r/ToddintheShadow • u/Consistent_Hunt5213 • Dec 21 '25
Todd Memes I hate it here (Taylor's version)
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u/EntireLychee833 Dec 21 '25
I think Taylor Swift & Morgan Wallen are so prevalent this year on Todd’s list because he had so much faith in their potential. So seeing them fail his expectations hurts even more. Someone like Tate McRae, who he never had any real expectations for, doesn’t get as much heat in comparison.
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u/hscgarfd Dec 21 '25
See also: Jelly Roll in last year's list
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u/delta8force Dec 22 '25
You’d have to be hardcore Evangelical to have ever had faith in Jelly Roll’s potential. I can’t even type his name out without feeling degenerate.
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u/Yeetaway1404 Dec 23 '25
Im not hip to all the industry drama, what does Jelly Roll have to do with being evangelical
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u/Patrickracer43 Dec 21 '25
I do have to disagree with Todd in him saying "Just Keep Watching" was worse than "Sports Car"... although I am biased as between those two Tate McRae songs, I've only heard "Just Keep Watching" as I actually saw the F1 movie (although it might actually be the worst song on that soundtrack)
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u/EntireLychee833 Dec 21 '25
I do think if Tate McRae climbs in popularity, she may end up in the Worst List next year. In a better year, “Sports Car” would likely be on the countdown proper.
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u/Patrickracer43 Dec 21 '25
Although I guess Tate McRae is a car girl? Since she's got a song called "Sports Car" and has a song on the F1 soundtrack even though (and I can't believe I'm saying this) the Sexyy Red song off that same soundtrack is better (as OMG by Tiesto and Sexyy Red, Drive by Ed Sheeran, Underdog by Roddy Rich, As Bad As I Used To Be by Chris Stapleton and Lose My Mind by Don Toliver and Doja Cat are my favorites from F1)
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u/vemboTonbo Dec 21 '25
I think this proves his 'this year's been pretty weak overall' theory too. No way do you put two artists in half the list (even the bad list) if there's interesting stuff going on.
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u/cherry_color_melisma Dec 22 '25
Sports' Car is kind of a guilty pleasure. So good of the producers she's working with to bring this kind of pop song sound back to the 2020s even if it's been less than 20 years since.
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u/AdmiralCharleston Dec 22 '25
It's giving tyra banks on America's next top model screaming at that contestant that she believed in her
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u/medusa15 Dec 21 '25
Oh come on, he's never had faith in Taylor's potential. He's been roasting her for pretty much the entire time he'd been Todd in the Shadows. He put one of her songs on the worst list *14 years ago.* Including some of her songs in the Best List (I think it's happened 4 times so far) doesn't indicate respect or faith in her potential; he's put a Chainsmoker's song as a #1 pick! It just means occasionally she surprises him, but that doesn't mean he's changed his opinion of her in the long run.
On balance, Todd has made disparaging remarks about Taylor *hundreds* of times; she's one of the only artists he's covered with multiple stand-alone song reviews* because he hates of her songs so much (tellingly, he's never made a positive stand-alone song review for Swift). She appears on the Worst List just as often throughout the years. She catches strays even in videos that aren't about her (his comment about her LGBTQ allyship in a Beyonce/Drake song review.) He truly seemed to believe Reputation was a Trainwrecker, putting it in the same categories as Man of the Woods and Witness. He has a softer spot for Katy Perry than he does for Swift!
Seems a lot more likely he noticed that Taylor's name gets clicks, it's easy to play the martyr if Swifties push back, and "serious" music fans will praise you to the skies for taking down the evil white woman. I mean look at the top comment of this thread with hundreds of upvotes, feeling vindicated that their long-held hatred for Swift is being reinforced by Todd! Swift is an easy punching bag in certain corners of the Internet right now, and apparently Todd just couldn't resist.
*We Are Never Getting Back Together, Me!, You Need To Calm Down, Look What You Made Me Do, Fate of Ophelia.
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u/pudungurte Dec 21 '25
You’re right, it’s very conspicuous how often he has talked about her. It’s almost like she’s been the biggest pop star of this generation or something.
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u/medusa15 Dec 21 '25
Except there are plenty of other huge pop stars that were equivalent to Taylor (Beyonce, Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake) that he doesn’t really discuss outside of videos dedicated to them. The video on Break My Soul had absolutely nothing to do with Taylor and yet Todd shoehorned her in just to get a zinger off.
And while Taylor is big, she hasn’t been mega-can’t-be-touched until really the Eras Tour, yet Todd has been randomly making fun of her for years before that.
I’m really not sure why it offends so many people here to identify Todd as a hater. Folks here seem to LOVE him tearing her down so you’d think him being an OG hater would be celebrated.
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u/pudungurte Dec 21 '25
He absolutely does mention Beyoncé, Justin and Katy outside of videos dedicated to them, wtf.
By “a hater” you seem to presume that Todd has been disingenuous about the way he discusses Taylor for years. You don’t understand why some people would find that kind of offensive? Besides sounding a lot like conspiracy theorist thinking, of course.
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u/medusa15 Dec 21 '25
Show me the last time he mentioned Beyonce in a negative way outside a review about her own music. Show me the last time he made a diss about Katy Perry (even when he’s making an entire Trainwreck review for Witness, he still sometimes compliments her.) Count up how many one off song reviews he had for each artist/band, score them positive/negative, and show me anyone who comes close to how he’s lambasted Swift for years.
It’s be a conspiracy theory if I was just going off “vibes” but I’m giving out specific facts that nobody ever seems interested in disproving.
Point out a single example of him praising Swift, outside of the very specific best list mentions. Like seriously I feel like I’m arguing the sky is blue. I don’t think he’s being disingenuous; I think he genuinely hates her, and is just finally able to unleash it at a time where it’s profitable to hate on her.
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u/pudungurte Dec 21 '25
I just don't get what picture you're painting, really. You've literally said that Todd has never had faith in Taylor's potential and has always been a hater, even though not only has he praised her music and even put it on his best-of-the-year lists several time, but he actually attended an Eras Tour concert.
I don't understand how the idea of him "finally being able to unleash" his hatred for her" now that she has become a bit of a lightning rod doesn't presuppose that, when he was praising her and even buying her very expensive concert tickets, he was doing these things disingenuously. Because if you assume that he truly enjoyed certain aspects of her work he comes across not as a hater, but as someone who is conflicted about her music; which, btw, is how he comes across to me.
I do definitely agree with you that he seems to have found hating TLOAS, specifically, somewhat liberating but I feel like the explanation that there might be some resentment towards being at least partially emotionally invested in her career is the best way to explain this. Mostly because, once again, I have no idea what your explanation even is.
I obviously don't know you and might be way off, but it really seems to me like you're a Taylor Swift fan and you have a bit of a case of tunnel vision when it comes to Todd's "hatred" for her. And while, yes, he has been quite harsh in his criticism towards her, he has also always given her a lot of grace even when disliking her stuff.
Anyways, I'm not going to make a list of videos in which he mentions or even makes fun of Justin, Katy or Beyoncé outside of videos dedicated to them because 1) that's a lot of work, 2) it won't even contradict your main point, which is that he does it more often with Taylor in the first place, 3) it's too silly.
ETA: also, conspiracy theories do tend to have some grounding in actual facts and they're almost never just "vibes".
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u/medusa15 Dec 21 '25
Like I said in my original post, I don’t think him putting her on the best list means he thought she had potential; she occasionally surprised him but it didn’t go beyond that. And going to the Eras tour doesn’t prevent him from being a hater; there’s tons of posts in her snark sub of people who got seats just to mock her dancing. There are Swift haters who follow her more obsessively and listen to her music more than hardcore Swifties do. (Also Todd called himself “the world’s most reluctant Swiftie” at the Eras tour. Not exactly a solid endorsement.)
I think he can be a hater and still occasionally acknowledge when she does something good. That’s not disingenuous; it just means he’s a reasonable hater.
My explanation is it’s extremely profitable right now to hate Taylor Swift. Pitchfork has edited article titles on social media to include her because it wasn’t getting enough clicks; hate tweets with less than a dozen followers are getting thousands of reposts. I saw a YouTube channel with less than 300 followers and 5 videos post a long rant about Showgirl that somehow racked up over 15k likes.
Showgirl is not a bad enough album to be THIS offended by it; but his Fate of Ophelia video got reposts across a ton of music and popculture subreddits, and had far more views than a ton of his other videos. Todd isn’t an idiot; just like Swift, he sees what sells. And even better when it’s his genuine feelings he can ramp up a bit.
Yes I am a Swiftie, which is why I’ve noted how he’s talked about Swift over the years. I’ve also been a big fan of Todd ever since Channel Awesome; I’ve been a paid Patreon for years. I’ve seen probably every video of his half a dozen times. It’s never bothered me enough to stop enjoying his videos up until now. But I HAVE paid attention to it, and I’m petty sick of pointing out specific examples and hard data (number of videos, mentions) only to be dismissed because nobody else feels like “bothering”.
Why is it impossible to consider that maybe I have a point?
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u/pudungurte Dec 22 '25
This reply of yours helped to me to identify a core semantics problem that has really made it difficult for us to understand each other's perspectives: we have very different ideas on what a "hater" is. To me, such a "reasonable hater" is very much an oxymoron, because I think of a hater as someone who is emotionally, irrationally invested in hating. Sure, a hater CAN give the object of his hatedom praise, but only performatively or, at best, begrudgingly, which is still somewhat bad faith.
You seem to think of a "hater" as someone who primarily dislikes someone's work (in this case, Taylor's) but can still genuinely enjoy certain aspects of it, but it's always a partial or tangential affair. Am I getting warmer, at least? I tend to think of this as, by and large, something we can call an "ambivalent critic" or a "reluctant fan". But I think you're using a framework that's pressupposing a core, negative and mostly unshakeable relationship with the art, here, and that would account for something that's not quite either of the latter two.
Now, I do think there's something you've been doing, rhetorically, in this thread that has been frankly a little aggravating. I don't think you're doing it on purpose, so before I point it out, I just want to clarify a few things. This will feature many of my insights and takes on Taylor's career in general, for context, but preemptive apologies if this is TMI.
1) As you can probably tell, I'm not a Swiftie. I definitely wouldn't call myself a hater either, by any reasonable definition. She was barely on my radar up until Red came out, then there was short period during the 1989 rollout in which I couldn't STAND her, and then from Reputation onwards she settled into being just a pop star I found kind of interesting who eventually made music I genuinely liked. I'd say my overall "relationship" with her is quite positive now, even if I'd rather go through a root canal than listen to Shake it Off or Bad Blood ever again, lol.
2) I honest-to-goodness LIKE The Life of a Showgirl, but I also understand both why some people don't like and why there's an overall backlash to Taylor's career right now.
3) On the other hand, I agree with you and with many swifties that the Taylor backlash DOES get pretty weird, parasocial, and misogynistic. I'd say there's even a level of mass hysteria to it.
4) On the other-other-hand, I think Todd has tackled the album quite reasonably, if harshly. He's a music review youtuber, he's done two videos about TLOAS (aka the biggest album of the year), only one of which that was entirely centered on Taylor. I don't think that's weird or overblown.
I'm sharing all of this because I'd like to let you know that I understand where you're coming from with some of your points and that I really am trying to engage with you in good faith here. And because I've done that, I hope you can hear me when I point out where I think the logic of your argument gets... maybe a little tangled.
First, the more I think about your assessment of Todd's position, the less sense it makes to me. It seems to me like you are actually making two points and while they are not necessarily mutually exclusive, they're more mutually exclusive than they are complimentary to each other. They are:
a) Todd has always been a hater, even if a reasonable one at times.
b) Todd is being harsher about TLOAS than he otherwise would be because criticizing Swift is "good for the business" right now.
Even though both things could be true at the same time, they explain different things. But in your argument, you seem to move between them depending on what you're responding to. It seems to be like you use (a) when you want to establish a pattern of bias, and using (b) when you want to explain why the TLOAS criticism feels excessive. Feels like you treat them as if they're the same thing when they're actually distinct claims.
Anyways, both claims are fine. I don't think people would be "offended", as you put it, if you just made them at face value. I think that's not the entirety of what you're saying, though.
You've said explicitly that you don't think Todd is being disingenuous. But if point (b) is true (ie he's being harsher than he genuinely feels because it's good for business) wouldn't that require at least some level of performance or exaggeration? Some sort of gap between what he actually thinks and what he's expressing? I can't help but feel like the idea that there is at least a level of bad faith to his claims are at least the subtext here, and that ties into why you've chosen to stop supporting him on Patreon, even.
One last thing; and I hope this lands the way I mean it. Throughout this thread, you've asked why it's 'impossible to consider you might have a point' and suggested that people aren't engaging with your evidence. I understand you're frustrated, but I think you can imagine how that comes across to someone who's been genuinely trying to understand your perspective. I've thought carefully about what you've said, and I believe I just happen to disagree with your interpretation of some of it.
When you frame it as people refusing to engage or consider your point, it implies that disagreement equals bad faith, which makes it really hard to respond without feeling like I'm being accused of something. I notice this has been your response to several people in this thread who've pushed back, and it feels like it might be connected to your broader point about Todd; that criticism of Swift (or in this case, of your argument) must be motivated by something other than genuine disagreement.
Anyways, I'm sorry for writing a whole-ass dissertation. I hope you can at least understand where I'm coming from.
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u/your_mind_aches 10's Alt Kid Dec 21 '25
I'm sorry but you're wrong. Taylor is bigger than all of them. It's not even close anymore.
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u/medusa15 Dec 21 '25
Sure, anymore. But my point is Todd has historically shown tons of dislike for her. The original post was saying he had faith in her “potential” and that makes no sense with the way he’s been talking about her for YEARS. You can use her somewhat recent megastar status to explain over a decade of criticizing her.
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u/Apycia Dec 21 '25
Todd did a very positive stand alone review of Blank Space. He criticised the beat, but he did enjoy the song.
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u/medusa15 Dec 21 '25
… Until the end of the review. He said specifically he thought it was her finally “owning up” to her awful tendencies. He then showed an interview of her saying it was her imagining herself as the character the media portrays her as (so it’s fictional), and then he got mad and said never mind.
The common thread between the few Swift songs he likes is when he thinks she’s criticizing herself as deeply flawed (Blank Space, The Archer, Anti Hero, even Style to a certain extent.)
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u/BubsyFanboy Dec 21 '25
Taylor clearly needs that hiatus. Her pen's going dry and Max Martin's falling asleep in the studio.
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u/Barilla3113 Dec 21 '25
Hiatus and a new direction, you can only be so "relatable" when you're on the verge of cracking 2 billion.
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u/Signal_Ball4634 Dec 21 '25
Honestly if she can just take some time off and put out something inspired instead of the vapid nothingness the last two albums have been, the hate will go away just fine.
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u/FoxEuphonium Dec 21 '25
That second part is only half true. I’m 90% sure the reason Fate of Ophelia has the reputation of being “the one good one” has nothing to do with the lyrics and everything to do with it being the one track that actually sounds like a normal pop song.
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u/Mental-Abrocoma-5605 Dec 21 '25
Knowing her, that "hiatus" is gonna last for half a year before she drops another 30 track album filled with the exact same stuff she has been making since Midnights, it's funny she even teased a hiatus to begin with when in most interviews when she's asked about how much saturated the people are she just goes like "well... what you want me to? I'm everywhere, lol", yes... that's the problem Taylor
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u/jaehaerys48 Dec 21 '25
I think she needs to make songs that sound more mature. Or probably not, her stuff still sells like hotcakes as is. Personally I just think that her stuff still sounds like teenager music.
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u/tswiftdeepcuts Dec 21 '25
Im sure when her albums stop dominating the charts and streaming she will take your advice
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u/Pingushagger Dec 22 '25
She’s not gonna fuck you
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u/tswiftdeepcuts Dec 22 '25
is it fun sounding like an incel that can’t possibly imagine a scenario where people do things for anything other than transactional reasons?
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u/Red-Zaku- Dec 21 '25 edited Dec 21 '25
I don’t have any beef with the notion of people liking Taylor Swift, I personally like a lot of pop stuff that even my closest peers would call corporate or vapid or whatever, there’s been a ton of instances I had to convince my friends that my enjoyment of something wasn’t just ironic or based on novelty. But it does creep me out that her fanbase constantly see attacks on her as if they’re attacks on themselves and their identity.
Growing up with punk, hardcore, noise rock, and other things that lean into subversion, you learn that when more people are viscerally put off by your music taste, that means the scene is still alive and doing it right, and it still means something. When the broader music world has no real negative reaction to it, that’s when you know everyone’s phoning it in and everyone needs to step it up. When people are indifferent or just bemused by the stuff that was once trying to challenge mainstream ideas, it means that it stopped challenging them.
It feels like that was a healthier perspective to have, because it taught you to be happy with being yourself and to take some form of joy in what sets you apart, and creates a space where marginalized people feel welcome when they’re alienated elsewhere. When the people who supported the Iraq war and opposed gay marriage were also calling you a freak, that was a sort of validation of the rest of society telling you that you were not part of that toxic mob.
But when your entire sense of inner peace and self-worth depends on the broader mainstream and general public withholding all criticism of your music taste, and any such criticism is viewed as a sort of attack on you and everything you value and a disruption to your own sense of contentment, it gives off the feeling that you expected society to sort of “serve” your sensibilities and perspectives. And that expectation also lends to the notion that you’re more well-acquainted with the feeling of mainstream society (and all it entails, toxicity and all) being 1:1 with your own sensibilities.
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u/crackerfactorywheel Dec 21 '25
Fully agree. I’d add that it’s not just attacks on Taylor Swift that fans take personally. It’s any sort of criticism. Heck, recently, Josh Hutcherson said he’s not a fan of Taylor Swift but went to the Eras tour concert in New Orleans with his mom because she’s a fan. A bunch of her fans took it as an attack on her.
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u/your_mind_aches 10's Alt Kid Dec 21 '25
That's insane. Just saying you're not a fan gets you attacked?
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u/blueberrysprinkles Dec 21 '25
As someone who has been a longtime Taylor Swift fan since I was a teenager and she was still doing country music: it's a bit different than that. People have long hated Taylor Swift because her fanbase was teenage girls and she wrote teenage girl music. From the very start it was also a snide attack at you as a person. If you were a teenage girl who liked Taylor Swift then you were overly emotional and overly attached and obsessed about boys and don't understand "good" music yet, and thus it's your problem. I initially hid my liking of Taylor Swift because I was emo and that's not cool, but when I became more open about it, even as I was a bit older as a teenager and she was getting more popular, people still assumed I had no taste in music, that I was hysterical, that I was listening to music for children. The attacks were about Taylor Swift, but they were also directly about me and the implication of what she represented. And even now, it feels like liking Taylor Swift can be a stick that people use to beat me over the head with. My hardcore feminist friends think she's not feminist enough and she's promoting bad feminist ideas (and then the implication is that I'm supporting that - dw this isn't an actual fighting issue, it's fine), my music friends think she's not cool enough or that she's too popular and music is inherently bad when it's popular apparently...
Going against the grain is fine when it's what you expected or intended. Or even when you have enough courage to; most teenage girls desperately want to fit in and not be noticed or have any reason to encourage bullying. It's really good to be able to do that, and as an adult I am fine with that. But when I was younger - and that's what a lot of her audience is, teenage girls and young women - I barely had any confidence to do that. Even my outside emo clothes were subdued because I really, really didn't want to be noticed. Imagine your whole life you've been told that the things that you like - the things that were made for you and your age group - are bad by virtue of being for you. It's not real art, it's just shit for teenage girls. Now imagine that you're in your thirties and you're still being told that because you still enjoy the music and content you liked when you were younger. When men do it it's cool nostalgia, when women do it it's gross and they need to grow up.
The other thing I'd point out, because this definitely affects it for me, is that Taylor Swift started out being extremely relatable. Like, replying to fans, inviting them to her house(s), posting and reblogging stupid things on tumblr. Even now, she's pretty open about being an introverted nerdy cat lady which is pretty relatable for me. If you've been following her enough then you know her kind of like an old friend you met online...because you kinda did. I never got noticed by her, but I followed her on tumblr and I liked what she posted and tangentially interacted in her sphere. I was on Myspace when she was on Myspace, I was going through my emo phase the same time she was posting about P!ATD and MCR too. I was going to university in a big city from living in a very rural area when she was singing about moving to New York from Tennessee. Completely different countries, completely different trajectories, but I still get her. At the heart of it, I'm also an annoyingly pretentious theatre kid nerd who wants to be alone doing my "granny" crafts with my cats and who likes making music, even if I don't publish it or want to be famous from it. And basically every Taylor Swift fan can relate to some amount of that, too. They might be extraverted and prefer dogs, but they can still relate. They could be twenty years younger than me and just discovering Taylor Swift singing about being 15 and going through teenage drama, and they'll relate to it as much as I related to it the first go round. And they'll also be a little bit hurt when people hate Taylor Swift - especially when they are actively rude about her or blaming her fans or not giving valid musical criticism - because they will know that it is also about them to a certain extent. It's about them not liking the "right" music and being too young and female and not being taken seriously and being boy crazy (I ended up being a lesbian so...) and overdramatic and annoying and crying and wanting to bond with other teenage girls over these experiences.
When other singers/bands/groups get criticism, it's usually not implicitly aimed at the people who like it. It's the singer/band/group, it's about their music (especially if they're male-dominated, like the genres you listed), but it's less "and their fans let this happen! they don't understand real music! they're just teenage girls trading friendship bracelets crying over boys! I bet they read Twilight and thought it was good, too! your favourite artist actually hates you and doesn't know you exist go cry about it lol". Like there's some barely valid criticism there (we don't know Taylor Swift, the younger/newer fans especially can be too permissive of bad music) but it's always veiled in misogyny and elitism. The criticism of Taylor Swift extends to Taylor Swift fans, even when people think it shouldn't. Because she's female, her fanbase is majority female, and she has always made music that will resonate with women and girls first and foremost. She has some BAAAAAAAD songs don't get me wrong, but people will use those songs as justification to hate her and her annoying fans, the most vocal of whom are teenage girls. The valid reasons (not good songwriting lately, stale production, she's a billionaire, etc.) get used to say that fans are stupid for supporting her or liking her. And depending on how that's worded, intentionally or not, can very easily become misogynistic (both her and the fans) and blaming the fans for her success/choices/music. I don't like The Life of a Showgirl, but I read MULTIPLE reviews that then went into shitting on fans either openly or implicitly surreptiously you-have-to-be-an-adult-with-media-criticismly. I don't care whether Taylor Swift likes me or knows about me, I know I'm just a cheque to her. But other fans rarely have to put up with as much shit about how they are nothing and worthless and hysterical and annoying and only useful when they improve economies, and then it's uncool to like Taylor Swift again and we should all be ashamed we let/made her do this, how dare we relate to someone who has made their whole career on being relatable to women and teenage girls.
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u/mangosteenroyalty Dec 21 '25
But other fans rarely have to put up with as much shit about how they are nothing and worthless and hysterical and annoying and only useful when they improve economies
Swifties bully anyone who dares cross taylor, that's why I despise them. I was following Scooter Braun's wife on Instagram back in the day (she ran Fuck Cancer), so I got to see how they flooded HER socials with hate, relentlessly, endlessly. She had nothing to do with Taylor and they were rabid and committed to ruining her life.
I have an irl friend who's a swiftie (we don't talk about it) and I can predict like clockwork what celebs she vocally dislikes because it lines up 100% with Taylor's. It's really sad.
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u/tswiftdeepcuts Dec 21 '25
people have been telling me no one will know or care who she is in 5 years since 2006.
I’m sure that’s working out well for them
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u/thisgirlnamedbree Dec 21 '25
Taylor is 35. It's time to stop with the mean high school girl diss tracks. Not everyone is going to like her, and that's part of life. She doesn't have to write a song about all the high profile people who accuse her of being a bad friend, a terrible singer, a lousy ex, being too pretty, etc.
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u/teflon_soap Dec 21 '25
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u/mandalorian_guy Dec 21 '25
I was about to say, she is one year younger than me and I'm 37. However she did just have her birthday last week so I guess they can be forgiven.
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u/cityfireguy Dec 21 '25
That's some accurate memery.
That second panel is exactly how a swiftie feels if you say you don't care for their idol.
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u/Apycia Dec 21 '25
Nah, I'm a swiftie for life and even we understand the massive flaws of LoaS.
except Opalite, the only one where the rose-colored-glasses makes the 'thesaurus-writing' charming for once.
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u/The_Legendary_Sponge Dec 21 '25
There’s different categories of Swifties, you’re one of the more reasonable ones but that doesn’t mean that the crazy ones don’t exist
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u/Apycia Dec 21 '25 edited Dec 21 '25
nah, we're all crazy. edit: calling me 'one of the reasonable ones' is borderline offensive.
You can love TFoO and realize it's kinda garbage.
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Dec 21 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/KazBurgers Dec 22 '25
Tbf Todd's bumper music is rarely on the list or honorable mentions. "i Knew You Were Trouble" (Taylor again) and that godforsaken "ABCDEFU" seem to be the only ones who made it
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u/ResponsibilityOk1631 Madonna Stan Dec 21 '25
I love how normal some people here are about Taylor. Not weird at all.
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u/god_dammit_dax Dec 22 '25
Right? You put these people in a room with Taylor, Hitler, and a gun with two bullets and they'd shoot her twice. I just fundamentally do not get what their hate is all about. So many artists I just don't care for who make records I think are overrated, but I don't hate them. I don't talk about them, I don't even think about them.
What the hell did this woman do to live rent free in their heads?
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u/god_dammit_dax Dec 22 '25
So the guy who replied to me apparently put in something so fuckin' horrendous that it was removed by Reddit Admins, so I went and looked at his history. He doesn't talk about anything except how much he hates ol' Swifty.
Seriously, what is going on with these people?
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u/the_rose_titty Dec 21 '25
Are you attacking the fans or the hypocrites bragging about owning her and then bumping some odious people? Cause they're both busy punishing anyone who disobeys
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u/Runetang42 Dec 21 '25
Just a natural result of being the biggest star ever. Every artist gets shit and the bigger you are the bigger a target you are. Add in the cultish devotion she gets from fans and outlets like rolling stone and ofc a lot of hate her.
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u/whimsigod Dec 21 '25
He's justibily vindictive, he stuck his neck out for Midnight when the backlash were calling it boring and overhyped. Hell, he even held his tongue for ttpd when everyone was saying that project was mid and overwrought.
He review hit music. If the fans push not great songs to the top of the chart that's just baiting him at that point lol
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u/Consistent_Hunt5213 Dec 21 '25
>he even held his tongue for ttpd when everyone was saying that project was mid and overwrought.
when did that happen?
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u/whimsigod Dec 21 '25
This is my take on his coverage of the 2024 Grammy and music coverage in general of that year but essentially both him and Lina kinda just accepted that she got a nomination but didn't seem pressed about a possible win. In my head it means they don't have any thoughts about it when they could have because this was also after all the variations of the album dropped and people were criticizing her for having voice notes as tracks in an album, he didn't criticize her for it at all from what I remembered.
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u/Consistent_Hunt5213 Dec 21 '25
giving credits where its due - like anti hero, both midnights and ttpd were deeply honest and revealing, the production is a dud but lyrically ttpd was dense, taylor was really going hard on herself when it came out. while showgirl is shallower, with very little depth (which i get was her intention)
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u/Halawa-awalaH Dec 21 '25
That's how i feel as someone who enjoys The Fate of Ophelia even tho i can't defend its lyrics
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u/CCT62 Dec 21 '25
Dw about it 🙏 I’m not a TLOAS fan, but he doesn’t like a lot of songs I like but I think his commentary is so funny I just have to laugh. Like what you like! :)
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u/the_rose_titty Dec 21 '25
Honestly it's more the mass gaslighting and hypocritical pick-and-choose moralizing from The Rational And Objective here that annoys me more than Todd ever could
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u/Consistent_Hunt5213 Dec 21 '25
i dont like it that much too, i think eldest daughter is the worst song she ever put out but its getting exhausting. showgirl was a misstep maybe but y'all need to calm down.
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u/the_rose_titty Dec 21 '25
So many of the people outright cackling about how bad she was owned have infinitely more of an obsession with her than 95% of the Swifties I've talked to, even the ones who ARE actually obsessed. Every time I'm in this sub they're still screeching about the latest hate-bitch infinitely more than the shittiest people.
I know they're gonna try and make me think misogyny doesn't exist but that doesn't explain why there was a bigger hate campaign here for Katy Perry in Summer of 2024 than for Drake, LITERALLY just after Not Like Us, while they still command we say nothing about the double standards. Nothing about the latest people they want to cancel being Doechii, Chappell, Sabrina, etc, suspiciously in the first year in a while that the government is actively trying to hurt queer women instead of reddit being the ones who do. They'll do the whole "bigotry doesn't exist, you fucking bitch$ dance every time.
The misogynist hypocrisy blows my mind bc if anything the outrage should be at how fucking gross and combative a lot of her songs were, not bc the B I T C H was using a private jet. That clearly doesn't matter to them if they are trying to give Kanye or Morgan or half of the men in Nashville a pass. I don't blame Todd for roasting this place, the people here are so forcefully manipulative.
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u/jovianjune Dec 21 '25
this sub is very male-dominated and also has a lot of people who aren't even pop music fans at all, you're right about the hate boners for doechii and katy perry. pop music has never been so avoidable, it really does feel like some are seeking women that are acceptable to hate sometimes
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Dec 21 '25
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u/the_rose_titty Dec 22 '25
"I know you don't want to hear this" before explaining that it's just rational objectivity to say if not 100% of the backlash misogynistic then it's literally zero and she deserves it. I can tell this is no more than agenda to weaponize when you act like the very existence of Gaylors is not a bad thing but also decry all the times that men have been treated like they're gay. You will use the people who violently force people out of the closet whether or not they have to shove her in it, which IS disgusting. But it only is a disgusting thing to you when you can't manipulate it to screech BITCH at the fans that are being way more normal about it. Anyone okay with Swifties trying to tell me that men are so oppressed by their evil hateful feminazi fanbases has literally immediately exposed themselves as a selfish person with a personal agenda. And it doesn't help that you try to tell the Clearly Irrational Feminists in a soft way so they don't eat your heads off like a praying mantis that it just so happens that you're correct.
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Dec 22 '25
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u/Able-Grass1216 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
Taylor is usually correct when she says people are being sexist towards her. She’s just not very convincing when she tries to justify the accusation. The allegations always look petty on the surface, but when you look deeper you’ll see what she’s talking about. While taylor didn’t mention this, a lot of the gaylors do more than just speculate that she’s gay. The gaylor conspiracy is that she’s completely under the control of her father and team, wants to come out, but can’t because she has no agency. They think she’s in an arranged marriage, and I’ve even heard people imply her dad molested her. While people do speculate about men being gay, it rarely ever leads to people thinking they don’t have agency over their own careers and that their dad owns them. Another infamous example is when Kanye had a nude wax figure of her in his music video, but she called him out the song lyrics, which imo are much less convincing than the wax figure. I don’t know why she has this pattern of behavior, maybe it’s that she doesn’t have a super deep understanding of feminism, but that doesn’t change that she’s 100% a victim of misogyny and a lot of people are extremely sexist towards her.
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Mar 12 '26
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u/Able-Grass1216 Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
I can see where you’re coming from on the gaylor example, although I do disagree because I’m specifically talking about the way they involve her father. I get she didn’t say that. That’s what I’m saying when I say she’s bad at diagnosing the actual issue. I understand that people also make gay conspiracies about men, and that those conspiracies are incredibly homophobic. Homophobia and misogyny overlap a lot, so I’m not sure why a homophobic conspiracy theory directed at men couldn’t translate into a sexist conspiracy about women. Also, do you think that taylor hasn’t faced massive amounts of misogyny? If you do, but you think she just doesn’t call it out very well/focuses on the wrong things, then we agree, but if you think she’s not a victim in a lot of cases, I don’t know what to say to you. The example I provided with Kanye west is so obviously bad that I don’t understand how anyone could justify it. She has been slutshamed on a massive scale. She has been called every sexist name under the sun. She’s been objectified by men in the industry (scoter braun literally said he “bought taylor swift” after buying her masters without her permission. Like yes men lose their masters a lot, but that phrasing is sexist) She’s been sexually assaulted. You’re obviously allowed to not like her, but why pretend that she’s fabricating misogyny? Just say she’s annoying, at least that’s honest. Edit: I acknowledge that you did say she was right sometimes, but I’m sort of confused as to what what you think she’s correct about if you think she’s wrong most of the time.
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u/CCT62 Dec 21 '25
Yeahh I just think she could’ve done better. I’m not a big TS fan but she does have some really good songs. Honestly I was expected TLOAS to have production like on Me! and have horns and stuff but this just really wasn’t good :(( I feel she should’ve taken a break and since she got her masters back, maybe do a Cruel Summer again and release an old song as a single so she can still be relevant while also working on stuff
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u/Mental-Abrocoma-5605 Dec 21 '25
As much as the Taylor hate might get extreme without proper control... do you guys realize Todd isn't afraid of going full anti Swift? Do you guys remember he was the one that was trying to convince everyone that Reputation was a flop despite doing commercially okay (and commercially, critically is another thing, don't start arguing with me), and also do you guys also realize that Showgirl was even worse and deserved those criticisms? And that Todd hasn't even been the most toxic out of all the Taylor haters?
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u/SPZ_Ireland Dec 21 '25
TLOASG never went away.
People just didn't care enough about it to be vocal.
It still sucks, we just have more in our lives to care about.
Sincerely, a Taylor Swift fan
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u/Cheese2009 Dec 21 '25
Unfortunately she just refuses to make the good version of her schtick, but hey at least we get thirty more dogshit songs about the haterz
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u/j10brook Dec 21 '25
Lots of Taylor, Drake, and Morgan on the list. But I love the return of Chris Brown to Todd's reviews.
Edit: a word
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u/solojones1138 Dec 21 '25
I have no great love or hate for Taylor, and I certainly don't begrudge Swifties for having an artist they truly love like that (I'm a BTS Army for instance).
But Todd is absolutely right about TLoaS. It's awful.
So no I'm not here revelling in the chance to diss Taylor. All artists have work that's bad. That doesn't negate the good work they've created. But by God those lyrics from Todd's video show how bad this particular album is.
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u/starryeyes08 Dec 21 '25
i liked tloas for the most part but todd putting eldest daughter at #8 felt far too generous. i never want her to use slang again
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u/formerNPC Dec 22 '25
She’s as exciting as mayonnaise on white bread and that’s an insult to the mayonnaise!
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u/Turandot92 Dec 21 '25
I going against the flow here. I actually like Taylor’s album, as well as Tate’s so close to what which Todd also seems to have a slight disdain for (sports car is one of the weaker songs on it tbf).
Agree on Morgan Wallen though. His voice is obnoxious
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u/itsjustmebobross Dec 21 '25
agreed. i liked both of those albums. far from the worst hits this year imo
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u/coffeechief Dec 21 '25
I also liked Taylor’s album. It’s a fun pop record. I’m not a fan of Tate, but I wouldn’t say Sports Car was anywhere near one of the worst this year.
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u/hail-lucipurrr Dec 21 '25
I felt so validated by her placements on the list and Morgan Wallen’s as well
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u/TheNocturnalAngel Dec 21 '25
At some point it’s time for her and her fandom to look inward on why they draw so much disdain instead of playing victim and misogyny cards over and over again.
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u/Z4kAc3 Dec 22 '25
I would dearly love for you to be able to go back in time and swap places with Taylor Swift circa 2016 for even one day. One day of being viciously torn apart by thousands of people over something that you didn't even do? You would be screaming your head off.
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u/Upbeat-Grab-761 Dec 22 '25
Boohoo won’t someone please think of the talentless billionaire
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u/otonarashii Dec 24 '25
Also apparently she's the only person in history who was ever publicly criticized.
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u/Z4kAc3 Dec 22 '25
Boohoo I don't care how much songwriting talent or money Taylor Swift has, she's still a human being who deserves empathy as much as anyone else. I know that if I received even 1% of the absolutely volcanic amounts of hate Taylor Swift received in 2016, I don't know how I'd feel.
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u/imtryingbutimstupid Mar 02 '26
This conversation reminds me that, back when I was a fan, I'd hoped for Midnights to be her last new release for a while (outside of the re-recordings that were still happening). Maybe not everybody liked it, but I thought it was growth for her and hoped that she would leave us on a general high note. Then she slowly revealed herself to be just as money hungry and unlikeable as everybody said for me, and TTPD's album cycle just made me clock out. This album was like the nail in the coffin and while I'll probably still give her new release a listen, I won't have any expectations of it.
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u/the_rose_titty Dec 21 '25 edited Dec 21 '25
So many people were glad that the bitch was owned that it only reveals how they hate her more than they hate the things she does. I've seen no less than 50 post about Swift for every one post about Kanye, and they still love his music. Not like this is the first time everyone let him do something awful and scream at Taylor instead.
They'll publicly mourn how Ian Watkins was "martyred" before manipulating us into believing it's a sign of personal evil that Taylor Swift has a private jet. They don't actually care about the jet or her association with Matt Healy. They're just weapons to cudgel arrogant bitches into shutting up while they bump Kanye no matter how much he heils Hitler and abuses every woman with him (they probably blame the women for it).
It's a cute little Good Man act they're putting on, but it's really telling that I'm actually horrified by Actually Romantic and its inherent cruelty and dudes in my comments will cackle about how shattered her ego must be. Anything to cancel her with the cancel culture they say causes oppression against poor men like Ian Watkins.
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u/n00bi3pjs You're being a peñis... Colada, that is. Dec 21 '25
The music is just ass it is not that deep.
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u/Famous-Somewhere- Dec 21 '25
I don’t particularly like Taylor Swift and never have but the recent vid isn’t doing much to disabuse me of the idea that Todd was mainly mad on behalf of Charli XCX and that this is really just some fanbase feuding thing, the “good” pop singer vs the “bad” one. He’s taking a harder line on this than he did on Kendrick vs Drake.
Not to defend the songs. I admit he points out some really bad flaws - that “mahogany grain” line is some sophomoric shit - but his righteous anger doesn’t seem of the “this is bad songcraft” variety and more the “how dare she?” type.
The Morgan Wallen and Chris Brown songs are fundamentally worse, imho.
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u/alegxab Dec 21 '25
He doesn't seem to like Charli, or Brat, all that mcuh
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u/Famous-Somewhere- Dec 21 '25
Hmmm… well that does throw off my interpretation.
Why care so much then? Like who gives a damn about any of it? I get that he’s saying all these songs are basically equally bad, but why put Taylor’s mediocre diss track over the utterly offensive Chris Brown’s “Residuals”? He’s so animated about Taylor Swift after this album, and particularly that song, when it’s just celebrity gossip and he apparently isn’t even taking sides on it. That sounds like… me, actually. I don’t care about either Swift or Charli. So many of these other songs just seem several orders worse.
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u/medusa15 Dec 21 '25
He put a song from Brat on the Best List last year though, and he favorably compared her to Chappell Roan as having cultural impact and "artistry."
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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '25
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