Taylor Swift’s fan base is one of the most passionate fan communities out there. Taylor plays into this with all her Easter eggs, encouraging her fans to pay attention to every tiny detail. Having a fan base so devoted comes with a dark side, as we have seen in recent years. Fans have called in death threats to Taylor’s enemies at Big Machine and The Kid Mero, and as far as I know she doesn’t usually intervene or ask them to stop doing this stuff. So this might be something of a first. Ahead of the re-release of her third album, Speak Now, Taylor’s asking fans not to harass one of that album’s main muses: John Mayer. Kind of. She didn’t address him directly, but if you’re in the know, it’s not hard to figure out who she’s talking about.
She never said his name, but Taylor Swift asked fans not to attack ex-boyfriend John Mayer when she releases her version of the album Speak Now—which contains the song “Dear John”—next month.
“I’m 33 years old. I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19,” she said during a concert in Minneapolis on Saturday night.
“I’m not putting this album out so that you can go and should feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I might have written a song about 14 billion years ago.”
Swift was 19 when she briefly dated Mayer, who was 12 years older than her—and fans have long been convinced the scorching track is about him and their breakup.
There is no doubt the song is about John Mayer. Everything about it points to him, down to the fact that the guitar lick in it sounds just like him. I also think that whatever she says to the contrary, she has some residual bitterness toward him. On the extended edition of her latest record, Midnights, she released a song called Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve that is also believed to be about John, since it references her “dancing with the devil” at nineteen. (If you aren’t well-versed in her lyrics just trust me on this.) I have to be honest and admit that Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve is my favorite song Taylor has ever done. For one thing, Aaron Dessner produced it and it is so much better than her work with Jack Antonoff. For another, I experienced a traumatic event at nineteen that triggered a religious crisis just like she sings about, so the song maps onto my own life in a way that’s downright spooky. Anyway in it she sings, “I can’t let this go/I fight with you in my sleep/The wound won’t close/I keep on waiting for a sign.” Those don’t sound like the words of someone who has resolved their anger, just saying. Maybe she wrote the song years ago, but she also knew her fans would make the connections to Dear John. They’re right there. I noticed them on my first listen. I think John is a sleazebag but I also think Taylor’s fans frequently take things too far. Here’s what I wonder: if the Swifties go after him after all, is she going to say anything then? Or is she going to let it happen? My gut tells me it’s too little, too late for Taylor to speak up about this now.
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I get it – as a 35 yo woman, I really do not care about the stupid men from my 19.
So according to Taylor fan base she can’t tell her fans to back off when their attacking the lead of Ginny and Georgia with racist slurs . Or any of the time her fans send deaths threats racial slurs at woman of color like Sza but she can open her mouth to defend John Mayer and tell her fans not to harass him . Proven once again that Taylor is a white feminist who cares about herself she can open her mouth to defend another racist vile disgusting man but when it comes to woman of color being abused about by her own racist Karen’s fans it’s quiet suddenly Taylor According to her fans can’t not control her fans behavior.
Maybe John threatened her with a lawsuit. Eventually Taylor will pick with the wrong person and they are going to expose her on some sort of record. Not only was she not a victim in these relationships but she seems to twist everything. I can’t image having to deal with multiple songs about a 2 day relationship, then having to listen to “a new version”. So she can milk them for more money.
This is why real stars don’t deal with her.
Yup.
I thought his song Paper Dolls was his response song to her
“You’re like twenty-two girls in one
And none of them know what they’re runnin’ from
Was it just too far to fall?
For a little paper doll”
Seems apropos to me
Agree.
Taylor did post about her love of SZA on Instagram to fight back against that fan war
as someone who dated an emotionally abusive and manipulative textbook narcissist at 19 (he was 31), Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve is probably my favorite Taylor song as well.
I think part of why she said this warning is that John has been very vocal about her, Dear John, etc over the years, and I don’t think she wants to deal with it. when Red came out she talked about how the guy that album was about (Jake) sent her a message saying he listened to the album and it was a beautiful capturing of their relationship or something like that. she said it was very than the ex that sent her very long, not so nice emails – which was definitely John Mayer. the similarities between what she wrote about in Dear John and what Jessica Simpson wrote on her memoir were not lost on me.
Really? Cause when she was releasing Red TV , that 10 minute song and even short film, show host asked her in interview how she thinks people she is re-releasing songs about might feel and she said she doesn’t care about their feelings. After that Jake, his entire family including his teenage nieces and some of his co-workers were harassed, sent death threats to and some ethnic slurs based on Jake being Jewish. Taylor didn’t say a thing to her fans against all of it. Jake later called Taylor out on her fans cyberbullying him in her name and her doing nothing about it . Taylor also took this short film on an embarrassing year long campaign in attempt to nominate it for Oscar (no kidding), but her attempt failed.
Yet now she asks her fans not to harass anyone? Lol
Tbh, fans in general often take things way too far. You can be a fan without losing your mind.
Are they f!cking again? She’s so full of shit. Redirect those orders to the black women and WOC your fans harass.
I’m so out of the loop when it comes to her fans. What women of color did they attack…and why? What happened?
Her fans had attack Sza the lead actress of Ginny and Georgia Camilla belle and more . Taylor knows exactly what her racist Karen fans had done to countless woman of color she choose to keep quiet. She knows John Mayer will go next level on her ass Taylor Swift has never ever ever in her decades long career has ever told her fans to stand down she witnessed her fans harrass send death threats get people personal information send racial slurs threat tell people to kill them self. Yet she never once has never lift a finger to tell her fans to stop when the victims of her fans harassment has personal asked to get her fans to stop she stay quiet. But she willing to tell her fans not to harass John Mayer
What do her fans have against SZA? What’s the story there?
@Vanessa thank you for breaking down, I have shared the Ginny and Georgia actress attack here many times.
@ME I’m not trying to be a jerk, but all of the information that has been shared here, and more is all available online.
@ girl_ninja
The only thing I can find on-line when I google is that SZA and Taylor have zero beef with each other. I’m not going to search wherever Taylor Swift fans post. I don’t want to go in to some deep rabbit hole. I just wanted to know the thing with SZA because I’ve never heard about that.
But @ME you asked specifically the beef Taylor fans had with SZA, so my suggestion is to search and find it. That’s all.
@ girl_ninja
Yeah in my comment I said I googled and it doesn’t say why Taylor’s fans don’t like SZA. All I see are stories about how SZA is a fan of Taylor’s and that both have publicly said they have no beef with each other. What I don’t understand or can’t seem to find is why her fans attacked SZA? Oh never mind lol.
@ME, as far as I remember when SZA’s album was charting, Taylor released some other version of anti-hero remix (or album, I don’t remember) to keep her number one status on the charts. Then, SZA’s producer shaded Taylor’s dirty tactics. So, swifties started attacking SZA about it, some said SZA liked a few comment shading Taylor but I don’t know if it is true. When attacks got bad, SZA made a public comment that she is cool with Taylor, Taylor didn’t say anything at the height of attacks but took a pic in an award show, then made a few positive comments about SZA.
@ sevenblue
Ahhh I see. So this is more about SZA’s producer. I was thinking SZA is awesome and why would anyone attack her ? Her current album is absolutely amazing. Thank you for explaining !
Taylor fans also attacking Rina Sawayama for calling out Matt for his racist comments and Taylor has nothing to stop them.
Do her fans have jobs or anything else to occupy their time?
Get a grip.
Of course, my generation took every lyric from The Beatles albums apart too, so maybe not so different.
Ha, “passionate” fan community. More like rabid. So she can defend John, who will be fine, but not Antonia Gentry.
More performative bs. That’s exactly what she wants them to do. There’s a word but I won’t use it here
She sure does love defending her racist boyfriends. Almost like it’s a trend.
I think it’s high time for Taylor to grow up and stop torching her exes in songs. Imagine if a male musician did that. She makes me glad my kids are boys and I didn’t have to listen to her crap. As the years go by it will become more difficult for her to find people to date, as no one wants to be the next subject matter. Marriage, kids? She is far to wrapped up in herself for that.
Actually, plenty of males like her music. Maybe your sons don’t but I don’t think their gender has anything to do with it. Also, what’s wrong with being single and child-free? That is not a failure. I hate this narrative that only selfish people choose to not have kids.
Yep, not sure where this idea comes from that only little girls listen to Taylor Swift. You think she’s one of the best selling artists in the world just from little girls? My ex (and kids dad) loves Taylor swift music and he is a 38 Yr old straight man who otherwise listens to more alternative music.
That being said, I hope this comment isn’t reading as a defence of Taylor Swift as a person, as I believe that little Matty episode clearly displays what kinda she is.
To be fair, some male musicians diss their exes. Justin Timberlake and Eminem come to mind.
That said, I do kind of agree that the constant ex trashing and knowing exactly who it is because she puts code in her liner notes or whatever has gotten really… much. And yes, I wouldn’t want to date her due to her reputation and knowing what happens to me after our inevitable breakup, either.
She is only doing it because she knows john mayer won’t stay quiet when an avalanche of attacks comes his way after Speak Now is released. He got attacked from time to time when swifties got bored. But, now it would be different especially if there are also vault tracks from those times.
I heard that Twitter swifties (which are the worst) decided that they won’t listen to Taylor’s plea. It is gonna be wild ride for sure. Anyway, I personally won’t feel sorry for john after hearing from other women he abused emotionally.
Wondering if Taylor’s new, revised position on not caring re: John Mayer is because she f*cked around on Joe with that disgusting creature Healy, and some small part of her now feels hypocritical about continuing to bad mouth the sleazeball guys in her past? 🤔
More like, she has no legs to stand on anymore to victimise herself after she dated someone like Matty.
As a TS fan (who is not making death threats aka a normal person) you’re right that she has almost never called off her fans like this. It surprised me and my theory is that we’re getting more John songs on the Speak Now vault tracks. I also think you’re right that it won’t calm down some of the fans- they’re all pretty riled up after Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve. The lyrics, “Memories feel like weapons,” do not put that whole relationship in a favorable light.
Snore. This vile, “polite, kind” chick with her cardboard box personality is so obvious. She only cares when it’s about her. God , I hope scummy Mayer or Healy take her out like the trash she is. Her obsessive fans are pathetic. I’m tired of these fragile losers crying unfair when anyone tries to call her out on her bullshit.
You’re amazing.
She looks ridiculous in that leotard too.
Let me guess, she’s doing it all because of all Matty Healy backlash, Ice Spice collab being questionable and that article how her fans were threatening a journalist?