Taylor Swift is under the limelight yet again, but for all the negative reasons, as fans call her out on her alleged “manipulative” tactics that appear to have helped her “sell records.” While the release of her latest album is already garnering her tremendous attention and backlash from a part of the fandom, now even her breakup with Harry Styles is being pulled into the equation.
As a fan @chiIdofthursday pointed out on X through a Buzzfeed article that dived into “How Taylor Swift Played The Victim For A Decade And Made Her Entire Career,” the singer’s breakup with Styles back in 2013 ‘signalled an apparent shift in strategy’ for her: Instead of outwardly speaking about her ex-boyfriend in interviews and songs, Swift ‘began discussing her love life in more cryptic terms, manifested in riddle-like lyrics.’
A Vanity Fair profile even directly addressed this part of the 35-year-old billionaire singer’s songwriting, writing,
Swift writes songs about the guys she dates and then sends fans on a scavenger hunt to find out who they are.
This was emphasized by the move that Swift pulled a day after her reported breakup with Harry Styles, as she tweeted the words, “Til you put me down.” These words proved to be a lyric from her track I Knew You Were Trouble. This turned out to be ‘a masterful attempt to link the narrative of the song to this breakup, suggesting the song was about Styles and assigning the blame to him.’
In fact, when she was asked later that year if she was “horrified” to perform the song in front of the Sign of the Times singer, she said (via The Hollywood Life),
Well, it’s not hard to access that emotion when the person the song is directed at is standing by the side of the stage, watching
The problem? Swift’s implication that the song was about Styles contradicts the fact that the idea for the song came to her before she had even met Styles.
This reminds me pic.twitter.com/9ItHBeIZmP
As she revealed (via YouTube), the idea for the song came to her 6 months before her scheduled writing lessons, meaning around January 2012. But the two singers were reported to have first crossed paths months later, in March 2012. Thus, this timeline doesn’t allow for the lyrics to have been about him. And yet, the video for this single suggested clearly that it was about him, considering how it featured even a lookalike with an identical tattoo.
This led to the conclusion that “by manipulating the timeline, Swift was able to present herself as the victim of the actions of a perceived philanderer, creating the sort of narrative that would help sell records.” She even continued this narrative when she performed We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together at the Grammys a month after their breakup. In the rendition, she sang, ‘I still love you’ in a British accent from the interlude, “He calls me up and is like, ‘I still love you.”
Fans Are Outraged by Taylor Swiftʼs Alleged “Manipulative” Tactics
If all that negative attention toward Harry Styles wasn’t enough, Taylor Swift even tweeted a few days after the breakup (via Daily Mail): “Back in the studio…Uh oh.” This was viewed as an apparent bid to link the heartbreak inflicted by Styles to the next phase of her recording career, simply by suggesting that she was going into the studio to write songs about him. Just like that, she created interest in an album two years before it even materialised.
Pushing the narrative of their split beyond the logical endpoint of its news cycle, Swift even proceeded to ensure that it became a mainstay in the news when,
Throughout 1989’s reign, she teased just enough information about the songs to imply they were about Styles without ever actually confirming it
as the Buzzfeed article pointed out.
With all of this resurfacing amidst the release of her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, fans can’t help but express their outraged reactions to Swift’s apparent “manipulative” tactics to sell her records. On X, here’s what some of them have to say:
never forget how harry never mentioned her but after their breakup, she continuously made digs at him like using a british accent during a performance of a song that was written before they even met just so people could speculate and push the womanizer narrative on this kid https://t.co/UutxUDfKsA
the womanizer image he was given by the media after he was groomed by another woman who was older than him and more familiar with the industry just like taylor was
Remember that lyric from her vault song? “You searching every midel’s bed for something greater” imagine writing this about an 18-year-old kid who is 4 years younger than you
Someone said “Fate of pedOphelia”
Almost 40 years old engaging in behavior that a 14 year old would is sad and it's been going on relatively unchecked for years.
Here's an idea. Maybe we let her become obsolete like she deserves to be?
Harry always respected and praised her when asked about her or her music
It’s the immaturity. Ugh. Get a therapist for Christ’s sake
While that’s that, another instance appears to confirm this tactic of the Enchanted singer. Recently, she dropped the track CANCELLED! on her new album, which had a lot of fans speculating that it was about her longtime friend, Blake Lively.
But as strongly as the lyrics of the track might imply that it is, in fact, about Lively, it’s worth noting that Swift wrote the album during The Eras Tour, which wrapped up in December 2024 – meaning a couple of weeks before Lively’s legal troubles with Justin Baldoni took shape, which ended up pulling Swift in the fire with reports implying her friendship with Lively was over (via E! Online).
That said, despite all the evidence stating otherwise, this speculation about her track CANCELLED! potentially being about Lively could likely turn out to be false as well. Either way, it appears to be a part of Taylor Swift’s alleged “manipulative” tactics to sell her records.
Harry Styles and Taylor Swiftʼs Relationship Timeline and the Songs She Wrote for Him
Over the years, while Taylor Swift evidently hardly let go of any moment to steal the limelight and headlines through her relationship and split from Harry Styles, the former One Direction singer rarely pulled off any such move. Nonetheless, now that she’s once again gaining attention for the stunts she pulled after her breakup with Styles, here’s a look at the pair’s relationship timeline, which lasted from March 2012 to January 2013 (via PEOPLE).
Besides this, multiple songs from Taylor Swift’s musical portfolio have been speculated by fans to have been written about Harry Styles. This includes Style, Out of the Woods, Say Don’t Go, Is It Over Now?, Now That We Don’t Talk, I Know Places, Wildest Dreams, Clean, and Wonderland from her album 1989 – with tracks from the original album, the Taylor’s Version, and even the deluxe edition of the album (via E! Online).
While that’s that, it’s evident that both Swift and Styles have garnered tremendous attention through their relationship and breakup, and the former just appears to have cleverly learned how to profit from the same. But as she currently faces fire for this move, will this be just temporary backlash, or does Taylor Swift actually need to be scared about her career? Guess that’s something only time can tell.
What do you think about all this? In this debate, which side of the table do you stand on? Make sure to let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below!
