Taylor Swift opens up about feud with Kim Kardashian, hits out at music industry's treatment of young artists

Global pop icon Taylor Swift opened up about her feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West and how it affected her career, in a candid conversation with TIME magazine which named her 2023's Person of the Year.

She also hit out at the music industry for its treatment of young pop singers who she said are "thrown out" by the time they understand how to deal with the job.

Lambasting the approach of record labels to replace rather than nurturethe artists, Swift said, “By the time an artist is mature enough to psychologically deal with the job, they throw you out at 29, typically."

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“In the 90s and 00s, it seems like the music industry just said: ‘OK, let’s take a bunch of teenagers, throw them into a fire, and watch what happens. By the time they’ve accumulated enough wisdom to do their job effectively, we’ll find new teenagers,’” she said.

“I realised every record label was actively working to try to replace me. I thought instead, I’d replace myself first with a new me. It’s harder to hit a moving target,” she added.

In the interview, she also particularly slammed the label Big Machine for keeping her on a tight schedule and not providing her with the required creative freedom.

She launched her first six albums with this record label.

“Every creative choice I wanted to make was second-guessed,” she said. “I was really overthinking these albums.”

Swift's years-old feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West

Swift also recounted how the feud withKim Kardashian and Kanye West took her down psychologically.

“Make no mistake, my career was taken away from me,” she told the publication.

“You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar. That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before. I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone any more. I went down really, really hard,” she said.

The conflict between the artists dates back to 2016 when Ye released the song 'Famous' featuring the lyrics “I made that b***h famous”, referring to a previous spat between the pair.

Swift had then released a statement, publicly opposing the lyrics, saying she wasn't made aware after which Kim Kardashian, Ye's then-wife, insisted that the pop star and the rapper had agreed on the song's content in a phone call.

(With inputs from agencies)