Female Artists go to war against unjust record labels
Worlds collided when Korean boy band, BTS, and popular female rap artist, Megan Thee Stallion, released a remix of BTS’ hit song “Butter” on August 26, 2021. This amalgamation peaked at number one on the Billboard charts within a week. In June of 2021, before their collaboration with Stallion, they released three subsequent remixes, “Hotter”, “Sweeter’, and ''Cooler,” but none were as big of a hit as the version with Stallion.
Despite “Butter” ft. Stallion’s success, the song was almost left unreleased because of Stallion’s record label, 1501 Certified Entertainment. Just days before its scheduled release, Stallion claimed that her label was refusing to let her release the song. She believed that releasing the remix would help her grow her fanbase internationally, yet the label claimed this would do nothing but hurt her. However, Stallion stated that this was just a cover up to get her to pay $6,000 USD in order to sign off on the release of the song.
Stallion, determined to release her remix with BTS, would not go down without a fight. So, she did the only thing she could do, bring it to court. Stallion’s lawyers mentioned that a restraining order filed against the label last year preventing them from hindering her music releases was being violated by the label. The documents from the court order revealed that Stallion stressed that not releasing this song would cause “irreparable damage” to her career.
Surprisingly, this isn't the first time this has happened. Back in March of 2020, her label also tried to prevent her from releasing her song “SUGA” because they did not think it would do well and tried to cheat her out of money. Stallion followed this by suing them in order to get the rights to her song, which ended up spectacularly for the singer. She also filed a restraining order preventing them from tampering with “Butter’s” remix release. She is entitled to 40%of her profits (compared to the usual 50/50 split in the industry), but she has recently only been receiving 26%. The label was trying to cheat her out of her money when she already received a below average share of pay, displaying the company's greed and true intentions with their artists.
Besides all the trouble Stallion had to go through, the song did extremely well. BTS and Megan Thee Stallion fans alike were all so thrilled for this collaboration and were not disappointed. Although their styles are very different when it comes to their individual music, Stallion matched the original vibe of “Butter” perfectly. Her verses such as “I remember writing flows in my room in college/Now I need global entry to the shows I'm rocking,” flowed with the music, making it appeal to both BTS and Stallion fans. Of course a Megan Thee Stallion song would be incomplete without her signature “AHH”s and adlibs. Her harmonizing with the other band members made it sound as if she was on the original track. Although her label thought otherwise, Stallion’s career has nowhere else to go but up.
Taylor Swift has been a staple in pop culture ever since she began releasing music in 2006 with her self-titled debut album. Ever since, her music has been critically acclaimed by millions of fans around the world. Whether or not one thinks Swift only acquired her fame from experiences with the people she’s dated, or the drama she’s been involved in, there's no denying that her music is catchy and objectively good.
In July of 2019, Scooter Braun’s Ithica Holdings acquired Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine Label Group. Swift had already released six albums with BMLG when her 13-year deal expired in November of 2018, which resulted in the multi-million dollar super-star signing a new deal with Republic Records and Universal Music Group. With this new agreement, Swift was only able to negotiate to own all future masters, while BMLG retained all of her past six albums. Swift was not able to “Shake it Off”, to say the least. Swift was outraged, as any artist would be.
In January of 2021, Taylor announced that she was going to start reclaiming her past music (not including Lover, Folklore, or Evermore). Fearless (Swift’s Version) was released on April 9, 2021 marking the first step of the artist owning her music once again.
Swift is not the only performer who has experienced this oppression. In fact, the unfair and essential thievery of ones’ music in the industry is extremely common. Young artists sign themselves into the industry without really understanding the consequences and what will happen later on to their music. But Swift releasing Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and announcing the release of Red (Taylor’s Version), on November 19, will not only act as a warning for future artists, but it will also inspire the ones to whom this has already happened. Thus, it’s up to them to reclaim their music by rerecording it.
A lot of fans, especially “OG Swifties” will focus their attention on the wrong thing, which is what the re-recorded songs sound like. However, that’s not necessarily the point. The bottom line is that Taylor Swift’s first six albums were stolen, and she’s finally beginning to take them back.
by Erin Fox and Anika Flores
Oshkosh West Index Volume 118 Issue 1
October 6th, 2021