The Facebook account American Liberty posted a meme claiming that the Country Music Hall of Fame had announced it would not consider singer Taylor Swift for induction.
The text of the meme read: “The Country Music Hall of Fame Says it Won’t Consider Taylor Swift or Her ‘Bubblegum Music’ for Induction.”
(Facebook page American Liberty)
As of this writing, the post had received around 1,700 reactions and 351 comments, some left by readers who seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. One commenter wrote: “She’s about as country as Led Zeppelin.”
Other readers spoke up in defense of Swift’s country bona fides, with one writing: “Her first album was country, and the song Tim McGraw was a hit, and she collaborated with country artists, at least she’s not Beyoncé.”
However, there was no evidence that the Country Music Hall of Fame had ever made any statement regarding its intention to consider — or not consider — Swift for membership.
A Google search for the terms “Taylor Swift,” “Country Music Hall of Fame,” and “bubblegum music” returned no coverage of such a claim from any reputable media outlet. The same search without quotation marks returned a debunking of a nearly identical meme that was posted by the Facebook page America’s Last Line of Defense (ALLOD) in early 2024.
(Facebook page America’s Last Line of Defense)
In the comments on that earlier post, which had received around 10,000 reactions at the time of this writing, an administrator of the account posted a link to an article on Latherland.com, a website associated with ALLOD. That article began:
Taylor Swift’s day just got worse. After the Academy of Country Music cut its ties with her, the Country Music Hall of Fame announced it would remove all of her “bubble gum music” from consideration.
“She tosses a twangy song in here and there to keep her spot in the Academy and the awards coming in,” said Academy Sergeant at Arms Joe Barron, “It doesn’t matter if she deserves it or not. If Taylor Swift gets nominated, Taylor Swift wins.”
Not anymore. Without an Academy membership, there are no awards. Without its blessing, there are no inductions. Swift loses a piece of her legacy she’ll never get back.
“She did it to herself,” said Vince, a guy visiting the museum, “Had she not come out and illegally used her influence to push people into exercising their constitutional right to vote, Trump would have won. It’s that simple. They should have a word for that kind of nonsense.”
