Taylor Swift might not have made a physical appearance at the 2017 VMA’s, however, she still made her presence known by releasing the ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ video and slaying every hater she’s ever had the displeasure of coming across.
Last Friday, Taylor released her debut single for her sixth album ‘Reputation’ alongside the lyric video, which broke viewing records.
The music video starts off with visuals of Taylor in her Out of the Woods outfit, rising from her tombstone as a zombie, which reads ‘Here lies Taylor Swift’s reputation’. Taylor then takes on a variety of different personas including a bank robber, a celebrity in a car crash and the leader of a so called cult.
Taylor Swift has always had this bad reputation put on her by the media and the public. It’s hard for Taylor to do anything without being criticised or made out to be a victim. What the haters and the media haven’t realised is that Taylor has been keeping a sneaky eye on what is being said about her and has used all that hate to make the perfect music video for ‘Look What You Made Me Do’.
As soon as the LWYMMD video was released, the public has been decoding every part of it, to see who Taylor had been shading and try to find possible ways to make her the villain… Much to their surprise, Taylor shades herself the whole way through!
In the shot where you can see Taylor laid in a bath of jewels; this is to resemble how the media portrayed her as a woman who captures men in a web and drops them when she pleases, then goes home and bathes in all her diamonds. The one dollar bill that sits alone in the bath tub beside her could be a reference to the symbolic dollar that she earned in the sexual assault case last month.
The scene where she is sat on a throne, surrounded by snakes, is a pretty obvious one including Kim Kardashian-West and Kanye West. After a clash with the couple over Kanye’s lyrics in Famous, Kim tweeted out a bunch of snake emoji’s on ‘National Snake Day’ and it seems that Taylor hasn’t let that bring her down. The video shows that she has decided to embrace the title and show everybody that the old skin she wore has now been shed into this brand new Taylor, who we can’t wait to see more of!
In another scene, Taylor’s love for cats is shown, as she is surrounded by her Girl Squad in feline masks. The masked women can then be seen robbing a music streaming company, which is in reference to when Taylor withdrew her music from Spotify due to its dismal compensation to artists. She also wrote a strongly worded letter to Apple Music, blasting their decision to give users three months free trial to whatever music they please. This made the media and public label her as greedy and money grabbing, so this is her hitting back.
Lastly, Taylor and the backup dancers is one of the more hilarious scenes, as their belly shirts have the print ‘I heart TS’ on them, which could be most likely be referencing when her ex-boyfriend Tom Hiddleston, wore a shirt with the same printing on out in public with her. The public took this much too seriously then they should have, being as it was most likely just a joke and now Taylor is back to show them how unnecessary their reactions were.
It’s safe to say we have GOT to talk about the appearances from old Taylor Swift’s because that idea is just full on genius! During the lyrics, “I don’t trust nobody and nobody trusts me, I’ll be the actress starring in your bad dreams”, we see the new Taylor standing above a crowd of people, trying to climb to the top. What had people shook is the moment we all noticed that the crowd of people trying to reach the top are actually multiple former Taylor Swift’s throughout the years! If you look close enough you will see; ‘You Belong With Me’ Taylor, ‘Shake It Off’ White Swan Taylor, the silver flapper dress Taylor who was interrupted on the VMA stage by Kanye West, the pyjama wearing ‘We Are Never Getting Back Together’ Taylor and the ‘Red Era’ Taylor, alongside many more looks from red carpet appearances. Taylor Swift 2.0 banishes them all and declares the ‘old Taylor dead. What an absolute Queen!
The final scene in the video shows the multiple Taylor’s from different era’s criticising one another, repeating the public’s opinions of each Taylor. Zombie Taylor tells You Belong With Me Taylor to “stop making that surprised face, you can’t possibly be that surprised all the time.” Referring to the public slating Taylor for acting surprised each time she wins a new award, can’t a woman just be excited even if the award is expected!? Red Era Taylor tells Fearless Era Taylor that she’s “so fake”, another dig at the public’s opinion of that Taylor. When Fearless Era Taylor starts to cry, another Taylor snarkily says “there she goes again, always playing the victim”. The most iconic rip at herself was definitely when the Leopard-Clad Taylor raises her phone and announces that she’s just “getting receipts”, a reference to Taylor’s belief that Kim Kardashian edited a phone call between the two. The 2009 VMA’s Taylor finalises the conversation whilst holding her Moonman with “I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative.”
To sum up our thoughts on the LWYMMD video, it seems that the Queen has well and truly out done herself once again! We absolutely love this video and the message Taylor is sending across. The visuals are absolutely stunning throughout and this is hands down the best move Taylor could have possibly made to announce her comeback! We can’t wait for more of the new Taylor Swift and the era she is about to slay us all with.
Watch ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ here:
You can now purchase ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ and be sure to pre-order her sixth album ‘Reputation’, out November 10th!
What are your thoughts on the video? Let us know by tweeting us over at @CelebMix!