The Tragic Truth About Taylor Swift Is Very Sad
Body shaming, bullies, and a man who repeatedly breaks into her home — that's just the start of the dark side to fame that Taylor Swift has had to deal with for years.
Transcript
00:00Body-shaming, bullies, and a man who repeatedly breaks into her home — that's just the start
00:05of the dark side to fame that Taylor Swift has had to deal with for years.
00:10Over the course of her music career, Taylor Swift has amassed one of the largest fan bases
00:14in the world. Between sold-out stadium tours and over 270 million Instagram followers,
00:19it's hard to imagine the Shake It Off singer being unpopular. Still, she didn't always
00:23have the popularity she does today. Swift has shared that she spent most of her school
00:27days with hardly any friends, and was often left out and bullied. She told Teen Vogue
00:32in 2009,
00:33"'Junior high' was actually sort of hard, because I got dumped by this group of popular
00:37girls. They didn't think I was cool or pretty enough, so they stopped talking to me."
00:40"'I think it's too thin. I need more hair.'"
00:43Speaking to GQ, Swift relayed a story from when she was in middle school. She'd called
00:47several of her classmates to invite them to the mall, but all of them claimed to be busy.
00:51She went to the mall with her mother instead, only to see that all the girls who had made
00:55excuses not to go with her were already hanging out at that very mall. Her own school experiences
01:00have made the singer especially compassionate towards her young fans. In a private Instagram
01:04message sent to a teen girl dealing with bullying, she wrote,
01:07"'I know why you're crying, because I've been in your place. Just don't let them change
01:10you or stop you from singing or dancing around your favorite song.'"
01:15Before signing with Universal Music Group, Taylor Swift worked with Big Machine label
01:19group and its founder, Scott Borchetta, throughout her entire career, meaning that the label
01:24had ownership of the masters of all of her music. The songwriter asked if she could buy
01:28ownership of her catalog before switching labels, but as Swift explained in a 2019 Tumblr
01:32post, that wasn't going to happen. She wrote,
01:35"...instead I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and earn
01:39one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in."
01:43She refused the deal, giving up ownership of her music. The situation became more painful
01:48when her masters were acquired by music executive Scooter Braun in 2019. Learning about the
01:52acquisition, Swift wrote,
01:54"...all I could think about was the incessant manipulative bullying I've received at his
01:58hands for years. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who
02:02tried to dismantle it."
02:03In 2020, Braun sold the masters to Shamrock Holdings. Following the sale, Swift began
02:08re-recording her discography, and re-releasing old records, such as 1989 and Red, all with
02:13Taylor's version after the original title, as a way to regain ownership of her work.
02:18So I just figured, I was the one who made this music. First, I can just make it again."
02:24In the Miss Americana documentary, Taylor Swift opens up about her struggles with body
02:28image and disordered eating. She speaks candidly about how the constant media attention and
02:33discussion around her body affected her, to the point that just seeing an unflattering
02:36photo of herself would sometimes be enough to take her over the edge.
02:39"...and that'll just trigger me to just starve a little bit, just stop eating."
02:47Swift discussed her struggle in more depth with Variety, saying,
02:50"...my relationship with food was exactly the same psychology that I applied to everything
02:54else in my life. If I was given a pat on the head, I registered that as good. If I was
02:58given a punishment, I registered that as bad."
03:01In Miss Americana, she also shares how her over-exercising and food restriction affected
03:05her ability to perform. At the time, she thought it was normal to feel like she was going to
03:09pass out in the middle of her shows.
03:10"...now I realize, no, if you eat food, have energy,
03:14get stronger, you can do all these shows and not feel it."
03:19For pretty much her entire career, Swift's love life has been put under a microscope as
03:23tabloids speculated about who she was dating, and sometimes outright shamed her for her number of
03:28boyfriends. Of course, celebrity dating lives are often a point of discussion in pop culture,
03:33and as many of Taylor Swift's love and breakup songs are autobiographical,
03:37it's only natural that many listeners speculate on the subject of those songs.
03:41"...I have really good advice for when you're having problems."
03:44However, coverage of Swift's dating life seemed to take a mean-spirited turn,
03:48with many reporters and others taking jabs at her for the famous men she was rumored to date.
03:53It's even sadder when you realize that those relationships and breakups
03:56often come with very real pain. As her many poignant breakup songs suggest,
04:01Swift is no stranger to heartbreak, but unlike most of us, she's gone through those low points
04:05while being constantly observed by her fans, critics, and the media. Swift opened up about
04:10her experience with heartbreak while speaking to Elle about her album 1989, saying,
04:14"...it's this mental, physical, emotional ache and feeling so conflicted.
04:18Nothing distracts you from it."
04:20She went on to describe the added pain from having her breakups scrutinized and
04:23trivialized by the media, saying,
04:25"...I'd been in this media hailstorm of people having a very misconstrued perception of who I
04:30was. There were really insensitive jokes being made at awards shows by hosts. There were snarky
04:34headlines in the press, Taylor goes through a breakup, well that was Swift, focusing on all
04:38the wrong things."
04:40If you don't mind me saying so, you seem to have had more than your fair share of breakups."
04:43Yeah, there have been a few."
04:46Taylor Swift has a close bond with her mother, Andrea Swift. Her song,
04:50The Best Day, is even dedicated to her mother with touching lyrics about how Andrea looked
04:54out for her and encouraged her throughout her childhood. And it was very painful for Taylor
04:58when her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Swift told Variety,
05:02"...everyone loves their mom, everyone's got an important mom, but for me,
05:05she's really the guiding force. Almost every decision I make, I talk to her about it first."
05:10The singer later disclosed that when her mother was going through treatment for cancer,
05:13they discovered a brain tumor. The uncertain and distressing time of watching her mother
05:18go through treatment inspired Taylor to write the heartbreaking song,
05:21Soon You'll Get Better. Discussing the subject of the song with CBS Sunday Morning, she said,
05:26"...it's just not something that we deal with until we have to, until we see it,
05:29until we experience it, until someone close to us is going through something like that.
05:33So writing about it was really emotional."
05:36Despite being one of the most successful music artists of all time,
05:40Taylor Swift has struggled to be taken seriously as a female songwriter.
05:43Along with having her dating life — and body — up for public discussion as a young woman,
05:48she's also had to fight for recognition of her work. Speaking to Vogue,
05:51Swift said she didn't recognize sexism in the industry when she first came on the scene.
05:55Looking back, she believes this is because she was so young. As a teenager,
05:59people saw her as cute and didn't necessarily take her or her success all that seriously. She said,
06:05"...it's fine to infantilize a girl's success and say how cute that she's having some hit songs,
06:09but the second it becomes formidable — as soon as I started playing stadiums when I
06:13started to look like a woman — that wasn't as cool anymore."
06:17As she gained confidence and success, she also gained criticism.
06:20Her songs were often critiqued for being all about boys or breakups. As Swift told Vogue,
06:25"...people would act like it was a weapon I was using, like a cheap,
06:28dirty trick." Despite the misogynistic feedback her songs received,
06:32she continued to write hits, even releasing The Man in 2019,
06:36a song that points out how differently her achievements would be perceived if she were a man.
06:41Perhaps one of the most public low points in Taylor Swift's life came during the 2009 VMAs.
06:46A 19-year-old Swift had just won Best Female Video for her hit song,
06:51but what should have been an exciting win turned into a dramatic incident when Kanye West interrupted
06:56her during her acceptance speech. As the excited Swift gushed over winning her first VMA,
07:01West came on stage and took the microphone to say,
07:04"...Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you. I'ma let you finish,
07:07but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time."
07:10The crowd and viewers were shocked by West's behavior, with Beyoncé even later inviting
07:14Swift back onto the stage to have her moment that West ruined. For many,
07:18the shocking pop culture moment became nothing more than a meme,
07:21but it was much more impactful for Swift.
07:23"...then I was really excited because Kanye West was on the stage.
07:26And then I, um, then I wasn't so excited anymore."
07:30Years later, when speaking about West's interruption during the Miss Americana
07:34documentary, it still made the singer emotional. She added,
07:37"...at the time I didn't know they were booing him doing that. I thought that they were booing me."
07:42She added,
07:43"...for someone who's built their whole belief system on getting people to clap for you,
07:47the whole crowd booing is a pretty formative experience."
07:50But that wasn't the end of it. In 2016, West released
07:53Famous, a song that features a lyric saying that he made Swift famous.
07:57That led to a back-and-forth between Swift and Kanye's then-wife,
08:00Kim Kardashian, about whether Swift had approved the lyrics beforehand.
08:03Kardashian leaked edited footage of the phone call that made it sound like Swift okayed the lyrics.
08:08"'Cause Kanye went, like, so far. Like, no rapper is gonna call someone that they're,
08:13like, rapping about and get their permission."
08:15During a particularly vulnerable scene in Miss Americana,
08:18Swift breaks down about the way the edited phone call was received,
08:22and how loud the hate about her had started to get.
08:24"...people fall out of love with you. There's nothing you can do to make them
08:28change their mind. They just don't love you anymore. I just wanted to disappear."
08:34In 2020, the full version of the call was leaked,
08:36which proved that she hadn't lied about the conversation after all.
08:40In 2013, Taylor Swift was groped by radio host David Mueller when he reached his hand
08:46under her skirt as they posed for a photo. Swift's team reported the incident to the
08:50radio station, resulting in Mueller's dismissal. The pop star's team did their best to keep the
08:54situation quiet. As her mother later said in court,
08:57"...I did not want her to have to live through the endless memes and gifs that
09:00tabloid media and internet trolls decided to come up with,
09:03doctoring the pictures and making her relive this awful moment."
09:07Unfortunately, it became public knowledge when the ex-DJ sued Swift for defamation.
09:11Rather than backing down, the singer made a counter-suit, claiming sexual assault,
09:15which she won. Swift only asked for a symbolic $1 in damages. The real reward was winning the suit.
09:22As one of the world's biggest superstars, Taylor Swift has millions of admirers.
09:26Sadly, some people take their adoration for the artist much too far,
09:30and Swift has lived with the fear of stalkers for years.
09:33Perhaps the most sinister among them is Roger Alvarado,
09:37who broke into Swift's New York City apartment, where the police found him napping in her bed.
09:42After a stint in jail, Alvarado returned to the same residence and broke in again.
09:46Even after his second arrest, the stalker showed no sign of remorse.
09:50During a jailhouse interview with Page Six, he said he'd likely break in again when released.
09:54The actions of Alvarado and others have created a tremendous amount of fear in Swift's life.
09:59The singer admitted to Elle that she's unfortunately had to get accustomed to that reality,
10:03saying,
10:04"[Websites and tabloids have taken it upon themselves to post every home address I've
10:07ever had online. You get enough stalkers trying to break into your
10:10house and you kind of start prepping for bad things."