I haven't gotten around to watching Taylor's Netflix documentary, "Miss Americana." With everything I've read about it, I know it's going to be a good, insightful watch. You can't mention Taylor Swift without mentioning Joe Jonas, John Mayer, Harry Styles, or even Kanye West. Whenever something was brought up about Taylor, I would roll my eyes and keep scrolling because she was nothing but a good actress who played the victim in the spotlight.
I canceled Taylor before cancel culture became mainstream.
I remember listening to a few of her songs when I was younger and I thought her music was good for being country. I have a strong disliking towards country music, but hers was cute. The first song I heard from her was "Fifteen," and I still, to this day, will blast that song through my speakers and sing it at the top of my lungs. Next, I heard "Mine," and then I kind of didn't care for her songs anymore.
She started to date Joe Jonas, who at the time was the superior Jonas Brother, and I didn't care that they were together. It was also around the time of the Miley-Nick-Selena drama if my childhood memory serves me right, so I was more focused on them than anything. I didn't care for Taylor until the news that she and Joe broke up on E! News. I was heartbroken and then to find out that she wrote a song about him tore me to pieces.
At the time, I didn't hear how they broke up, so this was unbeknownst to me when I began to talk crap about her to anybody who played her music at school. Then I forgot about her again, until she began to date Harry Styles.
I had made up in my mind on that day the news broke, I would never in my life, support or listen to Taylor Swift ever again.
I think I was around 12 or 13 at the time, so the part of my brain that makes logical decisions hadn't completely formed. I was (and still am) a die-hard One Direction fan, so I was keeping up with "Haylor" spottings and following any and all update accounts that I could find. I swore that she would not ruin Harry's name like she tried to do with Joe (remember, I didn't know how they broke up yet).
When they broke up and Taylor released her "Red" and then "1989" albums, I listened to it because I knew in my soul that it was going to be filled with songs about Harry, but I had to confess that Miss Swift did not disappoint with this album. There were several bops from the album that I still play to this day because regardless of some songs being about Harry, the songs were that good.
The point in me sharing my long, winding road of canceling Taylor Swift goes to say that the idea of cancel culture is what's wrong with society. I was only 12-13 years old following trends that grown people engage in today. I didn't take time to get to know the how and why about Taylor because why should that matter when she's talking bad about guys who did her wrong? She's the one who turns around and writes songs about them. She made bank on the lives of her exes and that's why as a teenager, I had to cancel her.
Now that I'm older and I've had my fair share of heartbreak (and have even taken a page out of her book and written about a few), I understand Taylor and where she came from.
Taylor, this surely had an effect on your life and mental health. You've made it your mission to do good in this world and I was blinded by what my peers were doing to realize that you were hurting, too. Reading hate comment after hate comment and seeing how people and the media were praising the guys, but tearing you down could not have been easy on you.
And for that, I am so sorry.