One thing I never get sick of is hearing about—and subsequently writing—negative Taylor Swift press. It really gets me going in a way that coffee just can’t. It’s a visceral ‘zing!’; an instant high. And in this case? Well, this might last me for the rest of the day. Taylor Swift—the very precious, darling, innocent Taylor Swift—has been accused of ripping off lyrics from another artist. The songwriter in question is Matt Nathanson, and Taylor’s never made it a secret that she really, really admires his work, but this time, she’s admired it so hard that it somehow ended up verbatim in one of her songs.
Taylor’s most recent single, ‘All Too Well’, has a lyric that states … well, this: “and I forget about you long enough to forget why I needed to.” And Nathanson wrote a song back in 2003 called ‘I Saw’, and it has a lyric in it that says this: “and I’ll forget about you long enough to forget why I need to.” The only real difference, you see, is that Taylor went and changed the word “needed” to “need” and “I’ll” to “I.” Because that takes all copyright infringements away, right? Yeah, I guess she would think that.
It gets better, though—when Nathanson saw that Taylor had ripped one of his lyrics, he didn’t just sit back and take the flattery: he took his gripe to Twitter, where followers of Taylor positively tried to eviscerate Matt, telling him he was a prick. This is what Matt had to say on Twitter that set Taylor’s followers afire:
“She’s definitely a fan… and now she’s a thief.”
Can I tell you how hard I love this? Reps for Taylor have yet to release a statement, but I hope to God that Matt Nathanson has the balls to go forward and file a lawsuit or a claim or something against this silly little ho, because really. STICK IT TO TAYLOR SWIFT.
I guess my deal here is who cares? It’s not like the thought is all that deep. It’s worth neither ripping off nor writing in the first place.
Case in point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcSUWP0QNeY
I swear, this girl’s got the most annoying fan base.
I studied music law. THIS is completely irrelevant unless either party pushes this to make some extra $$$. Just think ‘Wave your hands like you just don’t care’ – how many people have you heard sing that? It’s much more serious when it comes to the music itself.
How is the theft of a lyric irrelevant? Wouldn’t most readers of this site be offended by the “evil rich person” profiting off of an idea stolen from a lesser-known artist? How about those who haven’t been able to listen to the radio for a good decade or more, precisely because the ones getting all the airplay lack talent? Most importantly, how about the writer, who could be using the money made from a co-writing credit on Taylor’s song to further his career, you think it’s irrelevant to him? And what does it mean “much more serious when it comes to the music itself”? There is no such thing as a musically innovative country song, they get more simplistic and formulaic by the hour. In what universe would ANY popular country artist be sued for repeating the standard 1-4-5 chord progression that’s been heard in every country song ever written? In conclusion, nothing you said is true, and you should feel bad.