Billie Eilish hits back at Taylor Swift fans over ‘wasteful’ social media comments

Billie Eilish has hit back at the Swiftie fans who criticised her for recent comments on wasteful packaging, with the fandom believing that her words were aimed at Taylor Swift.

Eilish had spoken to Billboard in an interview that was published last Thursday, saying “we live in this day and age where, for some reason, it’s very important to some artists to make all sorts of different vinyl and packaging … which ups the sales and ups the numbers and gets them more money”.

Eilish ‘frustrated’ at artists ‘making 40 vinyls to get you to buy more’

“I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is,” she admitted as the collective hive skin of the Swifities crawled with a thousand ants. “It is right in front of our faces and people are just getting away with it left and right, and I find it really frustrating as somebody who really goes out of my way to be sustainable and do the best that I can and try to involve everybody in my team in being sustainable — and then it’s some of the biggest artists in the world making f–king 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more.”

The anger from the Swift fanbase comes after the ‘Cruel Summer’ singer announced her new album, The Tortured Poets’ Department, set for release on April 19. Ahead of release, the artist has announced that the album, which comes with 16 songs as standard, will be available in 4 separate versions - The Albatross, The Bolter, The Black Dog and The Manuscript - a marketing decision that many have seen as the source of the comments by Eilish.

“It’s so wasteful, and it’s irritating to me that we’re still at a point where you care that much about your numbers and you care that much about making money — and it’s all your favourite artists doing that s–t”, Eilish concluded.

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In reaction to the backlash, Eilish took to Instagram to “Okay so it would be so awesome if people would stop putting words into my mouth and actually read what I said in that billboard article. I wasn’t singling anyone out. These are industry-wide systemic issues. When it comes to variants, so many artists release them, including ME! which I clearly state in the article. The climate crisis is now and it’s about all of us being part of the problem and trying to do better sheesh”.

Eilish herself released her Happier Than Ever vinyl in 2021, which came in eight variants. However, the black versions were made of 100 percent recycled vinyl and wrapped in shrink wrap made from sugar cane. All other coloured options were created using recycled materials.