Matty Healy, front man of band the 1975, is known to be very outspoken, direct and political, but how did he gain this reputation. If you spoke to his die hard fans, they will happily explain their unconditional love and defense, but many people outside of his fandom tend to dislike him, how did this happen?
As outspoken as he is, he has many controversies following him, and controversies tend to gain you more publicity than your talents.
In the beginning of this article, he is described to be "Crude", already implying he is rude and vulgar, setting the tone of the article to be a critique. The first situation the article discusses is him joining in with racist jokes on "The Adam Friedland Show" podcast. Considering he was so outspoken during the Black Lives Matter movement, even writing a verse about racism in his arguably most political song "Love it if we made it", he was rightly so called out for hypocrisy. Additionally, he didn't appear to be remorseful or feel sorry for his actions afterwards. He did publicly apologise but later called people "deluded" and "a liar" for being upset by his actions. This will represent Healy to be an arrogant, careless, self centered person who takes no responsibility for his own mistakes, making him very difficult for the public to like.
As well as his public controversies, Healy is also known for his public relationships. In the past he has dated Halsey, FKA Twigs and most recently Taylor Swift. Their relationship was brief but extremely public. After their breakup, Taylor released her new album 'The Tortured Poets Department', featuring many songs speculated to be about Matty Healy.
When their relationship was first made public knowledge, many fans shared their disappointment in Swift due to his infamous scandals. She addresses this in her song 'I can fix him (no really I can)'. The opening verse says " The jokes that he told across the bar were revolting and far too loud", critiquing his often offensive humour and his comfortableness in it. She goes on to say "They shake their heads saying "God help her"", recognising the criticism she received from her own fans. Taylor Swift doesn't often address a lot of her regrets or mistakes, making this songs a raw and open reflection. Additionally, saying she can "fix him", shows she is aware of his reputation but she is willing to ignore it, in hopes she will be a good influence. However at the end of the song, she admits things didn't work out, implying he was too far gone (in controversies) compared to her pretty clean reputation.
The song that arguably does the most damage to Healy is 'The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived'. It is a ruthless evaluation of the effect their relationship has on her. One of the lyrics says "if rusting my sparkling summer was the goal", she expected to have an amazing summer on her best selling tour yet, however it was spoilt by her breakup with Matty Healy. Additionally, the title "smallest man", could be a reference to a joke that he is short, but now it has more literal meaning that he is insignificant and disappointing. She continues to the bridge were she says "I would have died for your sins, instead I just died inside." implying she was willing to ruin her public reputation to be with such a controversial man, but he instead repaid her by breaking her heart. In the Eras Tour performance of this song, on stage she 'dies' and has to be picked up by her dance crew, going into the song 'I Can Do It With A Broken Heart', showing how a break up on tour completely drained her and she only recovered due to those around her.
Due to Swifts immense popularity, many more people are likely to have distaste directed towards Healy after this album was released. For example, I have a friend who is a die hard Taylor Swift fan who never knew who Healy was before they dated, who despises him solely on Swift's bias in her music. Furthermore, people are most likely to agree with Swifts opinion on their relationship, not just because of her greater popularity, but also he has released no music and commented very little publicly addressing his side of the relationship. It is also very easy to build up dislike for him with his numerous controversies following him.
If Matty Healy is so disliked by the media and people who have known him, why are The 1975 so popular? When touring they sell out arenas, work with the most relevant producer currently (Jack Antonoff) and gain hundreds of millions of streams.
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