Did Adam Levine diss Taylor Swift? That’s the question on everyone’s mind following the Maroon 5 front man’s latest interview with BuzzFeed .
According to the interview, featuring Adam alongside his fellow Voice coaches Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams, when the topic of Taylor’s recent battle with the streaming service Spotify came up, Levine didn’t quite jump to her defense.
“Music is for everyone,” the Maroon 5 heartthrob said in reference to Swift’s position to pull all of her music off the streaming service due to low compensation rates for artists. “And I don’t really care how anybody obtains it as long as they get it and enjoy and love it and compensate whoever it is in some way, whether it’s buying a t-shirt, going to see … supporting the artist in some way.”
And while Taylor’s time as an advisor on The Voice seemed to be filled with playful back and forth and an overall positive vibe when onscreen with Levine, Adam’s comments suggest the pleasantries ended there. He capped off his point by saying, “Music should be able to be wherever it is. That’s how I feel.”
Taken as a whole, Adam’s comments certainly sound like they could be perceived as a backhanded jab at Taylor, whose brief time as an advisor on The Voice came to an end recently. “In his response, Adam allegedly insinuated that Taylor is deliberately preventing the public from enjoying her music, be it her new sensational pop album or her classic country hits,” an article on Hollywood Life reiterates.
But is she really? Fellow Voice judge Blake Shelton disagreed with Levine and instead took Taylor’s side on the Spotify argument. “I know Spotify’s in kind of an experimental phase, changing with the industry,” Shelton said.
“[But] I can see why she did that. I don’t disagree with her and I know a lot of artists have followed suit. When you look at the numbers, it’s easy to say ‘That’s Taylor Swift — why is she so worried about money?’ But when you talk about other writers and songwriters on the album who aren’t Taylor Swift, it hits them pretty hard. I don’t disagree with her at all.”
And whether or not you do too, one thing is for sure: it looks like Adam Levine has stirred up controversy on The Voice yet again. Just last week, as the Inquistr reported, Levine and Maroon 5’s performance of their hit song “Animals” had some internet outlets questioning whether it was a good idea to perform the song given the controversial nature of the music video that accompanied it.
What do you think? Do you agree with Taylor Swift or Maroon 5’s Adam Levine?
