Billboard has apologized in an open letter to Taylor Swift following outrage from a snippet of a very contentious video clip that played during Swift’s career tribute video. The clip occurred in a video that celebrated the singer as the No. 2 greatest pop star of the 21st century. It revisited a painful moment in her career that sent outrage overdrive.
The tribute video included brief footage of Kanye West 2016 “Famous” movie video, where Swift was featuring nude with wax figures. This cue started up the never-ending rivalry in place between Swift and West; already, the video of “Famous” had become unpopular due to explicit images and insulting words.
Swifties flocked to social media and furiously called the brief clip disrespectful and an uninvited revisiting of a very public spat that has caused Swift great emotional and professional stress. The #BillboardIsOverParty #BillboardApologizeToTaylor hashtags dominated and fueled the online revolt that aimed at some form of response by Billboard.
In response, Billboard took to social media and apologized for the harm the clip had caused. The controversial clip was promptly removed from the tribute, and a revised version of the video was uploaded. Billboard said it was deeply sorry for the negative impact the clip had on Swift and her fans.
This Taylor Swift vs Kanye West fight was probably among the most famous inside the precincts of the pop culture world. It started off during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, which blew up once again this 2016 with the release of “Famous”. This track has included highly explicit lyrical comments related to Swift and its video, showing wax models of naked celebrities-which widely stirred criticism of offense and exploitation.
The inclusion of the wax figure in Billboard’s tribute felt for Swift and her fans like an old wound ripped open once more, reminding them of an especially tumultuous time in the artist’s career.
The incident shows the need for decent representation in media: while there was an intent to hail Swift’s phenomenal success, controversial imagery employed underlined a call for media outlets to consider the implications of their content, especially when high-profile figures with complex public histories are concerned.
To Taylor Swift, the controversy recalled yet again the hard battle most celebrities go through to make sure their narratives are on course. For her fans, it reminded them of all the reasons they thought it necessary to call out the media when it erred-most of all, when those mistakes affect people one truly admires.
