TICKETMASTER ‘TROUBLE’: Pricey Taylor Swift tickets spurs ‘bad reputation’ causing Gen Z to see ‘red’ in singer
Taylor Swift was a breakout star in the early 2010s thanks largely to songs like “You Belong With Me” and “Mean” — and to be fair, she had just released her sophomore album. “You Belong With Me” broke new ground even as it was a remake of a song that had been an R&B standard for decades. That’s why some Gen Z fans felt compelled to ask why Swift was playing the older song. And why, after the song was done and “You Belong With Me” went on to become one of the most-played tunes on the radio, many young Swift fans believed she must have been intentionally copying older R&B artists.
One of those Gen Z Swift fans was Ryan F. Suter, 25, a singer-songwriter/producer in Austin, Texas. In fact, he went as far as to say he and Taylor Swift would have been “good friends” had she not been the woman with the “bad reputation.”
“I’m like ‘Who are you? You know I’m young, young, young. You’re like, ‘Hey man, I’m so excited to talk to you about the new music that you’re putting out. And do you mind if I ask some questions about your music or your relationship with Taylor Swift?’ And that was a whole thing that I said, like, ‘Yeah. Let’s do it.’”
Suter ended up giving Ryan the most controversial moment of his life by giving him the title of “Ticketmaster Problem.”
“So Taylor Swift is a young girl singing a song that I saw her perform, and I had never met Taylor, but I had seen this song on YouTube before,” he said. “So I sent a text to my friend who’s like, ‘Hey, Taylor Swift is coming to my town.�