Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Taylor Swift TTPD backlash, Dixie D'Amelio responds to drug accusations + Watcher leaves YouTube

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MINI SCROLL: Taylor Swift TTPD backlash, Dixie D'Amelio responds to drug accusations + Watcher leaves YouTube · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hi everyone. Welcome to Mini Scroll, the
• 0:02
  daily Internet culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories
• 0:05
  from social media, the creator economy and the digital space
• 0:08
  every Monday through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
• 0:12
  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
• 0:16
  All right you guys, welcome back to Mini Scroll.
• 0:20
  I had a weekend away a couple days away.
• 0:23
  It was Thursday to Saturday in Noosa for a brand trip with
• 0:28
  Shark Beauty. It was amazing.
• 0:29
  Like I can't even tell you. It was the perfect almost 48
• 0:34
  hours. Like it was exactly what I
• 0:36
  needed. It was exactly what I wanted.
• 0:38
  It was so good. Couldn't have come at a better
• 0:41
  time. I am so glad that I took the
• 0:43
  opportunity. So I hope you didn't miss mini
• 0:45
  Scroll too much on Thursday, but I feel like 5 podcasts a week,
• 0:48
  sometimes missing 1 is OK. Speaking of, I am not going to
• 0:53
  be doing a mini scroll this Thursday either because it is
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  ANZAC Day, which is a public holiday here in Australia.
• 0:59
  But the rest of the week should be normal.
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  All right, let's get straight into the stories.
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  The first story, you guys, of course we have to talk about the
• 1:09
  Tortured Poets Department. So there are so many things that
• 1:14
  I could cover from this album, but I will stick to little
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  tidbits that I feel are most relevant to this podcast, most
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  relevant to pop culture. So let's just get right into it.
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  On April 19th, Taylor Swift released her 11th studio album
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  titled The Tortured Poets Department, featuring 31 songs,
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  31 songs. This album was already drumming
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  up some controversy before it was even released, but now that
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  it's out, there's even more drama.
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  So before it was released, here is what people were kind of, I
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  don't want to say like upset about some people were upset,
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  but like here's what the controversies were.
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  So Taylor announced the album at the Grammys while giving her
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  acceptance speech for best pop vocal album for Midnights.
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  So people felt that this announcement was really
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  disrespectful to the other artists in the room.
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  And it was just kind of this big like pick me moment.
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  The next controversy with this album is the multiple versions
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  and all the merch that goes along with that.
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  Everyone kind of felt like it was quite tone deaf, given the
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  climate crisis and the cost of living crisis around the world
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  to be asking fans to pay extra money, extra money, extra money.
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  And then there was a lot of criticism about the fact that
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  the vibes just felt kind of like 2012 Tumblr.
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  And it started to get people talking about the fact that
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  Taylor got famous so young and there is the possibility that
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  maybe she hasn't. This is what other people were
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  saying hasn't kind of matured as fast I suppose as one would.
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  I don't know if that's a valid criticism because I do think we
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  see a lot of times child stars, which I would categorize her as
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  a child star. She got famous at like what like
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  1415, like she was very young. I think we see a lot of times
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  child stars have to grow up faster.
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  But I can also understand from an emotional development
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  perspective, like they haven't had a lot of real world
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  experiences. I listened to this album, I
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  liked it. I felt like the first half felt
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  like a response almost to Midnights, like it felt like a
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  sister album to Midnights and I really liked Midnights, so I
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  liked the very first half of the album.
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  I can also see how I was thinking about this before I saw
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  all this criticism that I'm going to get into.
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  But like I was thinking about while I was listening to this
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  'cause I was away obviously in Noosa, so I wasn't consuming
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  social media, like I just was listening to it while I was
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  getting ready for our dinners and things like that.
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  So I was not consuming the chatter around it yet and I did
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  have the thought that getting famous so young, whether you're
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  Taylor or any child star, like it, does limit your life
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  experiences and your ability to relate to the real world and for
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  us to relate to you. So I think that is why so many
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  of her songs are like love songs.
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  I know they're not all love songs, but she sings so much
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  about heartbreak and things like that.
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  I think a, because of course she feels that deeply and she does
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  have a lot of emotions and this is how she processes them is
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  through her songwriting and her artistry.
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  But I also feel like another part of that is your experience
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  would be if you're Taylor Swift, you've been so famous for so
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  long, since you were young, your experience is so limited to
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  that. You know, you haven't ever had
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  necessarily like a real job. You haven't had the experience
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  of being in your young 20s and like living with your friends
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  and trying to like make it in whatever respective career.
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  You haven't had to experience a lot of the growing pains or a
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  lot of the coming of age things that young people experience.
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  So I think that has now as she gets older, we're starting to
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  see I, I just feel like some of her fans might be outgrowing her
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  is what I gather from the chatter online, from the
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  discourse online. Because now the difference
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  between her experiences and our experiences are just getting
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  further and further apart. Not just because she's a
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  billionaire and an international superstar, but because she has
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  been famous for so long. She doesn't actually have a lot
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  of the same experiences as we do.
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  I think that we can feel that now in the albums that she is
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  releasing as she gets older. Anyways, let's talk about the
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  controversies after it has been released.
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  A lot of people say that the album sounds too similar to
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  itself, like the whole album itself just sounds too similar.
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  I kind of agree with that. I don't think that's necessarily
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  a bad thing. I don't think art or music needs
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  to follow a certain set of rules, right?
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  I think that's also kind of what this album has shown us.
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  So many of her songs in this album are, I don't, I don't
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  know, music theory. So you know, I'm sure if you
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  guys do, you're going to be cringing when I say this, but
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  you know, when songs like the lyrics or the singing doesn't
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  match up with the music, she does that a lot in this album
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  and she's always done that. Like I specifically remember in
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  her very first debut album, she did it in one song.
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  I forget what song it was, maybe picture to burn, and it just
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  didn't sound quite right. Like it's like her vocals didn't
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  quite match with the music. This album does it like so much,
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  and I think that just shows that this was really like a poetry.
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  I mean, it's literally in the title, but it's like, it's
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  almost like she's speaking poetry over music.
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  I don't mind that. It sounds all very similar.
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  That's clearly like the era that she is in right now or that she
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  was in when she wrote it. So I think that's, in my
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  opinion, fine. OK, we need to talk about Thank
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  You Amy, which is the song about Kim Kardashian.
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  Obviously, I think it's fair that Taylor's holding on to this
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  grudge. I think from her perspective,
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  what Kim did was almost career ruining for her if Taylor didn't
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  have smart enough team behind her to spin it into reputation
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  era and come back stronger and be able to maintain this almost
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  like underdog persona. So I think it's fair that like,
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  you know, people are saying, Oh my God, she never lets go of
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  anything. This is so long ago.
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  I think it's fair that she's still pissed about this.
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  Like I would have very complex feelings about something like
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  that as well. But I also think that this song
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  shows that she has made peace with that situation and she can
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  now see, in hindsight, a silver lining that this feud brought to
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  her career. And we talked about this on the
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  podcast with Crystal, how the Heiress tour and just so many
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  moments in Taylor's story or aspects of her career wouldn't
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  exist without that controversy. And that is not to credit her
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  success to Kim and Kanye at all. But I mean, if you listen to the
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  episode at the end, Crystal dissects it, but basically like
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  the kind of snowball effect on from well, really Kanye VMAs,
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  him interrupting her speech and then they're kind of ongoing
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  quote, UN quote feud that really came to a head with this Kim
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  Kardashian phone call moment. Like what Taylor has now with
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  the Aristorian stuff. That would all be so different
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  if that had not happened. And I think that this song is
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  her telling us that, like her saying, I have moved through
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  this, I have processed this, I have healed from this, and I can
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  see what good this gave me as well.
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  Even though, of course, at the end of the day, you don't want
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  to go through something like that.
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  And then there's a lot of theories that Kim knew about
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  this song. The reason being people are
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  like, Oh my God, Kris Jenner would have slapped them with a
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  cease and desist. Like, absolutely not.
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  If you have watched The Kardashians the show for a
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  number of years, you would see that there are many moments that
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  we have seen filmed on camera where something like this
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  happens in the public and they get the notifications from TMZ
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  or their publicist or whoever emails them, text them, whatever
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  on their phones and they're reacting in real time.
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  So I kind of see it as one of those moments.
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  I don't think that they knew, but I also don't think that
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  she's probably that pissed about it.
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  However, there is also another theory that Kim did know about
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  this song and that what they're going to do now is because this
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  song is obviously almost like a like telling her fans, OK, this
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  feud is done, let's put it to bed.
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  So Kim knew about this song. And what they're going to do now
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  is Taylor is going to release reputation Taylor's version, and
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  she's going to do it with a SKIMS campaign with both of them
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  in it. And that would be like wildly
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  iconic. That would just be, that would
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  just, that would actually break the Internet.
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  But I don't think that is what will happen.
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  That would be so amazing. But I do not think that is in
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  the cards for us, unfortunately. Just my opinion.
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  OK. The next kind of controversy
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  around the album is that the album seems to be way more about
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  Maddie Healy than Joe Alwyn. And people are saying if you've
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  been in a situation ship, you know how much these fuck with
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  you. And I could not agree more.
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  I had two like serious situation ships in my life before
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  obviously getting married and literally when those ended it
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  was like life crushing, like way more sad than when my
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  relationship of five years with my university boyfriend ended.
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  Absolutely all consuming sadness.
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  So I completely agree that it makes sense that she wrote this
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  like total heartbreak album about her situation ship.
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  But I do feel like the album is more so like mixing them
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  together, you know? Like I feel like in a lot of
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  songs I hear references to both and it's almost like an album
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  about her mourning these relationships on tour, like
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  while she was doing the Aris tour and then obviously
• 10:44
  eventually finding Travis Kelsey.
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  And I know that she was allegedly in a situation ship or
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  kind of like on again off again with Maddie Healy for like 10
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  years. So that of course, plays a role
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  in this as well. I have also seen some valid
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  criticism saying that some fans actually don't want to support
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  listening to an entire album about Maddie Healy.
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  And I think that's completely fair.
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  He seems like a pretty terrible person.
• 11:09
  I think that's a fair line to draw.
• 11:11
  And I know she addressed, you know, her fans reaction, her
• 11:15
  family's reaction to that relationship in the album and
• 11:19
  kind of just said, like, fuck you, in other words.
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  But I think that's a fair boundary for someone to set.
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  I don't want to hear a whole album of love songs about this
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  terrible person. I think that's that's fair.
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  OK. And the final thing that I
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  needed to talk about is the very controversial lyric from I Hate
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  It Here. So in the song I hate it here,
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  Taylor is singing about nostalgia and how we often have
• 11:47
  kind of rose colored glasses on for these nostalgic moments in
• 11:51
  our lives. And Taylor sings, we would pick
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  a decade we wished we could live in instead of this.
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  I'd say the 1830s, but without all the racists.
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  So with that particular line, I'd say the 1830s, but without
• 12:03
  all the racist. And then I know people are like,
• 12:05
  don't take it out of context. I know she goes on to talk about
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  how women were treated in that time period and then and of
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  course, launches into like how nostalgia makes us view things
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  differently. There is so much back and forth
• 12:16
  about this line. And all I want to say is if you
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  are like staunchly defending and telling people that they just
• 12:24
  don't understand the context of the line or they're taking it
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  out of context to purposely label her as racist or something
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  like that, I just want to say like two things can be true.
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  The people who are criticizing this line and saying this missed
• 12:38
  the mark. They understand the context.
• 12:41
  People are making it clear when they criticize this line like
• 12:44
  they know. But understanding the context
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  still doesn't necessarily make that line or that phrasing
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  appropriate or sit well with people.
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  And it might have SAT better with people if the person
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  singing it was different. For years people have been
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  asking Taylor to stand up for political and social issues.
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  She made a whole documentary talking about how she wants to
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  get more involved in that. And she has really fallen short
• 13:16
  on that, especially given the fact that she is a billionaire.
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  And, you know, she avoids discussing really controversial
• 13:23
  topics that will not be good for her public image.
• 13:26
  Like she avoids addressing the private jet stuff.
• 13:29
  She avoids addressing her impact on climate change.
• 13:32
  She avoids addressing the genocide going on right now in
• 13:35
  Gaza. Like there is so much that
• 13:38
  Taylor avoids addressing despite speaking up and kind of cherry
• 13:42
  picking like what she wants to talk about.
• 13:44
  Like, she's, you know, more than happy to talk about feminism
• 13:48
  when it benefits her, right? And that's the constant
• 13:52
  criticism about her. So that is what people are
• 13:54
  saying. Like, this line would have, I
• 13:57
  believe, landed very differently if it was sang by an artist who
• 14:01
  was frequently speaking up about political and social issues.
• 14:04
  But again, I am a fan of Taylor Swift's music.
• 14:07
  I went to the Aris tour. Don't come for me, OK?
• 14:11
  I just think it's important to be able to look with a critical
• 14:14
  eye at the influence that certain celebrities have.
• 14:17
  Like, Taylor Swift is one of the most influential people in the
• 14:20
  world right now. So we have to be able to
• 14:23
  critique her, OK? The next story that I have for
• 14:26
  you guys is that Dixie D'amelio has clapped back at TikTok users
• 14:31
  who accused her of being on drugs in a recent live stream.
• 14:35
  So Dixie D'amelio sparked concern from fans after her
• 14:38
  behavior seemed bizarre in a live stream last week where she
• 14:41
  organized her closet. In the stream, Dixie was
• 14:44
  speaking in this high pitched voice and she just seemed really
• 14:47
  scattered. This situation LED viewers to
• 14:49
  speculate that she was on drugs or having maybe some serious
• 14:52
  mental health issues. This speculation was exacerbated
• 14:56
  by the fact that a few weeks prior, Dixie came on live stream
• 14:59
  with a big black eye that she got while she was out drinking.
• 15:02
  So then T Tik toker Noah Glenn Carter made a video reporting on
• 15:08
  Dixie's live stream. He said, quote, people are very
• 15:10
  concerned for Dixie D'amelio after she acted very off in a
• 15:13
  recent live stream. The way that Dixie acted during
• 15:16
  this live stream had fans thinking that Dixie might be
• 15:18
  getting into certain things. So he has 8.8 million followers.
• 15:24
  So Needless to say, this video went pretty viral and Dixie's
• 15:28
  live stream was actually on her spam account.
• 15:30
  But given Noah's platform and his video going viral, this drew
• 15:34
  attention to it. So Dixie responded to the
• 15:36
  accusations that she's on drug on her main account.
• 15:39
  She first posted a video where she said she didn't find Noah's
• 15:42
  accusations cool. She has since deleted that video
• 15:45
  and then she posted a second TikTok which she also deleted
• 15:49
  where she said quote. I'm completely fine.
• 15:51
  I didn't think I'd have to address anything.
• 15:53
  That's why it's so silly to me when people have a full story or
• 15:55
  narrative that they're speaking about that isn't even close to
• 15:58
  the truth. She also made a video joking she
• 16:00
  was standing outside. I think it was at Coachella this
• 16:03
  weekend and she was like looking around and it was saying
• 16:06
  something about how like, it's nice weather and she's looking
• 16:09
  for the snow because everybody kept commenting on her video
• 16:12
  that it was like snowing or it was like a Blizzard, basically
• 16:14
  insinuating that she was like on cocaine.
• 16:16
  Noah then responded to Dixie in a video saying, quote, I'm only
• 16:20
  making this because I got thousands of messages asking for
• 16:23
  me to respond. And then he went on to say that
• 16:25
  basically he's going to handle this situation privately with
• 16:28
  Dixie going forward. I just think accusations like
• 16:30
  that can be really damaging and especially for someone like
• 16:35
  Dixie. We have seen Four Seasons on her
• 16:38
  reality show how bad her mental health is because of fame and
• 16:44
  this was just handed to them. Like yes, of course Dixie and
• 16:48
  Charlie and the rest of the TikTok kids from the like the
• 16:50
  2019-2020 era they have lent in and they are reaping the
• 16:54
  benefits. So it is hard to have sympathy
• 16:58
  for them when they have become multi millionaires for doing
• 17:02
  what a lot of people consider is nothing.
• 17:05
  But if you watched the D'amelio's reality show, you
• 17:08
  will see how tortured those girls are by this overnight fame
• 17:13
  at such a young age. And it is not just like
• 17:15
  mainstream celebrity fame where they have this layer of like
• 17:18
  Hollywood PR between them. Like their job is to be on the
• 17:22
  Internet and their comment sections are flooded with people
• 17:26
  and their DMS, I'm sure too, telling them that they're
• 17:29
  losers, that they have no talent, that they're famous for
• 17:31
  nothing, that they hope they die.
• 17:33
  Like it is a horrific place to be.
• 17:36
  So Dixie has absolutely pulled back from the public eye over
• 17:39
  the last few years. And I think that's a smart
• 17:42
  decision because watching the D'amelio show was really hard.
• 17:45
  I wouldn't be surprised if she does have serious mental health
• 17:49
  issues, whether that's what we were seeing on the live stream
• 17:51
  or not. All right.
• 17:52
  And the last ride that I have for you guys is that Watcher
• 17:55
  Entertainment is leaving YouTube and instead is moving to a paid
• 17:59
  streaming service. So on Friday, popular collective
• 18:02
  Watcher Entertainment announced that it is leaving YouTube.
• 18:06
  Watcher was created in 2019 by former BuzzFeed host Stephen
• 18:10
  Lim, Ryan Burgara and Shane Mage.
• 18:13
  They have since amassed nearly 3,000,000 subscribers for
• 18:16
  producing high quality unscripted content.
• 18:19
  They basically do a bit of everything they do, like
• 18:21
  challenges, commentary videos, true crime stuff, podcasts.
• 18:26
  They do a lot. So in a video posted on Friday
• 18:29
  called Goodbye YouTube Watcher announced that going forward,
• 18:32
  full seasons of their new shows will be available only on a
• 18:35
  streaming service called watchertv.com.
• 18:39
  This will be priced at 599 a month USD or 5999 a year.
• 18:45
  They said they'll still upload the first episodes of some of
• 18:48
  their new season shows to YouTube and their existing
• 18:53
  archive will like remain on YouTube.
• 18:55
  But this decision has sparked intense backlash from fans
• 18:59
  giving the cost of living crisis around the world.
• 19:02
  One fan on X wrote quote. You guys are honestly some of my
• 19:05
  favorite creators on the platform but with the way
• 19:07
  everything in this country is skyrocketing money wise I just
• 19:10
  can't justify another subscription service.
• 19:12
  Hope you guys are all doing OK but I think this move is a
• 19:14
  mistake someone else wrote. Going to be honest, I've been
• 19:18
  watching Ryan and Shane since the beginning of BuzzFeed days.
• 19:21
  I've watched them weekly for years now.
• 19:22
  But I just can't justify paying for another streaming platform
• 19:25
  just for watcher shows. This is really sad.
• 19:27
  I think you're going to lose a lot of your audience TBH.
• 19:30
  So that's kind of the main sentiment is that they will lose
• 19:33
  a lot of their audience. So Larry Bundy Junior who was a
• 19:37
  YouTube as well wrote putting all your videos behind a paywall
• 19:40
  is the nail in the coffin for an Internet creator.
• 19:43
  Look at Rooster Teeth Classic, Game Room, etcetera.
• 19:46
  Fans are also upset given that Watcher already has a paid
• 19:50
  Patreon where they charge $5.10 dollars or $25.00 a month.
• 19:56
  So I am very much in the camp. Of course, as somebody that owns
• 20:00
  a media company, that content should be paid for, but that is
• 20:03
  obviously just not. How the world works anymore like
• 20:06
  the Internet and then the rise of things like podcasts and
• 20:08
  social media like they have democratized content Essentially
• 20:12
  you can get so much for free so people don't want to pay for it
• 20:14
  anymore. But that being said many can't
• 20:17
  get over how watchers pricing is nearly the same as many major ad
• 20:22
  supported streaming services. So at Alex 6117 wrote Netflix is
• 20:27
  699 a month, Disney Plus is 799 a month, Prime Video 899 a
• 20:32
  month, and you're asking 599 a month.
• 20:34
  Most people have to choose between the three.
• 20:37
  Do you really think that you're in the same league as the big
• 20:39
  streaming giants? You really need to press the
• 20:41
  undo button. There are a lot of creators who
• 20:43
  move to a Patreon only format. But I do agree, if so much of
• 20:48
  their content, all of their content really aside from their
• 20:51
  Patreon stuff has been free for this long, they will lose a
• 20:54
  massive portion of their audience.
• 20:56
  But I also believe they know that and they have done the math
• 21:02
  probably like I'm sure that they know the data on how many people
• 21:06
  typically will actually move to a full time paid service.
• 21:09
  They probably understand what percentage of their audience
• 21:12
  they'll likely lose. What they probably didn't
• 21:15
  anticipate was the intense backlash, like this is made
• 21:18
  mainstream media, this news because of the backlash, which I
• 21:22
  think was probably a bit unexpected.
• 21:25
  But it's hard because again, like while I understand it's
• 21:28
  like around the same price as Netflix, like that is the
• 21:31
  criticism against streaming platforms or like these Silicon
• 21:35
  Valley companies like a Netflix or an Uber or whatever, where
• 21:38
  they just cheapen the labor so much that it makes it impossible
• 21:42
  for the little guys to succeed. All right, guys, well, that's it
• 21:46
  for this week. Please remember to rate, review
• 21:49
  and subscribe if you like mini scroll.
• 21:51
  It helps me so much. It makes my day.
• 21:53
  I love you guys and I will talk to you tomorrow.
• 21:56
  Bye.