By Alexandra D’Angelo || Contributing Writer
When you think of Taylor Swift, what comes to mind? An innocent, young, female artist that has the passion for singing and her fans? That’s the old Taylor that we all know and love but according to her new song and accompanying music video, “Look What You Made Me Do,” that version of herself is dead. To be more precise she states that, “I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now, why? Oh! Because she’s dead!” Many are truly horrified at these lyrics because the whole reason Swift became famous is because of the purity she brought to the music industry. There are also many fans who love this new darker side of Swift and love the fury that comes with the song.
Throughout the years Swift has had some changes; her hair, her music genre, her boyfriends but nothing as dramatic as this video. A part of the music video that is getting a lot of reaction is when she chooses to show all of Swift’s past music video characters for songs such as, “You Belong With Me”, “Shake It Off,” and “Red” and kills them. Some think that Swift is changing herself to show how much stronger she is against all the haters she has dealt with. Others, however, see this as Taylor saying goodbye to her old self and letting everyone know that she’s not this young female artist anymore. Whatever the interpretation, Taylor Swift is changing and how the world always thought of her will change as well.
After dropping her first single, Swift came out with another song adding to her Reputation album called, “Ready For it”. This song is a twist to Swift’s typical love and breakup songs because of the several fast-paced sections which were a surprise to many making it harder for some fans to catch on to, but for others they may play it on repeat until they know it by heart. Although the music video hasn’t come out yet for this song, because of the new singing styles involved, it may have mixed reviews as well.
There are many reasons why Swift is changing her ways and one of them was several years ago at The MTV Video Music Awards. As most know, Swift won Best Female Music Video for the song, “You Belong With Me” in 2009. As soon as Swift came on stage to accept her award she was immediately cut off by Kanye West who exclaimed, “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you and I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!” Immediately, there was a shamed look in Swift’s eyes and was reported to be crying backstage afterwards. She was especially crushed because that was her first award she ever won at the VMA’s and West took her accomplishment away.
Another reason for the change in Swift may have to do with fellow pop artist Katy Perry. For several years, they’ve been feuding ever since Perry stole some of Swift’s backup dancers in the midst of both tours. Swift found this out last minute and almost couldn’t find dancers in time to perform.
She was outraged over the fact that Perry not only did this behind her back but almost jeopardized her tour. Perry never formally apologized to Swift and to this day there is still bad blood.
In Swift’s latest music video, she even portrays Perry in the car accident scene. During this part of the video, Swift is holding a Grammy reminding everyone how Perry has never won one, while Swift has won ten.
The incident that drove Swift completely over the edge is her ongoing conflict with Kim Kardashian West. This all started after Kim and Kanye began dating, and Kardashian immediately took West’s side in the continuing feud. Swift, Kardashian and West tried to hide the tension by taking pictures together and talking within large groups.
However, in 2016 West came out with his song, Famous, which gathered a lot of heated backlash.
The criticism comes when West sings this particular lyric, “For all my Southside n—-s that know me best / I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why, I made that bitch famous / Goddamn / I made that bitch famous.” Swift claimed that she was never made aware of the lyric, “I made that bitch famous.” Many people now doubt this claim after Kardashian posted video of the phone call West and Swift had over the lyrics of the song.
Overall, many people feel that Swift is now a liar because of these inaccurate claims which damaged her reputation.
First-Year Alexandra D’Angelo is a contributing writer. Her email adangelo2@fandm.edu.