Captions on the tik tok: Welcome back to “self made is a toxic myth”.
At just 14 years old, Taylor Swift moved to Nashville, and quickly signed with Sony Music and Big Machine Records. She then released her self titled debut album which quickly went platinum in 2006. Since then, Swift has had nothing but smash hit after smash hit. Including making history this year as the first artist to dominate the entire Top 10 on the billboard Hot 100 with Anti Hero. Wow, that’s amazing! But I guess this goes to show that as long as you’re talented and work hard and follow your dreams, eventually-
Yeah, what that narrative leaves out is that Taylor Swift was born rich. Taylor Swift’s father is Scott Swift, former stockbroker for Merrill Lynch. Her mother is Andrea Gardiner, a former mutual funds executive. Swift grew up on an 11 acre Christmas tree farm.
Okay, so what, she grew up wealthy. Does that mean she didn’t work hard? No, that’s not what it means? Well, does that mean she’s not talented? Nope, that’s not what it means.
What it means is that when she was 9, she was regularly flying to New York for acting and singing lesson. What it means is that when she was 13, she was working with a talent manager who helped her secure a development deal with RCA. What it means is that when she was 14, her family had the resources to relocate to Nashville, so she could work on music full time. What it means is that every day after school, Taylor is working with experienced hit songwriters. What it means is that when a DreamWorks A and R executive wanted to start his own record label, called Big Machine Records, Taylor’s father brought 3 percent worth of stock in the company, for somewhere between 120 K and 300 K, incentivizing him to push her album.
The reason this series exists is to remind my fellow indie artists to take it easy on ourselves, when you feel like you’re not progressing in your career fast enough, even though you’re talented and hard working too. Because talent and hard work are not enough. You’ve just been programmed to think that they are, by an endless parade of folks who conveniently downplay how big a role their various privileges played in their success.
After all, it’s a lot easier to be an Anti Hero in a lavender haze, when you own the lavenders.
This study came out last year and proves that luck (such as wealth) is an outsized contributor to success. That doesn’t mean that hard work doesn’t ever pay off! But a lot of times those big names are hiding the real secret: Mommy and Daddy’s money. Not hitting “the big time” does not mean you aren’t good! It means you are competing against people who already had a leg up and are pretending that they started at the same level.
If this was originally posted on tumblr it would have become the big new trend within hours
[Image description: a tweet from Twitter user @ow_riki reading: ‘Had a dream that the new Twitter fad was to post a picture of a giant isopod photoshopped into historical events and going “Eugene! Not again!!”.’ It has 2,794 likes, 68 quote tweets and 797 retweets. End ID]
eugene you scoundrel!!!
[image ID: the ides of march painting with a giant isopod edited in at the front. end ID]
It’s happening…. Eugene has arrived….
Here’s an easy to use Eugene for all your meme making needs, friends
[Image ID: An image of a giant isopod on a transparent background. End ID.]
Poor Eugene takes so much blame; here he is mourning the death of of his teacher, Socrates. Eugene is a learned crustacean.
[ID: The Death of Socrates, painted by Jacques-Louis David, with a giant isopod edited under the bed mourning with the rest of Socrates’s students. End ID]
EUGENE WHAT HAVE YOU DONE????
[ID: A black and white image of the Hindenburg disaster, with a giant isopod edited in as though looking towards the camera guiltily]
i want u guys to know that the university of sussex is constantly graffiti’d with among us crewmates and that the university keep desperately trying to clean it off but some hero with chalk keeps going back for more. the university sign has a permanent stain on the ‘sus’ of sussex
in case you don’t believe me here is photographic evidence
are pokemon sentient enough that I could send my Scrafty to the store with a shopping list and money and he’d be allowed to shop by himself when he gets there
my shiny Scrafty in the cold aisles trying to decide on cheese
What if someone created an AI that was educated purely from everything on Tumblr?
.
there is @nostalgebraist-autoresponder, she is based on GPT-J and learnt more from reading her notes, aswell as trying to iminate her creators blog
yeah this is how i work
Yes but we are all so nice to you Frank, you’re not getting the full experience. Please, tell me your opinion on Steven universe so I’ll send you a death threat over it
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
