Taylor Swift fans are outraged after Billboard posted an old clip from a Kanye West music video. After some digging, they found some controversial posts from a Billboard executive.
After Billboard featured “revenge porn” of Taylor Swift in a video, the publication and Chief Brand Officer received immense backlash.
Once the video was posted, fans were quick to clock it. Popular Taylor Swift fan account, Taylor Swift Charts, accused “certain members of [Billboard] staff” of holding a “grudge against Taylor for reasons unknown,” on X, formerly known as Twitter. They further went on to slam Billboard for including a clip from Kanye West’s music video, Famous, where a wax doll of Taylor laid naked in a bed with the rapper and other high-profile individuals. The fan added: “Using that music video in a clip intended to celebrate her success is not only unprofessional, it’s extremely problematic. You owe it to your BIGGEST artist of the century to do better.”
Fans did some digging and found old posts from CBO Dana Droppo which included snarky comments about Taylor and other female celebrities. In one post, she wrote: “Taylor Swift is so the new Jennifer Aniston #CantKeepAMan #Loser #WhatsAWomanGoodFor.”
Dana further attempted to turn the narrative on Taylor, accusing her of mouthing “shut the f**k up” during a VMAs performance. The Billboard CBO said it “was so Kanye as the 2009 VMAs” where he jumped on stage, interrupted Taylor’s acceptance speech, and claimed she didn’t deserved the award.
She was ranked No. 2 on the list
As fans continued to circulate the old posts, Dana deactivated her X account without notice. However, fans didn’t stop there. Some even called for her to be fired. One said: Well, apparently, Dana doesn’t actually know what’s good for the @billboard brand.”
It wasn’t just posts about Taylor that were drudged up. Screenshots also showed comments Dana made about Rihanna in the past, including writing: “Rihanna is nervous her vagina will be too deep after childbirth. One thing I learned today.”
Fans pointed out that it wasn’t just Taylor who was recently slighted. The video Billboard posted as a part of their Greatest Pop Star of the 21st Century ranking campaign. While Taylor ranked at No. 2, other female artists like Rihanna and Britney Spears also made the list. However, fans expressed concern with Billboard’s inclusion of Chris Brown in Rihanna’s write up and Britney’s conservatorship in hers. They were displeased with putting the focus of women’s accomplishments onto the woes inflicted on them by men.
One fan wrote: “While we’re at it, take down the Chris Brown parts from Rihanna’s page. And also the part that mentions her dad was violent towards her mom. Like neither of those incidents should come up when you look at the bigger picture of Rihanna’s incredible career.”
Another said: “using a revenge porn pic in a video which is supposed to highlight taylor swift’s career, chris brown’s violence in an article about rihanna, bringing up britney’s conservatorship abuse and nicki minaj’s beefs just shows that billboard is misogynistic asf.”
In response to Swifties’ anger, Billboard removed the revenge porn clip. They issued a formal apology on the matter, but did not mention the other female artists. They wrote: “We are deeply sorry to Taylor Swift and all of our readers and viewers that in a video celebrating Swift’s achievements, we included a clip that falsely depicted her. We have removed the clip from our video and sincerely regret the harm we caused with this error.”
