It's me, the passionate fan who wrote about Taylor Swift successfully arising from the pit of detriment and cancellation pop culture put her in undeservingly a few years back. This time...I'm back to not only defend Taylor against the GALL of some caustic, entitled men, but to showcase the importance of women standing up for themselves and owning their WORK in music.
If you have not been living under a social media rock for the last 24-48 hours, then you are aware of the war of words occurring right now between previous Big Machine label president, newly acquired owner of Big Machine label Scooter Braun, and queen Taylor Swift. To make a long story VERY short, Scooter Braun has an ugly past of representing clients who have worked to detrimentally harm Swift's career, most notably being the orchestration of Kim Kardashian's recorded phone call released via snapchat and Kanye West's 'famous' music video depicting a naked Swift look-a-like (aka revenge porn). With ties to those incidents, it's seemingly clear that Braun was not a fan of Swift.
While the relationship between Scooter Braun and Taylor Swift's defamation/demise hasn't always been public, Taylor has most certainly known. With that being in mind, you can understand that Taylor is NOT a fan of Braun and would NOT want him to own her masters to her first six studio albums released under Big Machine label.
Speaking of master's....THAT IS SOMETHING TAYLOR HAS NOT BEEN GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO OWN. What does that mean? Well, for the last few years, Taylor has been trying vehemently to purchase her master's from Scott Borchetta and Big Machine label group, master's that she "signed away" almost 15 years ago to BMLG in her initial recording contract at the age of 15. The contract she signed with the intention of a loyal partnership to be maintained with Borchetta and BMLG....especially since she's been responsible for HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS given to this independent label over the last 15 years.
Borchetta would not truly give her the chance to buy them properly, Taylor couldn't simply pay in full to have FULL ownership of ALL her own music without being forced into a longer term contract or other discrepancies. So she made unsettling peace with her losing the rights to this music in an effort to move forward in her music career by signing with a new label that will give her ownership of master's and believes in her voice, a voice to support female artists everywhere. Until...she found out her music was being sold to Scooter, the man who has been trying to tear her down, that got her pretty damn pissed.
This just shows how f*cked the music industry can be, especially with young excitable artists, and ESPECIALLY with women. Taylor Swift has done enough for music, for female musicians, for song writers, and most definitely for Big Machine Records to have the rights to buy her music back. Music she worked her ass off to write, produce, release and perform for millions of fans around the world. Music that she has taken from her heart and released to the masses. Music that connects her to that 16 year old going over through heartbreak or that 28 year old finding her identity and soundtrack.
So when Taylor posted that note yesterday, it wasn't to bully Scooter Braun or try to be richer by owning her music, it was to get back her voice and art that is now owned by the very man who helped try to destroy her career. Seems like a fair ask, wouldn't you think?
#IStandWithTaylor, forever and always (not owned by Taylor Swift)
