Taylor Swift Is Waging Reputational Warfare

The most splashy thing in Swift’s recent note, however, was her plea to “several artists” Braun manages “who I believe really care about other artists and their work.” In this, she’s implying that Bieber, Grande, and other huge names should turn on their handler. Thus far, they’ve been silent or, in Bieber’s case, amplified Braun’s defense. But for Swift to sic her fans on other singers is no small thing.

That’s because the internet has given rise to the age of “stans,” highly devoted listeners who approach pop as a factional war waged in retweets and album sales. Few stan bases are more ravenous than the one that’s gathered around Swift, who has built affection through unusually personal measures, such as delivering custom gifts to her diehards. Pop stars thrive on the appearance of universal appeal, and the likes of Bieber and Grande are directly competing for the sorts of listeners who gravitate toward Swift’s sunny, middlebrow fare. If Swift swamps these performers’ social-media mentions, it creates a real problem for those performers—and of course, it’s the job of their manager, Braun, to solve problems rather than cause them.

It appears Swift’s bid succeeded. Today, Big Machine Label Group announced that it and Dick Clark Productions, the producer of the AMAs, have “come to terms on a licensing agreement that approves their artists’ performances to stream post show and for re-broadcast on mutually approved platforms.” Swift isn’t mentioned in the statement, and the status of her Netflix documentary remains in question. Still, it’s hard not to read it as a victory for her—and a warning for Braun.

Until Swift went public with her concerns in June, there’d been little negative buzz about the manager: He was seen as a music-industry wizard, turning unknowns such as Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen into mega-brands. But Swift’s once-private beef with him has now become a major threat to his image. On Saturday, E! reported that Braun has been mad at Borchetta’s handling of the Swift matter, with an anonymous source telling the entertainment-news site, “Scooter is frustrated because his name is being dragged in the mud. He doesn’t run Big Machine or have operational control of company. He hasn’t taken part in these negotiations.” That quote clearly reads as an attempt to distance Braun from the firestorm, which might be a sign that Swift is right to think that her greatest leverage is something she knows plenty about: reputation.

Spencer Kornhaber is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covers pop culture and music.