SHANGHAI, CHINA – NOVEMBER 10: American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs on stage during the … [+] gala of 2019 Alibaba 11.11 Global Shopping Festival at Mercedes-Benz Arena on November 10, 2019 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Zhang Hengwei/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)
VCG via Getty Images
If you’ve somehow missed the latest volley in the ongoing Taylor Swift/Scooter Braun feud, here’s a summary: On Thursday, Swift accused Braun of barring her from performing her old songs during the American Music Awards next week, where she will receive the Artist of the Decade Award. In June, Braun purchased Big Machine Records, thus acquiring the master recordings of Swift’s first six albums, from her 2006 eponymous debut through 2017’s Reputation. Swift alleged that Braun and Big Machine founder Scott Borchetta refuse to let perform her old songs on live TV because that would constitute rerecording, which she can’t legally do until next year. A Big Machine executive refuted Swift’s allegations, telling TMZ that she “can 100% perform all of her catalog, past and present, on the AMAs.” The label further denied Swift’s claims and alleged she owed the company millions of dollars in a statement posted to its website on Friday. (For a more thorough breakdown, read Forbes’ original report.)
That’s a lot of back-and-forth over the course of a weekend, which anybody who’s witnessed a Swift feud should expect by now. The ownership of one’s masters is one of the oldest and most vicious fights in the music industry, and Swift is right to care about it, as it directly affects her future earnings and musical legacy. But one of the most tragic, unspoken aspects of Swift’s public battle against Braun and Borchetta is that it distracts from what she should actually be doing right now: promoting her new album, Lover, which came out less than three months ago.
For Swift, new music and new drama often go hand in hand, and typically, that combination has served her well. In 2017, she emerged from a social media blackout and the wreckage of her Kanye West/Kim Kardashian feud with the wrathful “Look What You Made Me Do,” which shot straight to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its accompanying album, Reputation, debuted at No. 1 with 1.216 million copies, becoming her fourth consecutive million-plus debut. Thus far, Lover has not enjoyed the same monopolistic chart success. It debuted with 867,000 equivalent units—a massive sum, though still a sizable dip for Swift—and its first two singles, “ME!” and “You Need to Calm Down,” each peaked at No. 2 and divided critics. Its title track, which in an alternate timeline would rule the Hot 100 for weeks on end, has peaked at No. 10.
Let’s be clear: These are enviable numbers for any artist. But for Swift, whose bar for success is “biggest pop star on the planet,” it’s hard not to read them as mildly disappointing. To date, Lover still lacks a single that is unanimously acclaimed and unequivocally successful. Swift should be focused on changing that, and the AMAs present an excellent opportunity to do so. Artists who perform on live award shows or other popular televised events (like the Super Bowl) often enjoy a post-show streaming boost. Swift—who is still the reigning champ of traditional album sales but has historically underperformed on streaming services—would be wise to push Lover’s title track, especially since she just released a remix with chart-topping heartthrob Shawn Mendes. Alternately, she could kick off a promotional blitz for one of the other fan favorites off Lover, such as the topical “The Man” or the begging-to-be-a-smash-hit “Cruel Summer.”
As the Artist of the Decade recipient, Swift will naturally want to make her performance a retrospective, celebratory affair—and she ought to be able to do so, as she’s responsible for a near-endless stream of hits over the past 13 years. But it’s also an opportunity for her to look forward to a new musical decade in which she will surely play a large part. Swift is not yet in the twilight of her career; not even close. She is still one of the most celebrated and commercially viable artists alive, and playing songs off Lover during her AMAs performance would send a message that, while she respects her musical legacy thus far, she is not beholden to it.
There’s also a petty upside to Swift giving her Lover songs a boost at the AMAs. Aside from his new acquisition of Big Machine, Braun also manages Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, both of whom have netted No. 1 hits this year, and the former of whom is rumored to have new music on the way by the year’s end. While Swift is a peer of Bieber and Grande, she’s also something of their elder. (Three years makes a world of difference in pop music.) Swift and Braun are both shrewd businesspeople, and the best way for Swift to stick it to Braun in this public feud would be to prove that her new music is just as successful as her old music, as well as the music of Braun’s other superstar clients. It would also demonstrate that Swift won’t be cowed by Braun’s business tactics.
This nasty battle over Swift’s master recordings will likely rage for a while longer, creating a lot of distracting noise along the way. In the meantime, Swift would be wise to do what has served her best in previous feuds and let her music do the talking.
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