Not The Vibe
"It disturbs me that anyone would think there is room for this in this community," singer wrote on an Instagram Story following a performance in Brazil
At some point over the years, online pop fandom has morphed into a war zone in which album sales, chart placements, and celebrity interactions are used as ammunition. It’s rare that the musicians themselves are on the frontlines of these battles between fan communities, which often run rampant with unchecked toxicity. Charli XCX‘s fandom has recently set its target on Taylor Swift, criticizing the singer online and leading “Taylor Swift Is Dead” chants at concerts. Now that the attacks have crossed over into the offline realm, Charli is shutting them down.
“Can the people who do this please stop. Online or at my shows,” she wrote in a recent Instagram Story, which addressed a video of fans reciting the chant at her recent performance in Brazil. “It is the opposite of what I want and it disturbs me that anyone would think there is room for this in this community. I will not tolerate it.”
In the caption of the original post, a fan sharing the clip wrote: “Hey @charli_xcx, your brazilian fans have been showing toxic behavior by screaming “Taylor is dead!” in your concerts and events related to you. Could you do something about it? We don’t belive that’s what music should be about. @taylornation13 please take notice in that too.”
At any given point in time, it’s fair to assume that Swift is at the receiving end of some type of criticism. Most recently, fans of artists like Billie Eilish and Charli have accused the singer of strategically scheduling the release of additional versions of her latest album The Tortured Poets Department in order to block other albums, like Hit Me Hard and Soft and Brat, from reaching certain chart positions in the U.S. and U.K.
Swift fans, conversely, sparred with Eilish fans after the younger musician criticized artists who choose to release multiple vinyl variants of the same album to bolster sales and chart positions. She didn’t name the more veteran artist specifically, but hit dogs often holler. “It would be so awesome if people would stop putting words into my mouth and actually read what I said in that Billboard article,” Eilish clarified shortly after the interview. “I wasn’t singling anyone out, these are industry-wide systemic issues.”Editor’s picks
Recently, Charli has been fascinated by a different widespread practice that extends beyond the boundaries of the music industry and bleeds into the general experience of womanhood. Last week, she released the “Girl, So Confusing” remix featuring Lorde, on which both singers dissect their misperceptions of each other and clear the air once and for all. “Sometimes I think you might hate me/Sometimes I think I might hate you,” Charli sings on the opening verse. Later, Lorde details the bouts of self-criticism she had been experiencing in private and explains: “I was trapped in the hatred/And your life seemed so awesome/I never thought for a second/My voice was in your head.”Trending
During a recent interview with The Guardian, Charli spoke at length about this dynamic between women. “We’ve got past the point of the media always pitting women against one another. In the mid to late 00s, it literally sold magazines and papers: ‘Britney versus Christina’, ‘Paris versus Lindsay,'” she explained. “Then feminism became a popular marketing tool. In the music industry, it was distilled into this idea that if you support women, and you like other women, then you’re a good feminist. The reverse of that is, if you don’t like all other women who exist and breathe on this Earth then you’re a bad feminist. If you’re not a girl’s girl then you’re a bad woman.”
She added: “That’s just such an unrealistic expectation of women. Relationships between women are super-complex and multi-layered. You can like someone and dislike them at the same time; you can feel jealous of somebody but they can still be your friend; you can have the best time of your life on a night out with someone but not be that close to them at all. You can pose with your arms around a person at an awards show, but in reality you’re feeling not worthy, or small – or really co*cky, or confident, or a huge multitude of different emotions. One day you can feel completely on top of the world; the next day, you can feel like your career’s over. The song is saying, sometimes it’s really confusing to be a girl, and that’s fine.”
