Taylor Swift just single handedly took back the narrative in a matter of cryptic moves and a new single. Everyone knew something was up when everything on Taylor Swift’s social media accounts was suddenly gone. Just her followers and the verified mark left on each account. Then came the videos. The first few had the question floating in the air: dragon or snake? Would she rise from the ashes like a dragon or would she take the word that had been forced onto her and make it her own. Now coming from a die hard Taylor Swift fan, I’m sitting here exhausted writing this article on pure adrenaline listening to Look What You Made Me Do over and over again.
Image Courtesy of Variety.
She says it herself in the song, the old Taylor Swift is dead. We’re getting an album from a woman who just stood on trial for a single dollar in an assault case all to help women in the future and making it clear that actions have consequences. This is a woman who was publicly defamed and if you think about it, never given a chance to speak from her side. This is a woman who’s starting over, she’s not sitting aside anymore and this single proves it. The new album is called Reputation because she is building a new one after losing her current. Her social media wiped because this is a new reputation. If you listen to Look What You Made Me Do, Taylor is bringing herself back and she’s not going to be walked over anymore. I’m proud she is too. As someone who’s been a Taylor Swift fan since 2007, for the past 11 years Taylor Swift has been continuously disregarded and blatantly hated for reasons so petty as she dates too much.
Image Courtesty of Taylor Swift VEVO via telegraph.co.uk
To this day I still see ridiculously petty reasons for hating her, not liking her music is one thing but hating her for things that aren’t in her control. And while the song could be related to Kimye as I’m sure everyone is, the first thing I thought of when I heard it was that the song came out after her trial and could be related to the man that assaulted her. Just a week or two ago people were praising her for her response but now that she has music out she’s instantly the worst. There’s this bad habit of people forgetting that celebrities are human, but Taylor Swift gets the worst end of it. Everything she does it wrong and terrible for some reason if someone could stand in her shoes for 10 years they’d probably release a song like this and a album called reputation.
Whatever this song is about, it’s ushering fans into a new era of Taylor Swift, one that certainly is different. No matter if it’s a transition into a Hitchcock blonde era, a rough edgy look, or just an era full of picture to burn type revenge. I’ll still buy the album because Taylor Swift deserves a better reputation than what was given.
Header Image Courtesy of Mert Alas & Marcus Piggot via NME.com