The world went CRAZY the day Look What You Made Me Do was released. Half of the world is here for the song and the other half is wishing the new Taylor was dead like the old Taylor.
Which half of the world are you on?
Personally, I’m on the half that is here for the song. In all honesty, it’s catchy as hell, but the music video made me actually uncomfortable― not the awkward kind of uncomfortable, but the “what are you doing with your life” kind of uncomfortable. First of all, it’s a deep, well-thought out music video, and I think in order to really understand the message, you must first have to know all about T-Swift.
It starts off with a corpse of Taylor Swift climbing out of a grave that read, “Here Lies Taylor Swift’s Reputation.” This lets the fans know that this video is something Taylor has never done before; now her videos are more personal.
After the first few seconds in the graveyard, we see Taylor, now alive and in a bathtub covered in jewels with long red nails and red lips. After all, it isn’t a Taylor music video without red lipstick. This wasn’t as uncomfortable as actually seeing a corpse version of Taylor but I was confused as to what it had to do with anything.
And then the scene changes yet again to Taylor sitting on a throne with snakes roaming around the room. One even poured her tea. This had to be a reference to Kanye and Kim for calling her a snake months ago over Kayne’s song Famous. Clearly, Taylor has nothing to hide. As the chorus was playing, I googled the lyrics to see if there was something that could be tying in with everything she was doing in the video.
The chorus reads, “But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time. Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time. I’ve got a list of names and yours is in red, underlined.” Which from sitting there and repeating over and over again, it’s clear Taylor isn’t afraid of karma. She knows she’s not perfect and she know’s what it’s like to have a reputation die only to be reborn again. But it’s clear that the old Taylor is officially dead and the new Taylor gives zero f****.
At the end of the video, there are previous Taylor’s from music history. From country Taylor to You Belong With Me Taylor to Grammy award Taylor to Red Taylor to all of the above. The video ended with a little monologue from the previous Taylor’s. One version of Taylor telling country version Taylor she’s “fake” and another Taylor saying, “she’s playing the victim” to Grammy Taylor wanting to be “excluded from that narrative” to all Taylor’s yelling, “Shut up!”
It’s pretty clear that this entire album is going to be about Taylor’s reputation with celebrities in the past. Rumors have been going around saying this was a jab at Katy Perry and a jab at Kayne. But I personally think the entire album is going to be about karma, Taylor Swift is dead, and how her reputation has made her this way.
There are a mix of emotions running through me. I’m anxious to see what image Taylor is branding herself with this time, but I’m also worried about the girl. Is this what fame and pressure can do to someone? Are we partly to blame? Or maybe Taylor is finally feeding into what all of her haters say about her, a fake girl who’s reputation is going down the drain. R.I.P Taylor. The question now is, will you be missed?