Jack White faces Taylor Swift fan backlash over his take on music about “publicly aired breakups”
The White Stripes rocker Jack White faced some backlash over his comments on songwriting about “publicly aired breakups,” like that of Taylor Swift.
Los Angeles, California – Musician Jack White has earned the ire of the Swifties after he took a swipe at the “Taylor Swift way” of writing songs.
In a new interview with The Guardian, the 50-year-old Grammy winner said that he finds it “a little boring” to write about his own life.
“Now it’s become very popular in the Taylor Swift way of pop singers writing about all of their publicly aired breakups, which I don’t find interesting at all,” White said.
He added that he has no desire to relive his own experiences and said, “If it’s something really painful, I’m not going to put this important, painful thing that I went through out there for some idiot on the internet to stomp all over.”
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Pop songwriting like that of Swift indeed finds itself at the center of social media dissection, as fans quickly seek to figure out exactly who or what inspired the songs.
The 36-year-old singer often recounts her experiences in her music, reflecting on the end of very public romances and even taking some swipes at her famous rivals.
But White went on to say in a since-deleted post that he did not mean to discount Swift’s music and that he only meant the style did not work for him.
“I didn’t say that I think Taylor Swift’s music was ‘boring’ or whatever clickbait the net is trying to scrape together,” the White Stripes rocker said, per Rolling Stone.
“What I was trying to say in an interview I did about poetry and lyric writing was that I don’t find it interesting at all for ME to write about MYSELF in my own lyric writing and poetry because I think that it could be repetitive for ME to always write about and it could be uninteresting for people who listen to my music to delve into, and that imaginary characters are more attractive to me as a writer.”
White emphasized that while this is his preference, he doesn’t think that everyone should follow, and he went on to applaud the success that the more diaristic songwriters like Swift have had.
“They should do what works for them, and they do, and it is obviously appealing to many people, and I’m glad to hear that,” he added.
Cover photo: Collage: Frazer Harrison / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
