- Taylor Swift suggested that negative feedback to her new album is still “helping” her purposes.
- The “Wood” singer said she has “a lot of respect for people’s subjective opinions on art.”
- The musician also opined that “what you’re going through in your life” deeply affects a person’s response to her music.
The haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate — but Taylor Swift says she doesn’t hate them back.
The “Love Story” singer reflected on the reception of her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, during an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music on Tuesday.
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Swift said that the album, which has received several glowing reviews as well as numerous ambivalent critiques, has been embraced by the Swiftie fandom. “The fans are unbelievable,” she said. “I don’t even know how to thank them for what they’ve done this week and for how much they’ve loved this music and how they’ve just immediately gotten it.”
The “Wi$h Li$t” musician also suggested that negative opinions about her work are preferable to no opinions at all. “I welcome the chaos,” she said. “The rule of showbusiness is: if it’s the first week of my album release and you are saying either my name or my album title, you’re helping.”
Swift also recognized the subjectivity of music. “I have a lot of respect for people’s subjective opinions on art,” she remarked. “I’m not the art police. Everybody is allowed to feel exactly how they want.”
The “Wood” singer went on to explain that people’s individual contexts drastically affect their perception of art. “What our goal is as entertainers is to be a mirror,” she said. “Oftentimes an album is a really, really wild way to look at yourself, right? What you’re going through in your life is gonna affect whether you relate to the music that I’m putting out at any given moment.”
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For example, Swift said that she has witnessed her listeners adopt new favorite albums as they evolve over time. “What I often love seeing my fans say is: ‘I used to be someone who didn’t relate to Reputation, and now that I’ve been through some other things in my life, that’s my favorite album,'” she said. “Or, ‘I used to be a Fearless girlie, now I’m obsessed with Evermore.'”
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Swift stands by The Life of a Showgirl, and said that conversations about its lasting resonance complement the record’s core ideas. “I have such an eye on legacy when I’m making my music,” she said. “I know what I made. I know I adore it. And I know that on the theme of what the showgirl is, all of this is part of it.”
Watch Swift’s full conversation with Lowe above.
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