27bored

Taylor emotionalizes everything, so I’m not going to accept her framing of the deal just on the strength. Scott said his final offer to Taylor was that at the moment she re-signed, all her rights would be transferred to her. Not that she’s have to earn them back one by one. That means, hypothetically, if she got dropped, she would still own her back catalog. Taylor wanted to just buy back her masters for a sum of money and make it a clean break, but that gets more complicated (for the label she’s leaving). Like I said, Scott has shareholders to answer to. Even if he sold them to her, the label has that money liquid, perhaps, but that’s still diminishing the overall worth of the label. Taylor doesn’t have to care about that, but she should factor it in before calling someone a bully. Also, and I’ve heard this a lot about Taylor and it seems true, but Taylor just doesn’t want to be alone in her beefs. I can’t vouch for Scooter, but just because Taylor doesn’t like him doesn’t mean Scott is disloyal for not hating him too. Artists don’t just do whatever their managers say (which I’ll get to with Ariana in a second). They have other people in their ears telling them to do stuff or not to do stuff. They may back them or stay silent through things in the aftermath, but behind the scenes people get into it with their managers all the time. So before I call Scooter da debbil, I want to know what he did specifically. Not what he’s blamed for by proxy. My guess is Scooter and Taylor are probably a lot alike. Ariana isn’t being forced to tour by Scooter. She put out two big-budget albums in under a year, that were both heavily promoted. She owes people, which means she has to work. I understand Mac Miller’s death affecting her, but I think she played the Pete Davidson thing wrong. She got engaged too quickly, IMO, and using that relationship to roll out her album wasn’t the best idea because it was still new. Then she dropped him like a sack of potatoes. Plus, I hear Ariana might have her own substance issues simmering. Not sure, but people love substituting “mental health” for “addiction” when it comes to celebrities. He posted a copy of a document showing that they were offering her the opportunity to own her masters for resigning. Her text message showed she understood she was giving up her back catalog to bet on her future, and that she had a sober understanding that Scott did what he had to do. Why send him a fawning text if you really felt you were being screwed over? Perhaps she didn’t have anyone to fully explain the whys and how comes behind his decision, or maybe she didn’t care. My guess is Taylor can’t afford to buy her masters outright, which isn’t the same thing as simply not having the money. You never know what a project is going to do. You never know how well a tour is going to do. So if she gave up a chunk of her fortune just to own her masters, she wouldn’t be broke any time soon, but that puts a lot of stress on her to deliver on future projects. The reason I believe Borchetta is because it makes sense for her to do what she did. This way she keeps the wealth she’s attained, she gets a massive contract still kinda at the peak of her career, and any time someone wants to license her back catalog, she still gets a cut, even if it’s not the whole thing. I can imagine her being okay with that arrangement until she found out Scooter bought the label, then it became this grand betrayal.

Word. The former is how she pronounces her name, but it did throw me off when she said the latter in Bitch Better Have My Money.

So, I got the feeling the part about Scooter was more to show Scooter had no ill-will towards Taylor and perhaps even to show Taylor’s issue with him mostly one-sided. I don’t think he was just trying to shit on her, the way she did him and the way Todrick Hall did to Scooter. The publicist is doing a little rhetorical sleight-of-hand. The bottom line, it seems, is those with a proprietary stake in the company, including her dad, were invited to this call, there was a discussion, and a vote was taken. This didn’t just happen behind her back where none of her people could have known. Plus, Taylor was leaving/had left by this point, so while I can understand her feelings given she has a personal relationship with Scott, he kinda doesn’t owe her anything. Her dad may not have been on the call — I thought I read a lawyer was on the call on his behalf, but whatever — but he could at least explain to her how acquisitions and mergers work. If Taylor knew the label was going to be sold, well, one, that means she was privy to some information many people normally would not have. But second, that further confirms my point: Taylor didn’t get her way so now she’s mad. The label’s catalog is their primary asset. The whole POINT of a label is to push a catalog of music. So while artists get far up their own asses about their work and being compensated and the evils of the industry, few of them seem to understand what a label actually does. So Taylor, if they’re planning on selling the company, no sweetheart, they’re not going to let the most lucrative catalog they have walk out the door without much to show for it. Scott Borchetta might have a loyalty to Taylor as a friend, but he has a fiduciary responsibility to his shareholders, and an obligation to his employees and other artists, to keep the business afloat. Plus, I understand her concerns and I’m not blaming her for them, but Taylor, give me a break. Wherever you go, you’re going to be a priority. They’re going to open a budget and allocate resources to promote your projects. The smaller and/or newer artists are the ones who have to worry about getting lost in the shuffle. You’ll still get to pull strings when you want. Maybe not as many if you’re not close to the boss like she is with Borchetta, but still. It’s not an easy situation and there are no clear villains or victims, but to me it looks like Scott was being as fair as he could to Taylor, but she’s pissed because she feels he should have capitulated more in letting her buy her masters and she hates Scooter, so she doesn’t want to have to deal with him on a business level.

Meh. Scooter probably told Todrick he’s going to have to do more if he doesn’t just want to be popular in the YouTube/Pride Festival circuit and he took that to be homophobic. Sorry if that comes off harsh, but Todrick, nobody was talking to you, and trying to throw dirt on that man’s name just so you can stay in Taylor’s good graces is late. You guys should read this article: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2019/06/30/scott-borchetta-responds-taylor-swift/ If what Scott is saying is true, Taylor’s not only being disingenuous, but it’s what I suspected. She wanted to eat her cake and have it too. What he said about them being an indie label with finite resources makes TOTAL sense. That isn’t an example of the music industry being shady. Somebody told her she ought to have it all — the lucrative contract with Republic and every trace of her work for Big Machine. Taylor’s success wasn’t just her work — it was the work of her label to promote and market her music and work to get her opportunities.

I liked her voice, but I do think Amy was mostly good marketing. The beehive ‘do, the waify frame, the pointy eye shadow, Rehab...She just hit with the right look and the right song at the right time. She had a tortured soul that gave her a mystique. And also, I think being a critical darling helps. They loved Frank and Back to Black. UO: It annoys me to no end when people can’t say Ariana Grande’s name right. Hearing people call her “Ehriana” is like fucking nails on a chalkboard.

On the flip side, outside of hip hop, we mint female pop stars much more quickly than we do male pop stars. And female pop stars tend to get bigger than most male pop stars.

This sounds like a bunch of bullshit from Taylor. I wouldn’t be surprised if we got the full story, it’s probably a simple matter of Scott Borchetta not giving Taylor what she wanted and her not being able to get it with her coterie of attorneys. I doubt she’s being bullied or fucked over by the industry. If anything, Taylor probably has less to complain about than most artists. Also, I think she’s starting to see some of her relevance slip. Last two singles debuted high then dropped pretty quickly. Her album will likely do well, debut number one like Katy Perry’s last album, but if people aren’t hooked by any of the lead singles, it may wind up being a flop.

If you need a good, angry yet catchy pop song that you can belt out when you’re pissed at someone, I give you this song from Kelly Clarkson’s album, “Stronger”. I’ll just leave this here (make sure you turn this up):

Taylor’s not just some random artist. Her track record is impressive in comparison to most artists, past or present, but there has been a fall off. There’s the natural fall off that happens when artists stop chasing the fame and success — like Kelly Clarkson, for example — and then there’s the fall off that happens when your shtick gets old and people start getting tired of you. I just saw this video of I Knew You Were Trouble from the 1989 tour: One: Taylor looks like an egret when she does her pop star strut. Second: you don’t have to be a great dancer to be able to take inventory of choreography. Choreography doesn’t work if the Star seems disconnected from it. This could’ve worked better with just band and vocals and maybe let the dancers come in the middle or something. Third: while I like this arrangement, this sounds a bit like if Halsey did I Knew You Were Trouble. And finally, this arrangement really makes me wish Taylor could really sing. There’s a lot of space for her to ad-lib and riff and run and match the energy a bit. But Taylor seems swallowed up by the whole thing.

That’s not what I’m talking about. I understand bisexuality exists; I’m talking about how it tends to work as an arc in a public figure’s narrative. It’s usually less about living one’s truth and more about upping the ante on their sex appeal or a play for the gay audience. These days there’s typically a third reason, which is to incubate oneself with convenient political rhetoric so the next time somebody says something sideways about you, you have a built-in audience who will rush to your defense...even if they’re not really into what you’re doing, either. With Taylor, I also feel like this is yet another example of her playing the victim. You Need To Calm Down has a scene in the video where a bunch of rednecks are yelling about...something. Taylor, people have been “calm” on you for a minute. That’s why your last few singles came and went. That’s why you’re hinting at bisexuality and making up with Katy Perry.

I agree with this, but I would say it’s saying something that of those four bands, Eddie Vedder is the only frontman still alive and didn’t succumb to drug addiction. I agree here as well. Fun fact: Moses Avalon, author of Confessions of a Record Producer, has a story about a band he heard a few years before Nirvana came out. Raw sound, low-quality, but different and exciting. They didn’t want to sell out by signing a deal. He said (and this was almost twenty years ago) the band fell by the wayside and the lead singer was still delivering pizzas when a small blurb on MTV’s 120 Minutes (remember them?) about a new band came on. Same look, same sound. Nirvana.

These last two singles haven’t been it. “Me!” could’ve worked as a lead single for a film. As a lead off single, it’s just LAME! Not only that but the big video underlines the song. A lyric video would’ve sufficed, but it’s clear this was meant to work. Eh. “You Need To Calm Down” is...yeah. I’ve heard the gay rumors about Taylor and I’ve mostly not cared, nor have I believed them, but I will say I hope if Taylor is going to reveal something about her sexuality at this stage in the game, I hope it’s followed up by something we can see. Meaning, if Taylor’s not gay but is kind of into girls, I’m sorry but she can keep that. That’s not an announcement. That’s not really news. That doesn’t make her queer and an outcast. If anything, it just seems like The Gay Rollout that we’ve seen before. I always wonder when I hear female celebrities claim to be bisexual or pansexual or whatever how many serious, committed relationships they have had or would have with a woman. If you just like to get drunk/high and make out with chicks sometimes, that’s your business, but it’s not really a revelation. And if the extent of your being pro-LGBT or part of that group is having Todrick Hall and other dudes prance around in heels in your music video, that just comes off shallow and self-serving because at the end of the day you’re trying to sell a product. It’s always interesting to me when pop stars, especially female pop stars, don’t seem to realize when the savviest move they can make is to Do Less/Do What We Liked You For In The First Place. As a minor, fair weather fan, I bet there are so many people who wish Taylor would just pick up the guitar again and make another Country record. They would be perfectly fine. But Taylor wants to Grand Marshal the Pride parade, so... We’ll see how this works out for Tay Tay, but I’m thinking it might have some quickly diminishing returns.

I think Joy needs to educate herself before asking someone she doesn’t agree with to disabuse her of her political beliefs. Meghan was right that Joy is far left. The simplistic answer is the far left wants more regulation, more taxation, more spending...more government. Every relevant issue doesn’t easily fit the left/right paradigm. It’s more a matter of what you think the role of the government is and what policies and candidates you support. I don’t think that’s what she said or meant. If you’re going to have a political discussion, you kind of don’t get to sit there and play dumb and ask people to explain things to you. Meghan isn’t quick on her feet, but neither is Joy when it comes to politics.

Oh, thanks for letting me know. I knew they both passed around the same time, and it was sort of around that song. I remember them playing the music video on MTV at the time. Kinda subversive seeing that in between the alt rock and hip-hop videos at the time. Sidenote: surprisingly, the video of the little French girl singing Hurt by Christina Aguilera is still on YouTube (from 2008!). Here’s then-12 year old Caroline Costa: Let’s talk about Chris Brown for a second: Set whatever feelings you have about Chris to the side for a second and consider this: Chris...is too old to still be doing songs like this, IMHO. First of all, you’re not breaking any new ground, which isn’t a huge deal, but you’re also not pushing yourself creatively. He’s got the same problem Lil Wayne has: a lot of innate talent that’s being obscured by their unwillingness to say anything remotely interesting. Stop talking about your dick, Chris. I would argue Nicki is in the same boat, but she acquits herself about as well as can be expected here, and to be honest, sex raps by women can work if executed well. G-Eazy is also here. I’d give him a hard time, but there’s something about his rap voice that I like — he never sounds like he’s trying too hard — and I always get the feeling he’s in on the joke. Plus, it’s nice to see look like a handsome young man again instead of like an unshaven junkie. The song still sucks, though. I expect better from all parties involved.

Hmm. That was kinda weird. The video was a little Celine Dionic, and while Reba can sing, I felt like she was overenunciating. But really, she’s too old for song. That’s a young chick song. I don’t want to hear Reba musing about if she were a boy. Listen to the original by the girl who wrote it. She has a Melissa Ethridge-meets-Michelle Brach thing that could’ve worked back when pop-rock was a thing. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EdjtO4iKU-A Yeah. Hurt by Johnny Cash has always been a little dicey for me. I’ve never been a fan of it and thought it was overrated, but I get the poignance of it. I think June had recently passed. I think he passed away not long after it’s release. And something about hearing an old man sing those lyrics struck an emotional chord with people. That reminds me of a rendition of “Hurt” by Christina Aguilera by a little French girl on one of those singing competitions. Hurt is an emotional song when Christina sings it, but hearing lyrics like “I’m sorry for blaming you for everything I just couldn’t do” out a child, in a slight French accent, was affecting. It upped the emotional factor of the song.

So, in fairness to me, I was thinking of this when I said it was a cover where they kept some of the original vocals in Britney’s version: In fairness to you though, they said this was a demo. Singers use reference tracks all the time, so it’s not technically a cover. Even though the production needed some polish, with Cathy Dennis’ vocal work, I’m surprised she didn’t try to make Toxic work for herself. Britney’s on-record voice, especially when tries to sound sexy, which is 85% of the time, has an awkward, baby-voiced porno actress quality to it. It’s her calling card, but...yeah. OTOH, Cathy actually sounds...kinda sexy on the song.

Whoa, did not know that about Torn or Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. The funny thing is in both cases they were career defining songs. Hmm. I think everybody is familiar with At Last by Etta James, but that was a cover. I Turn to You by Christina Aguilera was a cover. If I Were A Boy by Beyonce was a cover (and the original sounds better as a country-rock tune than a mid-tempo pop ballad). Telephone by Lady Gaga was originally recorded by Britney Spears. I think her version leaked a few years later. Speaking if Britney, I think Toxic was a cover, and not just a cover, but they might have used vocals from the original in Britney’s version.

Chris is a talented songwriter, but I do feel like there’s a keening familiarity to him that can make him seem a little...ordinary. Ho-hum. Like there are probably duds that look and sing just like him all over the country, but for some reason he’s the saving grace of Country music. He played the Nashville game for a long time, so I can’t knock him too much. But he’s an example of my Adele theory. Regular looking people who can sing and have good songs can sell records. People try too hard to promote attractiveness and popularity and it only sometimes works. Chris looks and dresses like a mountain man, he’s approaching middle age, has a huge beard, and isn’t particularly compelling. He doesn’t get played on the radio. But yet, he’s one of the most successful Country artists of the last five years.

I’ll give her a try. I haven’t heard all of Pink’s latest album but I just heard “Love Me Anyway”, a duet with Chris Stapleton. It’s a pretty song, a nice ballad, with Chris adding certain vocal flourishes here and there. It’s interesting because this is kind of how female singers are commonly used on a songs by men, especially to contrast their voices. Pink’s singing is light and Chris’ soulful Country growl adds a nice touch. Still, I sort of feel like he was underused. It wasn’t a real merging of pop and country, like Christina Aguilera and Blake Shelton on “Just A Fool”. But Pink is nothing if not steady, and savvy, so I think she was aiming for — another Christina reference — “Say Something” by A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera, where Christina has a slightly muted, almost incorporeal presence.

So they finally did a music video for Old Town Road. This song is all at once a banger, ridiculous, hilarious, and endearing. I just love that he got Billy Ray “Achy Breaky Heart” Cyrus, well into middle-age, to hop on the remix and, well, kill it. This would’ve been just an annoying gimmick if it had been some young Country dude. He got a real Country singer with a Country voice to give this some authenticity. And like I said, the song is kind of ridiculous and yet hilarious, but it seems like they’re taking it seriously. There’s not a hint of a smirk when Lil Nas X says, “Wranglers on my booty”.

Well, thanks for the compliment even if we don’t see eye to eye. 🙂 So, this is more of a Meghan thread point, but I’ll try to briefly address this because I see a version of this point made often; that it’s not her politics, it’s the fact that Meghan is mean, rude, condescending, etc. I’ve more or less said my peace on this, so I won’t belabor the point, but I think this boils down to a few points: 1. While she doesn’t mind speaking from the conservative perspective, she resents having to be a Republican mouthpiece. Meaning, I think she feels her cohosts set her up to be the contrarian because they refuse to be fair. People hate whataboutism but insist Trump obstructed Justice for firing Comey when we have a list of Democrats calling for his termination when they felt he cost Hillary the election. Hillary deleting emails under subpoena and nobody on the Democrats’ side jaw-jawing about obstruction should not be a GOP talking point when it’s...just what fucking happened. 2. I think she sees the negative comments and probably wishes she could address some of it. But she’s a public figure, so she has to keep a stiff upper lip to some extent, so some of her attitude is in defiance of the NutMeg/bitchy bitch bitching comments she gets almost daily. 3. Increasingly, I think she sees no point in being nice when people have basically decided they hate her. Uh, well, I was just responding to comments made to me, not just name-calling, but do you.

I would disagree, and I think the exchange between her and Sunny this week is a good example of how Meghan looks like a bitch even when she's right. It would be one thing if you couldn't just disagree with her without getting nasty -- even I wouldn't defend her if she were that thin-skinned -- but I can understand her being frustrated and airing out that frustration with snark or being snide when she's basically stating a fact or making a point that the other hosts would rather ignore, if they knew it in the first place. Sunny is going to sit there and suggest Barr is defending the President from justice when the last two AGs were held in contempt of Congress for not honoring a subpoena, plead the fifth to avoid testifying before Congress, and punted on making an executive decision on an investigation to the FBI, respectively. Again: have your side, have your team, but give me a break with this "I'm concerned about transparency" bullshit. Oh, and not to get too OT, but an uncharitable representation of a position is not the same as lying. There was a bill introduced in the Senate that would state that babies born alive even after an attempted abortion would have all the rights of a legally recognized person, and Democrats voted against it. The alternative is.... Outside of abortion, none of those are hot button political issues, either. And my guess is Sunny's pro-life position is more personal than political. It's also not what I said. Meghan be wrong on certain facts or I can disagree with her opinion. I think Sunny lies or clams up when she has to take a position the left wouldn't like, which makes her way more clock-able as a host -- meaning I pretty much know what she's going to say before she says it -- and she comes off like a phony. Actually you can, and it's really not a big contradiction unless you're only focusing on Meghan's role. Talking points beget talking points. I get Meghan is politically conservative, so there are certain principles she's going to agree with and others she won't. That's not what I'm talking about when I say she'd probably like to be more neutral than she can. Ideology is fine, but this show is about current events. Your side isn't always going to be in the right, even if you generally agree with them. As I've said, I've seen Meghan criticize Republicans and break with the conservative position. OTOH, Joy, Whoopi, and Sunny seem to equate being liberal with always defending their side, or pretending like inconvenient facts about their side don't exist. As a result, Meghan has to pull double-duty: she has to not only be the person to level out the conversation as a matter of fairness, but she has to discuss her opinion as well. I could provide plenty of examples, actually, but they would be OT, so I stick to recent things. But I have mentioned where Joy said Clinton was impeached for a sexual escapade when he lied under oath. Abby mentioned it, Sunny sat silent. Like I said, most of my comments on this show come with specific examples. I'm not going to kid anybody like I don't see what's going on -- people hate Meghan because she's a Republican and kind of a smartass, and I think many people try to act like her mien is the issue, but it's mainly her politics, and people leave Sunny alone because she's polite-company and mostly liberal. I agree robust conversation from both sides, but I dislike when it seems like people are seeking popularity and validation as opposed to being themselves. I don't think Meghan wants to be the de facto villain of the show, so I sympathize to some degree, but I also think she's acquiesced to it, so I think we're in for more shady comments like what she said to Joy a few weeks ago and her comments to Sunny this week about looking at her. Not to get too far OT, but Ana and Abby get a reprieve from the mob because they hate Trump. Even though, to be honest, it's people like them that cause people like Trump to ascend. Had one of the "honorable" "decent" men they supported (Huntsman, Jeb, Mitt) and we can throw McCain in there too, had the balls to fight for their side a bit more, instead of trying to be the Good Guys all the time, the GOP wouldn't have been usurped by the first guy who seemed to have a pair of balls and didn't mind mixing it up. So they can be conservative all they want, and they can complain about Trump all they want, but they're cowards and they support cowards...which is why they have to put up Trump now.

No, it wouldn’t. I’m aware of the fact that Meghan does and feels it’s her role to represent for conservatives on this show. Part of the reason for that is she’s the only consistently conservative person on the panel and so that’s the de facto role she has to play. I’ve said before I believe Meghan would like to be more balls-and-strikes than she gets to be on this show, as opposed to a TV Trope, but when you have people like Whoopi and Joy and Sunny who simply hate Trump and anybody he’s associated with by proxy, even if you’re a light mayo Republican like Meghan, you wind up sounding like Sean Hannity. Sunny’s afraid to speak to what the law says and how the law works if it sounds like she’s defending Trump/Republicans or criticizing Democrats, so maybe she has some views (...heh) that go against the liberal grain, but they barely come up and she soft-sells them when they do. Well that may come down to two reasons. One, Meghan’s sins are heavily chronicled day-by-day. Sunny’s? Not so much. Second, I find Meghan of average intelligence and wrong on a lot of things, but not so much a liar (meaning she says things she knows not to be true) or disingenuous. Sunny is a smart, well-educated woman, so when she indulges hacky talking points, when she doesn’t speak when Joy or Whoopi or any other liberal says something wrong, factually or otherwise, it hits a little different. Because I know she knows better. You’re probably right.

She said she speaks for conservatives on this show because she’s the only political conservative on the show. I’m saying she doesn’t take disingenuous opinions just to keep her Republican bonafides or remain a fan favorite, unlike Sunny.

The difference between Sunny and Meghan is Meghan comes off like her opinion is her opinion, and she isn’t saying it to “present” herself as being a certain way. That’s not a commentary on the validity or correctness of it, but as I’ve said, I’ve heard Meghan agree and disagree with her side politically plenty of times. I’ve agreed and disagreed with her plenty of times, because she has varied opinions, as I suspect many people do. Sunny, on the other hand, I think lies, quite frankly, to present herself a certain way. Not just in legal conversation, but political as well. Nobody would question her intelligence, unlike Meghan’s, but they would call her a bitch for saying things they disagree or saying nice things about someone they dislike. So what she does is says a lot of hacky, blue state liberal shit, but she’s a lawyer, so she gets away with it. Just like the other week when Joy said Republicans tried to impeach Clinton for a “sexual escapade”. I didn’t hear Sunny pipe up and say he was actually impeached for perjuring himself, on camera. Abby had to do it. She has plenty of pushback for Meghan, she had plenty of pushback for Dershowitz. When he asked her if she would feel the same way about obstruction if it was Hillary Clinton, she said she think she would. She was kind of looking down when she said it because she knows that was a boldfaced lie. In two years, has Sunny once suggested that given Hillary paid for the Steele dossier that formed a large part of the basis for the collusion investigation, she need to be investigated for Russian collusion? Has she once said Hillary deleting thousands of emails while under Congressional subpoena and then destroying the server (things she admitted to) might constitute obstruction? Hell, she defended Eric Holder, who was held in contempt of Congress for withholding documents, but then a minute later suggested Barr is playing “hide the ball” with the Mueller report. That he barely redacted and released to the public. Girl bye.