The latest epic drama between Kendrick Lamar and Drake might have made the brutal diss monitor stylish once more, however within the pop realm, oblique shade-throwing appears to be the order of the day. When the conflict includes two of the largest pop stars alive, and their mighty fandoms are those decoding their insinuations, even delicate or unintentional slights can grow to be amplified to the purpose of absurdity.
But that additionally leaves the remainder of us asking what’s and isn’t actual. Are Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift actually feuding? From a sure angle, it actually appears like Eilish has spent the previous couple of months utilizing her promotional cycle for her new album, Hit Me Exhausting and Tender, to drop informal however pointed criticism at Swift. From one other angle, it looks like Swift might have retaliated in her personal Swiftian means — by releasing bonus editions for her new album, Tortured Poets Division, timed to compete with Eilish’s album launch.
Whereas Swift’s popularity for petty feuding is so well-known that she made a complete album about it, this struggle appears completely out of character for the notably laid-back Eilish. But it appears to have been Eilish whose thinly veiled barbs towards Swift first gained discover and steadily fueled the fireplace. Have we entered an period the place followers look to show every thing into an epic rivalry — and so they’ll discover a method to do it, even when there’s nothing there in any respect?
Or is the Eilish/Taylor beef — with layered jibes resulting in battles waged by fandom foot troopers on social media feeds throughout the web — simply how pop stars struggle today?
The drama is all about which album tops the Billboard chart — nevertheless it’s additionally about shade
On the coronary heart of this feud is the Billboard album chart. Swift’s Poets has been on the prime since its April 19 launch, and Swifties have a single-minded purpose of maintaining it up there so long as attainable. One of many methods artists gamify the charts in a extremely aggressive digital age is by releasing variant album editions — a trick Swift is well-known for utilizing. For Poets, she launched a regular album, then instantly expanded it to a double album with 30 songs, then all of a sudden dropped three extra shock, limited-time album variants on Could 17.
To Eilish followers, the timing of those three new album drops was sus: They landed the identical day as the discharge of Eilish’s personal new album, Hit Me. Swifties argued the timing was purely coincidental — only one extra means of boosting Swift’s purpose of maintaining her album at No. 1 for so long as attainable. For Eilish stans (who don’t have a collective title, oddly sufficient), that clarification fell flat: If the timing didn’t matter, why did Taylor step on Eilish’s launch date? Particularly since they have been restricted editions, which means followers had a slim window of time to purchase them — a window of direct competitors with Eilish.
For his or her half, Swift’s followers have been side-eying Eilish’s camp: They quickly realized Eilish’s supervisor, Danny Rukasin, had favored and retweeted (and unexpectedly deleted) a tweet implying that Swift had an extended historical past of deliberately “blocking” different artists’ paths to the highest of the chart by strategically dropping her personal releases. The calendar is finite, so Swift’s releases are more likely to be much less about spiting different artists and extra about restricted house, and Rukasin might have been motivated much less by this specific gripe and extra by a common dislike of Swift as an artist. Followers quickly dug up one other occasion when he shaded Swift on social media, which fed the flames of hostility between the 2 camps.
In the meantime, each artists waged a back-and-forth with competing bonus editions of recent tracks all through the week, in an effort to cinch the highest. Finally, Swift retained the No. 1 spot, with Eilish slotting in at No. 2.
In fact, all of this may simply have been chalked as much as unlucky coincidence, inevitable competitors, and heated feelings relatively than beef — nothing that actually rises to the extent of a full-blown, two-sided battle.
However what fandom today thrives on a lack of battle? It’s simple to see why neither fandom has backed off the drama. You don’t must dig deep to search out proof that the meat is likely to be actual, and that Swift may need supposed to go head-to-head with Eilish. That’s as a result of Eilish may have been sitting on some longtime animosity towards Swift — a resentment that might have began with one other artist altogether.
If this feud exists, it may need began, not with Eilish or Swift, however with a person’s garden-variety sexism
To seek out the supply of this mess, we’d have to leap again to 2022. Damon Albarn, the frontman of seminal British bands Blur and Gorillaz, kicked off the 12 months by bizarrely bashing Taylor Swift’s songwriting capacity. In a January interview with the Los Angeles Instances, Albarn first flatly claimed that Swift “doesn’t write her personal songs,” then doubled down by including that she doesn’t even co-write her personal songs. Since Taylor Swift’s major declare to fame is her songwriting capacity, this was a really odd — if not outright misogynistic — hill for Albarn to randomly die on.
However inside nearly the identical breath, he took issues in an excellent weirder route, by evaluating Swift’s music to that of Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell, with whom Eilish ceaselessly co-writes:
I’m not hating on anyone, I’m simply saying there’s a giant distinction between a songwriter and a songwriter who co-writes. Doesn’t imply that the end result can’t be actually nice. … A extremely fascinating songwriter is Billie Eilish and her brother. I’m extra drawn to that than to Taylor Swift. It’s simply darker — much less endlessly upbeat. Far more minor and odd. I believe she’s distinctive.
For all we all know, the incident might have ended there — Albarn apologized to Swift after huge backlash, blaming the Instances for “clickbait”-editing no matter he really mentioned.
Nonetheless, fast-forward just a few months, and Billie Eilish herself took issues a step additional. Throughout her history-making gig at Coachella, the place she was the youngest headliner in historical past, Eilish introduced out Albarn for a shock visitor efficiency. This might have been a purely fannish gesture on Eilish’s half. Nonetheless, whereas Eilish was praising Albarn and the affect he had on her personal music, an unidentified male voice on a sizzling mic could possibly be heard on the live performance livestream joking, “We’re getting sued by Taylor Swift.”
On the time, Swifties leaned towards the perpetrator behind the voice being Eilish’s brother O’Connell. Followers appeared torn on whether or not or to not view this as deliberate shade towards Taylor on the a part of Eilish and O’Connell: In spite of everything, O’Connell had beforehand praised Swift’s songwriting as “inspiring,” and he attended her party in 2021.
Nonetheless, it’s simple for issues to get twisted within the cutthroat sport of leisure, and we all know how Swift can maintain a grudge when she feels her artwork has been disrespected. And judging by a number of feedback Eilish has made within the promotional cycle for Hit Me Exhausting and Tender — feedback that actually appear to be directed at Swift — the vendetta may go each methods.
Eilish can’t appear to cease shading Swift — or are followers simply studying into issues?
On March 23, weeks earlier than Swift’s Poets launch, Billboard printed an interview with Eilish wherein she spoke of the “wasteful” follow of artists releasing vinyl albums primarily to garner extra album gross sales and safe longevity or larger gross sales rankings on the Billboard charts. Though all the interview was about Eilish’s broader efforts to advertise environmental sustainability, she was particularly sharp in her criticism of this (admittedly, sure, wasteful) follow:
I discover it actually irritating as any person who actually goes out of my method to be sustainable and do the most effective that I can and attempt to contain everyone in my workforce in being sustainable — after which it’s a number of the largest artists on the planet making f–king 40 completely different vinyl packages which have a distinct distinctive factor simply to get you to maintain shopping for extra. It’s so wasteful, and it’s irritating to me that we’re nonetheless at some extent the place you care that a lot about your numbers and also you care that a lot about earning profits — and it’s all of your favourite artists doing that sh-t.
Since, once more, it is a tactic for which Swift is legendary, followers learn all the sidebar as a swipe at Swift particularly. Eilish herself rapidly responded by way of Instagram and denied that she’d supposed to slight any particular artist. “It will be so superior if folks would cease placing phrases into my mouth,” she reportedly wrote. “I wasn’t singling anybody out.”
If this had been a one-off assertion, it could in all probability have been simpler for followers to imagine Eilish. As a substitute, this was only the start of a string of moments when Eilish’s common complaints may be learn as particular criticism of Taylor Swift. It’s price noting that every of those subsequent interviews got here after Swift’s Could 17 “block” of Eilish’s album, so it’s additionally attainable that what began out as pure coincidence on Eilish’s half rapidly grew to become private.
In a Could 21 interview for Apple Music, Eilish drew nonetheless extra consideration for remarks that appeared to shade overtly autobiographical songwriting — , like the sort Swift is once more infamous for.
“I actually wished the songs to not be like, ‘Oh, I do know what that’s about,’” Eilish says.
I believe that we dwell in such a world the place everybody is aware of every thing … Everyone seems to be conscious of the meat that occurred and conscious of the those who don’t like one another and conscious of this and that.
Individuals put songs out, particularly within the pop world — and I’m not saying there’s something improper with it essentially, nevertheless it’s simply, we dwell in a world of, like, any person places a tune out and everybody’s like, ‘So that is who that is about and that is all the story of what occurred,’ and it’s like, it doesn’t even give the listener an opportunity to interpret it how they need to interpret it and the way they naturally hear it. And that I discover actually irritating. I don’t need to hear a tune that I’m like, ‘Ooh, my god’ — each single lyric, I’m like, ‘Oh, my god, that is about that individual.’
At this level, her brother, O’Connell, chimes in, agreeing, “No, it may be gross … I don’t hearken to ‘The Luckiest’ by Ben Folds and take into consideration his spouse. I take into consideration who I’m in love with.”
Taken by itself, that is all fairly innocuous kvetching concerning the artistic course of. However taken as a part of an ongoing sample of the siblings subtly shading Swift, her songwriting, and her manufacturing course of, it feels much more damning.
Oh, after which Eilish apparently added Swift-style performances to the guidelines of issues she doesn’t like.
It’s no secret {that a} movie star rivalry like this one drives gross sales. However there’s one thing irritating concerning the ephemeral nature of this one.
Final 12 months, Eilish referred to as each Swift and Beyoncé “untouchable superstars” within the LA Instances, referencing their epic stadium exhibits, which might every run three hours or extra. “The truth that they will placed on a present that lengthy, and it’s stuffed with so many unimaginable moments, is basically wonderful,” she mentioned. On the time she sounded admiring, not confrontational.
Following the album launch conflict, nonetheless, her tone modified dramatically. In a Could 23 broadcast on social radio platform Stationhead, Eilish acknowledged, “I’m not doing a three-hour present. That’s actually psychotic. No one desires that. I don’t need that … I don’t even need that as a fan. My favourite artist on the planet, I’m not making an attempt to listen to them for 3 hours.” As soon as once more, Swifties rushed to allege that Eilish was shading Swift particularly (and Beyoncé, however the Hive appears much less pressed).
We’ve by no means identified Eilish to overtly antagonize Swift earlier than, and certainly in 2019 she thanked Swift for “taking good care of [her]” by means of her music when she was a toddler. But this wouldn’t be the primary time a youthful feminine artist discovered herself in opposition to Swift. Simply take a look at Olivia Rodrigo, who borrowed liberally from Swift as a key affect in her music. Swift embraced the younger singer, till the pair had a rumored falling-out over the problem of tune credit. That kerfuffle might or might not have led Rodrigo to burn Swift within the scathing 2022 tune “Vampire,” wherein she depicts the titular fang-bearer as a considerably older determine who exploits the singer’s youth and naivete.
Have we talked about Rodrigo and Eilish are good buddies? And that Eilish has mentioned she feels “very protecting” of her? Certainly, in a Could 22 interview with Stephen Colbert to advertise her new album, Eilish riffed poetically concerning the want for younger artists to have the liberty to repeat different artists whereas they’re discovering their very own model. “Inspiration goes to show into extra inspiration goes to show into extra inspiration,” she mentioned. Although Eilish was ostensibly speaking about her personal vocal growth, some gawkers watching the unfolding beef interpreted it as Eilish commenting on the Swift-Rodrigo feud.
It is smart; there’s some hypothesis that Swift tapped Sabrina Carpenter to open for her “Eras” tour partly as a result of Carpenter and Rodrigo have a longstanding enmity over a messy love triangle. Rodrigo likewise has been teasing an upcoming remix of “Vampire” as a collaboration with Lana Del Rey — who’s allegedly presently on the outs with Swift. Different celebrities additionally appear to be taking sides within the dispute. Sza, who by the way is without doubt one of the artists whose album Swift was beforehand accused of making an attempt to “block,” had beforehand denied there was ever any beef between the 2. She was just lately noticed “liking” an Instagram put up dinging Eilish for her excessive live performance costs and brief efficiency occasions — an obvious delicate shade on behalf of Swift.
For her half, Swift has but to touch upon the continued battle between her fandom and Eilish’s — although her PR workforce’s Twitter account did make a put up on Could 25 referencing the road “attempt to come for my job” from Swift’s tune “I Can Do It With a Damaged Coronary heart” — a put up that many followers interpreted as a diss towards Eilish for being unable to swipe the No. 1 chart rating from Swift.
Is any of this actual or is all of it only a manufactured face-off? It’s laborious to inform. However the animosity has actually pushed consideration and renewed power towards each artists. In the midst of the feud, Swift’s album Midnights reportedly grew to become the quickest album by a girl in historical past to achieve a whopping 9 billion streams on Spotify. In the meantime, Eilish’s album lead, the racy bop “Lunch,” reportedly grew to become her quickest single ever to achieve 100 million Spotify streams.
It’s no secret {that a} movie star rivalry like this one drives gross sales. However there’s one thing irritating concerning the ephemeral nature of this one. On the one hand, there’s loads of believable deniability round every of the statements from Eilish that followers are up in arms about. On the opposite, the very fact there are so many statements throughout an energetic press tour implies Eilish isn’t taking part in. She additionally hasn’t bothered to make clear that she’s not speaking about Swift. (Vox has reached out to each camps for remark.)
When hip-hop artists create diss tracks, the final sentiment is that the gripes create good music, and the music is what issues. We’ll undoubtedly hear Swift’s aspect of this newest dispute in her subsequent album. However the vacuum of actual details about what’s happening right here has left a spot that followers have chosen to fill with a whole lot of finger-pointing and side-taking. It’s a well-known routine for anybody who’s frolicked round stan tradition, however the drama detracts from the accomplishments of each artists. It’s laborious to really feel served by this struggle the way in which, for instance, Kendrick’s beef with Drake doubled as a commentary on authenticity in hip-hop tradition. If Eilish actually does assume Swift’s songs are too literal, her live shows too lengthy, her launch technique too wasteful, and her feuds too petty, there have to be higher methods to air these grievances.
Maybe she ought to write a tune about it.
