Taylor Swift is known for keeping her fans on the edge of their seats regarding her next announcements. She dropped two surprise albums, Folklore and Evermore, during the year 2020, and she is now working on her re-recordings to reclaim ownership of her music. As she continues releasing music, the star is not holding back with the suspense. Since her successful re-release of Red (Taylor’s Version) back in November of 2021, she has kept herself off social media except for a birthday post and some “22 (Taylor’s Version)” promo due to the upcoming New Year. Since then, fans have been left in the dark to only theorize what her next moves will be. However, this past Monday, Jan. 24, she did not hesitate to break her silence to defend both herself and every single one of her songs.
During an interview with Los Angeles Times‘s Mikael Wood, the singer from the band Blur and Gorillaz, Damon Albarn said “She doesn’t write her own songs,” in reference to Taylor Swift. Writing her own songs is something Swift prides herself on. Her third studio album, Speak Now, is famously known for being fully written by herself at the age of 19 without help from co-writers. Yet, Albarn stated that she’s a “songwriter who co-writes” claiming there is a big difference between that and an independent songwriter.
After the interview was released, Taylor Swift took her reply to Twitter. Replying to Los Angeles Times and tagging Damon Albarn, she mentioned how she writes all her own songs, his hot take is false and damaging, and how messed up it is to discredit her writing. She didn’t stop here though; she then continued the Twitter thread by saying, “PS I wrote this tweet all by myself in case you were wondering.”
Her current collaborators, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, also took to Twitter in Swift’s defense. Antonoff tweeted in a sarcastic manner how despite never meeting Damon Albarn he seems to know more about the songs Taylor Swift writes. Dessner later followed by tweeting how Albarn’s “statements couldn’t be further from the truth” and how “completely clueless as to her actual writing and work process” he is.
Since then, Damon Albarn has apologized to Taylor Swift by replying to her tweet with, “I totally agree with you. I had a conversation about songwriting and sadly it was reduced to clickbait. I apologize unreservedly and unconditionally. The last thing I would want to do is discredit your songwriting. I hope you understand.”
The genuineness of the apology however is being questioned because even after Wood insisted Taylor Swift does write her songs and co-writes some of them, Albarn proceeded to negate the statement by saying, “That doesn’t count.” Fans have not stopped showing their loyalty to Taylor. They are alluding to Swift’s past music, especially Speak Now, serving as proof that she does, in fact, write her own songs.
Since Albarn’s apology, Taylor Swift has not contributed any more to the exchange, staying true to her Reputation’s “I Did Something Bad” lyrics: “If he drops my name, then I owe him nothing.”
Want to see more HCFSU? Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube and Pinterest!