Billboard Accused Of Using ‘White Privilege’ For Placing Taylor Swift At No. 1
Taylor Swift is certainly celebrating the fact that she scored another No. 1 song this week on Billboard’s Hot 100 with “Bad Blood.” However, not everybody is happy and some have gone as far as accusing Billboard of racism for having Swift in the top spot, despite the fact the song earned it in sales and video streams. Many users commented on this under the article about Swift’s latest triumph in Billboard.
“Billboard should be ashamed of letting white privilege rule their charts,” said frequent Billboard commenter Alan Smith.
Apparently, “Tiny Muldoon Lamb” agrees with him.
“You are 100 percent correct — It’s not about musical quality these days, it’s all about white privilege. I bet Billboard purposely let Taylor Swift hit number 1 because they couldn’t deal with a Black man holding the spot for 7 wks. Racism is so evident and it’s why they won’t even let Mariah Carey chart anymore,” she (or possibly he) replied.
Of course, this could be a couple of trolls just looking for attention on Billboard. However, the accusations are on Twitter as well.
@taylorswift13 @Billboard #billboardhot100 FACT THAT SWIFT IS ON TOP OF CHARTS WITH SUCH A BAD SONG PROVES THE THEORY OF WHITE PRIVILEGE!
— Paul Manos (@stpwhiteprivlge) May 28, 2015
Many may laugh at these accusations, but the Taylor Swift Privilege movement is in full swing.
“Swift is the privileged daughter of wealthy plutocrats. She can write a good pop song, but also had a huge leg up,” writes Scott Timberg of Salon.
The main point that Timberg is trying to make in the article is that Taylor Swift is no underdog.
“Like a lot of country singers – that’s how she first broke in – Taylor Swift grew up on a farm. It wasn’t a subsistence farm in the rough part of Kentucky but a Christmas-tree farm in Pennsylvania…When Swift was 14, her father relocated to Merrill Lynch’s Nashville office as a way to help dear Taylor break into country music.”
Timberg goes on to note that as a sophomore in high school, Swift was given a convertible Lexus. Around the same time, her dad bought a part of Big Machine, the label to which Swift signed. Timberg may have a point, but we don’t know for sure that Taylor Swift didn’t have to overcome adversity. Lady Gaga, for example, also grew up rich. But she claims she had to overcome eating disorders and even rape. Then again, there are people who accuse Gaga of lying about that.
Perhaps the biggest theme one can get out of all this is that once a huge star gets to the top, there are people just ready to bring them down. That may not be considered a privilege to Taylor Swift.
[Photo Credit: Billboard]
