Taylor Swift: Back with a Bad Reputation

William DeMuria, Editor-in-Chief/Pop Culture Editor

Taylor Swift is back with brand new music, and this time, she has a bad reputation.

On Friday, August 25, Swift dropped her first single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” off her upcoming sixth studio album. The new album, titled “Reputation,” is set to be released on November 10, and Swift’s fans cannot wait.

Over the last year, Swift has kept a low-profile while writing and recording music for this new album. Aside from releasing her hit single for Fifty Shades Darker with Zayn Malik, “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever,” Swift has been mainly silent on social media and has stayed hidden from the public.

However, on August 18, Swift began dropping hints that new music was coming after wiping all of her social media accounts completely. Days later, short videos of snakes were posted on her accounts, a clear reference to Swift being called a “snake” during her feuds with Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and Katy Perry last year.  

Soon enough, Swift revealed the title and cover of her new album on her social media accounts, along with the name of her first single. The single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” features multiple references to Kanye West. Swift and West have had “bad blood” ever since the 2009 Video Music Awards when West interrupted Swift’s “Video of the Year” acceptance speech and professed that Beyonce deserved the award more. Years later, in 2016, West released a song negatively referencing Swift, leading to a long and tumultuous feud between the two, which led to West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, “exposing” Swift on Snapchat.

In “LWYMMD,” Swift sings “I don’t like your tilted stage,” which is a clear reference to West’s floating stage on his world tour. Additionally, Swift also sings “All I think about is karma,” which could potentially be referring to Katy Perry’s lyrics in her Taylor Swift diss-track “Swish Swish.”

Along with the new song, which is available on all music platforms now, Swift also released her brand-new music video for “LWYMMD” at this year’s Video Music Awards. In the video, multiple references are made to Swift’s past “reputations.” For example, the video begins in a graveyard with Swift dressed as a zombie. A tombstone can then be seen with the name “Nils Sjoberg,” Swift’s songwriting alias for her ex, Calvin Harris’, hit song, “This is What You Came for.”

Additionally, at the very end of the video, Swift is dressed up as her past “reputations.” Some of her old style’s that were featured in the video include her “You Belong with Me” music video outfit, her “Fearless Tour” outfits, and much more styles that represent her past albums and her change over the course of her career. To watch Swift’s new music video, click the link at the bottom of the page.

In addition to “LWYMMD,” Swift released a promotional single from the album on September 3 titled “…Ready for It?” The night prior to the song’s release on all digital platforms, the singer-songwriter teased its release in a commercial during ABC’s “Saturday Night Football” telecast. Hours after the song’s release, “Look What You Made Me Do” and “…Ready for It?” took the top two spots on the iTunes charts, dethroning “Despacito” and proving Swift’s dominance in the pop scene.

With a little less than two months to go until the release of “Reputation,” Swift’s fans are not exactly sure what to expect in terms of the tone of this new music. All that we know for sure is that Taylor Swift is back, and she’s not going anywhere anytime soon.