By Michael Parahiala | Observer Contributor
Taylor Swift, everyone’s favorite- or least favorite, depending who you talk to- pop star released a new song and music video August 27. “Look What You Made Me Do,” from her new album Reputation, already has over 5.5 million views, the record for most YouTube views in twenty-four hours, and opinions on the song and the singer alike are mixed at best.
Both the song and its music video are edgier than what most have come to expect from Swift. From imagery of her actually rising up out of a cage to hard hitting, angry lyrics promising that she is different than “the old Taylor” and that she and karma are coming for the people on a referenced list of names, Taylor seems to have changed her entire image. The video ends with multiple versions of the popstar fighting with one another; the singer openly mocking how she’s been perceived from the start of her career to current time.
Fans can be seen in the YouTube comments praising Swift. One, under the username Tara Mossadeghian, commented, “She literally just destroyed every joke ever made about her in 30 seconds. I LOVE YOU TAYLOR,” spurring one of many long threads of discussion among fans and “haters” alike. For every comment like Mossadeghian’s, though, there can be seen at least two comments discussing distaste for “the new Taylor”.
Out of the 5.5 million times the video has been view, one million dislikes have been left on the video. In the discussion beneath Mossadeghian’s comment, a few comments called the song “shit”, and when argument sprang out over that, one user under the name GeekyRedhead rationalized that Swift was only making herself look pettier than people already thought she was. Another commenter, Lunarre, deduced that “Shake It Off”, a cheerful song about not letting mean things said to you hurt you, must have been a lie, implying that what Swift’s new song has done is the opposite of shaking it off.
Of course, Swift’s fandom, and her haters, aren’t the only ones to offer their opinions. YouTuber Malinda Kathleen Reese, known for her Google Translate Sings series, had this to say: “Taylor Swift is a fascinating case-study in how you can be both self-deprecating and ruthless in the same sentence”.
As for my personal opinion, I will say this: I was skeptical at first. It seemed to me, gathered especially from the lines “Sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, ‘cause she’s dead”, that Taylor was picking a very unfortunate time to fit her edgy scene phase. Yet, like every new Taylor Swift song, it’s grown on me.
We have so many pop stars who fit the sweetheart, bubblegum, everybody’s BFF persona. Swift turning to the vengeful, self-confident mean girl is a welcome change. On top of that, the beat is catchy, the song is much less obnoxious than some of Swift’s songs that I just couldn’t hate, and it is fun to sing along with, especially when it gets to the above-mentioned lyric.
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