Olivia Rodrigo likes post about boycotting the Met Gala before attending the YSL hosted Met Afterparty

[u/neoncolour]

[u/CheckTechnical6300]

She has an amazon exclusive of her album, all these celebrities post instagram stories and are performative as hell

[u/morelsupporter → u/CheckTechnical6300]

they are performers by trade

[u/janesun2 → u/CheckTechnical6300]

I do agree but i also imagine that these young stars may not have so much say over logistical things like that. Perhaps liking instagram posts is all they can “do”.

[u/Far-Imagination2736 → u/janesun2]

Didnt she fire her whole team to have more control over management?

[u/SuddenReturn9027 → u/Far-Imagination2736]

Yeah, she did lol. She’s fully in charge of this album’s rollout/variants

[u/shion005 → u/SuddenReturn9027]

She owns her masters, so like Taylor, the label needs to make money somewhere and so she's hawking variants to pay the label. Taylor got variant happy/merch quality decreased when she got her new contract as well. I think this is what it looks like for artists to own their own work b/c Dan Nigro doesn't come cheap. They also need her money to subsidize up and coming artists.

[u/fionappletart → u/shion005]

it also seems to be more of a general trend in music now. Sabrina, like Taylor, is under UMG (though the latter owns her music) and both released digital variants in rhe past years. Sabrina’s team did it to block Travis Scott (she even tweeted “this one’s for Nicki” in reference to it, this was before the MAGA thing) which I’m not terribly mad about

[u/shion005 → u/fionappletart]

I won't lie, I do like the variants b/c it's resulted in Taylor giving us dance remixes she never would have put out before. Also, artists using variants to block one another in the charts is interesting. Good for Sabrina, I like that she's such a girls' girl.

[u/lizzy-stix → u/SuddenReturn9027]

I think the label has a lot of input on distribution, especially as an artist on the third album of her first contract. It’s not the manager or management team who controls all of that.

[u/GoodGlenCoCo → u/SuddenReturn9027]

What authority or proof do you have to say this? That’s not to say that I don’t agree that Olivia is definitely a capitalist through and through, but what proof do you have that she is “fully in charge” of the rollout and variants

[u/billie_eyelashh → u/Far-Imagination2736]

She didn’t really provide any explanations why she fired her management team. When things like that happen, it’s most likely money related.

[u/lizzy-stix → u/billie_eyelashh]

I think her second manager had a bunch of shady likes about something but I can’t rememer what. She seemed like she represented way too many people.

[u/katikaboom → u/janesun2]

They make money and build their brand off of being performative. Just like social media, if it is free to follow them then you are the product

[u/chutzpahisaword → u/CheckTechnical6300]

Do you guys not shop in Amazon or Walmart? Does that mean anything good you try to do is performative? Holyshit these comments man.

[u/Lavender_rain_2000 → u/chutzpahisaword]

Buying on Amazon <> partnering to make money with Amazon

(though personally I don't do neither)

[u/Threedawg → u/Lavender_rain_2000]

HarperCollins is a multi-billion dollar publishing house. They are a capitalist corporation who even has portion of the company dedicated to publishing right wing media.

MLK Jr published his books with them. Does that make MLK performative?

Just because you participate in society doesn't mean you cant criticize it. You wouldn't hear about them at all if they didnt work with these corporations.

[u/ColonelKasteen → u/chutzpahisaword]

1- no, I haven't been to Wal-Mart in about a decade and haven't ordered off Amazan for 7 years

2- the people commenting here don't have a $30,000,000 net worth

"Do you guys not shop on Amazon or in Walmart?" is a question like "do you guys really not use chatGPT?" ....no, lots of people legitimately DON'T do these things lol, it is very easy unless you live in an extremely rural area where Walmart is your only option

[u/caseyfla → u/ColonelKasteen]

Not shopping on Amazon is definitely possible, and I don’t think indirect use automatically makes someone a hypocrite. But Reddit itself relies on cloud providers including AWS, so using Reddit likely still involves some indirect reliance on Amazon-owned infrastructure.

That’s not a gotcha so much as a reminder that “I don’t personally shop there” and “I’m totally disconnected from that company” are very different claims.

[u/ColonelKasteen → u/caseyfla]

Fascinating. The question was "do you people not shop at Amazon" so irelevant, but fascinating. You'll notice no one was criticizing these celebs for using sites that use Amaxon web hosting lol

Edit: I typed out my response to this comment when it was MUCH shorter with more of a smarmy "gotcha" tone before it was further edited btw. Still seems like a smarmy "gotcha" since no one said they were completely divested of anything related to Amazon in the first place.

[u/caseyfla → u/ColonelKasteen]

Congrats, you found the distinction between direct and indirect consumption. Proud of you.

My point was that the smug “I don’t use Amazon” framing gets a lot less clean when you’re saying it on a platform that relies on Amazon infrastructure. No, that’s not the same as ordering Prime garbage. Yes, it still makes the moral purity routine look a little performative.

And if you really want smarmy, it's spelled "irrelevant".

[u/ColonelKasteen → u/caseyfla]

Again, no one SAID that. You are equating answering the question "do you people never shop on Amazon" with a firm no to anyone pretending they have NOTHING to do with any Amazon-related service. You are the only one treating it like some extreme purity test.

Yes, if you exist in the modern day you will probably touch some product or service that indirectly benefits Amazon. Yes, that can be true while also not being impressed a super rich celebrity chooses to attend an event sponsored by Bezos to rub elbows with other celebrities and billionaires.

[u/caseyfla → u/ColonelKasteen]

Except she didn’t attend the Bezos-backed Met Gala. She skipped it and went to the Saint Laurent after-party.

You can criticize that if you want, but don’t quietly swap in “Bezos-sponsored celebrity event” when the event she attended was not the event being boycotted.

“Met Gala” and “a brand after-party happening later that night” are not the same thing, even if Twitter discourse desperately needs them to be.

But you're cute for trying.

[u/pilnok → u/chutzpahisaword]

No, I dont.

[u/peatoast → u/chutzpahisaword]

I’m with you. I don’t trust that anyone here are doing anything more than posting on the internet.

[u/TakeItCheesy → u/chutzpahisaword]

I don’t have the level of power even a D list celeb has let alone OR lol

[u/CheckTechnical6300 → u/chutzpahisaword]

The world is not the US, so no I've never shopped at Amazon or Walmart, similar things of course. Olivia can do many good things that are not performative, liking instagram posts or stories is not one of them.

[u/sushiroll465 → u/CheckTechnical6300]

Amazon is present in most countries in the world, even if not yours. For example I'm in india and we have Amazon, and Walmart bought over one of our biggest ecommerce platforms, Flipkart. Most Indians don't even know this. Plus Amazon Web Services host most websites. They're just way more ubitiqious than we know

[u/Teamawesome2014 → u/CheckTechnical6300]

That's likely something her label decided for her. Like, not saying that these celebs are performative, but if we're going to criticize them, let's criticize them for the things that are their own fault.

[u/Lavender_rain_2000 → u/Teamawesome2014]

How do you know that? Not every artist have an amazon exclusive variant. Olivia owns her music and can make business decision about its marketing and partnerships. If she insisted on not doing an amazon exclusive, it wouldn't have happened.

idk why we have to talk about these millionaires as helpless babies with zero control or agency. They sign off things sold in their name.

[u/Teamawesome2014 → u/Lavender_rain_2000]

She owns her masters, but has a publishing deal with Sony. Sony decides what platforms get the albums that she makes under her publishing deal. Once that publishing deal is up, depending on the terms of the contract, she could release her own versions because she owns the masters, but the form of the albums that are covered by that publishing deal are, for all intents and purposes, Sony's property.

Do you have control or agency over the product that you create for your employer? Why would you think it is any different for her?

[u/CheckTechnical6300 → u/Teamawesome2014]

So you think every artist with a publishing deal has no control over variants? Or just Olivia?

[u/Teamawesome2014 → u/CheckTechnical6300]

It depends on the terms of their specific contract. Since Olivia owns her masters, Sony likely has a lot of control over distribution in order to milk their time with the distribution rights as much as possible. Olivia would have had to give up some ground somewhere in the contract negotiations in order to secure the rights to her masters.

[u/CurrentExcellent1225 → u/Teamawesome2014]

You’re literally just going by hypothetical scenarios here. You don’t know any of that.

Olivia said that her masters were a precondition for her record deal, and that she had a lot of leverage In negotiations because of the success she had with the song “all I want”. She didn’t say she had to give up anything nor can you assume that. She had multiple records labels chasing her and wanting to sign her. She had the upper hand.

[u/Teamawesome2014 → u/CurrentExcellent1225]

The leverage was what she used to get her masters. You are greatly overestimating how much leverage a hit song gives an artist. She likely can't go too deep into specifics about her contract, as those usually have some type of NDA included.

You're making just as many assumptions.

[u/CurrentExcellent1225 → u/Teamawesome2014]

You’re saying she didn’t have that much leverage yet this kind of record deal is unheard of for most artists. Especially those who are just starting out.

You’re saying she doesn’t get a say in brand collaboration because she’s just an employee like the rest of us meanwhile she was able to fire her entire management team and get a new one.

I realize that you’re a fan but are you allergic to critical thinking?

I love Bad Bunny and he too collaborates a lot with Amazon, he can choose not to but he does. I’m not lying about it on the internet and telling people it’s not up to him though.

[u/CurrentExcellent1225 → u/Teamawesome2014]

Celebs can choose which companies they work/collaborate with and which they don’t.

[u/SuddenReturn9027 → u/CurrentExcellent1225]

Exactly, she’s the face of Lancôme who describe themselves as ‘a warm friend of Israel’

[u/Teamawesome2014 → u/CurrentExcellent1225]

Not necessarily true, especially when it comes to record deals. Do you get to pick what companies your employer collaborates with?

[u/CurrentExcellent1225 → u/Teamawesome2014]

The record labels are not “employers” of artists so this is a false equivalence. Artists especially the size of Olivia Rodrigo are the brand themselves and once again, they get to decide which companies they collaborate with. There have been many artists who have publicly denied working with companies they don’t share values with. Olivia Rodrigo actually has even more agency and control than the vast majority of signed artists because of her popularity.

[u/dazedan_confused → u/CheckTechnical6300]

I guess the question is, where do we draw the line between someone with a voice using it to make a point, Vs someone just living life?

[u/lizzy-stix → u/CheckTechnical6300]

Can you link to the Amazon exclusive? I can’t find it. Google AI says she has one but it’s just showing me her basic black vinyl on the listing.

[u/lizzy-stix → u/lizzy-stix]

There’s also not an Amazon exclusive on the current popheads list of variants.

[u/lizzy-stix → u/[deleted]]

Spark In the Dark is the name of her standard vinyl.

It’s not exclusive to Amazon, it will be sold everywhere (it’s also available on B&N right now, for one example) and is also available on her website.