The ongoing feud between Scooter Braun and Taylor Swift continues to be a weird experiment in public pettiness.
As you may recall, the trouble began after Braun, who you may recognise as the manager to the likes of Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, gained the rights to Taylor Swift’s masters after his Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Records, through whom Swift released all of her albums until this year.
Swift wrote a Tumblr post about the exchange of her catalogue to Braun, who she describes as a “bully” in the post, describing it as a “worst case scenario.” Swift said she learned about Braun’s purchase of her masters at the same time as the rest of the world, and criticised Borchetta for allowing Braun to make the purchase.
What followed what a flurry of public figures taking sides. Bieber (predictably) stood up for Braun, along with Aussie pop musician Sia, while artists including Miley Cyrus, Halsey and Brendon Urie announced their support for Swift.
Borchetta went on to pen an open letter himself, refuting Swift’s claim that she woke up to the news as the rest of the world did, saying that her father, Scott Swift, was a shareholder in the label, and would have been aware earlier about the deal.
And former Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher labelled Swift and Braun a pair of “American idiots”, telling Variety magazine “You don’t own your own fucking shit, which is why when I finally left Oasis, I started my own record label, because I wanted to own them.”
“Um, I’m not a fan of Taylor Swift. I’m less of a fan of Scooter Brown or whatever his fucking name is. They’re just American idiots. Which, really, I’d be fucking ashamed of them, if I were you.”
Anyway, it seemed like perhaps the drama had died down a little bit. Now, however, Braun has responded to the whole situation by using popular face modification platform FaceApp to digitally age himself, posting the image alongside the caption “Last couple of weeks have really taken a toll on me.”
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Yeesh. Swift’s new album Lover comes out Friday, 23rd August through Republic Recordings, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.
