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She wants praise and praise only.
By Zayda Slabbekoorn — Written on Nov 02, 2022
In September, a former journalist revealed what could be Taylor Swift's secret to getting critical acclaim.
The singer just released her latest hit album, "Midnights" and positive reviews have been flooding in from fans and critics.
With all of her incredible success over the past decade and a whopping net worth of over $360 million, Swift is truly the “Artist of the Decade” (at least, according to the American Music Awards in 2019).
But, given how the few journalists who have shared anything but glowing reviews for Swift over the years have been treated, it's hard to know if all the positive feedback in sincere.
A journalist claimed Taylor Swift's team threatened to 'blacklist' anyone who gave her negative reviews.
Eric Eidelstein, a writer on HBO's "Gossip Girl" reboot, shared that when he was still working as a journalist it was an unspoken rule not to mess with Swift's team.
Eidelstein shared his thoughts in response to a claim from another writer, Geoff Nelson, that he was encouraged to slander Swift's "Reputation" album.
“Ok, but conversely when I was in that writing world, Taylor’s team would threaten to blacklist publications if they wrote anything negative about her,” Eidelstein wrote in a now-deleted tweet visible in the video below.
As TikToker @tellthebeees notes, the debate around Swift's strategy for keeping fans on side while positioning herself as an underdog are nothing new.
In fact, in 2019, an Outline article by journalist B.D. McClay called Taylor Swift a "sore winner" for refusing to accept anything but utter adoration.
McClay explains that, even in the midst of her great success, “Swift won’t stop whining…always being betrayed by somebody, or, in some cases, anticipating such betrayal.”
With an eye-watering number of album sales, Swift is hardly struggling to get her flowers but her lyrics would suggest otherwise.
Swift has been positioning herself as a victim despite her obvious success.
Swift, like all women, is certainly a victim of misogyny and has faced her fair share of sexism in the music industry, but is it fair to say that every bad review comes from a place of male privilege?
Online, others have begun pushing back against Swift, accusing her of ignoring her own privilege in order to further the themes of betrayal she explores in her music.
Especially in this world of media and art, not every singer will be liked by every single person — it’s something that nobody can control. But, even when people dislike you, “you are still not the victim”, as Tiktoker @tellthebeees explains.
All in all, Swift’s success has brought her a dedicated fanbase, immense fame, and an ingrained place as an icon in music history, maybe she should start acknowledging that.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a news and entertainment writer at YourTango. They cover topics ranging from pop culture analysis to human interest stories. They are currently based in East Lansing, MI. Catch up with them on their Instagram or TikTok.