Music Fanatic

After reading that Taylor wrote DBATC after watching the movie Someone Great, I decided to make a video edit showing just how well the lyrics of my favourite song on Lover fit this great movie 💗

Hi @taylorswift!! I know there’s only about 17 days and 21 hours until Lover is released!!! You must be SO EXCITED!!!

That means there’s only 8 days and 21 hours until my birthday, and it’s a big one this year, the big 40!!! After seeing the posts from Secret Sessions I just want to address an elephant in the virtual room...many of us “older Swifties”, “golden Swifties”, “Swiftie parents” call us what you will feel like we have absolutely no chance of being invited to anything. I will say this feeling has been present for awhile but the wound was reopened tonight when someone posted about being 2 or 4 when Fearless came out. I’m not saying that those fans are any less deserving, this is truly about observations and just letting you know about this other side of the fandom.

We may not have as frequent a social media presence because many of us work full time and/or are raising families. BUT when Fearless came out we were in our late teens or twenties. Your music has guided us through the most important days of our lives! Many of us have had your music playing at our weddings, in the delivery rooms when our babies were born, at our children’s graduations, on Mother’s Day, etc. You’ve added so much to these moments with your meaningful lyrics. We have been at every tour, bought every CD, waited in anticipation as we are now for every release day and have vivid memories of each era and what it has meant to us! We would love to have the chance to thank you too!!!

Many of us also have Swiftie children who we bond with over your music, announcements, videos, release dates, tour!!!, etc as well! I know you’re not a parent but you can trust me when I say that it brings your stan level up several notches when you share that passion with your children. There’s no words to explain how fun it is to scream lyrics in the car while blasting your music with my daughters on the way to school. The best I can compare it to is your relationship with your mom which I know is so special💗. We are inspired by her as well. I also propose you consider some sort of event in the future (or tour m&g) that would include parents and their Swiftie kids...it would mean the world to us (and there are a lot of us out here).

All I’m asking is that you don’t forget us this Era! There are so many wonderful, deserving fans that are over 30 too! We would love to have a chance to hug you as well and share a moment to let you know what your music has meant to us. In the mean time we’ll be out here cheering you on, pre-ordering Lover and making plans for release day!

“This time around I feel more comfortable being brave enough to be vulnerable, because my fans are brave enough to be vulnerable with me. Once people delve into the album, it’ll become pretty clear that that’s more of the fingerprint of this — that it’s much more of a singer-songwriter, personal journey than the last one.”

For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work. Instead I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in. I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future. I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums. 

Some fun facts about today’s news: I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years. 

Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. (See photo) Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.

This is my worst case scenario. This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says ‘Music has value’, he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it. 

When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever. 

Thankfully, I am now signed to a label that believes I should own anything I create. Thankfully, I left my past in Scott’s hands and not my future. And hopefully, young artists or kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation. You deserve to own the art you make.

I will always be proud of my past work. But for a healthier option, Lover will be out August 23. 

Sad and grossed out,

💔

🌈HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!!🌈 While we have so much to celebrate, we also have a great distance to go before everyone in this country is truly treated equally. In excellent recent news, the House has passed the Equality Act, which would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in their places of work, homes, schools, and other public accommodations. The next step is that the bill will go before the Senate. I’ve decided to kick off Pride Month by writing a letter to one of my senators to explain how strongly I feel that the Equality Act should be passed. I urge you to write to your senators too. I’ll be looking for your letters by searching the hashtag #lettertomysenator.

While there’s no information yet as to when the Equality Act will go before the Senate for a vote, we do know this: Politicians need votes to stay in office. Votes come from the people. Pressure from massive amounts of people is a major way to push politicians towards positive change. That’s why I’ve created a petition at change.org to urge the Senate to support the Equality Act.

Our country’s lack of protection for its own citizens ensures that LGBTQ people must live in fear that their lives could be turned upside down by an employer or landlord who is homophobic or transphobic. The fact that, legally, some people are completely at the mercy of the hatred and bigotry of others is disgusting and unacceptable.

Let’s show our pride by demanding that, on a national level, our laws truly treat all of our citizens equally. 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈