Hidden Taylor Swift ‘cameo’ revealed
Selena Gomez continues her habit of incorporating Taylor Swift cameos into her work. An eagle-eyed fan notices that the cover of Taylor Swift’s multiplatinum album 1989 appears in the background of a shot in 13 Reasons Why’s tenth episode (Sheri’s tape). It appears someone drew the album cover as a project for an art class, and the teacher put it on display in the hallway.
Former MTV Chief: Beyonce, Taylor Swift were crying over Kanye interruption
Toffler, who headed up MTV at the time, says his favorite VMA moment was being at the center of Kanye’s interruption of Swift at the 2009 VMAs. West interrupted Swift’s speech saying:
Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you — I’mma let you finish — but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!
Toffler:
When Kanye walked up onstage with Taylor [Swift] that year, it turned out that Taylor had to go onstage to do her song five minutes later. I ran out of the truck to see that everything was all right, and Taylor and her mom were crying hysterically. I’m not always wonderful with emotions. I didn’t know what to say. Then I went backstage, and Beyonce was crying, too.
No new music in October
Swift denies she’ll be releasing new music in October, even though that would have kept her on the schedule she’s maintained ever since she first released her self-titled debut.
Shake It Off lawsuit dismissed
A U.S. Disctrict Court judge in California dismisses the ‘Shake It Off” lawsuit , using Taylor Swift’s own lyrics.
Jesse Braham (aka Jesse Graham) had claimed that the phrases “haters gonna hate” and “players gonna play” were plagiarized from his 2013 song “Haters Gonna Hate.” But the judge found that the phrase “haters gonna hate” was already a meme and a popular item in Google searches before Braham’s song debuted, according to evidence cited in the ruling. That’s to say nothing of the seminal 2000 track “Playas Gon’ Play” by 3LW, which the judge also cites.
In the conclusion of her ruling, the judge writes:
At present, the Court is not saying that Braham can never, ever, ever get his case back in court. But, for now, we have got problems, and the Court is not sure Braham can solve them. As currently drafted, the Complaint has a blank space— one that requires Braham to do more than write his name. And, upon consideration of the Court’s explanation in Part II, Braham may discover that mere pleading BandAids will not fix the bullet holes in his case. At least for the moment, Defendants have shaken off this lawsuit.
‘Shake It Off’ lawsuit filed
Out-of-work musician, Jesse Braham, is suing Taylor Swift for $42 million, claiming she ripped off his lyrics for her hit song ‘Shake It Off.’ He claims that his song, ‘Haters Gone Hate,’ has the same phrases that Swift used in her song and that he copyrighted ‘Haters Gone Hate’ in February 2013.
Swift’s song, from her 1989 album which she released in 2014, has the lyrics: ‘Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play. And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate’, as well as ‘And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake’.
Braham’s song has the lyrics ‘Haters gone hate, playas gone play. Watch out for them fakers, they’ll fake you everyday.’
The suit includes a YouTube link to ‘Haters Gone Hate,’ sung by a Jesse Graham, which was posted in December 2013. It has 76 thumbs up, and 1,046 thumbs down from those who listened to it. The melody is different from Swift’s song.
Braham filed the suit in federal court himself without an attorney, and is asking the court to waive various filing fees, saying he last had a job in 2006. He is seeking $42 million in damages from Swift and also seeks to have the name Jessie Braham added as a songwriter to ‘Shake if Off.’
Let it Go performance
At the final leg of her U.S. tour, in Tampa, Swift performs Let It Go with Menzel dressed as Olaf the snowman.
Frozen totally happened tonight. And 55,000 people sang ‘Let It Go’ so loudly, it nearly took my breath away.
https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/660692178574929920
Most views on Vevo
Swift’s Blank Space‘ video reaches more than 1.3 billion views, meaning, she is the most viewed on VEVO.
Take a bow, @taylorswift13! #BlankSpace is now the most viewed vid on Vevo! https://t.co/ROTcKad8iA #BlankSpaceVevo pic.twitter.com/jiw3g6nWro
— Vevo (@Vevo) October 20, 2015
Taylor Swift mashup
Swift comments on Hall’s 4 Taylor by Todrick Hall mashup, which features her hits Blank Space, Style, Shake It Off, Love Story, and You Belong With Me.
https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/646216022148583426/
Dances with seven-year-old fan
Barnes and Swift have a Shake It Off dance party.
https://instagram.com/p/76-loRDvL-/
Counters ‘colonial fantasy’ criticism
In response to critics who have complained that Swift’s Wildest Dreams video is a”colonial fantasy” Kahn says there were black Africans in the video in background shots but that it would have been “historically inaccurate to load the crew with more black actors as the video would have been accused of rewriting history.” He also notes that the video’s producer and editor are both African-American.
There is no political agenda in the video. Our only goal was to tell a tragic love story in classic Hollywood iconography.
Wildest Dreams video
Swift releases the video for Wildest Dreams at the VMAs, directed by Kahn and starring Swift and Eastwood in an African-themed romance.
Apologizes to Swift, says he will run for President in 2020
In a ten-minute acceptance speech for the Video Vanguard Award at the VMAs, West apologizes to Swift for grabbing the mike from her in 2009, and announces he will run for president in 2020.
If I had to do it all again, what would I have done? Would I have worn a leather shirt? Would I have drank half a bottle of Hennessy. If I had a daughter at that time would I have went on stage and grabbed the mic from someone else?..After that night the stage was gone, but the effect it had on people remained. The problem was the contradiction. The contradiction is I do fight for artists, but in that fight I was somehow disrespectful to artists.
I’m confident. I believe in myself. We the millennials, bro. This is a new mentality. We not gonna control our kids with brands. We’re not gonna teach low self-esteem and hate to our kids. We’re gonna teach them that they can be something. We gonna teach our kids they can stand up for themselves, believe in themselves. It don’t matter though. It ain’t about me. It’s about ideas, bro! New ideas, people who believe in truth. And yes, as you probably could’ve guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president.
Does he have your vote America? @kanyewest accepts the Video Vanguard award http://t.co/pyg3SBh8gq
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
Mirrors performance
Timberlake joins Swift, during her LA show at Staples Center, for a performance of Mirrors.
Justin hasn’t performed since he became a dad, so I’m just honored that this is his first performance.
MIND BLOWN!!! @jtimberlake @taylorswift13 #1989TourLA pic.twitter.com/K6M13DdtuH
— Crypto.com Arena (@cryptocomarena) August 27, 2015
Smelly Cat performance
Kudrow sings Smelly Cat with Swift on stage at Staples Center, Los Angeles.
This singer has only ever played in coffee houses before. She never played in a big venue like this. Please make her feel welcome. You guys, her name is Phoebe Buffay.
At one point, Kudrow stops the performance to give Swift advice:
You have to really feel the lyrics, you know
Who doesn't love a little "Smelly Cat"?!?! #1989TourLA #Friends @LisaKudrow @taylorswift13 pic.twitter.com/7m07TAomv6
— Crypto.com Arena (@cryptocomarena) August 27, 2015
Style performance
Swift introduces DeGeneres during her performance of Style, at the Staples Center in LA. DeGeneres dances and sings the song with Swift, in an almost identical sparkly outfit..
Los Angeles, please make some noise for international pop superstar, Ellen DeGeneres.
https://instagram.com/p/6y4ySiN7lL/
You Oughta Know performance
Swift and Morissette perform You Oughta Know at Swift’s concert in the Staples Center in LA. Swift:
She inspired a generation of confessional female singer-songwriters who all of a sudden felt like you could actually say these raw feelings that you had. You could actually sing about your real life, you could put detail to it, you could get really, really made if you wanted to. And I think it’s fair to say that so many of the female singer-songwriters of my generation, including myself, would not write the way that we do without her and her music. And she has written some of the most brilliant music – in particular probably inarguably the greatest breakup song of all-time.
Gives Swift banner
Bryant appears on stage during Swift’s show at Staples Center. Bryant presents her with a banner recognizing her for her record 16 sold-out shows at Staples Center, part of her 1989 tour. Swift:
The screams you hear from an LA crowd when Kobe walks out onstage are so deafening you think you may have permanent hearing loss. But it was SO WORTH IT
https://instagram.com/p/6rM1Akt7ph/?taken-by=staplescenterla
VF interview: Talks about girlfriends
Swift talks about her relationship with her friends (Lena Dunham, Selena Gomez and Karlie Kloss):
We even have girls in our group who have dated the same people. It’s almost like the sisterhood has such a higher place on the list of priorities for us. It’s so much more important than some guy that it didn’t work out with. When you’ve got this group of girls who need each other as much as we need each other, in this climate, when it’s so hard for women to be understood and portrayed the right way in the media.
VF interview: Healing Kanye rift
Swift talks to Vanity Fair about how Jay-Z helped her heal the relationship with West.
I feel like I wasn’t ready to be friends with [West] until I felt like he had some sort of respect for me, and he wasn’t ready to be friends with me until he had some sort of respect for me—so it was the same issue, and we both reached the same place at the same time,” Swift says. “I became friends with Jay Z, and I think it was important, for Jay Z, for Kanye and I to get along. . . . And then Kanye and I both reached a place where he would say really nice things about my music and what I’ve accomplished, and I could ask him how his kid’s doing.
VF interview: Talks about Apple letter
Swift talks about her Apple letter in an interview with Vanity Fair.
I wrote the letter at around four A.M. Sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and I’ll write a song and I can’t sleep until I finish it, and it was like that with the letter.
She says she was nervous to post the letter online, after receiving negative feedback for her Wall Street Journal op-ed that had also advocated for fair compensation in the music industry. She says didn’t tell Borchetta, and the only person she ran it through before publishing was her mother
She’s always going to be the one. I just said, ‘I’m really scared of this letter, but I had to write it. I might not post it, but I had to say it.’
She compares Apples’ response with Spotify’s:
Apple treated me like I was a voice of a creative community that they actually cared about. I found it really ironic that the multi-billion-dollar company reacted to criticism with humility, and the start-up with no cash flow reacted to criticism like a corporate machine.
