Recently, Taylor Swift released her re-recording of her highly regarded pop album 1989 and like all of her other re-recordings, she also released vault tracks (songs that she wrote for the original album that didn’t make the final cut), which has stirred up much discussion in the past days.
1989 has been theorized to be very heavily influenced by the relationship Swift had with Harry Styles. So this has led fans to also speculate that the vault tracks are about him. This would normally be no problem but both artists have shown the public that they are on friendly terms with each other and the hate that is being sent to Styles has grown exceptionally.
With other exes, such as John Mayer and Jake Gyllenhaal, Swift has not been connected to them at all in recent years, indicating that they are not on friendly enough terms. Like mentioned before, however, Styles and Swift have been seen talking at events like the Grammys. Now, this does not mean that Swift has any resentment towards her other exes, but it is an observation that begs to be considered.
So, with that being said, Styles has become the new “public enemy” after fans heard the vault tracks that detail how both Styles and Swift made mistakes in their relationship. Many jumped to the conclusion that a collab or feature of Styles on the song “Style” was because of these songs, which is really a weird conclusion. Swift has said herself that the vault tracks are simply released for the fans, not to launch an attack on people for events that happened to her a decade ago. There is no animosity between the two singers, so why are fans making some?
Also, the events Swift is talking about happened in 2012-2013 meaning both artists were in their very early 20’s. This relationship between two similarly aged adults to one where Swift was most definitely not near her partner’s age is not at all comparable. It is creating a problem that is not feasible.
Overall, the feelings fans are experiencing are not invalid, but should not be twisted to project an image of someone that is not at all real. If fans want to feel disdain toward Styles for his part in the relationship, that is fine and completely the individuals right. They just need to realize that it is not accurate to what has been seen from the two artists.