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You’ve heard it, sang along to the lyrics in the car and maybe even bought a copy on iTunes. What am I talking about? Kanye West’s (in)famous new song, “Famous,” of course. As catchy as the lines may sound, there’s one big question that needs to be answered.
Did Kanye really make Taylor Swift famous?
Let’s let the facts do the singing. Remember back in 2009? Even if the year might be blurry, one event probably stands out in your mind: the MTV VMAs when Kanye stole the mic from Taylor Swift and argued that Beyoncé deserved the award instead. Otherwise known as the interruption that Kanye claims made “that bitch famous.”
Yet, the stats from November of 2008 tell a different story. Almost a year before the VMAs, Taylor’s sophomore album “Fearless” and Kanye’s “808s & Heartbreak” were released. Kanye’s album sold 450,145 copies in the first week while Taylor’s album sold 592,000 copies in its first week. Both, however, debuted at number one on the Billboard Top 200.
As for the ever-so-important Video Music Awards? Kanye won two awards prior to 2009, and, of course, Taylor actually did win the MTV VMA Award for Best Female Video in 2009 minutes before the incident.
Since almost anything fame-wise after 2009 can be attributed to the VMA incident, it’s only fair to judge the “fame-boosting” power of Kanye’s interruption based on past numbers … and those past numbers show that Taylor was already on the road to fame before Kanye swiped her microphone.
Not only that but both entertainment artists are doing extremely well now, despite their constant (and extremely public) celebrity feuding. To date, Kanye has sold more than 32 million albums worldwide while Taylor has sold 40 million. Kanye has won 21 Grammy Awards, which makes him one of the most awarded artists of all time and Taylor has won 10.
It’s obvious that Kanye and Taylor have grown in popularity, earnings and awards in the entertainment world since the 2009 incident – and it’s likely that Taylor would have reached this stardom even without Kanye’s “help.”
The real question everyone should be asking? Did Swift really deserve that 2009 VMA award more than Beyoncé, as Kanye claims she didn’t?
