Courtney Love has been on the receiving end of furious vitriol from Taylor Swift’s fan base after she claimed she thought the singer was ‘unimportant’ as an artist.
The singer, 59, took aim at Swift’s artistic merits in a new interview with The Evening Standard, where she claimed: ‘Taylor is not important. She might be a safe space for girls, and she’s probably the Madonna of now, but she’s not interesting as an artist.’
Unsurprisingly, Love’s remarks have not gone down well with Swift’s legions of super fans, who have accused the Holes hitmaker of ‘minimising women in music’.
Lana Del Rey, 38, and Madonna, 65, and Beyonce, 42, also were the target of Love’s acid-tongue, as she took aim at their abilities in the same interview.
Infuriated fans claimed that there was a pattern of Love slamming ‘more talented women’ in the music industry and accused her of ‘trying to stay relevant’.
One person declared that Love better have her ‘notifications switched off’ due to the barrage of angry messages from Swift’s fans.
Taking to X to share their views, fans said: ‘Oh my god Courtney Love shut the f*** up and leave younger and more talented women alone. First Olivia now Taylor like no ones cares about you anymore.
‘Ok well IK of Taylor because of her music and IK of Courtney Love because of her relationship with Kurt Cobain sooo, how about we stop putting women down Courtney; ‘Who the f*** is Courtney Love? – Taylor Swift, probably.’
‘I don’t like Courtney Love, frankly whether she likes Taylor or not is fine, I just think she has a way of minimizing and belittling women in music. I find her to be an awful person; ‘Courtney Love publicly puts down fellow female artists like it’s a national sport.
‘Who asked Courtney Love tho? She’s so out of touch of reality tbh. Taylor Swift doesn’t need her validation ngl. Also, being compared to Madonna is a compliment.; Umm I love Courtney but her recent comments about Taylor and Lana are uncalled for… what’s the problem w Lana covering a song and being too influential??
‘People I saw Courtney love hate on: Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, kinda Madonna??? I am seeing a pattern; ‘Never thought I would defend Taylor but who gaf what Courtney Love thinks? She does not have the vernacular she thinks she possesses!
‘Also the Courtney Love thing. I mean, she, too, became unimportant whenever she became bitter about people (ex. Madonna, Dave Grohl, to name a few). And dissing Beyonce too???; ‘Not a Taylor fan personally but there’s NO WAY anyone’s listening to Courtney Love’s opinion.
‘Not really a fan, but Taylor Swift is doing quite well for herself. Courtney Love has always been a jealous mean girl. I think she said something similar about Avril Lavigne about twenty years ago.
Some accused Courtney, who is working on a solo album, of ‘trying to stay relevant’ by bashing the hugely-popular pop star.
‘I mostly think it’s hysterical Courtney Love is trying to become relevant again by dissing Taylor Swift. Not that she ever was all that relevant to begin with; ‘Courtney Love is extremely shrewd… she knows the only way she can trend is to talk s*** about Taylor or say she will vote for Trump. This is her pretend “get off my lawn” phase as part of some marketing strategy. Must have an upcoming project. Just watch.’
Others insisted that Love’s opinion was valid and agreed with her comments about Swift, while hitting out at the people who didn’t know who the grunge star was.
Saying: ‘Courtney Love has been in the industry a long time and was asked her opinion. And she wasn’t wrong or made it personal. She gave an honest professional opinion whilst acknowledging Taylor being a safe space for her fans. The ageism and misogyny is disgusting.’
“Who is Courtney Love” is lowkey crazy u must be under 16. She is being wack though speaking on Lana but she ate what she said about Taylor.
The Doll Parts vocalist, who has been based in London since 2019, appears to have changed her tune about Swift, who she previously praised on multiple occasions.
In 2016 Facebook post, she posed between Swift and Royals songstress Lorde, 27, after attending the Grammys in Los Angeles.
‘Lovely ladies @taylorswift @lordemusic these two win the Oscar for art, talent, voice and astonishing beauty, hands down! #oscars #vanityfair,’ Love said in the caption.
She also paid homage to Swift in a December 22, 2021 post wishing her a happy belated birthday.
Love, who reposted the pic they took at the Grammys five years earlier, called Swift an ‘aspirational huge role model for many young women.’
Swift – who was pictured at Coachella over the weekend with beau Travis Kelce – also took aim at Madonna, Lana Del Rey and Beyonce.
She told the outlet of Del Rey: ‘I haven’t liked Lana since she covered a John Denver song, and I think she should really take seven years off.
‘Up until Take Me Home Country Roads, I thought she was great. When I was recording my new album, I had to stop listening to her as she was influencing me too much.’
As for Madonna, Love made clear there was a personal element to the discord between her and the Vogue artist.
‘I don’t like her and she doesn’t like me,’ Love said of Madonna. ‘I loved Desperately Seeking Susan, but for the city of New York as much as her.’
Love also mentioned she wasn’t a fan of Beyoncé’s catalogue.
‘I mean, I like the idea of Beyoncé doing a country record because it’s about Black women going into spaces where previously only white women have been allowed, not that I like it much,’ Love said. ‘As a concept, I love it. I just don’t like her music.’
Love, who was married to Kurt Cobain from 1992 until his 1994 death, invoked the name of the late Nirvana front man in contrasting their personalities.
‘People used to say that I was so difficult,’ Love told the outlet. ‘They said I was disagreeable. Yes, I am completely disagreeable and I’m never going to apologize for that. I always wanted to be known as a b****. Being liked was never my thing.
‘Kurt wanted to be liked but not me. He was able to hide behind me, but then I got hated. Then Kurt died, and the hatred towards me reached a completely new level. I did not plan for that.’
She cited Bob Dylan and the 1967 documentary about his 1965 English tour, Don’t Look Back.
‘I had a b**** capacity and I was cool with not being liked,’ Love said. ‘I saw Bob Dylan in Don’t Look Back and he didn’t want to be liked and I thought, yeah, I want to be like that.’
