Jack White Clarifies His Comments About Taylor Swift’s Songwriting

Jack White is speaking out after his recent comments about Taylor Swift‘s lyrics and songwriting sparked online backlash. Social media users interpreted his words as a dig against the pop star, but White clarified that he was only describing his own songwriting preferences and not criticizing Swift’s work.

In an interview with The Guardian on March 8, White was asked about his songs and whether they are autobiographical in nature.

The former White Stripes member said in response that he doesn’t like doing that too much, adding, “Now it’s become very popular in the Taylor Swift way of pop singers writing about all of their publicly aired break-ups, which I don’t find interesting at all.”

He went on to explain that he finds writing about himself “boring” and doesn’t want to relive a “painful” moment in his life every time he hears a song tied to a particular moment in his life.

“I’m not going to put this important, painful thing that I went through out there for some idiot on the internet to stomp all over,” he added.

The backlash against White was almost immediate. Swifties defended their idol, and others disagreed with the musician’s opinion.

“Aren’t half the songs on the early White Stripes albums about his break-up with Meg?” one wrote, referring to Meg White, his former bandmate and ex-wife. The couple divorced in 2000, even before the White Stripes gained major recognition.

“Based on his career trajectory, most people don’t find his songwriting interesting at all,” one added.

Another user wrote, “Everyone does this. The only difference about Swift is that everyone cares more about who’s behind the song cause she’s big. But every love and breakup song is about someone. Everyone writes about what they’ve gone through!”

White took to social media to respond to the reaction to his comments about Swift’s songwriting. In a post that has since been deleted, per NME, the singer said that he’s only going to leave the post up for a day before he puts the issue to rest.

White said he didn’t say Swift’s music was boring. He was only discussing how he preferred to write music.

“What I was trying to sayi n an interview I did about poetry and lyric writing, was that I don’t find it interesting at all for ME to write about MYSELF in my own lyric writing and poetry because I think that it could be repetitive for ME to always write about and it could be uninteresting for people who listen to my music to delve into…”

He acknowledged that Swift and others have achieved “tremendous success” writing in their own styles, and he doesn’t have anything against that. Additionally, he believes songwriters should use the process that works best for them.

In addition to addressing the backlash, White also criticized publications, journalists, and editors for producing clickbait content. That, he explains, is the reason why he’s less interested in doing interviews.

“In the age of this massive demand for clickbait and content, any scrape of anything interesting or off the beaten path that can be turned into drama is swamped over and spit out as bait,” he wrote.

According to White, artists are forced to give “safe” answers so as not to have their words twisted and turned into online fodder.

White said he was a bit apprehensive about putting the collection out there, as he said he may seem pretentious. However, he said it would be “an honor” for him to have anyone read something that he has written.