taylor liked an anti trump post my skin has cleared the birds are chirping the republican party has collapsed and everything is right in the world

Did anyone notice this, though?!

DID YALL CATCH THIS!?!

SHE HAD TO DIE TOO????

“I’ll be the actress starring in your bad dreams” - Taylor Swift (Look What You Made Me Do)

All the different Taylors in Look What You Made Me Do @taylorswift

- Vogue on Taylor’s bold new look on her “Reputation” album cover.

- Vogue on Taylor’s bold new look on her “Reputation” album cover.

ts • fonts • 2006-2017

the old taylor can’t come to the phone right now.

Look What You Made Me Do

Song Analysis by Lu Bausela

Album: reputation (2017)

Composed by: Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, Richard Fairbrass, Fred Fairbrass & Rob Manzoli

               If you have been on the Internet lately you’ve more than likely heard about Taylor Swift’s latest single. ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ has kept the artist’s consistent tradition of breaking records and jumping to the top of the charts in mere minutes; in the era of having an opinion on everything regardless of knowledge and factual information, social networks were instantly filled with ‘reviews’ of the song: there have been first impressions on this song and there have been meditated observations. It shook me that a large amount of people do not seem to understand the difference between ‘review’ and ‘opinion’, nor do they seem to appreciate the value of objectivism and the essence of subjective tastes. The first impression that the vast majority of Internet users got about the lyrics has to do with the tabloid news from last year in which Kim Kardashian, Kanye West and Taylor Swift herself were tangled in an issue of, let’s say, double-facedness. However, I believe that art in all its forms is fully exploited when we appropriate the message, when we adapt a work to our own life and provide our own interpretation… when we add a personal meaning and a personal value to it. Therefore, in the following paragraphs, I will comment on different interpretations that I have come up with regarding the lyrics—and to some extent the music—of ‘Look What You Made Me Do’.

               The dark tone of the song is palpable from the first note that is heard. The piano and violin/cello introduction set the mood for a tetric presentation: this melody makes us picture a music-box ballerina spinning on top of a messy table in which everything has been tossed around and dead flower petals are scattered. It also makes us think of a horror movie situation in which a villain is about to be introduced; there is a certain caricaturesque element to it, as if the shadow puppet of an Count-Olaf-type-of-character was seen approaching its prey. It also makes us think about old, silent movies: this is the melody which would accompany a tragic story in which an actress from the ‘20s copes with pain and death. Then the piano leaves place for a monotone bass tune, accompanied by similarly monotone melody sang by Taylor, again contributing to the idea of stillness, lack of impulse, and death. However, the situation changes when she sings “But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time”: the idea of rebirth, hope and resilience is introduced in a high-pitched melody in which the piano is everything but still. The quick repetition of notes, however monotone, adds an accelerated heartbeat to this spirit and the singer is alive again. In coming back to life, the singer has brought with her an obsession, a single idea which governs all her thoughts and cannot be placed aside: there is nothing more to her now that this one single reason. Revenge? Justice? Regret? We’ll discuss this in following paragraphs. Back to the music, the following stanzas stick to the previous points, with the exception that now anger is more clearly expressed and perceived: the beats are louder and stronger and a chaotic tune reflects the singer’s state of mind. The whirlwind of sounds alerts of a tornado of emotions which is not afraid to impact its targets, but once again this is cooled down by this governing idea, this monotone yet firm beat, which makes sure to keep all other sounds in check under its wing. The silent movie, shadow puppet actress melody comes back again with an explicit mention of a movie role on the lyrics, granting circularity to the music and reflecting one of the ideas in the lyrics and the aesthetic of video: what goes around comes around, i.e. karma. The bridge melody is scary because it alerts you of imminent danger and then it comes to a suspenseful stop. The chorus comes back for a last time with the repetition of this singular idea and then the song abruptly ends: no fading in time, only the pure resolution of the one single possibility for the situation. (For the record, I’d like to say that I am no musical expert; these observations may be easily refuted, but I’d like to encourage you to do so if you think I am mistaken.)

               What is, then, this governing idea, the single possible path that this reborn voice can follow? The first interpretation is art, recording a whole new album. In interviews and album forewords, Taylor Swift has stated many times how her personal life is reflected in her music. Her songwriting process and the stage of production of a record have usually taken her two years, but tabloid news of last year and her own statement in the 1989 World Tour documentary that she wasn’t sure about which direction to take for the new album turned those two years into three. Gaining artistic inspiration from painful experiences is not new to either Taylor Swift nor the music industry or art as a whole, for that matter. “I don’t like your little games (…), the role you made me play (…), how you laugh when you die (…) [and] your kingdom keys,” she writes, summarising plenty of experiences through iconic or symbolic elements. That description of the pain and disappointment she endured leads to the lines “I rose up from the dead” and “Look what you made me do.” Taking into consideration Swift’s tradition of turning to music in order to cope with her own feelings, it can be said that this very album and/or this very lead single are that which those experiences turned useful for. This, of course, leaves an ironic remark: in trying to bring her down, those responsible have only fuelled her crave for artistic development. In fact, the resource of the telephone call in the bridge might be an ironic callback to the snapchat post Kim Kardashian uploaded last year, which was the match that started the fire.

               A second option has to do with the presentation that Taylor Swift staged on social networks anticipating the release of the song: poetic suicide. In relation to the idea expressed in the second paragraph, this song sets a mourning tone at the very beginning and the lyric video is even accompanied by the picture of a tombstone. Furthermore, Swift referred to the Kardashian-West issue as “character assassination” in a Tweet now deleted after her, precisely, public death. Taylor Swift killed her own social image by means of erasing the content of all her social networks—except her music videos—and placing a black background on her tumblr and official website. All this black, the colour which symbolises death and mourning, may have been representing precisely the passing of her former self… a more innocent, docile and forgiving Taylor Swift. However, after many deceptions and backstabbing, that personality passed away: “The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now (…) ‘cause she’s dead.” She was cornered into this by the things and the people who hurt her. “The kingdom keys once belonged to [her],” meaning that she once saw the world as a fulfilling place in which she was in charge of her own life and people turned to her when they needed someone to look up to… but then she realised that as “the world moves on” drama is going to catch up with her. After she was forced to kill her persona, she states that “karma” will serve those responsible, and just like her own downfall (“I got mine”) everyone’s is inevitably due (“you’ll all get yours”). Reading the lyrics in this sense leaves us with a rather dark feeling when the song ends, since there is no hope: the singer has taken the ultimate decision and, as the song abruptly finishes, we are left with the idea that there is no possible way to revert this situation.

               In the third place, the song can be interpreted as the result of death and not the act itself: because of death, the singer has completely changed as she was reborn a darker spirit. After describing the events which led to her “character assassination” she addresses those responsible asking to contemplate the result of their actions, but she also warns them. “Look what you made me do” implies not only this poetic suicide, but the fact that they have awakened a vengeful Taylor Swift themselves. It is because of these people’s actions that only revenge is in the singer’s mind. When she sings “I’ve got a list of names and yours is in red underline” she might be implying that the sole purpose of this new persona is retribution and, in a sense, justice by taking the law into her own hands. Her fixation is further emphasised by stating that the name or names of these people are twice checked and stating that “you’ll all get yours” not as a prediction, in this case, but as a threat. Therefore, the villain which was described in the second paragraph can be interpreted as Swift herself, especially due to the fact that she describes herself as the one responsible for these people’s “bad dreams”.

               Finally, the lyrics can also be read as a letter to the music industry. Instead of having a particular group of people in mind while listening to the song, I encourage re-reading or re-listening to the lyrics considering the media and the music industry as the addressees. ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ can also be interpreted as an artist’s frustration towards the corrosive power of mass media and public opinion. This song can be understood as a critique towards the cynical aspects of the business and the artistic constraints that musicians have to put up with. Therefore, when saying “look what you made me do” the singer refers to the fact that she had to either hide from the public eye, stop sharing her personal life on the Internet, switch music genres, or adopt different artistic directions. I am not saying that Taylor Swift was forced in moving from country to pop music, but these lyrics might as well be criticising the biased microscope under which she has been analysed throughout the years. Following this idea, the singer has been assigned the role of the villain and she is meant to play that in the public eye, thus being forced into a corner which she had originally tried to avoid.

               Undoubtedly, Taylor Swift has done it again. Throughout time she has gradually switched styles and has taken meditated risks. This new step in her development as an artist is connected to her previous work as regards music genre and style while opening the door to a set of dark themes which she has not thoroughly explored yet. It is likely that we will see her darker self now and that this album will not send as many hopeful messages as the other. But with Swift, we never know: ‘Our Song’, ‘Change’, ‘Long Live’, ‘Begin Again’, and ‘Clean’ are the last tracks from the previous albums and no matter how much pain an album is filled with, she has always finished with a hopeful and optimistic note. Will ‘reputation’ be the same? I guess we’ll find out on November 10, 2017.

Lu Bausela

Aug 26, 2017

LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO - REVIEWS.

I don’t trust nobody and nobody trusts me…

mood board: look what you made me do

I’ve been careful in love. I’ve been careless in love. And I’ve had adventures I wouldn’t trade for anything.

My man Joseph is here to dominate and SHUT. YO. MOUTH.

( @taylorswift 🖤🖤🖤)