Credit Due: Taylor Swift’s Advice About Power and Female Friendship

Issue 257 — April 22, 2024

I’m listening to Taylor Swift’s new album, The Tortured Poets Department, looking for inspiration for my more-or-less weekly column, “The Sum.” As in the sum of the week, what it means or what I learned about my favorite topics — women, power, and leadership — from whatever happened during the past week.

The last couple of weeks for me were all Beyonce all the time with the release and immediate race to the top of the C&W charts of her album Cowboy Carter. (How many versions of dancing to “Texas Hold ‘Em” have you seen on social media so far? I’m obsessed.)

The SumGloria FeldtApril 22, 2024Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Female Leadership, PowerToComment

Nicki, Taylor and the Catfight That Wasn't

You may have heard that Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift got into an EPIC Twitter fight last week. The Telegraph referred to the incident as a “spat.” “Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift and the Catfight that Completely Missed the Point” read a headline in The Independent. A Google search for “Taylor Swift Nicki Minaj feud” returns over eight million results.

Taylor Swift Uses Her Power, Changes an Industry

Taylor Swift was not happy when she found out Apple wasn’t planning to pay musicians royalties during a three-month trial period for Apple Music, its new streaming service. On Sunday morning, she took to Tumblr to criticize Apple’s policy and announce that her megahit album 1989 won’t be available for streaming on Apple Music. “We don’t ask you for free iPhones,” she wrote. “Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.”