Taylor Swift accuses Scooter Braun of ‘manipulative bullying’ after he acquires her music (cbsnews.com).
Not simply streaming or downloading the albums legally or otherwise like the rest of us, rather the music mogul acquiring the company that owned her back catalog, and according to Tay, only learning “Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work” along with the rest of us when she woke up (people.com) with the morning sun streaming through voile net curtains accompanied by birdsong into a pristine pastel decored Nashville bed chamber you might imagine, with doubtless many somewhat sympathetic to the horror of the idea of a chap named “Scooter” stripping you of anything.
Swift claimed she learned about the acquisition of Big Machine Label Group on Sunday “as it was announced to the world.” She said the purchase was her “worst case scenario,” since she doesn’t own the rights to the music created while she was with the Big Machine Label Group.
With which she signed at the tender, impressionable and understandably naïve age of 15, switching labels last November in the hopes of thwarting he “for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept”:
“I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta (founder of Big Machine Label Group) would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future,” she wrote. Borchetta later disputed Swift’s version of how she found out about the deal.
With Taylor’s ex-stockbroker father, Scott Kingsley Swift, being on the board of directors of Big Machine Label Group and “has known about the deal for at least a week”, at least according to Celebsville’s town crier TMZ and People, not partaking in a shareholder phone call due to a very strict NDA that bound all shareholders and prohibited any discussion at all without risk of severe penalty, with TayTay disputing the claim that her dad has ever been on the board of directors and then elaborating on why it was “the worst case scenario”:
The pop superstar accused Braun of “manipulative bullying” and targeting her at various points in her career with the help of other celebrities. She accused Kim Kardashian West of having “orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked.” She also accused Kanye West of having organized a revenge porn music video “which strips my body naked.”
Her explanation on Tumblr accompanied by a piccie, although sadly not an outtake of “her” stripped naked body being treated somewhat unfairly in Kim K’s rappin’ tailor beau’s “Famous” waxwork porno:
She included a picture in the post of pop star Justin Bieber, Kanye West, and Braun. She wrote on the photo, “This is Scooter Braun bullying me on social media when I was at my lowest point[.] He’s about to own all the music I’ve ever made.”
With both being Braun’s clients, and Biebs quickly to stepping up to virtually defend, taking a break from practicing Guile’s Sonic Boom with which he plans to defeat Tom Cruse in the Octagon ring (maxim.com), saying: “For you to take it to social media and get people to hate on (S)cooter isn’t fair,” and others vouching for him too, with Demi Lovato telling Tay to “Please stop ‘dragging’ people or bullying them” (cosmopolitan.com) and with Ariana Grande posting but then deleting an Instagram Story congratulating Scooter who is her manager (dailymail.co.uk) whilst Halsey took Tay’s side writing writing “Taylor Swift is a huge reason why I always insisted to write my own music” and Nicki Minaj, Adele, Miley Cyrus, Gwen Stefani, Rihanna, Lana Del Rey, Selena Gomez and Camila Cabello seemingly having stopped following Braun on social media.
As for the reasons for the alleged “manipulative bullying” enlisting the help of other celebs for which was seemingly the basis of her Reputation album’s theme from which she has seemingly hoped to transform from snake-to-rainbow-coloured-LGBTQ-friendly-butterfly (Blog 15th Jun. 2019) as seen in her pastel-coloured “Me” with Panic! at the Disco’s Brendon Urie for her album Lover due out in August:
Taylor Swift v Scooter Braun: Is it personal or strictly business? (bbc.com).
Also in Braun’s talent stable is Swift’s old nemesis Kanye West, and a theory from Swift’s fans—aka The Swifties—on Twitter is that Braun bought the rights out of spite, after a feud between the performers that began when West stormed the stage when she accepted an award at the 2009 MTV VMAs. The rapper declared: “Taylor, I’m really happy for you, and I’ma let you finish’ but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.”
For [Tim Ingham from Music Business Worldwide] this argument simply does not add up. “People do not spend $300m venture capital money with their primary motivation being that they just want to pee off a superstar,” he says.
Although if that is the case Scooter will certainly have the opportunity being able to license any of her back catalogue including tracks from that revenge-themed Reputation album for anything he likes; cat repellent perhaps.
Updated 22nd August 2019
Taylor Swift says she plans to rerecord her music catalog after it was acquired by Scooter Braun (buzzfeednews.com).
Taylor Swift says she plans to rerecord her music after the singer failed to secure her original master recordings when talent manager Scooter Braun acquired Big Machine Records, her original label, in June.
Which as the article explains is not unprecedented in such circumstances:
JoJo, known for early ’00s hits like “Leave (Get Out)” and “Too Little Too Late,” rerecorded her albums on Blackground Records after a decadelong battle with the label, which still owns the masters and licensing for those songs.
Leaving her free from the label and able to distribute the re-recorded songs however she pleased.
Updated 15th November 2019
And with Tay about to receive the Artist of the Decade Award at the American Music Awards later this month (dailymail.co.uk, Oct. 2019) the now Scooter-peddled Bad Blood is set flowing again with her raising an ingenue “Don’t know what else to do” pink hue and cry on social media insisting that Borchetta and Braun have said they will not allow her to perform her old songs on TV claiming that would be rerecoding the music before she is allowed next year and with a Netflix documentary about her life also also in tied down to the railway tracks damsel-in-distress jeopardy:
Taylor Swift’s old label hits back in row over ‘awards ban’ (bbc.co.uk).
“Right now my performance at the AMAs, the Netflix documentary and any other recorded events I am planning to play until November 2020 are a question mark,” [Swift] wrote.
But in response, the label denied telling the pop superstar she could not perform at the AMAs or trying to block the Netflix special, and said the “narrative you have created does not exist”.
Claiming that:
“Despite our persistent efforts to find a private and mutually satisfactory solution, Taylor made a unilateral decision last night to enlist her fanbase in a calculated manner that greatly affects the safety of our employees and their families,” the label said.
With pastel pink Swifties launching an #IStandWithTaylor trend (vulture.com) and attempting to doxx Borchetta and Braun’s private phone numbers and home addresses and no doubt construct confetti cannon IEDs to be delivered to their mailbox, but with it quickly shown that in fact labels can’t block artists from performing any songs—theirs or others—live, and at least according to execs they never tried:
TAYLOR SWIFT FREE TO PLAY ALL HER HITS DURING AMAS … Big Machine can’t stop her (tmz.com).
A Big Machine exec tells TMZ, “Taylor Swift can 100% perform all of her catalog, past and present, on the AMAs.” The official adds, BM has no issue with her performance going out on the live broadcast, because it recognizes it doesn’t have the right to block her. The official says, “Our confusion with her statement is that we have no legal right to stop this and have never tried. She and her team both know this.”
And with the Celebsville town cryer eager as ever to stir gossip pot:
BTW … it’s interesting. Taylor performed “Shake it Off”—a song from her Big Machine catalog—live on “Good Morning America” on August 22.
But by which time her pink hue and cry had enlisted members of her old, and those perhaps those optimistic of being part of her new, squad to #StandWithTaylor too:
TAYLOR SWIFT[:] BIG MACHINE SAYS SHE'S MAKING STUFF UP … Selena Gomez, Halsey take her side (tmz.com).
Despite Big Machine’s denial, Swift’s friend, Selena Gomez, has her back 100 percent. Selena says she’s “sick and extremely angry” over the situation, and accuses the label of “greed, manipulation and power.” [And] Halsey echoes many of the same thoughts, accusing BM of making an awful business move and being mean and vindictive. She says the label is banking on people not sticking up for Taylor … but says it’s “barking up the wrong tree.”
With SelGo’s Scooter defending, newly married ex Biebs man-childishly mocking Tay’s viral post-surgery banana freak out last month seen as exemplary of that mean and vindictive bullying and bringing a least one snowflake Swiftie to tears, requiring his missus to step in to defend against pocket unicorns sent to virtually savage his shins (dailymail.co.uk, Oct. 2019).
Updated 25th November 2019
But in the end things going Taylor’s way, despite her revealing while accepting the award that the previous 12 months had given her “some of the most amazing times” as well as “the hardest things I’ve gone through in my life”:
American Music Awards 2019: Taylor Swift takes artist of the decade in record-breaking haul (theguardian.com).
The artist of the decade honour was announced well before Sunday night’s ceremony, but Swift also scooped the biggest prize of the night, artist of the year, from Drake, Ariana Grande, Halsey and Post Malone.
And collecting the award for Favorite Album—Pop/Rock for Lover surpassing MJ, making her the most successful AMAs artist ever, and while not directly referencing the dispute, while performing a melody featuring some of those hits now under Braun’s control (GoogleTube) did still manage a cat’s claw swipe:
She performed in a white button-down jacket featuring the titles of her earlier albums, including Speak Now, Red and Fearless, and on a piano that was also inscribed with the titles of these albums, which some fans interpreted as a coded message about the feud with Braun.
Updated 13th December 2019
But not holding back the verbal Braun Bad Blood during her acceptance speech for Billboard’s first-ever Woman of the Decade award last night, a day before her 30th birthday:
Bad blood: Taylor Swift takes aim at Scooter Braun in Billboard award speech (metro.news).
During her acceptance speech in Los Angeles yesterday, Swift warned of a ‘new shift’ that was a ‘potentially harmful force in our industry’.
She said: ‘As your resident loud person, I feel the need to bring it up. That is the unregulated world of private equity coming in and buying up our music as if it is real estate, as if it’s an app or a shoe line.’
A little too near Obi-Wan’s “I felt a great disturbance in the Force” perhaps but forgivable and no doubt having fervid fans either strapping on their Leia buns or furtively gripping their lightsaber through their pants pocket.
And seeing it as exemplar of the “toxic male privilege” which as luck would have it she’d already penned the song “The Man“ (genius.com) about on Lover seemingly before discovering her back catalog had been bought out by Braun, the Soros Family and Emperor Palpatine without her “approval, consultation or consent”:
She said female artists faced questions over whether a man was responsible for their work or if their success was down to a ‘savvy record label’.
‘People want to explain away a woman’s success in this industry,’ Swift went on.
But thankfully having dispelled the myth of being the alt-right’s Aryan goddess (Oct. 2018) seemingly managed to stop herself before returning to the stage in a pair of pastel conspiracy dungarees and suggesting anythging more about the alt-right’s favourite bogeyman which might have Orange Don negate his liking of Taylor Swift 25% less and have Donald Trump Jr. elevate her onto the same plinth as the somewhat Swift obsessed and soon-to-be officially called Christian Genius Billionaire Kanye West (theguardian.com, Oct. 2019).
Recent/related stories
- Taylor Swift’s new Pride-themed single causes influx of GLAAD donations (Blog 15th June 2019)
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