Taylor Swift stuns fans with her new reputation

After a 3-year hiatus from making new songs, Taylor Swift launched her comeback on Aug. 25 with the release of her single “Look What You Made Me Do” and “…Ready for it” on Sept. 3. Swift premiered the music video for the song at the MTV Video Music Awards. Peppered with subliminal messages linked to famous feuds in her past, the music video left fans speechless and excited.  

Ever since the release of her album “1989,” Swift has tried her best to stay out of the media. Nevertheless, her efforts have been largely unsuccessful, as her disputes with various artists in her industry often became public.

For instance, when rapper Kanye West mentioned Swift in a derogatory comment on one of his tracks, she insisted that she had no idea of her approving of his lyric and played innocent to the media.

Swift was even more upset because the lyric West included essentially said that West was responsible for Swift’s fame.

However, West’s wife Kim Kardashian released footage of West and Swift having a conversation about the lyric. This exposed Swift for her deliberate lying.

After that incident, social media began to label Swift as a fake and two-faced, calling her a“snake.”

Now, in “Look What You Made Me Do,” Swift shows her fans a whole new side of her — an unrestrained and unforgiving person.

Along with the change in style of music, from happy and upbeat hits to darker music with more dialogue, Swift also incorporates lyrics that take shots at people Swift has dealt with in the past.

For instance, Swift sings, “I don’t like your little games / I don’t like your tilted stage.” The “tilted stage” fans speculate she is referring to has to do with West. During West’s Saint Pablo World Tour, the rapper performed on a suspended, tilted stage.

Another example of Swift’s subtle digs include one of her lines, “You asked me for a place to sleep / locked me up /  and threw a feast.” Here, Swift alludes to Katy Perry’s single “Bon Appétit,” which involved a music video depicting a feast.

In the music video, Swift portrays multiple versions of herself, all at different points in her career. Each of the characters is seen climbing to the top of a tower where the “new Taylor” stands, referencing an acceptance speech where Swift mentioned that the only person that helped her get to the top is herself. At the end of her video, Swift pokes fun at all of the labels people have called her by, showing her fans that her reputation is no longer a concern of hers.

One of the most symbolic moments in the video occurs during the last 40 seconds: Swift spray-paints the word “reputation” onto a plane. She is, quite literally, rewriting her goody-goody country girl turned two-faced snake reputation, which is what fans are expecting in her upcoming album.

So far, Swift’s single has received a lot of backlash and hate. On YouTube, it has over 700,000 dislikes. Many claim that the video is too petty, and resembles Beyonce’s “Formation” video.

But, as countless fans have pointed out, hatred of Swift seems inevitable, and many people would dislike anything she released no matter how good it is.

I love the new music Swift has released, and the two singles released so far have been on repeat for hours straight.