Why I Don't Understand The Taylor Swift Effect | The Odyssey Online
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Why I Don't Understand The Taylor Swift Effect

I can't shake it off.

141
Why I Don't Understand The Taylor Swift Effect

The world seems to be in deep, passionate love with Taylor Swift.

I don't get it.

During the past VMAs Taylor Swift swept most of the awards that she was up for, yet again. She won FOUR of the most prevalent VMA awards, including Video of the Year for Bad Blood. A video that came out two months ago has been decided as the best video of all of 2015?

If that doesn't prove her power over the music business, I don't know what does.

And it's not just award shows like the VMAs that she takes over. The professional music business seems to love her as well. She has won seven Grammys throughout her career. It's not just the audience for teen driven award shows like the VMAs and the Billboard awards. The Grammys (obviously run by a bunch of old white men) wish to praise her as well. Everybody seems to love Taylor Swift. I, personally, don't understand.

Now, I swear I'm not a Taylor Swift hater. Or at least, I'm not a ill-intentioned one. I just have a couple of reservations. I used to really appreciate Taylor Swift during her country days. I was with her perspective on relationships and life in general, so I really respected her and liked her music to boot. I can't lie, I even had a couple Taylor Swift songs in my iPod shuffle back in the day.

(I swear I used to love this song OMG)

I've consistently liked Taylor Swift's music throughout the years. I always thought she was very talented (And, of course, I still do. That isn't really up for debate). But when Shake it Off hit and became a worldwide phenomenon I felt like the only person that did not get why everyone thought it was so great and why the radio station needed to play it every hour on the hour.

I just thought it was so awful. I never thought of myself to be completely against all that easily digestible-no substance-mindless pop music. My guilty pleasure is late 90s early 2000 pop music.

They could do no wrong.

But I just couldn't get behind Shake it Off. It, for some reason, wasn't my type of thing. With the rise of Shake it Off, began the rise of the media pushing Taylor Swift in your face every chance they got. I felt like every time I scrolled down my timeline I saw some news story about Taylor Swift. Even stories that didn't involve Taylor Swift, had her name in the title.

(Now, MTV, you know that story doesn't have anything at all to do with Taylor Swift. She's definitely not the first one to have surprise guests during her tours).

Needless to say, I was getting sick of Taylor Swift. But the demise of Taylor Swift in my eyes was due to how the media portrayed her. It didn't have anything to do with Taylor Swift as a person. The mainstream media paints her as someone who can do no wrong. Whatever she decided was law, no matter how wrong it may have been. I really didn't understand that. Especially during the supposed Nicki and Taylor "feud." She wasn't just whining about Anaconda getting snubbed.

Nicki Minaj was trying to make a valid point about how black female artists are being looked over and disregarded for doing the same thing that white female artists do. It's obvious. And, of course, Taylor Swift jumped into the situation and took it personally even though it didn't really have anything to do with her. When Taylor Swift pushed herself into the situation it totally warped the point that Nicki Minaj was trying to make. It even became a "feud" when it was supposed to be Nicki saying something that needed to be said, and that a lot of people don't want to talk about it.

It looked a lot like this.

The black woman was silenced. And, I absolutely hated that. It wasn't just Taylor Swift's fault in silencing Nicki Minaj, it was mainstream media's fault. But the fact that Taylor Swift had started the wave made me pretty upset.

And, the fact that it ended with Nicki and Taylor sharing the stage in the VMAs sucked to me.

Of course, even one of the biggest stars in the world Nicki Minaj had to share the stage with Taylor Swift. I swear it was the biggest buzzkill to see Taylor Swift pop out from the other side of the stage during Nicki's energy-driven performance of Trini Dem Girls. Who asked for Taylor Swift?


And, that's why I'm not feeling Taylor Swift right now. She's shoved in my face when I don't want her to be there. She's everywhere. So, at the moment, I'm just trying to put myself in a Taylor-Swift-free zone.

Even though, I'll probably randomly see a news story about her cat or something tomorrow.

It's Taylor Swift's world; I'm just living in it.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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