Taylor Swift's Clapback Begins With ''Look What You Made Me Do'': Why reputation Will Be the Most Merciless Album of 2017

Judging by the first single off of her 6th studio album, the singer's record will be set ramrod straight by the time she's done

By Natalie Finn Aug 25, 2017 12:00 PMTags
Taylor Swift Christopher Polk/Getty Images

Of course Taylor Swift's next album is called reputation, with a sassy lower-case r and everything.

It seems silly that the many think tanks enlisted to figure out the singer's next musical move ever proposed it could be called anything else. There was only one thing, overall, for the 10-time Grammy winner to address—and her reputation, as shaped through the eyes of others, was it. 

No album release has been as hotly anticipated among a star's faithful since Adele dropped 25 almost five torturous years after 21, though Jay-Z's confessional 4:44 was a close second. For Swift, it'll "just" be a little over three years since 1989 when reputation comes out on Nov. 10—but the release comes with extra, unavoidable heft thanks to everything that has happened, and everything that's been said about her, since Taylor accepted her Album of the Year Grammy for 1989 in February 2016.

Or heck, maybe it's going to be in response to everything that's been said about her since the incident that Kanye West claims made her "faaaamous."

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Taylor Swift Releases Her First Single From reputation: Listen to "Look What You Made Me Do" Now

When Swift finally revealed the album's title, release date and incredibly unsubtle cover art this week after months and months of speculation as to when this phantom music would appear—with one "this must be it" date after another coming and going—it became clear that Swift, while astutely hiding herself away for the majority of this year so far, has been paying close attention to what's been swirling in the void created by her physical absence.

It ultimately became too unwieldy to predict what Swift was actually going to sing about whenever she sang about something, so much has gone down since last we heard from her in solo form.

Mert & Marcus/Big Machine Records

But with the release last night of "Look What You Made Me Do," the first single off of reputation (and incidentally her poppiest pop song yet), we now know that Swift was just biding her time and getting her ducks neatly in a row before she picked them off, one...by...one.

I've got a list of names and yours is in red underlined.

Honestly, despite the almost painfully straightforward way in which this song seems to be aimed right at Kanye, he of the "tilted stage" on his Saint Pablo Tour, it could just as easily be coming 'round for another shot at Katy. But it could also be referring to all sorts of perceived (and honest-to-god) slights.

While we can still picture the 27-year-old Swift picturesquely writing some lyrics one day and then the next day sitting down and furiously crossing them out because something new had happened that needed addressing even more urgently, she'd still be sitting there scribbling away if that's how she was going about it.

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Whether Kanye West Gave Taylor Swift a Heads-Up on ''Famous'' Lyrics Doesn't Really Matter to the Internet

Some celebrities may have had more trials and tribulations, or had more momentous milestones occur in their lives since last summer, but no one's image was put through the wringer the way Swift's was.

After her triumphant Grammy night in 2016, during which she seized the opportunity to remind those listening not to let anyone claim ownership of the success they'd earned for themselves—a direct jab at Kanye, whose "Famous" lyrics blew up the détente they'd seemingly reached months beforehand at the 2015 VMAs—potholes started to form in her theretofore carefully laid out path.

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images for NARAS

Her year-long relationship with Calvin Harris ended in May 2016. A new relationship that started merely weeks later with Tom Hiddleston baffled the Internet with its velocity, seemingly purposeful ostentation, novelty tank-top and continent-skipping parts.

Harris then decided Swift was out to get him and accused her of needing "someone new to try and bury like Katy." Kim Kardashian flashed a piece of receipt on Snapchat about how "Famous" came together, pulling back the curtain on a tart-tongued faction of the Internet that was apparently lying in wait for a chance to call Swift out. Perry answered a fan's Twitter query about her willingness to work with Taylor with, "if she says sorry, sure!"

Things also didn't work out with Tom in the end, because he was pushing the public angle of their relationship to a degree she wasn't comfortable with.

And that was just last summer.

SPOT/BACKGRID

I don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me / I'll be the actress starring in your bad dreams.

So, after circling the globe in 2015 in support of 1989, she gave one live performance in all of 2016—a tightly packed 80-minute set for 80,000 people during Formula 1 Weekend in Austin, Texas—and called it a year. At least it was back to songwriting and the recording studio on a high note, having positively thrilled the crowd (and thousands more who caught snippets on social media) with that one show, which she closed with "Shake It Off."

Swift had help when it came to avoiding the spotlight during the last quarter of 2016 in the form of the presidential election and a litany of other celebrity-involved occurrences that commanded the headlines, not least of them Kim Kardashian being robbed at gunpoint in Paris in October and Kanye West being hospitalized for mental exhaustion in November. 

Her contribution with Zayn Malik to the 50 Shades Darker soundtrack, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever," and a performance at a 2017 Super Bowl party in Houston served as proof that she hadn't quit show business altogether, but that was about it. No birthday bash, hardly any social media, no award shows or any red carpets at all and, just last month, no Fourth of July blowout in Rhode Island. 

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Yet we all knew that the music was coming because... It had to be. She had pointed out the flaw in Kim and Kanye's argument after the Snapchat unveiling and stoically let Calvin Harris have his public rant before mending fences in private, but aside from that she had weathered two breakups and all this shade without any sort of reckoning.

Then in June, Perry went full-court press with "Swish Swish," acknowledging her years-old beef with Swift (or Swift's years-old beef with her, as Katy loves Taylor) was an inspiration for what she described as an anti-bullying anthem. For the first time since 2014, when it all began with Swift calling out a still never-named ex-friend for trying to sabotage her tour (though Swift would say it actually started when her tour was supposedly almost sabotaged) the word "Taylor" started coming out of Katy's mouth right and left, to an exhausting degree.

Days later, the return of Swift's albums to streaming services coinciding with the release of Perry's album Witness was a reminder of just how many things had been left unsaid in the years since "Bad Blood" came out.

Capitol

And hardcore Swifties who just wanted new music, any music, have gotten even more than they could have dreamed possible with this one single.

We were prepared to say it could've been because Taylor may have had to fast-track her album announcement because info was starting to leak, but now it's hard to believe that "Look What You Made Me Do" dropping hours after Perry's "Swish Swish" music video is a coincidence.

Ohhh, look what you made me do.

Meanwhile, Swift had finally emerged (or rather, been tracked down) in June with a new love interest, British actor Joe Alwyn, though with him off filming it's unclear whether that romance will survive Taylor once again being swallowed up by the public eye. What has been extremely noticeable about their time spent together, however, was that it couldn't have come off more differently than her relationship with Hiddleston. Maintaining utmost privacy became the new order of the day.

GLH / BACKGRID

Her entirely unglamorous return to the spotlight occurred earlier this month when she traveled to Denver for the case of Mueller v. Swift, the civil suit filed against her in 2015 by a former radio DJ who claimed Taylor got him fired by falsely telling his employer that he groped her bare behind during a 2013 meet-and-greet before a show on her Red Tour. A month after being sued, Swift sued David Mueller back for assault and battery. She asked for a symbolic judgment of $1 in damages.

Well, a judge dismissed Mueller's claims before the trial ended and Swift was awarded her dollar in the end, but the debate over what the pop superstar is really like—a debate that seemingly took real shape during last summer's comedy of errors—reared its head once again.

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Gary Miller/FilmMagic

When it couldn't have been more of a given, some people actually had to be reminded that what Swift was doing—sticking up for herself and testifying in open court about a traumatic experience in order to expose an injustice and ensure someone didn't get a pass after violating her (Mueller insists he didn't do it)—took guts and was deserving of support, not ridicule and skepticism because she's a wealthy celebrity. 

Or, more pointedly, because she's Taylor Swift.

I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now / Why? / 'Cause she's dead.

Though her fans have remained stalwart supporters, in light of all the vitriol out there it would not be surprising to find out that Swift spent the majority of the past year also wondering how in the hell she ended up being the one having to defend her...

Well, you know.

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Taylor Swift Is Releasing New Music: Who's She Planning to Put on Blast?

She has knowingly taken on her reputation du jour before, most notably in "Blank Space," where she tackled the man-eating-girlfriend-from-hell rumors with humor and winks, and "Shake It Off" was a less jaded young woman's response to the haters of the world.

The world goes on another day, another drama-drama / But not for me, not for me / All I think about is karma.

But this is a whole new ballgame, and it's only just begun. The comparisons will be inevitable, so let us preface them here by saying that, on reputation, Taylor Swift is serving up spiked lemonade.

There's the polished, tangy chill of "Look What You Made Me Do" to quench our thirst for now, and in November...

Bottoms up.