The Taylor Swift Controversy Raises Industry Concerns

Ursula Muñoz Schaefer/Staff Writer

If there’s anything to learn from the latest Taylor Swift controversy, it’s that no matter how talented you are, the (old) men at the top will always prevail.

The artist set the internet on fire when, on Sunday, June 30, she published a powerful open letter to her fans about losing the rights to her first six albums.

Scott Borchetta, founder of Big Machine Records (which Swift signed to at age 15), has sold the label to Ithaca Holdings, putting entrepreneur and manager Scooter Braun in possession of everything from her eponymous 2006 debut to 2017’s “Reputation.”

Swift’s case is only the latest in a long history of artists battling to own their work. From Prince to Paul McCartney, countless musical icons have famously struggled with losing the original copies of their albums, known as “masters,” to their corporate overlords.

In her blistering Tumblr post, Swift said she fought for a chance to own her work for years and instead was offered a flimsy opportunity to “sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time.” She declined; it meant being sold along with the label once Borchetta decided to give it up.

What makes Swift’s case stand out is that her life’s work has been sold to a man who has benefited off of predatory behavior towards her for years.

Her swing at the Big Machine acquirement is less of a petty brawl and more of an exposé of a vicious cycle that has been hurting artists for decades. It also has an interesting entanglement with the issue of sexism in the music industry.

Swift also pointed to a 2016 Instagram post by Justin Bieber in which Braun seemed to be taunting her alongside Bieber and Kanye West.

This was a month after West had released his “revenge porn music video” for the song “Famous,” in which the rapper appears in bed with a naked wax figure of Swift—something that was done without her consent and with Braun’s knowledge. It was a scandal that seemed less problematic in 2016, more than a year before #MeToo came into fruition.

Stripping a woman’s body naked without her approval to embarrass her publicly is predatory. Standing with his two clients to bully said woman online made Braun complicit, insinuating sleazy, ganglike behavior that would be looked down upon now. 

A burgeoning voice for sexual assault victims during the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, Swift has continuously spoken out about record labels and streaming services’ exploitation of up-and-coming artists. Her Tumblr post stroke a chord with artists and listeners alike, particularly towards the end when she brought up the implications of signing a record deal at a young age.

“This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept,” she stated. “And when that man says ‘music has value,’ he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it.”

It’s Borchetta’s betrayal of Swift that underlines the most sinister part of this whole debacle. He was the man who founded Big Machine Records in 2004 to sign Swift, and she was the artist keeping the virtually unknown label afloat for 15 years through her practically self-made success. 

Six albums and ten Grammys into a record-shattering career, Swift remains proof that no matter the success and influence of a global diva, the power still belongs to the men sitting in the desk chairs—men who view them as manipulable objects and money-making machines.

 

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Featured photo by Ursula Muñoz Schaefer.