Taylor Swift is back and she’ll make sure everyone knows
THE song stinks, but Taylor Swift’s new video is a triumph of drama and expensive production values designed to make her centre of attention again, writes Alice Clarke.
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IT’S been a pretty great fortnight for people who are fans of blonde musicians.
First Pvris released their amazing new album. Though, more exciting than a brilliant goth rock band you probably haven’t heard of is Taylor Swift making her somewhat inevitable comeback. That second part is a lot more mixed.
For an original Taylor Swift fan, it’s been kind of a rollercoaster, and a lot of the drama that happened this week can be traced back to the 2000s, when the world (and Swift) were more innocent.
Ever since Kanye West stormed the stage at the 2009 MTV Music Awards, saying Swift, then 20, didn’t deserve her award for best music video, there has been plenty of (mostly boring) drama surrounding the two.
It was horrifying to see an established, successful, older man humiliate a young woman on the world stage, but it fitted Swift’s narrative perfectly.
Back in 2009, she was still a country singer, and country singers either sing about beer and utes, or about how someone is doing them wrong.
As she established in her 2006 hit, Picture To Burn, she’s not a big fan of pick-up trucks, leaving her to sing about being wronged by ex-lovers, life’s general irritants, and the joys of being young, beautiful and insanely wealthy.
Whether or not you enjoy her music, it’s impossible to deny that Swift is a talented songwriter, and an accomplished businesswoman, not to mention the only non-drag queen in the world who can pull off a sparkly dress and heels.
Which is why it’s somewhat surprising that, until last week, she hadn’t released any new music since 2014.
That gap is probably why her public story devolved into yet another episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, an integral part of Kanye West’s misogynist ego tour, and getting caught up in some drama involving Tom Hiddleston and the vehement belief that their romance could only be a publicity stunt.
Who knows if the Hiddleston media circus was a comment on the inherent lovability of Swift, or not believing Loki from The Avengers could be attractive to one of the hottest and richest women in the world, but it was weird no matter the motivation.
That backstory aside, when Swift suddenly deleted all her social media accounts and started posting videos of snakes last week, it could have been a sign of three things: 1. She was about to enter the “head-shaved Britney Spears” phase of her career. 2. She had been hacked by Voldemort’s followers, or 3. She was going to do something with all the drama created by Kardashian calling her a snake. (Kardashian’s fans, though why she has any is a mystery, flocked to Swift’s social media accounts with snake emojis after Swift had the temerity to be upset about Kardashian’s husband, West, calling her a bitch in a song and then featuring a naked wax figure of Swift in the video. It was all super classy.)
It turned out to be the last of the three.
Unfortunately, the song Look What You Made Me Do is not good. The lyrics don’t have much purpose beyond assigning a feeling of blame to a vague antagonist and then saying her subsequent actions are all their fault.
It seems kind of like typical abuser language, but I’ve spent enough time reading Tumblr discourse to know that it’s some sort of clever, subversive thing I don’t understand.
Either way, getting Right Said Fred, best known for being too sexy for their shirt, to help with the song was a truly terrible choice.
However, the video that accompanied the song this week was sheer brilliance. It referenced all the petty tabloid drama we pretended not to care about, but were secretly addicted to.
It had such great production values, editing and writing behind it that it turned what could have been one of the year’s worst songs, into an anthem of empowerment, and the thing we’re going to be talking about until the next celebrity drama happens.
Each scene had layers of meaning that fans and trashy magazines will eat up, but will look beautifully artistic to those who pretend they don’t care.
The last 45 seconds with past Swifts talking to each other was the most important part, though. On the surface it looked like some humorous self-mocking, but if you go a little deeper it was a reminder that celebrities are people too. They hear what we say about them, and we should probably try to be less hurtful.
However you want to read it, though, it’s undeniable that Taylor Swift is back and things are about to get interesting.
Alice Clarke is a freelance journalist
@Alicedkc
Originally published as Taylor Swift is back and she’ll make sure everyone knows
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