While accepting speaking at the 2019 Billboard Women in Music event, Taylor Swift used her platform to call out Scooter Braun for having "toxic male privilege." Taylor is never one to shy away from a battle and the newest example of this would be her issues with as she tries to fight for what is right for her music community.
When Swift was only 14, she became the youngest artist to be signed to Sony records and sighed her first record deal when she 15. She is best known for her biographical songs which have chronicled her life as a young girl starting out to some major breakups with Hollywood's finest men. Most recently, the singer announced she will have a documentary airing on Netflix in the New Year. The Grammy winner has been known to take it upon herself to stand up for the right of artists everywhere. Back in June, Swift went after Braun and executive of Big Machine, Scott Borchetta on Tumblr and accused the two of trying to stop her from performing her old hits at the American Music Awards.
On December 12th, Swift was front and center as she called out Braun while making an appearance at the 2019 Billboard Women in Music event at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, California. According to Us Weekly, the "You Need to Calm Down” singer produced a formidable speech that lasted 15 minutes where she addressed head-on her concerns with her former label, Big Machine Records. In her speech, Swift went on to blast the business practices in the music industry. The 30-year-old was accepting the first-ever Billboard Women of the Decade award when she decided to share her opinion. She began her speech, "Lately there has been a new shift that has affected me personally and that I feel is a potentially harmful force in our industry. And, as your resident loud person, I feel the need to bring it up." Swift continued, "And that is the unregulated world of private equity coming in and buying up our music as if it was real estate as if it’s an app or a shoe line."
The situation that Swift referred to happened to her without her approval or consent when Braun came to own Big Machine back in June which included her back catalog of master recordings. The Lover singer was denied any option to purchase her music outright and they were sold out from under her. She spoke firmly to the audience, saying, "After I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright, my entire catalog was sold." She continued, "And yet, to this day, none of these investors have ever bothered to contact me or my team directly to perform their due diligence on their investment in me to ask how I might feel about the new owner of my art, my music, my handwriting." She continued her powerful speech:
"Scooter never contacted me or my team to discuss it prior to the sale or even when it was announced. I’m fairly certain he knew exactly how I would feel about it, though. And let me just say that the definition of toxic male privilege in our industry is people saying, 'But he’s always been nice to me' when I’m raising valid concerns about artists and their rights to own their music. And, of course, he’s nice to people in this room; you have something he needs. … Private equity is what enabled this man to think, according to his own social media posts, that he could 'buy me.' Well, I’m obviously not going willingly."
The outspoken singer’s goal from the speech was to raise awareness about the valid concerns of artists and their rights to own their own music. She felt the need to use Braun as an example because of his lackadaisical attitude saying that private equity is what allowed him to think in the first place, giving him the feeling that he was unstoppable. Fans and artists alike encourage Swift to keep fighting the good fight for artists and for women.
Source: Us
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