In 2021, songs from Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album Sour were completely inescapable. From tear-jerking heartbreak anthem driver’s license to the angsty heartbreak anthem good for you, the theme of ending a relationship was quite obviously Rodrigo’s inspiration. The alleged muse for this album: Joshua Bassett, who acted alongside her in Disney Channel series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Being forced to stay inside for the past two years, people seemingly had nothing better to than follow (and comment on) this particular celebrity relationship; even Saturday Night Live decided to hop on the Joshua Bassett slander trend in February 2021, saying in a now-privatised clip: “maybe I’m Olivia and my bitch ex Gina is Joshua Bassett”. While people have always been interested in couples who were love interested on and off the screen - just think of the everyone’s fondness towards their predecessors Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron - the feeling that the entire world was unified in their hatred towards Bassett seemed to be different and more severe than the examples in the past.
That was until November 12th 2021, when Rodrigo’s biggest inspiration Taylor Swift dropped Red (Taylor’s Version), which included a 10-minute version of the masterpiece All Too Well. If the song’s new verses were not an obvious enough hint that inspiration was taken from a toxic relationship, the new music video that came with it most certainly did. And with Swift’s choice to give Dylan O’Brien the same facial hair and beanie Gyllenhaal sported back when they were together, in addition to picking two actors who had the same controversial nine year age gap that they had, this song led to an absolute avalanche of hatred headed Gyllenhaal’s way. With a world furious enough to constantly berate and send numerous death threats to Joshua Bassett purely for ending one relationship and moving on to another, hatred became so poisonous that Gyllenhaal had to deactivate Instagram comments and disappear off of the face of the earth for a few months. Please note, this was a re-release of a song Swift wrote 11 years ago! To truly put into perspective how long ago this was, feel free to have a look at this article written at the time, where most of the break-ups are now seen as either extremely old and iconic or are totally forgotten about.
"It is therefore unrealistic to expect; a) that artists will stop writing about their break-ups, and b) that the public will stop caring about them"
But should Swift and Rodrigo (and for that matter, all other singers who write about their exes) be held responsible for any hate that the exes receive? After all, writing about relationships and subsequent breakups is something that all singers do, and as listeners it’s true we especially gravitate towards hearing songs written by our favourite artists at their most vulnerable. It’s also true social media has made it easier than ever before to know every single detail about celebrities’ personal lives. It is therefore unrealistic to expect; a) that artists will stop writing about their break-ups, and b) that the public will stop caring about them. It is obvious that people will be invested in artists’ personal lives long as they write about them, so should these artists take responsibility for all of the hateful comments instigated by their music?
Both Gyllenhaal and Bassett have weighed in on this topic, with Gyllenhaal saying in an interview with Esquire last month that although he didn’t “begrudge” Swift for discussing their relationship in the song, he believes that “at some point, I think it is important when supporters get unruly that we feel a responsibility to have them be civil and not allow for cyberbullying in one’s name”. In a Christmas Eve interview with Zach Sang, Bassett spoke more directly on the subject, explaining how right before his EP was released (which was widely regarded as being his ‘response’ to Rodrigo) he asked his fans to “please to treat everybody with love and respect no matter what, even if they’re saying terrible things”. He added that believes that acting in this way is the “only way forward”. He also says “a lot of times people will be like, ‘well don’t blame artists, blame their fans' but I think we should really look at how much you are responsible as an artist for what conversations go on around your art… obviously you can’t control all of it but the people who look up to you and are supporting you respect you hopefully and that shouldn’t be underestimated”, agreeing with interviewer Zach Sang’s point of considering “the power of a pop star or a superstar or a culture shaper as it related to the community that they’ve cultivated and grown”.
While it’s true that the hatred is a result of an artist’s fans feeling fiercely protective over them, it can also be argued that it is unfair to hold artists accountable for the actions of people they don’t even know. They have the right to comment on their personal relationships as little or as much as they want - neither Rodrigo nor Swift have actually admitted who their songs are about. At the same time, with the amount of cyberhate seeming to hit higher levels than ever before, something clearly needs to be done. Although artists speaking out is something that should be encouraged, it should not be solely their responsibility to handle the response that their music warrants - perhaps it should be the social media platforms who moderate what is being said on their sites? This has already had some success, with Instagram allowing users to limit or restrict comments received, but this is only a small step towards a goal of eliminating online abuse. Although the line between opinion sharing and cyber abuse can be more difficult to draw for people who are more widely talked about, it should absolutely be a rule on social media platforms that any death threats lead to immediate termination of an account. Artists should be free to write about whomever they want without fearing dangerous repercussions (either for themselves or for their exes), and unless social media sites make themselves more restrictive, abusive comments will only become more and more threatening.
Cat Jordan
Edited by: Gemma Cockrell
Featured image courtesy of Taylor Swift via Facebook.
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