“There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame… you’ll know that it was you and the people who you love that put you there.” – Taylor Swift (Album of the Year, 2016)
In 2016, Taylor Swift had her fair share of media attention whether it be her breakup, the rekindling of her feud with Kanye West, or the nationwide fight for recognition of her work. Arguably, this was the year of Taylor Swift and would be pivotal to her interactions with the media and how she would continue to separate her work and personal life.
Since 2015, Swift had been connected to Calvin Harris in a very “Instagramable,” public relationship. She posted vacations photos with him, thanked him in award recipient speeches, and celebrated a one-year anniversary. However, swift eventually ends her relationship with Harris by the beginning of June and begins seeing Tom Hiddleston, who she eventually would leave later than year, calling him her “Getaway Car” from a toxic relationship.
Nevertheless, the DJ reappeared in Swift’s life in July when it was released that she actually wrote his hit song with Rihanna, “This is What You Came For.” And through a Twitter rampage, Calvin attacked Swift, claiming she was trying to “bury” him and incited multiple celebrities to get involved on the “I Hate Taylor Swift” campaign.
Hopping on this campaign was Kim Kardashian, promoting a GQ interview where she spoke on Kanye’s controversial lyrics in his song, “”I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/I made that bitch famous.
(Keep in mind, Kanye previously interrupted Taylor’s VMA acceptance speech years ago to say she didn’t deserve it)
In her interview, Kim claims there was indeed an, albeit illegally recorded, phone call where Kanye received Swift’s approval to allude to herself in “Famous.” Prior to, Taylor’s team had been publicly outraged over the sexualization of the popstar, going so far as to call it “revenge porn.”
The final straw was drawn in July when Kim posted the video of Taylor approving the lyrics. The internet went wild, with Kardashian fans filling Swift’s comment sections with snakes and creating a trending hashtag #KimExposedTaylorParty.
With both these public posts, Calvin and Kim started war, with celebrities sub-tweeting and liking tweets taking sides with either Kanye or Taylor. On top of all this, Scooter Braun has manager-like links to Kanye that deepened his personal feud with Taylor by encouraging this portrayal of her.
But who made her famous?
When it comes down to history, Taylor Swift brought Calvin’s song into the top hits, Tom’s name into headlines, Kim’s cover into the attention of the media, and Kanye’s song into relevancy. Undoubtedly, it is Taylor Swift who not only is to credit for her own fame but, the fame of all of these celebrities. Without her brand name attached to their songs or tweets, they would have never achieved the level of headlines and success they did.
Taylor would go on to add these celebrities to her “list,” their names in red, underlined.
And the world moved on, another day another drama.
