I love a good Taylor Swift song as much as any angsty young adult does. I mean, how would have I dealt with any break-up without songs like "I Knew You Were Trouble" or "Style?" What other songs would my friends and I scream/sing to besides "You Belong With Me" and "Love Story?" I wouldn't have survived the last two years with the entire "1989" album; I still cry whenever I listen to "Wildest Dreams." I'm literally listening to Taylor Swift as I'm writing this article.
BUT! No matter how talented Taylor Swift is, we all have to admit this pop star comes with a LOT of drama. Sometimes, the haters are totally right and instead of shaking it off, we have to admit Swift can just be a big drama llama.
In light of the crazy twist on the "no-drama" break up between Calvin Harris and Taylor Swift, let's take a trip down memory lane and look back on all the times we watched a battle of Swift vs. Ex/Frenemy/Company/etc. go down.
Taylor Swift vs. Kanye West
Sept. 13, 2009 was the historic day Kayne West walked onto stage and interrupted Swift during her acceptance speech for winning the VMA's "Song of the Year" award for "You Belong With Me." The iconic line, "I'm really happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but..." has since been parodied many times since, with even Swift saying it when announcing West had won the "Video Vanguard" award in 2015.
West has since apologized multiple times, and the two had even seemed to be on good terms for quite a while. What this did do, though, was teach Swift how being the victim in an unfortunate situation can result in a lot more press coverage, leading to a lot more fame and a lot more money.
Recently, West dropped his new album "Life of Pablo" with a song called "Famous" on it that features a line about Swift.
"I still think me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that b*tch famous."
Although West claims he called Swift personally and asked permission to release the song, Swift claims she was never told nor agreed to the song and was very upset with the terminology and overall tone of the line. She even hinted toward her discontentment in her Grammy speech this past year, warning fans there are people who wants to "undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments."
West has since spoken out and said Swift was lying, and even wife Kim Kardashian has spoken out in support of her husband in a GQ interview. This week's episode of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" touched base on Kim and the ongoing Kayne/Taylor feud.
Kim Kardashian very recently leak the video of West on the phone with Swift discussing the lyrics and Swift giving approval. Swift took to Twitter to respond:
Taylor Swift vs. John Mayer
Besides their brief relationship being highly scandalous, considering Swift was only 19 and Mayer was 31, it left the singers on bad terms. The relationship only lasted a short amount of time in 2010, but long enough for Swift to write a song titled "Dear John," calling out Mayer for using her when she was young and naive.
Even though Swift is a feminist, blaming a man for her heartbreak because she was too "naive" to believe that his blatant reputation as a player would apply to her doesn't seem very empowering. Taking responsibilities for one's decisions is actually way more empowering (in my humble opinion).
Mayer later said the song "humiliated" him, as he is usually honest about when he treats a girl poorly but he never thought he treated Swift poorly. He said Swift's way of using her talent and fanbase following to muddy his image was "abusive" to the industry.
This wasn't the first or last time Swift used her fame and talent to get revenge as a scorned lover. "We Are Never Getting Back Together" and almost the entire album "Red" was reportedly about Jake Gyllenhaal. Both "I Knew You Were Trouble" and "Style" were rumored to be about Harry Styles. "Forever & Always" was about Joe Jonas and "Better Than Revenge" was written about Camille Belle, the actress Jonas dumped Swift for.
Many fans of Swift defend the pop star by claiming almost every musician writes songs about exes, but Swift makes the message very clear when it comes to who each song is about. She leaves no anonymity to the person she is singing about and airs their dirty laundry for everyone to hear and sing along to. Admittedly, not all of her songs are negative. "Back to December" was an apology to ex Taylor Lautner, and "Mine" was a song about what could have been with flame Cory Monteith.
Taylor Swift vs. Katy Perry
This is the wildest, most dramatic and most talked about celebrity feud in recent years, and there has never been a shortage of stories to discuss since the used-to-be-friends declared war on one another.
Swift and Perry started out as close friends who would often cheer each other on at various award shows and through friendly conversations on Twitter. They were often photographed together at events such as the Grammys or VMAs.
After Swift and Mayer ended their brief fling, Perry and Mayer started seriously dating a few months later that year. Things still seemed normal and friendly between the pop stars until Taylor Swift did an interview with Rolling Stone in 2014.
The magazine asked Swift about "Bad Blood," a song off of her album "1989," commenting that it was the "angriest track" on the record. Swift said the song was written about another woman who she was never sure if she was actually friends with or not until the woman tried to undercut Swift professionally.
Perry, as Swift described it, "hired a bunch of people out from under me." According to a few sources, the story goes that some of Perry's background dancers from her "Teenage Dream" tour were touring with Swift when Perry offered to hire them back for her "Prism" tour. Swift took this personally, and thus, the track "Bad Blood" was born.
After the Rolling Stone interview, Perry tweeted this tweet:
And thus the feud began.
Swift has since tried to backtrack, saying the song could be about an ex-boyfriend or could be about an ex-friend. Perry has tried tweeting out against Swift, but only received backlash until very recently.
Some believe the feud is really over the star's shared ex John Mayer, but Swift said in her interview that the feud was nothing personal and purely business.
Taylor Swift vs. Nicki Minaj
Some fans have accused this fight of being fabricated for publicity as the two stars later performed together on stage at the VMAs as a result of the feud, thus attracting more viewers.
But when the VMA nominees were released in the summer of 2015, Minaj took to Twitter to complain that only videos that promoted skinny women were nominated. Swift took this tweet personally (how shocking) and tweeted at Minaj that it wasn't like Minaj to pit women against one another.
Minaj answered very respectfully and said the tweet had literally nothing to do with Swift. This feud was quick and generally bloodless.
Katy Perry has something to say though:
And Camille Belle (remember her? "Better Than Revenge?" The actress known for the things in the mattress?) chimed in as well, tweeting at Perry she "couldn't have said it better" herself.
Taylor Swift vs. Apple Music/Spotify
Swift doesn't just fight people, she fights companies.
Swift pulled her music from Spotify in 2014. Her reasoning behind this is because the website doesn't pay royalties and give enough credit to artists. She said she was mostly trying to defend smaller, lesser-known artists who don't have the position of power to speak up for themselves.
Despite the absence of any "small" artist expressing discontent with Spotify or praising Swift for her heroic act, she continues to not allow her music to be streamed without a steady flow of cash.
This is the same reason she feuded Apple Music (and won). She didn't like that Apple Music would not pay artists for the music customer's listened to during their free three month trail, again claiming she was looking out for the "little" guys.
Thanks, Taylor! Except the littlest of little are us normal folk who aren't trying to pay $1.29 every time we want to listen to ONE song multiple times without having to always open our YouTube app!
Even though she was praised for this act by some, it still seems disingenuous and greedy coming from a person who owns dresses that cost more than student's college tuition.
Swift has had other small business feuds. An artist accused the star of stealing her work without even crediting her (though this could've been a publicity stunt by the artist).
Taylor Swift vs. Calvin Harris
Which brings us to now. This past week has basically been Christmas for people like me (as in people who love the drama and pettiness of celebrity's relationships and lives to the point they write and read entire articles on it).
Swift's team addressed the rumors that Swift did help write Harris' latest single "This is What You Came For" and put her name under a pseudonym so it wouldn't distract from the music itself. After the single was released, though, Harris said in an interview he couldn't see himself working with his then-girlfriend Swift, which, according to Swift's team, hurt her feelings, thus ending the relationship.
Harris took to Twitter to address the statements. His tweets were the perfect amount of respectful kindness and scathing anger. Although die-hard Swift fans say he looked petty, Harris looked like nothing but the real hero we need to finally expose Swift's not-so-sweet side.
I mean, imagine after being in a relationship for over a year, having your heart broken, watching your ex move on very quickly and very publicly with someone else, and then being blamed for the entire thing while also having your personal and professional integrity be slandered?
I'd be a little mad too.
Maybe Swift is trying to make this all part of her new image. Like, "I have bleached hair and dark lipstick and break up with boys for other boys then passive-aggressively insult their integrity. I am edgy now."
(This is what's going on in Taylor Swift's mind, probably)
Even though there is a lot of of evidence that Swift can be a mean girl, I'm still going to jam to her music and get very excited when there is new drama circling around her. I'm both endlessly annoyed with her and endlessly entertained by her.
No matter what our personal opinions of her are, though, T. Swift is laughing all the way to the bank.