Last week, Taylor Swift dropped a brand new song and music video, for the first time in two years. On the surface, the song, Look What You Made Me Do, is an upbeat, catchy tune, but underneath that lies many hidden jabs at her enemies. To fully understand the full meaning behind this song, you have to go back several years (and several VMA awards shows) before this.
In 2009, the feud between Kanye West and Taylor Swift began when he interrupted her during her acceptance speech on stage at the VMAs. This then was followed by years of not only apologizing, but also even a friendship between the two as of recent. However, this took a turn for the worst in 2016 when Kanye wrote about Taylor in his song, Famous, where he says some vulgar things about Taylor. Taylor reacted to the video by saying she knew nothing about it, but then Kanye’s wife, Kim Kardashian, released video footage of Kanye talking to Taylor on the phone about the song, where he told her about the lyrics in the song, thus making Taylor look like a liar, which then led to the KanTay friendship to come to a sad end.
Now, we will review the strange on again, off again friendship between Katy Perry and Taylor Swift. The feud started in 2013, over Perry stealing Swift’s backup dancers while she was on tour. Since then, there has been an on and off problem with the two of them. This brings us to now, Taylor premieres her song on the VMAs, of which Katy Perry was hosting, which is honestly very awkward.
Back to the point of this, Taylor’s new song, but more importantly, the music video. This video shows a darker side of Swift, starting out in a graveyard on a stormy night, and a zombified Taylor crawling out of her gravestone that reads “Here lies Taylor Swift’s reputation”, the video goes on to show Taylor in many different ways, most importantly, at the end of the video, all of the other “old” Taylors are all in a mob, clawing at each other, and then the video ends with all of the Taylors yelling at each other in ways that the media has made fun of her over the years.
However this might be one of the most significant parts in the video, there are definitely moments in the video where Taylor throws shade at some of her enemies. One of the most significant “shade throwing” parts of the video is where Taylor is hanging outside of a crashed car, holding a Grammy, dressed like Katy Perry. This is mocking Perry because Taylor, has a Grammy, and she does not, thus basically throwing shade at her old frenemy. The Katy Perry vs. Taylor drama is not as long lasting and dramatic as the Taylor vs. Kanye is, which is why she plays on it more in the video. There are lots of little hints throughout the video, but the biggest one is at the end, where all of the Taylors are yelling at eachother, one of them has their phone and is taking a video with it and says “Getting receipts, gonna edit this later”, this is throwing some very direct shade at Kim Kardashian, Kanye West’s wife, who “exposed” Taylor in 2016 about the song, Famous.
Fans, and even people who aren’t fans of Taylor have lots to say about this video, and overall, they all have mixed reactions about this video. Some people are trying to figure out why she would make this video in the first place. A teacher at Hillgrove, Ms. Slone, weighs in on this question, “I think the main reason she made this was to ultimately give her more attention, of course, but to do this by playing the victim.” (Slone)
This point of view would make sense, considering the general vibe of this music video is showing people killing her reputation, not really showing Taylor doing anything mean to anyone else, to overall make the old Taylor “dead” which brings us to the line in her song, “The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, cause she’s dead” This line left listeners flabbergasted, Taylor’s message to her fans became very evident, “ This is a new stage of her life, she is shaking off her past self, and is berating her former personas” (Max Johnson).
Whether you like this video or not, this music video broke some of Taylor’s records, and even YouTube’s, it was the biggest debut of a video in YouTube’s history, she got what she wanted. This video is a good kickoff to her new album called, Reputation. A Swift fan, Tory Bartlett says, “I think it will be darker sounding than the previous albums, but she will stick to her romantic themes” (Bartlett) We will see if this is all true in the coming months, when her full album comes out on November 10th.
photo: www.ew.com
In 2009, the feud between Kanye West and Taylor Swift began when he interrupted her during her acceptance speech on stage at the VMAs. This then was followed by years of not only apologizing, but also even a friendship between the two as of recent. However, this took a turn for the worst in 2016 when Kanye wrote about Taylor in his song, Famous, where he says some vulgar things about Taylor. Taylor reacted to the video by saying she knew nothing about it, but then Kanye’s wife, Kim Kardashian, released video footage of Kanye talking to Taylor on the phone about the song, where he told her about the lyrics in the song, thus making Taylor look like a liar, which then led to the KanTay friendship to come to a sad end.
Now, we will review the strange on again, off again friendship between Katy Perry and Taylor Swift. The feud started in 2013, over Perry stealing Swift’s backup dancers while she was on tour. Since then, there has been an on and off problem with the two of them. This brings us to now, Taylor premieres her song on the VMAs, of which Katy Perry was hosting, which is honestly very awkward.
Back to the point of this, Taylor’s new song, but more importantly, the music video. This video shows a darker side of Swift, starting out in a graveyard on a stormy night, and a zombified Taylor crawling out of her gravestone that reads “Here lies Taylor Swift’s reputation”, the video goes on to show Taylor in many different ways, most importantly, at the end of the video, all of the other “old” Taylors are all in a mob, clawing at each other, and then the video ends with all of the Taylors yelling at each other in ways that the media has made fun of her over the years.
However this might be one of the most significant parts in the video, there are definitely moments in the video where Taylor throws shade at some of her enemies. One of the most significant “shade throwing” parts of the video is where Taylor is hanging outside of a crashed car, holding a Grammy, dressed like Katy Perry. This is mocking Perry because Taylor, has a Grammy, and she does not, thus basically throwing shade at her old frenemy. The Katy Perry vs. Taylor drama is not as long lasting and dramatic as the Taylor vs. Kanye is, which is why she plays on it more in the video. There are lots of little hints throughout the video, but the biggest one is at the end, where all of the Taylors are yelling at eachother, one of them has their phone and is taking a video with it and says “Getting receipts, gonna edit this later”, this is throwing some very direct shade at Kim Kardashian, Kanye West’s wife, who “exposed” Taylor in 2016 about the song, Famous.
Fans, and even people who aren’t fans of Taylor have lots to say about this video, and overall, they all have mixed reactions about this video. Some people are trying to figure out why she would make this video in the first place. A teacher at Hillgrove, Ms. Slone, weighs in on this question, “I think the main reason she made this was to ultimately give her more attention, of course, but to do this by playing the victim.” (Slone)
This point of view would make sense, considering the general vibe of this music video is showing people killing her reputation, not really showing Taylor doing anything mean to anyone else, to overall make the old Taylor “dead” which brings us to the line in her song, “The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, cause she’s dead” This line left listeners flabbergasted, Taylor’s message to her fans became very evident, “ This is a new stage of her life, she is shaking off her past self, and is berating her former personas” (Max Johnson).
Whether you like this video or not, this music video broke some of Taylor’s records, and even YouTube’s, it was the biggest debut of a video in YouTube’s history, she got what she wanted. This video is a good kickoff to her new album called, Reputation. A Swift fan, Tory Bartlett says, “I think it will be darker sounding than the previous albums, but she will stick to her romantic themes” (Bartlett) We will see if this is all true in the coming months, when her full album comes out on November 10th.
photo: www.ew.com