Pricey Taylor Swift tickets spurs ‘bad reputation’ causing Gen Z to see ‘red’
College students sounded off after learning that Taylor Swift concert tickets skyrocketed to tens of thousands of dollars on resale sites like StubHub.
Taylor Swift has one of the largest and most devoted followings in the world.
In addition to her immense fan base, the 32-year-old superstar has racked up a multitude of accolades over her career, including 11 Grammy Awards.
However, despite her massive success, the "Blank Space" hitmaker has also found herself at the center of several headline-making controversies in recent years from the Ticketmaster fiasco to her private jet's CO2 emissions.
Here's a look at a few times Swift faced backlash from fans:
Concert ticket fiasco
This week, the singer was involved in a highly-publicized debacle that occurred when tickets for her Taylor Swift's Eras tour became available for purchase in presales through Ticketmaster.
Taylor Swift has been embroiled in several controversies in recent years. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
Many fans remained in the Ticketmaster queue for hours waiting to get Swift tickets during the East Coast presale Tuesday. The ticket-selling site paused the Central Standard Time queues, delayed the West Coast times and pushed the Capital One presale to Wednesday to accommodate the demand.
After selling 2 million tickets, Ticketmaster canceled the public on-sale set for Friday due to "high demand" and "insufficient remaining ticket inventory."
After the cancelation, ticket prices skyrocketed on resale sites. Nosebleed seats at a multitude of venues topped $1,000 as of Friday. Tickets at the very top of Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, reached over $2,000.
The move left many fans without tickets infuriated. Though most of the blame has been aimed at Ticketmaster, Swift has also come under fire as fans vented their frustration over her slow response to the fiasco.
The singer was slammed by fans over her slow response to the Ticketmaster debacle. (Nicky Loh/TAS/Getty Images for TAS)
On Friday, the pop star broke her silence with a message that she shared on her Instagram Story. "It goes without saying that I'm extremely protective of my fans," the "I Knew You Were Trouble" singer wrote.
She continued, "We've been doing this for decades together and over the years, I've brought so many elements of my career in house. I've done this SPECIFICALLY to improve the quality of my fans' experience by doing it myself with my team who care as much about my fans as I do. It's really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.
"There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I'm trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward. I'm not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could. It's truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.
"And to those who didn't get tickets, all I can say is that my hope is to provide more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs. Thank you for wanting to be there. You have no idea how much that means."
The singer was criticized in July over her private jet's carbon footprint. (Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
Private jet backlash
In July, the Pennsylvania native faced backlash from critics about her private jet's carbon footprint.
She was accused of polluting the earth by flying in her private jet 170 times between Jan. 1 and July 29, according to Yard, a sustainability marketing agency that prides itself on "cutting-edge data and analysis."
The research gathered by Yard shows results for "which celebrities are the worst private jet CO2 emission offenders," with Swift racking up more than 22,000 minutes in the air, or the equivalent of 16 days.
However, a representative for Swift said, "Taylor’s jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals. To attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect," according to TMZ.
Swift faced both praise and backlash in 2018 after she broke her long silence on politics and endorsed Tennessee Democrats. (Henning Kaiser)
Weighing in on politics
One of Swift's most divisive controversies came during the 2018 midterm elections. After years of staying mostly silent on politics, the singer declared her support for the Tennessee Democrats in an Instagram post, while also slamming Republican Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn.
"As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn," Swift told millions of Instagram followers. "Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me."
Swift said the congresswoman "voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry."
"These are not MY Tennessee values," she wrote.
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Swift concluded she would be voting for Democrat Phil Bredesen for the Senate, and also for Rep. Jim Cooper, a Democrat who was running for re-election.
Her endorsements sparked a huge response, drawing praise as well as a fierce backlash from fans.
At the time, U.S. President Donald Trump also weighed in the controversy, telling White House reporters that Blackburn was an "incredible woman."
"I'm sure Taylor Swift has nothing or doesn't know anything about her," Trump added. "Let's say that I like Taylor's music about 25 percent less now, OK?"
Blackburn went on to win the election, becoming Tennessee's first female senator.
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Fox News' Lauryn Overhultz and Stephanie Giang-Paunon contributed to this report.
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