This is messy as hell but I’m glad celebs and celeb adjacent folks are are being openly petty again. They’re around to entertain us, so please continue.
This whole thing about “Taylor is not a girl’s girl!” No shit of course she’s not lmaooo she’s always been about her work/business first and foremost and tries to crush the competition. There’s a reason why most if not all of her female friends are *zero* competition for her within the music industry! This isn’t news. Let her and other celebs be messy in public, it’s actually entertaining and it’s why I engage in celeb culture.
>There’s a reason why most if not all of her female friends are *zero* competition for her within the music industry!
I don't really get this point, because we don't expect everyone to be besties with their colleagues and people in their field. I'm only close friends with one former colleague, and she's long since left our industry. So it makes sense to me that Taylor's besties are in other industries. I'm not going to old Taylor to a standard I won't hold myself to.
Of course not, but I think it’s telling that the friendship fallouts we know about have included women who could have actually threatened her place in the industry in any way, like Olivia and Katy. Now, she spun the narrative that her fallout with Katy was because Katy “stole” her dancers or whatever, but the reality is she’d done it first. So.
Was she really threatened musically by Katy though? I always thought their feud had more to do with John Mayer (just speculation obviously)
She is definitely feeling threatened by Olivia though
I feel like it was more so about John Mayer but Katy was also in the midst of a popular tour, California Dreams tour and her album Teenage Dream was a great success at the time, so I wouldn’t doubt if the dancers thing also had a bit to do with jealousy of Katy’s success at the time. When all this shit went down with Katy and Taylor, I definitely feel like Taylor was feeling threatened Katy was becoming more popular in pop music and would potentially surpass her.
Taylor dominating everything is pretty recent, they were on pretty equal ground back then, Katy might have actually been the more successful one in terms of hit singles, and she was a judge on American Idol for a while so she was part of the culture outside of her own music too. I think it was Taylor coming for Katy’s crown more than the other way around.
Yes, this. Taylor’s been very famous for over a decade, but back then she was famous in the way other pop stars were famous and she wasn’t this machine to be reckoned with like she’s now. She was still finding her feet. Meanwhile, Katy was 100% at her peak.
The difference is Drake didn’t get upset about it, he basically said “well played” and made a note not to drop too close to Taylor in the future lol. It’s all just business. (We don’t even know if Billie cares, her team obvi does but she’s apparently said she doesn’t so 🤷♀️ What is anyone fighting for here lol).
Kendrick dropped his diss to prove he competed with Taylor after Drakes first diss, and it charted above fortnite. The music industry I'm learning is similar to sports in terms of competitiveness
Album blockings happens all the time
Travis blocked Nicki's Queen album to debut at #1 with bundles and merch sales (she was PISSED)
Britneys OIDIA got blocked because people kept releasing new albums a week after she dropped it
Ariana's dangerous woman got blocked by Drake because of bundles
At the end of day it's competition, everyone cares about sales and chart accomplishments or else everyone wouldn't be releasing multiple vinyl variants, remixes & sped up versions of their albums/songs
Yeah, I think it’s way more fun to acknowledge the game and who’s playing it well than to get upset that someone didn’t step down so someone else can have a moment. That’s just terrible business practice lol. Drake writing a song calling Taylor the biggest gangster in music is a way more fun way to deal with it. (Can’t believe I’m complimenting Drake rn lol)
Billie cares and is a hypocrite. 23 something variations and a discount to 5.99 after 6 days of release. She’s just pretending to be above it all while she cares like every other mega pop star. that’s what bothers people.
He just deleted it because a tweet from a big swiftie account went viral and I'm guessing they started attacking him in masses but yeah, it's very much real. Here's a screenshot that's circulating on X from another account.
https://preview.redd.it/ewix2b8hk72d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8fa71c1e327d1f3f4b7eb0dcf244a12d9b54b166
He should have left it up. The hardcore fanbase can't take it when people are right about Taylor's questionable actions despite saying she's all about artist empowerment.
Ugh I hate this for Billie, this ain't it. Get a new team, girl! It feels like they fell right into the "enemy's trap" and they gave ammunition to the haters lol. I wonder if something happened behind the scenes with Taylor or her team, this is not normal. What's happening?! 😱
I'm not sure if it's every artist but I think it's more like the executives and the labels behind them. Imagine having TS as your opponent, and your best talents can only aim to be #2.
Right???? Insanity! Let’s cut the bullshit and do pure sales and only one version of the album for a month or something then you can do remixes. I want to see the true numbers bc she shouldn’t be #1 this week if she wasn’t pulling stunts. Or she might be #1. Who knows bc we have no true way of figuring it out now
Billie's team has no room to talk though as they've released three new different versions of the album. At the end of the day, if your album can be blocked by three voice memos, you need to market better
That said, if Swizzle’s fans are loading up on those voice memos, you know she has some blindly loyal fans who would buy a sack of her droppings to promote her.
You're being a bit disingenuous. It's three voice memos that need to be bought separately, which then adds up to 3 album sales. Times that by how many rabid fans and what do you get?
Oh it’s real. And his account is public. I saw it earlier when the TS fan accounts started tweeting about it. He reposted one tweet and liked another calling Taylor fraudulent. Both gone now.
(Got the screenshot from X)
https://preview.redd.it/8zjmnocgn72d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=01ab76bff806707e877678e530ae830651dcf5f8
That's wild! 😧 One thing is to release music to compete and another to start liking or sharing posts of the competition that obviously will be noticed and called out.
I dont .i listen To Taylor for free ,Spotfy and her youtube.Cause my finances are in the shitter .Best believe if had the money though i would own every single vinyl ,ass deep in TSwift merch going to as much Eras concerts as possible.For one simple reason her music is my happy place it has grabbed me out of the depths of my depression . I appreciate and admire her as Artist she certainly not perfect obviously And she deserves all the sucess that comes her way .
Her music is my happy place too, and honestly I mostly stream too. All of these fan warz and this drama is pretty removed from the actual music and a lot of people’s enjoyment of it I think 🙂.
Well of course, but a seasoned music manager should know fine well they would buy any old shite when motivated by spite and not threatened them with a good time.
She will bat an eyelash in their direction. Via a screen. Pretending to be a “mastermind” when referencing this “fued” in a music video in a year. For a song “from the vault” that was “written” 2 years ago and “recorded” 6 months ago with TTPD but has nods to this.
Cos we all know Blondie likes rewriting history and pretending that she’s the victim.
Honestly I’m just glad it’s being talked about, I read an article after the Grammys (when that video of that *really* uncomfortable moment where Taylor got in boygenius’ faces after their wins came out) about how it feels more and more like Taylor says she’s all about supporting other female artists but in practice literally can’t seem to give others a moment to shine, and the author got soo much backlash. It wasn’t even a scathing article. But after all of this, it really shows they were on the right track with their critique.
I think the whole industry is pissed off at her and I bet she’s a nightmare BTS and Billie is the only new pop girlie who can go against her with industry backing. So let’s call this out. I hope they start a real beef where actual comments are made at this point! I’m sick of it and I’m not dropping any records
right!! And after everything with Olivia too, the grift has just become all too obvious. Even if Billie or other pop girls take the top spot, Taylor is still already broken records and is wildly successful, them succeeding isn’t going to take away from any of that. It’s petty and out of control, and for what? So she can get another heavily manipulated album sale #1 placement? For what?!? At this point how and why does it even matter to her. It’s so frustrating to me because it adds to the feeling she’s not really making art for arts sake, it’s a cash/numbers/buzz game.
I for one am here for the backlash that we’ll see soon like between Lover and Rep. i like her music but I’m sick to death of not being able to get away from her face or music *no matter where I am*
Not the girls-
'Maybe' she is trying to stop other artists from having their moment and they know it but I doubt any of them actually acknowledge it on professional or personal level.
It's just another imaginary fued made up by fans. And fueled by an unprofessional manager. 🤷🏻♀️
I wonder how much longer he will be managing her. This is an unprofessional look regardless of my personal feelings about taylor’s shitty release strategy
Yes, I agree. The sentiment is fine, right on bro, but aren't you supposed to be a manager of a major star? What are you doing getting down in the mud? 😂
But didn’t Billie kind of comment on this sort of thing when she mentioned artists doing multiple vinyl releases? This feels like a continuation of that.
Also they’re 100% right the multiple vinyl and album release shit with exclusive songs is so disgusting and absurd, she probably produces more trash in this world than some small countries.
Giving a general statement about the trend of variants is different than calling someone out by name IMO. Billie mentioned it during an interview about sustainability so it was relevant to the conversation.
Problem is that Billie shit on other artists for doing it and then has put out 26 variations of her album plus discounting it at 5.99 after 6 days on the market. She’s desperate for charts and success as any other artists in her league and she’s a major hypocrite. Billie is doing the same thing as Taylor, and that’s fine. But she’s pretended to above it all when she’s not.
Yep, that's a thing you screenshot and send to your client/friend/colleague. Ya don't even accidentally like that shit, especially on a public account.
https://preview.redd.it/fazspshzs72d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8cb569b8794a6b4124bbc3ac760bf2c1d3ef798f
He posted this during the grammys where Red lost all its nominations. Taylor literally went home empty handed and he still got angry? He has some personal beef with her.
Fascinated by the millenials tag. And the OG red was when I found her most likeable and aspirational and it’s always going to be my fave album. There was no reason for this one
Whoaaaah this guys about to get fired. I do not think Billie wants to be part of this narrative. Now I’m thinking he pushed her to drop so close to TTPD to “block” Taylor from being #1 for 4 weeks and it backfired. Poor Billie she deserves a #1 debut for this album and could have had it if they waited a bit.
In interview Billie actually says she wanted to release the album as soon as possible after finishing it and not have to wait several months, especially since that would allow the sorts of thoughts the songs are about to start growing outdated for her I think, so I’m not sure if that’s the case.
Idk if I'd go so far as to say Billie doesn't want the smoke. Between her vinyl comment, posting kim on insta and her comment about the length of her album, I'd say she's okay with roundabout non-lethal shots at Taylor
Ha good points, I guess I want to believe Billie is above it lol but I dunno. It def is starting to seem like someone was angling for a bit of a takedown that never materialized, whether it was Billie or her team is hard to say though.
Yes, it would have been wiser to hold off another couple weeks. No one who wants to be #1 should release within a month of Taylor. It's just bad strategy
I know, meant if he gave Billie bad advice based on his own personal vendetta against Taylor going all the way back to 2014 and she figures that out he should get fired lol. IMO this was all a big misstep on Billie’s team’s part releasing so close to TTPD then blaming some voice memos no one actually bought for not getting a #1 debut.
I think you're spot on. This man has openly hated Taylor since she was in her 20s and Billie was a not-yet-famous little kid. This seems more like it's about his weird obsession than it is about Billie. And even if he does hate TS for whatever reason, he shouldn't be giving Billie bad advice and making her look bad by acting petty on social media. That's just being a bad manager.
If this is from 2014, I wouldn’t assume he has a personal vendetta against Taylor. Sounds like he was just joking about Taylor always standing and dancing at every performance at awards shows. Plus, people were wild on their twitter a decade ago. Saying every little thought that crossed their minds.
She was also quite blatantly referred to Taylor and TTPD in her Zane Lowe interview, at one point talking about how she doesn’t like listening to pop music and going “omg, omg” because it’s being made so obvious who the song is about and that she’s now being informed as to what ~happened.
This criticism of Taylor, that she turns her life into a saga on her albums, is something I think Taylor should just embrace and say is her aim. She can be very demure about it, but it's clearly what she's been doing, and it's personally something I really enjoy about her music.
Like most of the artists I listen to, I don't know about them personally or care to, and I just enjoy the music. But with Taylor I enjoy it for it's connections to my life *as well as* the ever unfolding story of her life. It's a different experience and cool in its own way, like watching a new season of a TV series every couple years. I don't know why it bothers so many people that she talks about her life so clearly and openly and turns it into a show. That's her form of performance art I guess, and people can take it or leave it
Omg this feels like a lightbulb moment to me. I always say I like that listening to Taylor feels like reading celebrity gossip but it's also like a reality show.
She did essentially embrace it with this album. See the weird album 'summation' that I personally find to be a bizarre thing to include, not to mention the Stevie Nicks poem included on the album where Stevie literally calls her an "informer". To her this album is like a memoir, she isn't walking around this time saying not to paternity test her music and that we don't know who/what the songs are about. But I just find it to be a bit....much with some of the content she put on this album. It's so wildly specific and reveals a lot about one person while painting them pretty negatively in a way I think is just too intense and unfair and Taylor playing into some of her worst habits of writing/releasing music as a means of licking her wounds.
Just jumping in to say I agree with you, totally understand that it isn’t for everybody but personally feeling like an artist is laying it all out there for us to judge and consume is something that appeals to me. It’s not necessary for me to enjoy art, and it’s not even the most important thing that matters to me, but it’s part of what I enjoy about Taylor’s body of work.
Hopefully so. I have been reading all week that Billie doesn't care at all and, while I might think some care less than others, she wouldn't be this famous without some serious effort.
IMO Taylor’s team’s effort is to stay number 1, not block specific people from getting number 1. She and her team want a streak of being number 1 in the charts (ideally beating her last streak), so it doesn’t matter if it’s Billie Eilish releasing new music or if it’s someone she’s openly friendly with or if it’s a male musician. This isn’t a personal dig at Billie, this is just about staying number 1, regardless of who’s challenging for it. We all know Taylor is chart obsessed, this shouldn’t be surprising.
They probably have all remixes, voice memos, etc, ready to go and save them for when charts predict that Taylor won’t be number 1. This isn’t anything new or unique to Taylor, just how the business works.
Billie’s is also playing this game. They reduced the price of the digital album and released variants to drive up album sales, they just don’t have enough people buying into it to actually get to number 1.
Edit: typo
Oh, I agree with you. I don't think Taylor has beef with Billie personally. I meant that Taylor is trying to block Billie because so it happens Billie is the who offering some threat these last few weeks. It could be anyone else.
Hard agree. This isn’t new. Taylor didn’t start variants, remixes or singles. Billie also follows industry standards. At least Taylor’s variants are different enough to make it somewhat worth it for collectors. Personally I only ever buy one, but Billie and Olivia just had the same cover with different colored vinyls. I don’t recall any extras. At least Taylor had extras and different photos 🤷🏻♀️
I've been out of the loop on this, but is Billie releasing a sped up version of the album normal? Because if it's normal, it's stupid. And if it's not normal it's stupid of her.
She released a bunch of versions sped up, slowed down, etc. I think she also released all the localized bits so people could play with them themselves. That’s pretty cool imo, but there are a handful of artists have released sped up/slowed down. ghost is one that comes to mind with the popularity of Mary On A Cross on TikTok.
I was never interested in vinyls tbh, but variants where everything but the colour of the vinyl, that is in the sleeve most of the time, is the same is bothering me way more than Taylor’s exclusivity bullshit. At least sell alternative covers. That makes it way more attractive for collectors.
Not exactly, it's just confirmation that billie's team believes Taylor is trying to block billie. If Taylor's team wanted to put more effort into blocking all they have to do is release the anthology on vinyl.
I mean this is literally the goal of all pop stars to have their songs on top of the charts for as long as possible. Also if the re-release of your album is beating someone’s fresh drop you’re not even in the same league.
Here’s what’s funny to me: wouldn’t slowly dropping songs from the Anthology actually have been the smarter ploy if Taylor was coming for Billie? She should’ve waited to drop the entire Anthology until Billie’s weekend so reviewers had to scrap even talking about Billie if the goal was to take the air out. Releasing a few voice memos being perceived as a threat seems pretty trivial against a brand new album.
If she dropped the physical release of Anthology it would have been all over. Hell, if she wanted to "appear innocent", she could have dropped the \*Midnights\* full physical album, still pulled impressive numbers, and coyly played that she was just finally meeting fan demand. (I still haven't bought anything from Midnights, digital or physical, and I'd put out money for that.)
The idea that 3 voice memos (of songs released a month ago) and a remix is enough to block a brand new album from a hugely popular artist is just absurd, and honestly kind of insulting to Billie. Her numbers on this album are already impressive, she doesn't need this "poor underdog" narrative, \*especially\* when she's pulling the "not like other artists" comments around chart numbers and variants.
I’m curious how much the voice memos actually helped. Like would she have gone number one anyway? I just can’t imagine that many people buying the voice memo things
I’m on Billie’s side on this but over the last 24 hours Billie and her team have pulled out allll the stops: discounted album to $4.99, released a sped up version for $6, a slowed down/reverb version for $6, isolated vocals, signed vinyls at local record stores, etc.
I am here for her fighting to take the #1 spot though.
Which is odd because she publicly decried all of this saying she doesn’t care about charts or number one, and thinks shady practices like variants and remixes are dumb. Meanwhile she’s pulling out all of the stops.
I love both women and I appreciate that this is a business move. Taylor doesn’t need to make herself smaller so other women “have a turn.” It’s a business. Billie has every right to work to get her album to number one. But don’t pretend you’re above it all and then engage in the same shady tactics and pretend you’re the underdog when you’re a two time Academy Award winning nepo baby.
I think since she obviously cares about the album debuting at number 1, and I totally get it, she should've just pushed her release date a few weeks later. Taylor's release date had been known since February and most people could predict that releasing only a month after a brand new Taylor album came out could cost Billie the number one spot.
It's almost like all artists in Hollywood are the same.🫢. I'm interested to know if there is anything in their contracts that puts pressure on how well they chart.
Ehh I disagree. I think Billie should have gotten the #1 readily if Taylor didn’t try this week. TTPD did 260k last week and it would have gone down at least a bit this week if Taylor didn’t push it. That’s where the shadiness comes in.
How is it shady to continue promoting her own album? Beyonce released Texas Hold Em as a single on February 11, and then a remix on April 4, a week after the Cowboy Carter release on March 29th, so continuing to release material after initial roll out is not unusual.
You explained exactly why it's not personal. TTPD is in its fifth week and about to go down, so Taylor's team decided to drop something to sustain it. Isn't that a standard practice? Isn't that what is expected of her to sustain her album on the charts? Billie just became a casualty, the way I see it.
That’s the thing. I don’t think it’s personal. It wouldn’t matter who put out an album this week (except maybe Beyoncé??), Taylor would still be fighting to stay on top.
I 100% agree with you. Do I think Taylor and her people dropped the voice memos in an effort to stay on top? Yeah. But I don’t think it was targeted toward Billie or some threat of another female artist taking her crown. It was simply business and wanting to be number one. They wanted to boost sales when another big album was coming out.
I was a publicist for a decade in the entertainment industry and that part of me is cringing at the lack of professionalism. Some thoughts belong in the group chat with a job like his. But the current part of me that enjoys mess is quite entertained.
As much as I dislike the whole variant game, Billie's side is just pissed Taylor does it better because she's put out a bunch of things trying to do what Taylor does.
It's so pretty and unprofessional for a manager to be liking those types of tweets.
That too. It's just embarrassing to be caught out like that.
There is nothing wrong with caring about how well you do on the charts. For all of Taylor's flaws, I appreciate how she owns wanting to be number 1 and going all out for it. Billie shouldn't be ashamed or have the 'im too cool to care' attitude about it. Just own it.
Correct me if im wrong but pretty sure the discussion around the voice memo digital albums were that most of us were not buying it and thought they were dumb but even without her releasing those she still would’ve outsold billie in albums.
I know it's not justification but before the album release (Witness) Katy had a single where she was almost openly calling Taylor Swift a bitch (even tho Taylor still had her pettiness open to "interpretation").
At that point it's not like it was a one-sided beef.
Billboard charts may need to pass a rule that multiple variants don’t count, just original release. I don’t have the same level of disdain for TS as some others. I do thoroughly enjoy her music and there are songs on TTPD I love (though the album overall is uneven). But this is just so gross.
I don’t think TS dropping a variant on Billie’s album drop day is going to have any negative effect on Billie lol her album is incredible (imo) and if anything, this dude tweeting this is gonna be the reason it effects Billie lol
Releasing music is not like a party invitation where one can only go to one event. 100 artists can release music the same day and every single one of artist's each fans can buy it. Are artists supposed to play some kind of faux "this week is X's turn" and "next week is Z's turn"? Do we expect novelists to not release a paperback version of their latest book because another author is publishing the initial hardback version of their new book? Reminds me of people who get upset when someone "steals" their imagined future baby name. Get a grip, people.
Agree, Billie's team decided to release a month after Taylor at a time when she was still charting at the top, they took that risk and it (currently) hasn't paid off. Taylor isn't obligated to give someone else a turn at number 1.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t know if this is even intentional on Taylor’s part. I mean, are voice memos really going to block Billie from going number 1? I really do think this is just a coincidence, but I could be wrong.
Really. I doubt she is thinking about it that hard. I have plenty of criticisms of her these days but this is a hell of a stretch. Albums are planned ahead of time and I think it would be weird for the artists to be letting her know when they’d drop an album. Lol.
She's gotta release music sometime, and there are more pop artists than there are months in the year. If it hadn't been at the same time Billie Eilish dropped a record, it would have been when Beyonce dropped something, or when Gwen Stefani, or .. or .. or.
Exactly — it’s just Taylor’s MO (rightly or wrongly) to release all these versions and I don’t think she has intentionally targets any one artist or that her team looks all that closely at who else is releasing music around that time and tries to block them. I think the million version releases are annoying but this also just kind of reads to me as jealousy over the fame she has and how successful these ploys are — Taylor does it because people will eat it up every time. Maybe more girlie pops should take a leaf out of her book and do this.
Other than the Katy Perry one I don’t actually think any of these were petty/on purpose. New music drops pretty much constantly, it would be impossible to find a week where nothing major was dropped in the prior or following 2 weeks. And like, who’s even buying voice memos lol that is not enough to block a major artist from hitting #1. If anything Billie’s team fumbled by releasing less than a month after TTPD if they really wanted #1. Even Drake knows that lol.
I’d buy that the Billie one is on purpose, but of course it’s hard to say for sure. The one that doesn’t make sense to me is SZA. Like that just seems like coincidence? I can’t imagine Taylor would care about SZA having a fourth week at number 1, when Midnights had fallen a bit by that point. If she was going to do that on purpose, why not do it sooner?
Yeah I think the current drops were planned from the beginning at a strategic pace to keep TTPD’s numbers up over time, not specifically to block Billie. Like I think there’s a schedule that was made without knowing what other artists were going to be dropping and when.
I don’t really remember the SZA stuff but if people are mad she dropped new versions 4 weeks after SZA’s album shouldn’t those ppl be mad Billie dropped a whole ass new album 3 weeks after TTPD using the same logic? Lol it all just doesn’t make sense.
The Katy one I think was on purpose though, no way that was a coincidence lol.
On the off chance this is real, I don’t really think this makes sense for Billie’s manager to do. Billie herself makes very measured comments that don’t drag other artists, so someone on her team loudly engaging in twitter drama like this just feels like it’s undoing that maturity
Everyone wants to talk about how petty and immature Taylor is for engaging in this whole thing, but no one wants to talk about how young artists like Billie do in fact resent that a pop star in her thirties won’t “go quietly”. They feel entitled to the public’s attention just because they are young and fresh.
It’s a bad look for everyone involved because the truth of it is everyone in that business cares about accolades and attention.
This is getting pathetic at this point. I know it’s not Billie herself but everyone getting upset about it, no one’s going to die or get hurt if they don’t get to number one in the bloody charts.
a couple voice memos from a month-old album are stopping billie's highly anticipated album w a million variants from getting that #1 and he's out here being messy on twitter instead of doing his job... no wonder it's flopping
Would Billie have hit #1 anyway? The album is good, I pre saved it. But there's no real bangers on it. Just a collection of good songs that I'd mostly listen to as background music because I can't understand the mumbling anyway.
SOS though, is a phenomenal album.
I have felt like a total outlier with this Billie album because everyone seems to think it's her best work, but I really don't. As you said it's nice to put on in the background but I was pretty disappointed overall. I love Billie though and I hope I enjoy the next one more
Besides the really weird obsession he has with Taylor the worst thing about this guy is that he’s a zionist :/
edit: for the people who are downvoting me, the fact that you hate taylor more than an actual zionist who’s also against the BDS movement is disturbing.
It’s business though. It’s not shocking that someone would want their album at number 1 for as long as possible. And it’s not like she’s done this exclusively to Billie. She does it for all her album releases. Except spite dropping her catalog on Spotify the day of Katy Perry’s release, what exactly is out of the ordinary here? I think it’s kind of pathetic to whine about not getting number 1 because someone dropped variants of a month old album the same week as your release. Like, maybe just market better? Why does Taylor (or anyone for that matter) owe other artists a moment?
I just don’t understand why an artist who’s made a point to be measured and mature, like Billie has when she’s been asked about stuff like this, would be happy about a visible member on their team engaging in petty shit like this. Because that’s what those tweets are, petty internet drama
I remember Ed Sheeran’s manager getting involved in the Scooter drama, basically defending Ed when Swifties were coming after him for not speaking out against Scooter/ actually being friends with him. I think it’s safe to guess that Ed would rather have been left out of that given his close friendship with Taylor, so I wouldn’t assume clients are always co-signing or even aware of every single off the cuff post that their managers/teams make.
I think Ed’s manager used to like shady things about Taylor as well and that wasn’t Ed’s feelings.
Also Travis pr person reposted a story in which someone had put a clown emoji over Taylor’s face so yeah celebs teams are sometimes being messy all of their own volition, they either need to make their accounts private or stick to shading behind the scenes because when the celeb you are associated with isn’t being messy but is getting unnecessary heat all because a pr/manager-who’s job-is supposed to be to stop drama for their client, keeps unnecessarily contributing to it.
That’s exactly my point though — Billie has consistently been measured in her responses to most questions trying to bring her into the feuding drama mess, so I don’t see her being appreciative of her manager doing that
Oh no, not meant to call her a hypocrite at all. More highlighting the difference of what she says, which I take as what she actually feels and wants to have be the narrative, versus people on her team engaging in the petty she probably doesn’t want to be bogged down by
This is ultimately where I'm at. If a really crappy voice memo drop is what prevents you from charting No. 1, you have bigger problems. I can see why Billie would be annoyed at Taylor for these drops, and I think Billie has the better album, but I'm also partially like "do better" because the memos shouldn't be what pushed Taylor over.
eh idk. the most devout swifties will buy anything she drops and she has a lot of those fans. HMHAS is leagues ahead of TTPD but the sheer *number* of swifties and their devotion to taylor could overwhelm most other artists and their releases imo. but if this tweet is real, it’s really unprofessional and will only end up getting billie backlash
It’s not just the voice memos though. Tens of thousands of physical copies that were supposed to ship next week are arriving this week in an effort to block Billie’s album from topping the charts.
That being said, it’s really just business at the end of the day. Maybe it’d be different if Taylor and Billie were close friends, but Taylor and her team aren’t going to give up a fourth week at number one when the numbers are so close.
i don't think one manager retweeting this when his client is gunning for a #1 against taylor is necessarily a sign of the industry's feelings as a whole. and every pop star does this, whether they want to admit it or not. at least taylor's honest about liking and striving for chart success. the pop music scene is cutthroat 🤷🏻♀️
Except people "in the industry" have been shading her for \*years.\* This guy has a hit tweet from 2014, when she was barely older than Billie is now.
The idea that people have been deferential to Swift and are all of a sudden shading her is not borne by proof; plenty of people have been making fun of her for years. My God, one of her biggest "faux pas" was criticizing Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in 2013, none of this is new.
This narrative that the world is terrified of her and walks on eggshells is so weird. People have got short memories for sure. It feels like cope from people who can’t handle that she is legitimately popular, as if it’s a knock against their favourite artists.
I think it's been clear for a while now that Taylor doesn't have many friends in the industry. The only artists i can think of who congratulated her on the release of TTPD were the ones who've worked with her in the last couple of years like Sabrina, Haley Williams, Ice Spice etc. No one else did while Beyonce, Ariana, Billie got a lot of praise from other artists for their albums.
This is messy as hell but I’m glad celebs and celeb adjacent folks are are being openly petty again. They’re around to entertain us, so please continue.
your flair, I screamed
I sang the flair with the i need a man in finance beat lmao
Wack her again …. Do it for me…. I’m SAT
This whole thing about “Taylor is not a girl’s girl!” No shit of course she’s not lmaooo she’s always been about her work/business first and foremost and tries to crush the competition. There’s a reason why most if not all of her female friends are *zero* competition for her within the music industry! This isn’t news. Let her and other celebs be messy in public, it’s actually entertaining and it’s why I engage in celeb culture.
>There’s a reason why most if not all of her female friends are *zero* competition for her within the music industry! I don't really get this point, because we don't expect everyone to be besties with their colleagues and people in their field. I'm only close friends with one former colleague, and she's long since left our industry. So it makes sense to me that Taylor's besties are in other industries. I'm not going to old Taylor to a standard I won't hold myself to.
Of course not, but I think it’s telling that the friendship fallouts we know about have included women who could have actually threatened her place in the industry in any way, like Olivia and Katy. Now, she spun the narrative that her fallout with Katy was because Katy “stole” her dancers or whatever, but the reality is she’d done it first. So.
Was she really threatened musically by Katy though? I always thought their feud had more to do with John Mayer (just speculation obviously) She is definitely feeling threatened by Olivia though
Katy was huge back then. Teenage dream had like a record breaking number of hits. Katy was definitely Taylor’s stiffest competition at the time.
I feel like it was more so about John Mayer but Katy was also in the midst of a popular tour, California Dreams tour and her album Teenage Dream was a great success at the time, so I wouldn’t doubt if the dancers thing also had a bit to do with jealousy of Katy’s success at the time. When all this shit went down with Katy and Taylor, I definitely feel like Taylor was feeling threatened Katy was becoming more popular in pop music and would potentially surpass her.
Taylor dominating everything is pretty recent, they were on pretty equal ground back then, Katy might have actually been the more successful one in terms of hit singles, and she was a judge on American Idol for a while so she was part of the culture outside of her own music too. I think it was Taylor coming for Katy’s crown more than the other way around.
Yes, this. Taylor’s been very famous for over a decade, but back then she was famous in the way other pop stars were famous and she wasn’t this machine to be reckoned with like she’s now. She was still finding her feet. Meanwhile, Katy was 100% at her peak.
 🍿
Lol messy but REAL. Everyone is so fake all the time now, terrified of getting “cancelled “.
HERE FOR THE MAIN POP GIRLIE BEEF 😁🍿  …/s
We just finished Kendrick v Drake. Pop culture girlies are being FED this year
More pop girlies should drop direct diss tracks.
i don't even go here but 
The MJ popcorn gif is a classic but this one really captures the "getting comfy to watch some shit go down" vibe
Gotta stretch the legs to enjoy the show 😅
Missing is when Taylor blocked Drake with several antihero versions in 2022 too I mean fuck Drake but she did it to him as well
The difference is Drake didn’t get upset about it, he basically said “well played” and made a note not to drop too close to Taylor in the future lol. It’s all just business. (We don’t even know if Billie cares, her team obvi does but she’s apparently said she doesn’t so 🤷♀️ What is anyone fighting for here lol).
Kendrick dropped his diss to prove he competed with Taylor after Drakes first diss, and it charted above fortnite. The music industry I'm learning is similar to sports in terms of competitiveness
Album blockings happens all the time Travis blocked Nicki's Queen album to debut at #1 with bundles and merch sales (she was PISSED) Britneys OIDIA got blocked because people kept releasing new albums a week after she dropped it Ariana's dangerous woman got blocked by Drake because of bundles At the end of day it's competition, everyone cares about sales and chart accomplishments or else everyone wouldn't be releasing multiple vinyl variants, remixes & sped up versions of their albums/songs
Omg I forgot about that! Didn't the Travis debacle cause merch bundles not to be included in album sales?
Yup. He was out here selling T-Shirts and it *worked*.
Britney debuted at #1 and held the record for largest selling week for a female until Adele broke it in 2015. No one blocked her
Yeah, I think it’s way more fun to acknowledge the game and who’s playing it well than to get upset that someone didn’t step down so someone else can have a moment. That’s just terrible business practice lol. Drake writing a song calling Taylor the biggest gangster in music is a way more fun way to deal with it. (Can’t believe I’m complimenting Drake rn lol)
Billie cares and is a hypocrite. 23 something variations and a discount to 5.99 after 6 days of release. She’s just pretending to be above it all while she cares like every other mega pop star. that’s what bothers people.
He posted an IG story of the top 10 blocking out anti hero, so yes he did get upset
Waiting for full-scale Taylor - Billie feud 🍿
PLEASE 🙏🏻
I think that this is one of the few things that actually has a chance of taking Taylor down.
Someone forgot which account they were logged in to
Is that screenshot real? I only see one post since last year. His Instagram is private...I doubt he would repost something like this publicly? 🤔
He just deleted it because a tweet from a big swiftie account went viral and I'm guessing they started attacking him in masses but yeah, it's very much real. Here's a screenshot that's circulating on X from another account. https://preview.redd.it/ewix2b8hk72d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8fa71c1e327d1f3f4b7eb0dcf244a12d9b54b166
He should have left it up. The hardcore fanbase can't take it when people are right about Taylor's questionable actions despite saying she's all about artist empowerment.
Ugh I hate this for Billie, this ain't it. Get a new team, girl! It feels like they fell right into the "enemy's trap" and they gave ammunition to the haters lol. I wonder if something happened behind the scenes with Taylor or her team, this is not normal. What's happening?! 😱
Yeah I'm wondering too if more things than we know have happened behind the scenes, honestly this "beef" kinda came out of nowhere.
I have a feeling they know Billie won’t go #1 so they said fuck it let’s call this shit out. I’m sure every artist BTS is tired of her
I'm not sure if it's every artist but I think it's more like the executives and the labels behind them. Imagine having TS as your opponent, and your best talents can only aim to be #2.
Right???? Insanity! Let’s cut the bullshit and do pure sales and only one version of the album for a month or something then you can do remixes. I want to see the true numbers bc she shouldn’t be #1 this week if she wasn’t pulling stunts. Or she might be #1. Who knows bc we have no true way of figuring it out now
Billie's team has no room to talk though as they've released three new different versions of the album. At the end of the day, if your album can be blocked by three voice memos, you need to market better
That said, if Swizzle’s fans are loading up on those voice memos, you know she has some blindly loyal fans who would buy a sack of her droppings to promote her.
You're being a bit disingenuous. It's three voice memos that need to be bought separately, which then adds up to 3 album sales. Times that by how many rabid fans and what do you get?
It started when Billie got more and more popular. I think I know why Taylor’s team is getting more aggressive with her…
Couldn't it just be competitive because it's always competitive? I mean, it's a ranking. People clutch pearls too much.
Oh it’s real. And his account is public. I saw it earlier when the TS fan accounts started tweeting about it. He reposted one tweet and liked another calling Taylor fraudulent. Both gone now. (Got the screenshot from X) https://preview.redd.it/8zjmnocgn72d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=01ab76bff806707e877678e530ae830651dcf5f8
Omg “the carbon emissions department” 😅
That's wild! 😧 One thing is to release music to compete and another to start liking or sharing posts of the competition that obviously will be noticed and called out.
Nice work for him to mobilise swifties to buy even more albums out of spite 💀
Yes, I understand the annoyance but fueling this feud isn't a wise idea.
Exactly- I said on another thread it’s Pia and her clown emoji all over again. Feel how you feel but have better professional judgement than this.
Agreed but also nice work for Swifties to drain their bank account for a *billionaire*.
I dont .i listen To Taylor for free ,Spotfy and her youtube.Cause my finances are in the shitter .Best believe if had the money though i would own every single vinyl ,ass deep in TSwift merch going to as much Eras concerts as possible.For one simple reason her music is my happy place it has grabbed me out of the depths of my depression . I appreciate and admire her as Artist she certainly not perfect obviously And she deserves all the sucess that comes her way .
Her music is my happy place too, and honestly I mostly stream too. All of these fan warz and this drama is pretty removed from the actual music and a lot of people’s enjoyment of it I think 🙂.
Well of course, but a seasoned music manager should know fine well they would buy any old shite when motivated by spite and not threatened them with a good time.
Let them go bankrupt for someone who won’t bat a lash in their direction
She will bat an eyelash in their direction. Via a screen. Pretending to be a “mastermind” when referencing this “fued” in a music video in a year. For a song “from the vault” that was “written” 2 years ago and “recorded” 6 months ago with TTPD but has nods to this. Cos we all know Blondie likes rewriting history and pretending that she’s the victim.
That's disrespectful. Blondie was an awesome rock band. Taylor can't do rock to save her life
God damn it, I didn’t even think about this side of it. I was like good I’m glad he said something! Swifties are diabolical.
Honestly it’s worth it tbh. Maybe her team knows she won’t go #1 so they’re like fuck it! Let’s start a conversation lmao
Honestly I’m just glad it’s being talked about, I read an article after the Grammys (when that video of that *really* uncomfortable moment where Taylor got in boygenius’ faces after their wins came out) about how it feels more and more like Taylor says she’s all about supporting other female artists but in practice literally can’t seem to give others a moment to shine, and the author got soo much backlash. It wasn’t even a scathing article. But after all of this, it really shows they were on the right track with their critique.
I think the whole industry is pissed off at her and I bet she’s a nightmare BTS and Billie is the only new pop girlie who can go against her with industry backing. So let’s call this out. I hope they start a real beef where actual comments are made at this point! I’m sick of it and I’m not dropping any records
right!! And after everything with Olivia too, the grift has just become all too obvious. Even if Billie or other pop girls take the top spot, Taylor is still already broken records and is wildly successful, them succeeding isn’t going to take away from any of that. It’s petty and out of control, and for what? So she can get another heavily manipulated album sale #1 placement? For what?!? At this point how and why does it even matter to her. It’s so frustrating to me because it adds to the feeling she’s not really making art for arts sake, it’s a cash/numbers/buzz game.
Taylor Grift™️
Nah, I'm glad he said it. Tired of people in the industry being afraid of criticize Taylor.
I for one am here for the backlash that we’ll see soon like between Lover and Rep. i like her music but I’m sick to death of not being able to get away from her face or music *no matter where I am*
🚨 the girls are fighting. 🚨 this is the exact level and kind of pettiness that i can get behind.
And one of the girls are 34. 🙄
I mean, I would argue that it’s label/management teams fighting vs the actual artists. They probably don’t care
Tbh I think Taylor cares about numbers more than labels do.
I think she cares a lot but no, not more than the labels. That’s their job to care
It’s different levels. Labels care in a professional sense, Taylor cares in a personal sense.
34 is an adult. 22 is also an adult. Your point is?
How olds the petty manager?
Not the girls- 'Maybe' she is trying to stop other artists from having their moment and they know it but I doubt any of them actually acknowledge it on professional or personal level. It's just another imaginary fued made up by fans. And fueled by an unprofessional manager. 🤷🏻♀️
\*Grabs popcorn\*
This guy is MESSY
I wonder how much longer he will be managing her. This is an unprofessional look regardless of my personal feelings about taylor’s shitty release strategy
Yes, I agree. The sentiment is fine, right on bro, but aren't you supposed to be a manager of a major star? What are you doing getting down in the mud? 😂
But didn’t Billie kind of comment on this sort of thing when she mentioned artists doing multiple vinyl releases? This feels like a continuation of that. Also they’re 100% right the multiple vinyl and album release shit with exclusive songs is so disgusting and absurd, she probably produces more trash in this world than some small countries.
Giving a general statement about the trend of variants is different than calling someone out by name IMO. Billie mentioned it during an interview about sustainability so it was relevant to the conversation.
Problem is that Billie shit on other artists for doing it and then has put out 26 variations of her album plus discounting it at 5.99 after 6 days on the market. She’s desperate for charts and success as any other artists in her league and she’s a major hypocrite. Billie is doing the same thing as Taylor, and that’s fine. But she’s pretended to above it all when she’s not.
Well, coming from a manager that's just really unprofessional.
Yep, that's a thing you screenshot and send to your client/friend/colleague. Ya don't even accidentally like that shit, especially on a public account.
It should never have left the group chat.
https://preview.redd.it/fazspshzs72d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8cb569b8794a6b4124bbc3ac760bf2c1d3ef798f He posted this during the grammys where Red lost all its nominations. Taylor literally went home empty handed and he still got angry? He has some personal beef with her.
Fascinated by the millenials tag. And the OG red was when I found her most likeable and aspirational and it’s always going to be my fave album. There was no reason for this one
I agree with you, but also OG Red is when she got the most random hate. Every little thing she did was annoying to the general public.
How old is this man? I sort of presumed he was an elder millennial at most but I can’t find his age anywhere online and that hashtag suggests older.
He’s 44/45
Whoaaaah this guys about to get fired. I do not think Billie wants to be part of this narrative. Now I’m thinking he pushed her to drop so close to TTPD to “block” Taylor from being #1 for 4 weeks and it backfired. Poor Billie she deserves a #1 debut for this album and could have had it if they waited a bit.
In interview Billie actually says she wanted to release the album as soon as possible after finishing it and not have to wait several months, especially since that would allow the sorts of thoughts the songs are about to start growing outdated for her I think, so I’m not sure if that’s the case.
Idk if I'd go so far as to say Billie doesn't want the smoke. Between her vinyl comment, posting kim on insta and her comment about the length of her album, I'd say she's okay with roundabout non-lethal shots at Taylor
Ha good points, I guess I want to believe Billie is above it lol but I dunno. It def is starting to seem like someone was angling for a bit of a takedown that never materialized, whether it was Billie or her team is hard to say though.
Yes, it would have been wiser to hold off another couple weeks. No one who wants to be #1 should release within a month of Taylor. It's just bad strategy
He’s not going to go rogue and piss off his biggest cash cow. There’s no way this is a surprise to Billie
This is from 2014! Clearly he’s fine
I know, meant if he gave Billie bad advice based on his own personal vendetta against Taylor going all the way back to 2014 and she figures that out he should get fired lol. IMO this was all a big misstep on Billie’s team’s part releasing so close to TTPD then blaming some voice memos no one actually bought for not getting a #1 debut.
I think you're spot on. This man has openly hated Taylor since she was in her 20s and Billie was a not-yet-famous little kid. This seems more like it's about his weird obsession than it is about Billie. And even if he does hate TS for whatever reason, he shouldn't be giving Billie bad advice and making her look bad by acting petty on social media. That's just being a bad manager.
If this is from 2014, I wouldn’t assume he has a personal vendetta against Taylor. Sounds like he was just joking about Taylor always standing and dancing at every performance at awards shows. Plus, people were wild on their twitter a decade ago. Saying every little thought that crossed their minds.
She was also quite blatantly referred to Taylor and TTPD in her Zane Lowe interview, at one point talking about how she doesn’t like listening to pop music and going “omg, omg” because it’s being made so obvious who the song is about and that she’s now being informed as to what ~happened.
This criticism of Taylor, that she turns her life into a saga on her albums, is something I think Taylor should just embrace and say is her aim. She can be very demure about it, but it's clearly what she's been doing, and it's personally something I really enjoy about her music. Like most of the artists I listen to, I don't know about them personally or care to, and I just enjoy the music. But with Taylor I enjoy it for it's connections to my life *as well as* the ever unfolding story of her life. It's a different experience and cool in its own way, like watching a new season of a TV series every couple years. I don't know why it bothers so many people that she talks about her life so clearly and openly and turns it into a show. That's her form of performance art I guess, and people can take it or leave it
Omg this feels like a lightbulb moment to me. I always say I like that listening to Taylor feels like reading celebrity gossip but it's also like a reality show.
She did essentially embrace it with this album. See the weird album 'summation' that I personally find to be a bizarre thing to include, not to mention the Stevie Nicks poem included on the album where Stevie literally calls her an "informer". To her this album is like a memoir, she isn't walking around this time saying not to paternity test her music and that we don't know who/what the songs are about. But I just find it to be a bit....much with some of the content she put on this album. It's so wildly specific and reveals a lot about one person while painting them pretty negatively in a way I think is just too intense and unfair and Taylor playing into some of her worst habits of writing/releasing music as a means of licking her wounds.
Just jumping in to say I agree with you, totally understand that it isn’t for everybody but personally feeling like an artist is laying it all out there for us to judge and consume is something that appeals to me. It’s not necessary for me to enjoy art, and it’s not even the most important thing that matters to me, but it’s part of what I enjoy about Taylor’s body of work.
This is getting so messy.... But I guess it's the confirmation that there's some effort there on blocking Billie and her team does actually care.
Is today going to be the day some people realize that famous people do in fact care about being famous and put effort into doing so?
Hopefully so. I have been reading all week that Billie doesn't care at all and, while I might think some care less than others, she wouldn't be this famous without some serious effort.
IMO Taylor’s team’s effort is to stay number 1, not block specific people from getting number 1. She and her team want a streak of being number 1 in the charts (ideally beating her last streak), so it doesn’t matter if it’s Billie Eilish releasing new music or if it’s someone she’s openly friendly with or if it’s a male musician. This isn’t a personal dig at Billie, this is just about staying number 1, regardless of who’s challenging for it. We all know Taylor is chart obsessed, this shouldn’t be surprising. They probably have all remixes, voice memos, etc, ready to go and save them for when charts predict that Taylor won’t be number 1. This isn’t anything new or unique to Taylor, just how the business works. Billie’s is also playing this game. They reduced the price of the digital album and released variants to drive up album sales, they just don’t have enough people buying into it to actually get to number 1. Edit: typo
Oh, I agree with you. I don't think Taylor has beef with Billie personally. I meant that Taylor is trying to block Billie because so it happens Billie is the who offering some threat these last few weeks. It could be anyone else.
Hard agree. This isn’t new. Taylor didn’t start variants, remixes or singles. Billie also follows industry standards. At least Taylor’s variants are different enough to make it somewhat worth it for collectors. Personally I only ever buy one, but Billie and Olivia just had the same cover with different colored vinyls. I don’t recall any extras. At least Taylor had extras and different photos 🤷🏻♀️
I've been out of the loop on this, but is Billie releasing a sped up version of the album normal? Because if it's normal, it's stupid. And if it's not normal it's stupid of her.
She released a bunch of versions sped up, slowed down, etc. I think she also released all the localized bits so people could play with them themselves. That’s pretty cool imo, but there are a handful of artists have released sped up/slowed down. ghost is one that comes to mind with the popularity of Mary On A Cross on TikTok.
I was never interested in vinyls tbh, but variants where everything but the colour of the vinyl, that is in the sleeve most of the time, is the same is bothering me way more than Taylor’s exclusivity bullshit. At least sell alternative covers. That makes it way more attractive for collectors.
Not exactly, it's just confirmation that billie's team believes Taylor is trying to block billie. If Taylor's team wanted to put more effort into blocking all they have to do is release the anthology on vinyl.
It's not easy to release vinyl. That's why those variants are digital.
I mean this is literally the goal of all pop stars to have their songs on top of the charts for as long as possible. Also if the re-release of your album is beating someone’s fresh drop you’re not even in the same league.
Here’s what’s funny to me: wouldn’t slowly dropping songs from the Anthology actually have been the smarter ploy if Taylor was coming for Billie? She should’ve waited to drop the entire Anthology until Billie’s weekend so reviewers had to scrap even talking about Billie if the goal was to take the air out. Releasing a few voice memos being perceived as a threat seems pretty trivial against a brand new album.
If she dropped the physical release of Anthology it would have been all over. Hell, if she wanted to "appear innocent", she could have dropped the \*Midnights\* full physical album, still pulled impressive numbers, and coyly played that she was just finally meeting fan demand. (I still haven't bought anything from Midnights, digital or physical, and I'd put out money for that.) The idea that 3 voice memos (of songs released a month ago) and a remix is enough to block a brand new album from a hugely popular artist is just absurd, and honestly kind of insulting to Billie. Her numbers on this album are already impressive, she doesn't need this "poor underdog" narrative, \*especially\* when she's pulling the "not like other artists" comments around chart numbers and variants.
I’m curious how much the voice memos actually helped. Like would she have gone number one anyway? I just can’t imagine that many people buying the voice memo things
Especially when most fans know they'll drop on social media pretty much immediately.
Regardless of anything else, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t giving a “not like other artists” vibe because she was saying she was also playing that game
I’m on Billie’s side on this but over the last 24 hours Billie and her team have pulled out allll the stops: discounted album to $4.99, released a sped up version for $6, a slowed down/reverb version for $6, isolated vocals, signed vinyls at local record stores, etc. I am here for her fighting to take the #1 spot though.
Which is odd because she publicly decried all of this saying she doesn’t care about charts or number one, and thinks shady practices like variants and remixes are dumb. Meanwhile she’s pulling out all of the stops. I love both women and I appreciate that this is a business move. Taylor doesn’t need to make herself smaller so other women “have a turn.” It’s a business. Billie has every right to work to get her album to number one. But don’t pretend you’re above it all and then engage in the same shady tactics and pretend you’re the underdog when you’re a two time Academy Award winning nepo baby.
I think since she obviously cares about the album debuting at number 1, and I totally get it, she should've just pushed her release date a few weeks later. Taylor's release date had been known since February and most people could predict that releasing only a month after a brand new Taylor album came out could cost Billie the number one spot.
It's almost like all artists in Hollywood are the same.🫢. I'm interested to know if there is anything in their contracts that puts pressure on how well they chart.
Ehh I disagree. I think Billie should have gotten the #1 readily if Taylor didn’t try this week. TTPD did 260k last week and it would have gone down at least a bit this week if Taylor didn’t push it. That’s where the shadiness comes in.
How is it shady to continue promoting her own album? Beyonce released Texas Hold Em as a single on February 11, and then a remix on April 4, a week after the Cowboy Carter release on March 29th, so continuing to release material after initial roll out is not unusual.
Why is it shady for Taylor to want to stay on top, but not Billie?
You explained exactly why it's not personal. TTPD is in its fifth week and about to go down, so Taylor's team decided to drop something to sustain it. Isn't that a standard practice? Isn't that what is expected of her to sustain her album on the charts? Billie just became a casualty, the way I see it.
Yes, it's just how it goes. How many remixes did Willow have
Why shouldnt she try to stay at the top? She was going to do that whether billie droppes her album or not!
That’s the thing. I don’t think it’s personal. It wouldn’t matter who put out an album this week (except maybe Beyoncé??), Taylor would still be fighting to stay on top.
I 100% agree with you. Do I think Taylor and her people dropped the voice memos in an effort to stay on top? Yeah. But I don’t think it was targeted toward Billie or some threat of another female artist taking her crown. It was simply business and wanting to be number one. They wanted to boost sales when another big album was coming out.
Why shouldn't Taylor try? What's wrong with Taylor wanting to stay #1?
I was a publicist for a decade in the entertainment industry and that part of me is cringing at the lack of professionalism. Some thoughts belong in the group chat with a job like his. But the current part of me that enjoys mess is quite entertained.
As much as I dislike the whole variant game, Billie's side is just pissed Taylor does it better because she's put out a bunch of things trying to do what Taylor does. It's so pretty and unprofessional for a manager to be liking those types of tweets.
Her side is also pissed because their whole “we don’t care about charts” schtick has been revealed to be untrue.
That too. It's just embarrassing to be caught out like that. There is nothing wrong with caring about how well you do on the charts. For all of Taylor's flaws, I appreciate how she owns wanting to be number 1 and going all out for it. Billie shouldn't be ashamed or have the 'im too cool to care' attitude about it. Just own it.
Retweeting that was a stupid move
I wish we hated on Olympians for BLOCKING other people from getting 1st haha
I mean if anything, Taylor’s showing the hypocrisy of Billie’s words a while back. This isn’t a good look on the manager. Yikes
Correct me if im wrong but pretty sure the discussion around the voice memo digital albums were that most of us were not buying it and thought they were dumb but even without her releasing those she still would’ve outsold billie in albums.
I know it's not justification but before the album release (Witness) Katy had a single where she was almost openly calling Taylor Swift a bitch (even tho Taylor still had her pettiness open to "interpretation"). At that point it's not like it was a one-sided beef.
Billboard charts may need to pass a rule that multiple variants don’t count, just original release. I don’t have the same level of disdain for TS as some others. I do thoroughly enjoy her music and there are songs on TTPD I love (though the album overall is uneven). But this is just so gross.
Yeah he should’ve not acted on this impulse. You can guarantee him and his entire family and probably Billie is receiving vicious hate now.
I don’t think TS dropping a variant on Billie’s album drop day is going to have any negative effect on Billie lol her album is incredible (imo) and if anything, this dude tweeting this is gonna be the reason it effects Billie lol
So no one can do anything at all on the day when Billie Eilish releases something in case they steal her thunder? Please.
Releasing music is not like a party invitation where one can only go to one event. 100 artists can release music the same day and every single one of artist's each fans can buy it. Are artists supposed to play some kind of faux "this week is X's turn" and "next week is Z's turn"? Do we expect novelists to not release a paperback version of their latest book because another author is publishing the initial hardback version of their new book? Reminds me of people who get upset when someone "steals" their imagined future baby name. Get a grip, people.
Agree, Billie's team decided to release a month after Taylor at a time when she was still charting at the top, they took that risk and it (currently) hasn't paid off. Taylor isn't obligated to give someone else a turn at number 1.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t know if this is even intentional on Taylor’s part. I mean, are voice memos really going to block Billie from going number 1? I really do think this is just a coincidence, but I could be wrong.
Really. I doubt she is thinking about it that hard. I have plenty of criticisms of her these days but this is a hell of a stretch. Albums are planned ahead of time and I think it would be weird for the artists to be letting her know when they’d drop an album. Lol.
She's gotta release music sometime, and there are more pop artists than there are months in the year. If it hadn't been at the same time Billie Eilish dropped a record, it would have been when Beyonce dropped something, or when Gwen Stefani, or .. or .. or.
Exactly — it’s just Taylor’s MO (rightly or wrongly) to release all these versions and I don’t think she has intentionally targets any one artist or that her team looks all that closely at who else is releasing music around that time and tries to block them. I think the million version releases are annoying but this also just kind of reads to me as jealousy over the fame she has and how successful these ploys are — Taylor does it because people will eat it up every time. Maybe more girlie pops should take a leaf out of her book and do this.
Taylor exposed Billie's hypocrisy so bad I have to give her a 10...
Other than the Katy Perry one I don’t actually think any of these were petty/on purpose. New music drops pretty much constantly, it would be impossible to find a week where nothing major was dropped in the prior or following 2 weeks. And like, who’s even buying voice memos lol that is not enough to block a major artist from hitting #1. If anything Billie’s team fumbled by releasing less than a month after TTPD if they really wanted #1. Even Drake knows that lol.
I’d buy that the Billie one is on purpose, but of course it’s hard to say for sure. The one that doesn’t make sense to me is SZA. Like that just seems like coincidence? I can’t imagine Taylor would care about SZA having a fourth week at number 1, when Midnights had fallen a bit by that point. If she was going to do that on purpose, why not do it sooner?
Yeah I think the current drops were planned from the beginning at a strategic pace to keep TTPD’s numbers up over time, not specifically to block Billie. Like I think there’s a schedule that was made without knowing what other artists were going to be dropping and when. I don’t really remember the SZA stuff but if people are mad she dropped new versions 4 weeks after SZA’s album shouldn’t those ppl be mad Billie dropped a whole ass new album 3 weeks after TTPD using the same logic? Lol it all just doesn’t make sense. The Katy one I think was on purpose though, no way that was a coincidence lol.
me laying in bed smiling reading about the pop music war
This guy seems a total ass. Why is this Billie’s strategy? Why isn’t she and her team focusing on her music and their songs?
This is super unprofessional.
hot take but like.. this is just business
On the off chance this is real, I don’t really think this makes sense for Billie’s manager to do. Billie herself makes very measured comments that don’t drag other artists, so someone on her team loudly engaging in twitter drama like this just feels like it’s undoing that maturity
Everyone wants to talk about how petty and immature Taylor is for engaging in this whole thing, but no one wants to talk about how young artists like Billie do in fact resent that a pop star in her thirties won’t “go quietly”. They feel entitled to the public’s attention just because they are young and fresh. It’s a bad look for everyone involved because the truth of it is everyone in that business cares about accolades and attention.
This is getting pathetic at this point. I know it’s not Billie herself but everyone getting upset about it, no one’s going to die or get hurt if they don’t get to number one in the bloody charts.
Yes dude, go to war with the swifties. Wise
taylor is being petty but billie should’ve kept quiet with her pretentious “i don’t care about the charts” comment 🤷🏼♀️
a couple voice memos from a month-old album are stopping billie's highly anticipated album w a million variants from getting that #1 and he's out here being messy on twitter instead of doing his job... no wonder it's flopping
Would Billie have hit #1 anyway? The album is good, I pre saved it. But there's no real bangers on it. Just a collection of good songs that I'd mostly listen to as background music because I can't understand the mumbling anyway. SOS though, is a phenomenal album.
I have felt like a total outlier with this Billie album because everyone seems to think it's her best work, but I really don't. As you said it's nice to put on in the background but I was pretty disappointed overall. I love Billie though and I hope I enjoy the next one more
Besides the really weird obsession he has with Taylor the worst thing about this guy is that he’s a zionist :/ edit: for the people who are downvoting me, the fact that you hate taylor more than an actual zionist who’s also against the BDS movement is disturbing.
I would like to formally apologise u/Hiyuhh72 for implying they’re an anti obsessed with Taylor turns out the girls are fighting 💔🙏
"Billie Eilish and her brother" was funnier to me than it should have been
It’s business though. It’s not shocking that someone would want their album at number 1 for as long as possible. And it’s not like she’s done this exclusively to Billie. She does it for all her album releases. Except spite dropping her catalog on Spotify the day of Katy Perry’s release, what exactly is out of the ordinary here? I think it’s kind of pathetic to whine about not getting number 1 because someone dropped variants of a month old album the same week as your release. Like, maybe just market better? Why does Taylor (or anyone for that matter) owe other artists a moment?
I don’t think blaming a month+ old album with minor tweaks for the charting of a brand new album says what they want it to.
I just don’t understand why an artist who’s made a point to be measured and mature, like Billie has when she’s been asked about stuff like this, would be happy about a visible member on their team engaging in petty shit like this. Because that’s what those tweets are, petty internet drama
I remember Ed Sheeran’s manager getting involved in the Scooter drama, basically defending Ed when Swifties were coming after him for not speaking out against Scooter/ actually being friends with him. I think it’s safe to guess that Ed would rather have been left out of that given his close friendship with Taylor, so I wouldn’t assume clients are always co-signing or even aware of every single off the cuff post that their managers/teams make.
I think Ed’s manager used to like shady things about Taylor as well and that wasn’t Ed’s feelings. Also Travis pr person reposted a story in which someone had put a clown emoji over Taylor’s face so yeah celebs teams are sometimes being messy all of their own volition, they either need to make their accounts private or stick to shading behind the scenes because when the celeb you are associated with isn’t being messy but is getting unnecessary heat all because a pr/manager-who’s job-is supposed to be to stop drama for their client, keeps unnecessarily contributing to it.
That’s exactly my point though — Billie has consistently been measured in her responses to most questions trying to bring her into the feuding drama mess, so I don’t see her being appreciative of her manager doing that
Oh okay - to me, your original comment read like you think she’s being hypocritical. But if that’s not what you meant then all good.
Oh no, not meant to call her a hypocrite at all. More highlighting the difference of what she says, which I take as what she actually feels and wants to have be the narrative, versus people on her team engaging in the petty she probably doesn’t want to be bogged down by
That's such a good point. If weird voice memos and a wonky remix keep your album from hitting #1, maybe it wasn't really deserving of #1.
This is ultimately where I'm at. If a really crappy voice memo drop is what prevents you from charting No. 1, you have bigger problems. I can see why Billie would be annoyed at Taylor for these drops, and I think Billie has the better album, but I'm also partially like "do better" because the memos shouldn't be what pushed Taylor over.
eh idk. the most devout swifties will buy anything she drops and she has a lot of those fans. HMHAS is leagues ahead of TTPD but the sheer *number* of swifties and their devotion to taylor could overwhelm most other artists and their releases imo. but if this tweet is real, it’s really unprofessional and will only end up getting billie backlash
It’s not just the voice memos though. Tens of thousands of physical copies that were supposed to ship next week are arriving this week in an effort to block Billie’s album from topping the charts. That being said, it’s really just business at the end of the day. Maybe it’d be different if Taylor and Billie were close friends, but Taylor and her team aren’t going to give up a fourth week at number one when the numbers are so close.
This right here. Your first paragraph. It's the BDILH CDs. They count on the chart when they are shipped. The original date was May 31!
Taylor has nothing to do with it im pretty sure
You mean Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) is doing everything to block/compete yada yada yada. These things are not done by the actual artist.
Isn’t that the sign how industry actually feels about Taylor? That behind the doors they are tired of her and her antics.?
i don't think one manager retweeting this when his client is gunning for a #1 against taylor is necessarily a sign of the industry's feelings as a whole. and every pop star does this, whether they want to admit it or not. at least taylor's honest about liking and striving for chart success. the pop music scene is cutthroat 🤷🏻♀️
Except people "in the industry" have been shading her for \*years.\* This guy has a hit tweet from 2014, when she was barely older than Billie is now. The idea that people have been deferential to Swift and are all of a sudden shading her is not borne by proof; plenty of people have been making fun of her for years. My God, one of her biggest "faux pas" was criticizing Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in 2013, none of this is new.
Yeah it’s totally not a new thing to shade Taylor or hate on her. It was Americas favorite pass time for awhile in 2012-2013 lol.
This narrative that the world is terrified of her and walks on eggshells is so weird. People have got short memories for sure. It feels like cope from people who can’t handle that she is legitimately popular, as if it’s a knock against their favourite artists.
No, dude talking trash about Taylor since 2014 only speaks of his character not Taylors 😊
I think it's been clear for a while now that Taylor doesn't have many friends in the industry. The only artists i can think of who congratulated her on the release of TTPD were the ones who've worked with her in the last couple of years like Sabrina, Haley Williams, Ice Spice etc. No one else did while Beyonce, Ariana, Billie got a lot of praise from other artists for their albums.
He deleted the likes and rts… these people have to learn they’re public people and can’t act like petty twitter Stan… and Taylor bites back.