About

Taylor Swift is an American singer-songwriter who is known for her best-selling country pop songs and a massive fan following among the tween and teen demographics. On the web, the pop star has been often discussed on celebrity gossip and entertainment news sites, mainly due to her high-profile relationships, while being targeted by trolls and anti-fans seeking to taint her innocent public image.

Online History

In early 2002, Swift's family launched her official home page on TaylorSwift.com^[1], hosting MP3 files of Swift singing cover songs and information about upcoming performances. By age 12, Swift began writing her own songs and within two years, Swift and her family had moved from their home in Pennsylvania to Nashville, Tennessee so she could pursue a music career. She released her self-titled debut album^[2] in 2006 when she was 16, which has since been certified Gold in the UK, Platinum in Australia and Canada and 5x Platinum in the United States. Of the album’s 11 songs, Swift wrote three of them herself, including the third single “Our Song” (shown below), whose music video has been viewed nearly 70.7 million times on YouTube.

In November 2007, a Facebook fan page^[5] was created for Swift, gaining more than 49.5 million likes as of October 2013. TaylorFan.org^[7], the first major fan site for her music, was launched in April 2008. Swift's official VEVO YouTube channel^[6] was launched on May 11th, 2009, attracting more than 6.2 million subscribers and 1.7 billion views, averaging nearly 1.1 million views per day as of October 2013. In February 2010, one of the first single topic Tumblr blogs^[9] dedicated to sharing photos of the singer daily was created, followed by the launch of a fan-made subreddit^[8] that March.

Open Letter to Apple

On June 21st, 2015, Swift posted an open letter to Apple on Tumblr^[26] about why she would be withholding her album 1989 from their upcoming music streaming service Apple Music. In the letter, Swift criticizes the company for refusing to pay artists for music streamed during the planned free trial period (shown below).

That morning, the Tumblr post reached the front page of the /r/Music^[32] subreddit. Several hours later, Apple senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue posted a tweet^[27] announcing the company had reversed its decision and would pay artists for all music streamed during the free trial (shown below, left). Additionally, Cue tweeted^[28] an acknowledgement to Swift's and indie artist's concerns (shown below, right).

That day, Swift tweeted^[29] that she was "elated and relieved" and thanked fans for their words of support. In response to the reversal, many Twitter users tweeted jokes asking Swift to solve their other problems, including wiping student loan debt and ending racism (shown below).^[30][31]

Also on June 21st, the photography blog Junction10 Photography^[33] published an "open response" to Swift, accusing the pop star of hypocrisy for making photographers sign away the rights to their work. In the coming days, many news outlets published articles about open letter, including The Daily What,^[34] BBC,^[35] The New York Times,^[36] CNN,^[37] Forbes,^[38] The Guardian,^[39] Time^[40] and Wired.^[41]

Feud With Nicki Minaj

After MTV announced the nominations for their annual Video Music Awards in July 2015, which included Swifts video for "Bad Blood" for Music Video of the Year, rapper Nicki Minaj posted a series of tweets criticizing the award ceremony for nominating videos featuring "women with very slim bodies." The tweets resulting in a short Twitter feud between Minaj and Swift, in which Swift later apologized for misinterpreting Minaj's intention.

Groping Trial

In June 2013, Disc Jockey David Mueller allegedly physically assaulted Taylor Swift by reaching under her skirt and grabbing her buttocks during a meet-and-greet photo op. Mueller first sued the singer in 2015 on the basis of slander and for getting him fired from his job at KYGO. Swift quickly counter-sued, stating that Mueller had physically assaulted her while they were posing for a photo and also denied her involvement in his firing.

The incident first received public attention when Taylor Swift was dismissed from Jury duty August 2016, after she said she was unable to be an impartial jury member in an aggravated rape, kidnapping and domestic abuse trial due to her own experience with sexual harassment.

The Mueller v. Swift trial began on August 7th, 2017, with testimonies from both Swift and Mueller. Mueller denied groping her and sued for 3 million in damages while Swift counter sued for sexual assault and a symbolic $1 in damages in the civil suit.

The meet and greet photo of Taylor Swift, David Mueller, and his then girlfriend from 2013 leaked on October 2016 and is a key evidential piece in the trial. In the photo, Mueller’s hand appears to be under her skirt where he allegedly groped her.

On August 10th, 2017, Swift testified and said “he was in the process of grabbing my ass, yes.” when asked about the photo in her testimony. Swift continued describing the incident in her testimony saying "He latched onto my bare ass cheek, and I lurched away uncomfortably.” "The first few milliseconds I thought it was a mistake, but his hand would not let go of my ass cheek." "It was a definite grab. A very long grab.” said the pop star. Swift’s bodyguard and photographer were key witnesses in the trial, saying they saw Mueller touch her inappropriately.

Verdict

On August 14th, 2017, Swift won her $1 countersuit against David Mueller in the Denver, Colorado federal court. Swift issued the following statement after winning, “I want to thank Judge William J. Martinez and the jury for their careful consideration, my attorneys Doug Baldridge, Danielle Foley, Jay schaudies and Katie Wright for fighting for me and anyone who feels silenced by a sexual assault, and especially anyone who offered their support throughout this four-year ordeal and two-year long trial process.” Swift continued, “I acknowledge the privilege that I benefit from in life, in society and in my ability to shoulder the enormous cost of defending myself in a trial like this. My hope is to help those whose voices should also be heard. Therefore, I will be making donations in the near future to multiple organizations that help sexual assault victims defend themselves."

Swift received overwhelming support on social media with fans praising her for speaking up against sexual assault. Swift hopes the trial “serves as an example to other women who may resist publicly reliving similar outrageous and humiliating acts” On twitter, celebrities including Kesha, Nelly Furtado, and James Corden shared supportive messages to the pop star.

Political Endorsements

On October 7th, 2018, Swift posted to Instagram announcing that she would be voting for Democrats Phil Bresden for Senator and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives. She stated that while she has been "reluctant" to voice her political opinions in the past, "several events in (her) life and in the world in the past two years" caused her to feel "very differently about that now." She also stated:

I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country. I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent.

The post gained over 1.5 million likes in less than 24 hours.^[56] The post was covered by multiple media outlets, including Huffington Post,^[57] NBC News,^[58] and Washington Post.^[59] Many compared the statement to Kanye West's recent political support of Donald Trump. On /r/BlackPeopleTwitter, tweets from people surprised they found themselves aligned with Swift over Kanye West gained tens of thousands of points, including tweets by @H0ustonPA (17,000 points. Shown below, left), @kashanacauley (38,000 points. Shown below, middle), and @eclecticbrotha (26,000 points. Shown below, right).

Fandom

In November 2007, a Facebook fan page^[5] was created for Swift, gaining more than 49.5 million likes as of October 2013. TaylorFan.org^[7], the first major fan site for her music, was launched in April 2008. Swift's official VEVO YouTube channel^[6] was launched on May 11th, 2009, attracting more than 6.2 million subscribers and 1.7 billion views, averaging nearly 1.1 million views per day as of October 2013. In February 2010, one of the first single topic Tumblr blogs^[9] dedicated to sharing photos of the singer daily was created, followed by the launch of a fan-made subreddit^[8] that March.

Taylor Swift's Biggest Fan Contest

Taylor Swift's Biggest Fan Contest was an online voting contest held by Boston radio station Kiss 108 FM in July 2013. Fans were encouraged to submit 137-character essays about why they were Swift's biggest fan, which would then be voted on by other internet users in order to win a meet-and-greet with the pop star at a local concert. An entry written by 39-year-old Charles Z. was linked to 4chan on July 15th by an anonymous user who asked other posters to spare a vote for him. By July 16th, Charles Z. had taken the lead, however, Kiss 108 cancelled the event on July 19th, stating that it had been "compromised."

"Aryan Goddess"

In 2013, Pinterest^[43] user Emily Pattinson began posting troll quotes that feature images of Swift captioned with various quotes attributed to Adolf Hitler (shown below). On August 30th, BuzzFeed^[44] published an article about the Pinterest page, followed by the Internet humor blog Smosh^[42] the next month.

On August 20th, 2014, the white supremacist news site The Daily Stormer^[46] published an article titled "Aryan Goddess Taylor Swift Accused of Racism for Behaving Like an Ape in a Music Video." On December 15th, 2015, The Daily Stormer^[47] referred to Swift as "an Aryan Supergoddess" in an article titled "Memification: Top Feminist Calls Taylor Swift a Nazi." On March 12th, 2016, a Facebook^[45] page titled "Taylor Swift for Fascist Europe" was launched, gathering more than 20,800 likes in the next three months. On May 11th, Breitbart^[42] published an article by technology editor Milo Yiannopoulos, which outlined how Swift gained a significant online following among members of the alt-right. On May 23rd, Vice^[48] published an article titled "Can't Shake it Off: How Taylor Swift Became a Nazi Idol." The following day, NPR^[49] published an article about Swift's white supremacist fandom titled "Taylor Swift, Aryan Goddess?"

Taylor Swift’s Belly Button

Taylor Swift’s Belly Button is a popular topic of online discussions and obsession among the fans of the singer and her belly button, mainly due to the celebrity’s long-standing reluctance towards wearing clothes that expose her navel. The topic was first brought to mass attention in August 2014 after New York Magazine published an article titled “There’s No Proof Taylor Swift Has a Belly Button."

Related Memes

Kanye Interrupts

Kanye Interrupts, also known as I'mma Let You Finish, refers to the on-air mishap that occurred during Swift's acceptance speech for Best Female Video during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards when Kanye West stormed on stage, taking the microphone from her to declare Beyonce had “one of the best music videos of all time.” After the incident, viewers began photoshopping images of Kanye interrupting other things, during his speech into a snowclone template to create appropriate captions.

I Knew You Were Trouble

I Knew You Were Trouble is the title of the third single from Swift's 2012 studio album Red. In February 2013, the high-pitched chorus of the song became a popular subject for audio-spliced mashup songs and parodies featuring similarly high-pitched notes sampled from a range of viral videos. On February 3rd, 2013, YouTuber Goosik uploaded the first remix of the song, editing audio from the Yelling Goat video into its dubstep-influenced chorus (shown below). As of October 2013, there are more than 165,000 search results on YouTube for "I Knew You Were Trouble parody."^[3]

Feminist Taylor Swift

Feminist Taylor Swift^[4] is a novelty Twitter account that parodies Swift's song lyrics, turning them into feminist commentary. The account was created by Rhode Island-based blogger Clara Beyer on June 12th, 2013 and began with a tweet parodying lyrics from the 2009 single "You Belong With Me". Within two days, the account accrued more than 7,100 followers and has broken more than 112,000 followers as of October 2013.

"Shake It Off"

On August 18th, 2014, the TaylorSwiftVEVO YouTube channel released the music video for Swift's song "Shake It Off," featuring scenes in which Swift wears costumes while performing a variety of dances, including ballet, break dance, twerking and cheerleading (shown below).

The same day, rapper Earl Sweatshirt from the group Odd Future posted several tweets condemning Swift's video for "perpetuating black stereotypes" and for being “inherently offensive and ultimately harmful," while admitting he hadn't watched the video (shown below).

The same day, the women's interest blog Jezebel published an article criticizing Swift's video for being a "cringeworthy mess." Also on August 18th, Tumblr^[19] user Orhgasm defended Swift in a post claiming that nothing about the video was racist. In the first 24 hours, the post gained over 1,500 notes. Meanwhile, Mashable^[14] published a compilation of Twitter reactions to the music video. In the coming days, several other news sites published articles about the video controversy, including The Daily Dot,^[15] Daily Beast,^[16] Metro ^[17]and Billboard.^[18]

No, It's Becky

In April 2012, Tumblr user Yallarebrutalizingme^[23] uploaded a black-and-white picture of a young Taylor Swift with a description claiming that the girl depicted in photograph was her friend in high school who supposedly died from overdose after snorting marijuana at a party one night. Soon, Tumblr user bitch-pudding^[24] re-blogged the photograph with a comment rebutting that it is a high school photograph of Taylor Swift, to which another Tumblr user dundermilfllin^[25] sarcastically responded by saying "no, it's becky" (shown below). In the following two years, the Tumblr post gained more than 175,000 notes, giving rise to the phrase as a popular in-joke among Taylor Swift's fans on the site.

Then on September 25th, 2014, about a week after Swift created her first Tumblr account, the singer posted a picture of herself wearing a T-Shirt which reads "no, it's Becky" to her Tumblr page.^[22] Within 24 hours, the post gained over 18,000 notes and the photograph of Swift wearing the t-shirt was covered by many entertainment news and celebrity gossip sites, including MTV News^[20] and PopCrush.^[21]

Taylor Swift™ No Copyright Infringement Intended

Taylor Swift™ No Copyright Infringement Intended is a phrase used to mock Taylor Swift’s aggressive pursuit defense of the copyright on her lyrics and name, most frequently on Tumblr, where users paste the copyright notice after using a number or phrase that can also be found in a Taylor Swift song or song title.

InfoSec Taylor Swift

InfoSec Taylor Swift (@SwiftOnSecurity) is a novelty Twitter account that offers humorous commentaries and advice on information security and cyberwarfare in the voice of Taylor Swift. The account was launched in April 2014 with a helpful tip on how to protect one's computer from The HeartBleed Bug.

"Bad Blood" Cover Parodies

On May 17th 2015, Taylor Swift released a music video for her single "Bad Blood" during the Billboard Music Awards, but had been releasing promotional images for several weeks prior, as she revealed the many celebrities who were joining the video's cast. Taylor Swift fans quickly began to parody these images, which were styled in the manner of an action film.

#IDumpedTaylorSwiftBecause

On June 1st, 2016, E! News^[50] reported that Swift had broken up with DJ Calvin Harris after dating for nearly a year and a half. On June 3rd, the hashtag #IDumpedTaylorSwiftBecause^[54] began trending on Twitter, accompanied by joke tweets containing humorous reasons to break up with the pop star (shown below). That day, the news sites Mic,^[52] TeenVogue^[53] and Refinery 29^[51] published articles accusing the hashtag of being driven by sexism and misogyny.

Anti-Fandom

The Taylor Swift Anti-Fandom often criticize her insincerity to the public along with her dating life. Swift is criticized for being a serial dater and involving herself in public disputes with other celebrities. The anti-fandom also condemn her image on a political stance claiming she is "feminist’s nightmare."^[55]

Taylor Swift Is Over

“Taylor Swift is Over" is an expression spread online by critics of Taylor Swift, speculating that her career in the music industry has come to an end. The phrase began circulating after her ex-boyfriend and music producer Calvin Harris claimed that Swift had been trying to tarnish his reputation over their collaboration on Harris’ 2016 house song “This is What You Came For.”

Taylor Swift Is a Satanist Clone

Taylor Swift Is a Satanist clone is a celebrity conspiracy theory which posits that the American singer-songwriter is a clone of Zeena Schreck, a Berlin-based American artist and musician who had served as the High Priestess and the spokesperson of the Church of Satan, mainly due to the perceived resemblance between the two.

Taylor Swift Is a Snake

Taylor Swift Is a Snake is a catchphrase used to smear the American pop singer-songwriter as a deceitful manipulator in the light of her post-breakup dispute with Calvin Harris, Scottish musician and her ex-boyfriend, as well as an unrelated controversy stemming from her reaction to the lyrics of Kanye West's 2016 rap single "Famous", both of which became high publicized in July 2016. The phrase is mainly used in the form of emoji and comment spamming on her Instagram account. Taylor later parodied this persona of her in the music video for her song Look What You Made Me Do.

Personal Life

Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13th, 1989 in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. At She received her first Grammy nomination in 2008, and the following year, her second album Fearless became the best-selling record of 2009. As of October 2013, she has released four studio albums and has won 179 awards^[10], including twelve Billboard Music Awards, eleven Country Music Awards and seven Grammy Awards. She is known for having many high-profile relationships^[11] with other musicians and actors including Joe Jonas, Twilight's Taylor Lautner and John Mayer. She also maintains active profiles on Twitter^[12] and Instagram^[13], where she has more than 35.7 million and 6.7 million followers respectively.

Search Interest

External References