’s always a victim. I’m not buying it.
Agreed!!
I liked the performance. I thought Taylor sounded great and I liked the ballet performance during Lover. I thought some of the (very minor) shade was in the narrated introduction to her performance that noted all the legal stuff she has accomplished that has helped other artists, like a subtle “see! Taylor is so powerful!” kind of thing.
I thought it was cute that her parents were there singing along. Her mother has been battling cancer for years now and she looked healthy and happy. It looked like everyone else had fun too so yeah, good overall. Nothing spectacular or news worthy, but good and fun and fine.
yeah, her “considerable clout” 🙄🙄🙄
That was Misty Copeland! She’s got the best messaging—and a truly great agent.
Love the boots. Not gonna lie, I see some BDE there.
I kept thinking that I didn’t like the boots. But the more I look at it, I’m not really sure what I’d prefer her to have worn with the dress. The more I think about it the more I like them.
I really love the sparkle and the shade of the dress. Not sure I love the cut of it, but I stan the color.
That is a really boring look for her. I usually don’t like her fashion, but at least she seems like she is usually having fun with it (even if I don’t like it). But this is boring. and she looks really bored on the red carpet. Maybe just these pics?
Not sure how she won Album of the Year over Ariana Grande but these awards shows seem to fall all over themselves to give her trophies. Maybe I just do not appreciate her music as much as they do
She was being awarded the Artist of the Decade (I have no idea why), of course she was going to win every award she was being nominated for, including all the big ones. I’m not sure these shows all fawn over her, her songs can be catchy, but they aren’t timeless to anyone but her fans.
It’s a fan-voted award show.
Well…how sad. She didnt give nothing juicy to talk a a about. These are fan voted awards and she has the biggest fanbase. No secret, why she won.
After all the drama, I expected her to really bring it. There was nothing *wrong* with her performance, it was fine. I also expected her to bring some more FASHUN, and she didn’t do that either. Just boring IMO.
Also, it was pretty clear she received some awards last night because she was receiving Artist of the Decade. With the exception of music video MAYBE, I think the other contenders were more deserving.
The sad thing is I really think she believes she made a statement.
As someone who actually really liked Lover, I really can’t imagine myself paying to see her in a concert. She always sounds off key to me whenever she drops her guitar and starts dancing and stuff.
here’s someone else who’s extra…
she looks nice, the boots look great on her. her hair is cute as always, she has a beautiful hair color. i notice she does not usually drape clothes over her torso like that. so, indigestion, weight gain, pregnancy or she just wants a pregnancy rumour? or she just changed her style, anyways the dress is lovely on her.
good decision to not mention that guy.
Can she pose for the camera without doing that weird mouth-half-open teeth-baring thing? She’s not smiling, she’s not pouting, she’s…I dunno. Maybe she had a stuffy nose and had to breathe through her mouth.
Yeeeeeessss! She clearly thinks it’s sexy and it’s…not
I was disappointed she didnt take the opportunity to tell her fans to stop threatening people, she needs to address that business.
I loved the green dress/boot combo. That color looks great on her. Enjoyed her performance too, and I was really happy she didn’t say anything too shady.
My favorite scene of the night was Taylor laughing and eye rolling when Camilla Cabello and Shawn Mendes were singing/making out.
I watched. It was a nice performance for her fans.
The NYT reported that the Carlyle Group wants Braun to sell the collection to her. If that happens, her bullying worked. The Carlyle group apparently own 1/3 of Braun’s company. They are supposedly the ones who poked Braun to reach out to her. They don’t want their name dragged by Taylor. So far, she’s just mentioned them by name in a tweet, but it’s another group of people to sic the fans on.
She may get her catalog. It sounds like Carlyle Group is forcing him to cut his, or rather THEIR, losses.
Yes, I don’t think she cared about the sale of her label until it was Braun who bought it. I know many commenters on this site believe she knew he was buying it beforehand because her father sits on the board. I know why it’s hard to believe anything she says & I’m not sure but if she’s so angry Braun bought her masters, you’d think she would have purchased them herself if she had the opportunity to do so. Unless it was drive up more interest in her owning her masters & creating a very orchestrated narrative of half-truths, which is completely twisted. I mean yeah she’s opening the narrative that artists should own their masters but she can buy them. She’s not a struggling artist.
she has said that she knew they were going to be sold and that she had accepted that, it was who they were sold to that bothered her. And I can believe that she has knowledge of who in the music industry would be problematic for her as the owner of her music. Being in the power position he is in, he can probably make it difficult for her to perform, profit from, etc her own songs.
I can believe it would be problematic…I mean look at Bieber & Grande. I don’t think she knew it was Braun. I also doubt Borchetta knew Swift viewed Braun as a mortal enemy, either though. No one can read minds. She’s going to make that sale worthless if she winds rerecording her masters. I doubt she’s going to negotiate now. Not with Scooter.
I agree, Purplehazeforever. Borchetta didn’t seem to know the links on the hate-chain before he sold it. I don’t think it mattered to him who purchased as long as he got his money. Even if he knew that Swift hated Braun, it’s business, he wasn’t going to get to keep Swift on his label, so why would he care? It would be nice, but it’s a cutthroat indistry.
Taylor’s early country stuff was excellent. Her pop is fine too. I just don’t listen to pop.
I don’t like this look at all. It just seems “off”. like individually the dress and boots are fine, but together they don’t make sense and I REALLY think she needs some new hair. Fewer bangs maybe?
IMHO, Lover is her weakest album. Red was her best. I think she phoned it in with Lover, which is made even more obvious when you go back and listen to her old stuff. However, when you pander to tweens with this new teeny-bopper sound she is going for, she knows it’s a powerful target audience with their social media, and it’s also a gold mine. I’m just curious if she would put out music that’s more genuine if she stopped caring about the money, awards and popularity. I’d like to think the woman inside her is more real than what her image portrays.
I’m happy for her, and I like the new album. What I like most about the night is the massive hug she gave to Post Malone, upon winning the Artist of the Year! Love him!