Who's Afraid of Taylor Swift?

This blog originally appeared on Peter Getty Music & TV

Taylor Swift possesses great power, and with great power comes great responsibility. She demonstrated earlier this year that she could wield that power for good when she went against Apple, and won. Even Samsung had some trouble accomplishing that.

Swift’s ire was aroused when Apple announced it would launch a streaming music service hoping to go head-to-head with Spotify (Taylor pulled her entire oeuvre from Spotify for a similar infraction). Apple’s music service would come with a three free trial months of service, during which time the artist would not be compensated. And there’s the rub.

Thereafter, the all powerful Swift penned an open letter to Apple on a Tumblr post, “To Apple, Love Taylor”. Eddy Cue, Apple’s media chief, consequently tweeted an about-face, stating Apple would pay artists during the trial period after all. Cue also reached out to Taylor directly with the news.

So how, with all her superpowers, does she continue to get backlash? Taylor has sequestered the hearts of millions of loyal fans, yet, she is named in NY Mag’s poll of “most hated celebrities”.

If we look at the facts: she doesn’t date more men than most young ladies her age, but even veterans like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler poked fun at her for her romantic entanglements. She is a philanthropist who donates time and money to the arts, feminism and education, but there are very few pats on the back. Five of her albums have sold 1 million copies within their first week of being released. No other artist has been able to do that, though Kanye West has belittled her multiple times (on stage and in lyrics).

She has been “dissed” so many times that the internet is full of lists of the biggest Taylor Swift fueds.

Regardless of why people love her or hate her, she is one of the most polarizing celebrities. It cannot be denied the sort of clout Swift holds, but with great clout comes great responsibility, and great haters too.