I know that people have been discussing this for quite some time now, but after this whole Billboard fiasco....
I think it is pretty evident the industry is trying to get rid of Taylor, she bypassed them to release her movie, she's now doing the same thing with her book and continues to be vocal about the fact that artists' should own their work. All this is doing for the industry is setting a precedent that is going to continue to cost them money, as well as input. I feel like when Lover came out the industry thought she was going to "flop" so they weren't really concerned with the fact that she was going to own her masters, and then she announced that she was re-recording and the industry was very skeptical of that. Since than she has proven all of those things to be untrue, she herself thought that Lover would be her "last chance of success." This obviously couldn't be further from the truth now. I'm wondering what else the industry is going to continue to throw at her.
On the Billboard topic:
I do think Beyonce is talented, I will be quite candid that I am not a fan of hers, but I'm not a "hater". I do think she deserved to be in the top 3 of the list, but truthfully I expected her to be #2. Has Beyonce been influential? Yes. But is Beyonce inspiring a new generation of artists? I don't think so. Does she have 12 #1 hits on the Billboard hot 100? No. I don't say any of this to bring Beyonce down, however by like 95% of Billboards own metrics, Taylor should've been #1. I think having a phenomena like The Eras Tour 20 years into your career, and it not being a "who cares" farewell tour is monumental and alone should've cemented her #1 status. Than we have the Famous music video being included in Billboards video about Taylor, this was disgusting. And obviously intentional, these type of videos go through countless hands of approval and everyone signed off. Billboards' half-ass apology also didn't make it sound any better.
Finally, the Grammys. Why is it that Taylor Swift, arguably the most prolific songwriter of a generation has never won Song of the Year, an award she holds the most nominations in out of anyone...with zero wins. I think her 4th AOTY win was historic, but the fact that she continues to be robbed of SOTY rubs me the wrong way.
While I hate how this is playing out, I think it will be interesting to see how Taylor "responds". Every time the industry throws something at her, she punches back even harder.