Taylor Swift is known for surprising and very generous gifts to her fans, and she is in an especially generous mood this Friday. The multiplatinum songstress who can make her hair platinum or any color in between to match her huge hits made her catalog available across all major streaming services this Friday, June 9. This change of heart marks a major departure from the stance Taylor Swift took in late 2014 in her open letter to Spotify, protesting the portion of proceeds that goes to the creators of songs via streaming services. What prompted the move to “corporate” forgiveness?
Well, Taylor says it all comes down to gratitude to faithful fans. The timing of her gracious offer, though, just so happens to coincide with the release of Katy Perry's fifth studio album, “Witness.” Taylor Swift seems to be making it clear that she is music’s top princess.
Dirty dancing
In an Instagram announcement per “Taylor Nation,” the decision to provide Taylor Swift songs to the previously spurned streaming services was credited to “celebration of 1989 selling 10 million albums worldwide” and “to thank her fans” for the achievement. Wouldn't next week have been just as good a time for the gesture? The connection and deliberate collision between important events for Taylor Swift and Katy Perry at this precise time seem too planned to not be on purpose.
Supposedly, the bad karma between Katy Perry and Taylor Swift all started over Taylor's dancers being “taken” or “stolen” by Katy Perry in 2014. In the music realm shared by both these forces of nature in music and performance, that kind of behavior can be interpreted as sabotage. The feud came to a very public fever pitch when Taylor Swift chose to recruit songwriter/producer Max Martin to work with her.
Martin had been working with Katy Perry from the genesis of her career. Taylor released “Bad Blood” including her widely-recognized “posse” of feminine beauty and brains, including Selena Gomez, Gigi Hadid, Lena Dunham, and Karlie Kloss, among others. It was hard not to see that song and video as anything but a formal declaration of battle.
This kind of public poking back-and-forth is sad to see between two such talented and empowered women with platforms and legions of faithful fans who appreciate all the positive ways that each artist touches the world. Whether it is paying a hospital bill, or taking the stage at One Love Manchester, every gift of self makes a difference. The music of both Katy Perry and Taylor Swift has mended innumerable hearts. What a gift it would be if petty jabs could be put aside.
Human, not Buddha
Katy Perry spoke to James Corden just last month about the discord that's not doing anybody any good. The 32-year-old urged her 27-year-old counterpart to a cease-fire. Perry also admits her part in the conflict to NME, admitting, “I'm not Buddha.
Things irritate me. I wish that I could turn the other cheek every single time, but I'm also not a pushover, you know?” Perry considers Taylor to be guilty of “character assassination.” Taylor has never spoken publicly about anything difficult between the two, but sometimes, an action does all the talking. Katy and Taylor have demonstrated tender acts of kindness, and certainly are distinctively creative. “I'm super-duper fair,” Katy Perry says of herself. The brunette singer also described that this situation “is so messed up.”
In her video for “Bon Appétit” and in her Saturday Night Live performance, Perry went more performance art avant-garde in her colorful approach. She was all in white with her heart on her sleeve in Manchester, speaking to the crowd about the decision to love and the strength of the soul.
As Taylor Swift herself sings, nobody wins with being mean. There is truth in love, so why not kiss a girl?
Let's hope the shared characteristics of kindness and fairness can lead to forgiveness for the near future. That makes a better gift than the downloads of music.
