This week, Avenged Sevenfold singer M. Shadows equated the practice of artists selling multiple versions of an album to get better placement on music charts with what he called "Fan Abuse."
And though the rock star wasn't necessarily singling out Taylor Swift, her fans on Twitter reportedly came for him anyway, according to a subsequent report from Metal Hammer.
For context, Swift, a major pop star, is currently selling three distinct versions of her latest album, last month's Midnights — a standard version, a Target exclusive rendition and the 3am Edition.
Here's what Shadows had to say about the trend.
"Selling multiple versions, repackages and bundles of your album to the same fan so that you can get a chart position that no one cares about and is manipulated should be called out for what it is..... Fan Abuse," the Avenged Sevenfold lead vocalist tweeted on Monday (Nov. 7). (See the succession of tweets down toward the bottom of this post.)
Expanding on the notion, Shadows added, "Many options are fine. It's when it becomes : buy the vinyl for ticket discounts… buy the cd version 1 for an extra track. Buy first week 8 track for an exclusive t shirt. Its [sic] all bullshit to make you buy the same shit to pump numbers. Thats fucked!"
Taylor Swift Fans Latch Onto M. Shadows' Tweet
Shadows' comments seemingly stirred the pot for "Swifties" — a cutely colloquial name for Taylor Swift fans. In his ensuing Twitter replies, the Avenged Sevenfold singer marveled at the amount of Taylor Swift comments he got in response to his "Fan Abuse" remark.
"I was actually trying to figure out how a bunch of little kids started commenting on my post," Shadows said. "Now I see all of taylors [sic] fans think I'm talking about her because they all bought multiples of the same album. … Gotta love the twitter cults!"
Hours later, he added, "I wasnt [sic] even talking about Taylor… literally the furthest thing from my mind. … But dont [sic] you find it strange one fan base is so upset about my tweet which names no one?"
M. Shadows Has No Issue With Taylor Swift
Shadows doesn't seem to have any beef with Swift. In another reply, he called the pop star a "truly huge artist and she deserves it." He also added some levity to the discussion overall by saying, "I’m used to being misunderstood on the bird app.... Part of the fun."
The Avenged Sevenfold singer has plenty of other outspoken outlooks on the music industry. In just the last several months, he has remarked on the "loudness wars," streaming services' place in the music industry, how Kanye West influenced Avenged Sevenfold and which Guns N' Roses album deserves more credit.
Avenged Sevenfold fans who follow Shadows on Twitter likely know that the metal band's also been working on a new album, their follow-up to 2016's The Stage, for the last few years. Shadows previously suggested it would come out late this year or early next.
M. Shadows "Fan Abuse" Tweets - Nov. 7, 2022
