A Publicist’s Take On The Latest Feud In The Katy Perry vs. Taylor Swift Saga

The five-year-long Taylor Swift vs. Katy Perry rift has been re-ignited once again—this time by Perry herself, who during an intense promo cycle for her fifth album Witness has spoken candidly to a variety of media sources about the inspiration behind new single “Swish Swish” and where she stands on Swift. A few weeks back Perry told James Corden, “[Swift] started it, and it’s time for her to finish it.” This weekend, Perry had seemingly done a total 180, admitting to Arianna Huffington, “I am ready to let it go. I forgive her and I’m sorry for anything I ever did, and I hope the same from her.”

Feuds are dog-eared pages in the publicity playbook. I’ve worked in PR my entire career—first in the music industry for The Strokes, then in crisis communications at SKDKnickerbocker, and currently at a company called Genius (are you familiar?)—and while I haven’t exactly had to deal with my clients trading barbs on Carpool Karaoke, I can say that contrary to popular belief, most feuds are not stunts genetically engineered by handlers, and in fact stem from something real. The difference between a valuable feud and a pointless one is when both sides are able to manipulate the media to their advantage—and skillfully evolve their respective brands. Competition makes everyone better—and more memorable.

“You, With Your Words Like Knives”

The Taylor Swift and Katy Perry rivalry has been fueling internet hot takes and stan wars for the better part of three years. It’s the kind of controversy that necessitates a detailed timeline and deep lyrical familiarity of their respective diss tracks “Bad Blood” and “Swish Swish” to fully appreciate, and is oft-treated as modern pop’s answer to hip-hop’s canonized feuds, among them Nas vs. Jay Z, Drake vs. Meek Mill, and Remy Ma vs. Nicki Minaj.

Success in Swift vs. Perry hinges less on the deft wordplay required to best your opponent round by round, and more on total PR mastery: the ability to protect and even elevate a meticulously crafted image that has come to resonate with millions of fans, the majority of them under the age of 18. It’s that special kind of battle royale where leaning into—and even playing up—your vulnerabilities scores you points.

“You’re Calculated, I Got Your Number”

Vulnerability is an aesthetic Taylor Swift has down pat; no one is savvier at playing the victim while actually being the aggressor. From regularly casting herself as the underdog in her songs (“Mean” through “Shake It Off”), to inhabiting that very underdog persona in real life (as with Kanye West vs. Swift, her other long-standing beef), Swift’s image is equal parts earnest songwriter and popular insider, leader of a cool girl squad that includes supermodels and Ellen DeGeneres. It’s a seamless dynamic that Swift has spent her entire career cultivating—you believe her when she’s singing about being dumped and not having cool enough taste in music even though you also know that she’s one of the world’s top-earning performers who hosts the likes of the Haim sisters and Gigi Hadid at her Fourth of July cookout.

Perry’s brand of vulnerability is more spontaneous, not as studied. She’s off-the-cuff about her evangelical childhood, former marriage, and obsession with transcendental meditation. Her most triumphant anthems are less about not fitting in than they are about being underestimated and rising to the occasion. She’s offered intimate glimpses into the Katy Perry Industrial Complex through the documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me and a 24/7 livestream this weekend. Ahead of the release of her fifth album, Witness, Perry coined the phrase “purposeful pop” to describe the more politically-charged direction she was moving in, offering social commentary through music videos like the dystopic “Chained to the Rhythm.”

“‘Cause Baby, Now We’ve Got Bad Blood”

Betrayal is usually at the root of any good feud, regardless of genre (see: every episode of Game of Thrones), and it’s typically the person who points the finger first who gets a head start in controlling the narrative.

In the early-aughts, when Swift and Perry were pop fetuses, the primetime drama starred embittered exes Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears, with the former accusing the latter of cheating on him with their shared choreographer, Wade Robson. It was a simpler time, pre-social media, and the “he said, she said” campaign played out for years through music videos (“Cry Me a River,” starring a Britney lookalike), forlorn ballads (“Everytime”), and a rumored dance-off that still sends nostalgic millennials down a YouTube search spiral. The estranged idols telegraphed messages to their fandoms and each other through sepia-lit interviews with the likes of Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer—back then, the PR cure-all. Britney and Justin were never to be photographed together, much less collaborate, ever again.

Today, the “she done me wrong” narrative arc is largely unchanged, though the specifics are slightly different. In the case of contemporaries Swift and Perry, the saga begins with a dispute over backup dancers, because, naturally. The infamous 2014 Rolling Stone interview wherein Swift all but revealed that Perry “basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour” in 2012 by poaching three of Swift’s dancers set into motion a rich gossip universe brimming with overwrought imagery (the celeb cameo-filled—and Grammy award-winning!—“Bad Blood” music video); squad politics (mutual friend Selena Gomez); a shared ex (John Mayer); Twitter-finger bravado (Perry’s Mean Girls jab at Swift); and songwriting conspiracies (did Max Martin, co-writer of “Bad Blood” and a frequent Perry collaborator, somehow mastermind all of this?).

In a steely display of media maneuvering, Swift never explicitly confirmed that “Bad Blood” was about Perry, resorting to circuitous answers when asked point-blank in a GQ profile; her squad was similarly coached to plead the fifth whenever the song came up. It’s a classic move in the Swift arsenal: insinuation but never full-on admission, and thus total absolution from the blame and backlash that come with acknowledgement.

“I Used to Bite My Tongue and Hold My Breath”

The less-disciplined Katy Perry—who until now has largely responded to the “Bad Blood” controversy through subliminal shots at Swift—has capitalized on the Witness promo cycle to directly speak out about the feud. And most would argue she hasn’t stopped, a curious strategy for selling an album that Perry just recently described as having more ambitious aims. Even today, as Witness is expected to debut at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts, the dominant headline is Perry’s aforementioned apology to Swift.

Last Thursday brought the the surprise announcement that Taylor Swift would put her long-absent catalog back on Spotify at the stroke of midnight on June 9… the same exact time Witness was dropping worldwide. Swift “sources” (read: her publicist) took to the music trades to clarify that the move was motivated by the RIAA’s 100 Million Song Certification announcement, and not an attempt to pit her old work against her rival’s new work—but not even the most naive Taylor fan was buying that story.

That’s because Taylor Swift has demonstrated time and time again—through Wall Street Journal op-eds, ex-boyfriend-mocking Grammy performances, carefully timed paparazzi leaks, one legendary Notes app screenshot, and the very public reclaiming of a co-writing credit—that she’s aware of what people think and say about her, and she’s a ruthless strategist hell-bent on having the last word.

“Are We Out of the Woods Yet?”

If this is a battle of PR wits, Katy Perry—more human, and therefore messier with her soundbytes—would be wise to learn from Swift’s strategy of playing coy in the press and planting the biggest grenades in her work. Whether unwittingly or not, Perry has made Swift a key pillar in the Witness story—hardly consistent with her desired narrative of rising above it all. Maybe this is the kind of sage advice she’ll soon give aspiring pop stars on the rebooted American Idol, over which she’ll preside as a judge.

As for Swift, she’s been uncharacteristically absent from the spotlight for the past year, rumored to be working on a follow-up to the platinum-selling 1989. Suspense builds as we wait and see how she’ll respond to Perry’s olive branch, should she acknowledge it at all. Something tells me Swift has known how this would play out from day one—and it’s all going according to plan.