I’m kind of torn up about the fact that I’ll have to tape The Dublin Murders and watch the American Music Awards live, all because it’s my job to bear witness to Taylor Swift’s latest orchestrated victim performance. Again, I think it sucks that Taylor Swift doesn’t own her masters. Again, I also think it sucks that instead of treating this like what it is – a business deal – she’s lied and sicced her fans on her perceived enemies, and said nothing as the Snake Fam doxxed and threatened employees of Big Machine. Taylor’s AMA performance is going to be… a lot. And I’d rather watch The Dublin Murders.
Anyway, Scooter Braun knows that Taylor is about to try to turn him into the Nu Kanye, so that’s why he’s trying to get ahead of her AMA performance. Scooter participated in a Q&A session at the 2019 Entertainment Industry Conference, co-sponsored by Variety. Variety had his comments, which you can read here. Some highlights:
On being cast as the villain in Swift’s soap opera: “I haven’t talked about this in six months. Not once. I haven’t made a statement about it. When there’s a lot of things being said and a lot of different opinions, yet the principals haven’t had a chance to speak to each other, there’s a lot of confusion. I’m not going to go into details here, because it’s just not my style. I just think we live in a time of toxic division, and of people thinking that social media is the appropriate place to air out on each other and not have conversations. And I don’t like politicians doing it. I don’t like anybody doing it, and if that means that I’ve got to be the bad guy longer, I’ll be the bad guy longer, but I’m not going to participate.”
Communication is key: “What I’ll say is, people need to communicate, and when people are able to communicate, I think they work things out. And I think a lot of times things are miscommunications, because I believe that people are fundamentally good. I think there are a lot of real problems in the world, and I think that these problems that are being discussed can be discussed behind closed doors and figured out pretty easily, and it’s something I’ve wanted to do for six months. And it’s hard, because I can handle it pretty easily, but when it gets to a place where there’s death threats and there’s offices being called and people being threatened… it’s gotten out of hand. And I think people need to come together and have a conversation, because that’s not what we got in this industry for… The truth is, I have no ill will for anybody. And the moment people want to have a conversation with me, I’m ready to have that conversation, and I’m not going to add to the narrative. I disagree with it, but I’m not going to add to the narrative. I just want to fix things and set a better example for people.
On conflict resolution: “I know this is going to be the most controversial thing I say. I don’t know where we got messed up along the way that we decided being politically correct is more important than having conflict resolution. … People are allowed to grow as human beings. They’re allowed to have conversations. They’re allowed to change their mind. They’re allowed to go from not liking to each other to liking each other, and vice versa. But you don’t find that out just yelling at each other. You find that out by showing each other respect and having a conversation.”
It’s not anything I didn’t already know/assume: Scooter Braun is coming at this situation as a businessman and manager. Taylor Swift is coming at this as an artist who is significantly immature. She has access to the best lawyers, auditors, accountants and managers in the business, and it speaks volumes to me that she still refuses to go into a meeting (with her lawyer, with her manager) with Scooter Braun, the man who owns the bulk of her catalog, and that she thinks her best business option is weaponizing her fanbase. She’s just gotten it into her head that Braun is her enemy because… a few of his clients have sh-ttalked her and made fun of her and even exposed her lies. Anyway…
Update: Scooter posted this to his Instagram after this Q&A discussion. The Snake Fam is truly calling up his house and threatening his wife and children.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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