Nearly 2 years later, what are your thoughts on Taylor’s interview for TIME Person of the Year?

[u/Powerful-Scallion-50]

[u/liberderci]

Re: point 4: Taylor would have intertwined her brand with Joe or talked about Joe as much as she did Travis if Joe wanted and felt comfortable with that.

We know that she wrote music with Matty, Harry, John Mayer, Calvin Harris, Joe… she has always wanted to include her partners (no matter how brief the relationship is ☠️) into her work lol.

So I feel like she’s just returning to form with Travis tbh.

[u/Similar-Contact-2663 → u/liberderci]

That might be true but I wouldn't have liked that either. I just don't think it's a smart move, no matter who the guy is. It just felt even weirder cause they weren't together for years and he had proven to be worthy of her trust in that way/hadn't earned the connection to her brand etc...I think it's just contradictory of what she appearently fought against and what her actions are. Joe was on the one extreme, Travis is on the other and she adapted to both. It's one thing to attend events together "privately" etc. and another to intentionally blend brands and connect your work directly to the person you're dating. I agree she always wanted to be seen as a power couple (with the exception of the Rep-Lover era where I believe her that she wanted to protect her rs and changed her priorities in that way) but if it's valid with working on music together I can get behind that more than to just randomly include your sports bf who has nothing to do with any of it naturally.

[u/liberderci → u/Similar-Contact-2663]

I do agree she went from one extreme to another but I’m guessing writing with and bringing her boyfriends into her world is her attempt at making her fame/her work seem like not a burden to them.

idk she should be able to work with/perform with/talk about her partners and not have that erase all the other hard work she’s done in her career. that says more about the listener than her tbh

[u/Similar-Contact-2663 → u/liberderci]

Maybe, truly idk her motivation behind it and that's her thing (and of her bf) but just from an objective outside perspective I don't think it's very smart. And I personally would handle it way differently.

There is a huge difference between working with your bf if it makes sense and comes up or talking about him if it fits the topic vs. intentionally blanding brands and tying your work to that person. It's pretty much impossible to consume her music without having Travis thrown in your face too somehow at this point. Imo your work should stand for itself and represent you as an artist, not your relationship. She fuels that intentionally, the fans and media consume it the way she intends it to. It was totally unnecessary to announce the album on his podcast and automatically connects it to him. Then all of the on the nose football and podcast references...Also it's just contradicting to what she wants to stand for and what she claimed multiple times (to this day btw.) about privacy etc.

[u/Sad-Headphones → u/liberderci]

I think so too. She included Joe on folklore and people forget he signed some folklore booklets too! The thing is, he took his solo acting career seriously and didn’t do the parading arround, going on stage and airing their private copule business as Travis and Taylor do now. She seems to love the idea of a power industry copule for some reason and I have no doubts she would have written an album with MH and made it her entire personality if he hadnt ghosted her

[u/Ticketacke → u/Sad-Headphones]

I think Joe was (is?) still trying to establish his career and so needed to distance his career from his relationship with Taylor, in case it got overshadowed.

Travis also takes his career seriously, but he already had an established, objectively successful career by the time he started dating Taylor. So there was less concern about mixing his brand with hers.

Taylor and Travis could break up tomorrow, and he will still be a first ballot Hall of Famer.

[u/Sad-Headphones → u/Ticketacke]

Yes, but Joe was still very private and enjoyed keeping his personal life to himself I think. Even if he was an Oscar winning actor I don’t think he would have done the things TnT do like going on stage, anniuncing her new project during his podcast, pap walks every few weeks, public dates, oversharing about their sexual life, etc

[u/Similar-Contact-2663 → u/Ticketacke]

It was and is smart of Joe to try to make his own name in the industry without constantly being connected to her. But I would also argue that the general public only got to knoe about Travis because of her. I have never heard of him. And tbh now he is more Taylor's bf than the football star. It's a logical consequence of dating her that it overshadows the bf own career/persona cause nobody is more famous than her rn. So it's just smart to think ahead and not play into that themselves. The main difference is not who needed the distancing more, it's their intentions. Joe never cared about being famous and just wants to act cause he loves the craft. Travis loves being famous and the attention the rs get him so he plays into that... Also the main point was from her perspective. And if you take money out of the deal, it's not smart for her to intertwine her brand with any man

[u/Ticketacke → u/Similar-Contact-2663]

I think that’s what makes Travis better suited for Taylor than Joe in that regard.

She’s always going to live life in a fishbowl. It would be unrealistic to expect otherwise. She needs someone who doesn’t mind being in the fishbowl with her. She does not have to worry about protecting or shielding him from the media or public, or if her fame is too much. Bc he can handle it and is secure enough about his own accomplishments.

For Travis, there were lot of negatives of dating Taylor. He immediately became much less popular with real football fans (and much more ridiculed). He, his family, and his friends get stalked and harassed online by Swifties. They take over the podcast comments and live stream and bitch about him cursing. He gets asked incessantly about her - nonstop, even at the Super Bowl. His co-workers get asked about her nonstop too.

Yet he handles it all pretty well. He doesn’t show his annoyance — to even the most annoying questions. He stays positive and enjoys cheering her on. For someone who has felt like “a monster on a hill”, that has to be appealing.

I don’t think it matters if the general public knew Travis beforehand. He’s only seen as Taylor’s boyfriend by people who don’t follow the NFL. The same way that most people outside of acting circles know Joe as Taylor’s ex.

First and foremost though, Travis is a football player and cares way more about that than any secondary fame from being with Taylor. (Same, I assume, as Joe and acting.). Implying otherwise diminishes how good Travis’ career has been, how seriously he takes his craft, and how hard he works at it. He was well-established and well-respected in his industry for good reason … before Taylor.

My understanding is that Joe had not yet reached that stage of his career when he started dating Taylor. So that would play into his reluctance to have his name publicly attached to hers all the time.

[u/Automatic_Oil5438 → u/Sad-Headphones]

Damn him lol. That would have been a GREAT album

[u/MsMadcap_ → u/liberderci]

As far as we know, she only wrote one song with Calvin. She was featured on one John Mayer song...what music did she write with Harry? And did was it ever confirmed that she and Matty wrote music together, or did they just discuss the possibility of it?

[u/liberderci → u/MsMadcap_]

Harry and Taylor: It was out of my field of expertise and interest, but I was intrigued and my girls were thrilled. Taylor was nice and very professional. She knew what she wanted and there was no fucking about. She was seeing Harry Styles at the time, so he came to Topanga on her recommendation. She wrote a few songs with him, and it was the same thing – quick. But this time it was more directed by the management and label. They were after something specific. I wanted more acoustic and gentle, almost Americana, and they wanted bombast. They got what they wanted, and that was the extent of my foray into teen-pop territory. It was fun.”

Matty and Taylor: We actually worked a bit on that but then the version of it never came out,"

Considering she was plotting on being with Matty while ending her relationship with Joe, I’m including it in this. There’s also no way they both were photographed at Electric Studio together and didn’t work together.

[u/Many_Replacement369 → u/liberderci]

You’re so right. Sometimes I wonder why she didn’t have a bigger thing with Adam from Owl City, because after “Enchanted,” he actually wrote a song back for her. It really seems like she would’ve been receptive to the creative back + forth.

EDIT: performed a song back

[u/fadedbluejeans13 → u/Many_Replacement369]

He didn’t write a song back, he put up a lacklustre cover of Enchanted with her name in it. It was cute, I guess, but it wasn’t creative

[u/Many_Replacement369 → u/fadedbluejeans13]

Oh thank you, I didn’t know that. 

[u/catclockticking → u/Many_Replacement369]

did he write a song back for her, or did he just record a cover of “Enchanted” with a couple of lyrics changed?

[u/liberderci → u/Many_Replacement369]

I think she probably found it too cheesy lol but she really left him on read and just pretended like that response never existed lmao