The biggest challenge in coming up with a roundup of the year’s greatest music feuds? Trying not to have Azealea Banks show up in every spot on the list. Fortunately, 2014 provided lots of other attention-grabbing beefs. From usual combative suspects like Diddy, Drake, Eminem, and Jack White to unexpected bruisers like Bette Midler and Jordin Sparks, here are 20 very public spats that riveted music fans over the last 12 months.
Solange Knowles vs. Jay Z
We’re all still as perplexed as we ever were about what was going on there, but at least that elevator surveillance clip of their altercation gave us the most obsession-worthy piece of video since the Zapruder film.
Taylor Swift and Lorde vs. Katy Perry and Diplo
Nothing like a feud that goes on long enough to engage multiple BFs and BFFs. It supposedly all got started in 2013, when several dancers left Swift’s employ to re-team with their former boss, Perry. Swift got her licks in, as she will, by eventually writing a song, “Bad Blood,” that sure seemed to be about Perry, based on her semi-cryptic comments about an unnamed fellow superstar to Rolling Stone: “She did something so horrible. I was like, ‘Oh, we’re just straight-up enemies.’ And it wasn’t even about a guy! It had to do with business. She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me.” Perry’s response was to tweet, “Watch out for the Regina George in sheep’s clothing,” referring to aMean Girls villain. Then Perry’s boyfriend, the EDM dude Diplo, got in on the act, tweeting, “Someone should make a Kickstarter to get Taylor Swift a booty.” Swift’s recent bestie, Lorde, got back to Diplo on that one: “Should we do something about your tiny penis while we’re at it, hm.” Sadly, this one died down before the culture ever got into a serious discussion about whether two body-shamings make a right.
We take particular pleasure in the cross-generational beefs we never imagined coming. In the great tradition of Sinead O’Connor taking on Miley Cyrus’s alleged sluttiness, this year we had the Divine Miss M bemoaning young Miss Grande taking the low road. “It’s always surprising to see someone like Ariana Grande with that silly high voice, a very wholesome voice, slithering around on a couch looking so ridiculous,” Midler told the Telegraph. “I mean, it’s silly beyond belief and I don’t know who’s telling her to do it. I wish they’d stop. But it’s not my business. I’m not her mother. Or her manager. Maybe they tell them that’s what you’ve got to do. Sex sells… Trust your talent. You don’t have to make a whore out of yourself to get ahead.” Grande’s response on Twitter: I’m just imitating you! “Bette was always a feminist who stood for women being able to do whatever the F they wanted without judgment!” Grande tweeted. “Not sure where that Bette went but I want that sexy mermaid back!!!” Apparently, when Midler wiggled her tail fins back in the day, that was actually proto-twerking.
