Taylor Swift's Latest Single: A Mix of Victim Noises

Taylor Swift has been with me since the 6th grade. I got through middle school thinking about how “Cory’s eyes are like a jungle,” wishing that someone would think of me when they hear “Tim McGraw,” and knowing what it’s like for Drew to be the “reason for the teardrops on my guitar.” I would jam to "Sparks Fly" on the way to high school and sing-a-long to "You Belong With Me" in the car with my girlfriends, thinking about the boys that had friend zoned us that week. I’ve been able to get behind almost every album and song, because the music and lyrics were still relatable. However, once I realized what she was really all about around July of last year—I saw her in a different light. So, here I am to explain what my opinion is on Taylor Swift over the years, and why her portrayal as the victim blocks my ability to take her seriously.

Before 2014, Swift’s game was alluding to famous ex-boyfriends in songs. For instance, “Dear John” was about her up and down relationship with John Mayer. “Forever and Always” was about Joe Jonas. “Better Than Revenge” was about Joe Jonas’s girlfriend at the time, Camilla Belle. Taylor (or T Swift) was the blonde-haired girl next door who wore sneakers. This is what made her albums marketable and intriguing to people. However, over time the media started making fun of this. They painted her as a clingy, needy, and desperate girlfriend. In 2014, when she came out with “Shake It Off,” she called out the media’s positioning of her. In interviews, she explained how “sexist,” she thought the media’s positioning of her was. Therefore, Swift began to embrace feminism. The world was on her side. Cue the rebranding.

And you know what? The rebranding worked. With the 1989 album, not only had she rebranded musically—officially saying goodbye to her pop-country roots—but she had created a new image. A very glamorous, sassy, high gloss, feminist image that led to the album’s success. She created a squad: a group of skinny, primarily white, glamorous females who had sleepovers, took selfies, and showcased feminine independence. She commercialized feminism. This was all fine and good until people started paying attention.

If she’s as feminist as she says she is, then why did she write a song called “Bad Blood” about Katy Perry and have an aggressive music video that featured her “squad” of girls? A squad that automatically became elitist. Normally I take pop culture for what it is: entertainment. However, pop culture is more influential now than ever before, especially in a generation of social media. I can’t help but wonder what this elitist squad of skinny, primarily white women, singing a song that disses another pop star, says to girls that have grown up with Taylor Swift as their role model.

However, this didn’t necessarily start with Katy Perry. When you think back to the early years, she would call out ex-boyfriends in songs, using their real name, which I was 100 percent behind. However, I had a problem with this when she got mad at Kanye for mentioning her in a song—when she had a history of doing the exact same thing. This is when I started to question her character and the hypocrisy that often surrounds her. The more I thought about her re-branding, as I was missing the “Tim McGraw” Swift that I fangirled over, the more I questioned her realness. For someone who sticks up for all kinds of girls, she has a lot of songs where she makes fun of the “girly girl” type and tends to villainize this stereotype. No matter if it’s right or wrong: she’s always the victim. She claims to hate drama, but always somehow finds herself in the middle of it, giving an Oscar-winning performance of the brokenhearted villain character.

Calvin Harris, Demi Lovato, Katy Perry, and other pop stars started alluding to this dark side of Taylor Swift. However, nothing was ever really proven until last July when Kim Kardashian changed the game of pop culture and posted Snapchat videos of a conversation between Kanye West and Taylor Swift. A conversation that proved Taylor knew about her name drop in the song “Famous,” but instead pretended to be hurt and play the victim role to garnish more media attention. After this, people starting believing everything Calvin Harris had been saying when Swift tried to take credit for his song “This Is What You Came For.” People realized how mean it really was of Taylor to write “Bad Blood” about Katy Perry and lines were drawn in the sand.

The backlash of this Snapchat scandal sent Swift into hiding. Swift limited her social media interaction to birthday posts for her famous friends. She limited her appearances at high profile events. Swift didn’t even have her usual “look at me and all my famous friends” Fourth of July party weekend. There is even a conspiracy theory out there that suggests Taylor has been leaving her New York City apartment in a box, just to avoid paparazzi. (Seriously look it up, it provides hours of entertainment.)

But what really doesn't make sense is how she claims to be a feminist, but didn’t once use her platform on behalf of feminism during all of the aftermath of the past election. If women’s rights were such a prevalent topic to her, why didn’t she comment on the defunding of Planned Parenthood? Does this show that Swift attached herself to feminism during a time that suited her, to position her in that narrative as a rebranding strategy to sell albums? Or maybe she didn’t want to come out and talk about politics because she worried about offending her country and Southern fan base? I’m not trying to accuse her of anything, these are just questions that come up about her character because of the way she tries to position herself in the media.

This past week, Swift had deleted all of her posts on social media and started posting images of a black snake (obviously in reference to the Kim and Kanye drama). On Thursday, Swift came out with her latest single “Look What You Made Me Do.”

I have to be honest: I can’t get behind this song. I wanted to. I heard about the album title being Reputation, and I thought that this meant an epic album. The song is basically about her mistreatment and what that has led her to do. The song isn’t targeted at anyone specific, but the lyrics do mention a slanted stage, which seems to be a reference to Kanye West. (In his latest tour, he performed on a slanted stage). To me the song is way too techy, has non-impressive vocals, and is filled with mediocre lyrics. It is literally just noise. Now, that is just my opinion. Music is subjective. There are people who seem to really like it; however, when you really think about her history with playing the victim—you view the song in a different light. Toward the end of the song, she says that the “old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now because she’s dead.” No, she’s not dead. She is the same girl with a victim complex who sang “You Belong With Me.” Was this her intention? To come out with a song that would divide fans and leave people talking? After all, any publicity is good publicity and the song seems to be doing well.

I think what irritates me the most is how much I miss her old music. Songs like "All Too Well," "Enchanted," "White Horse," or "Never Grow Up" that made us feel something. They spoke to us and related to all generations in a way that many singers can't. Yet, Swift could still make us get on our feet and jam with songs like "Blank Space," "22," "Should've Said No," and "I Knew You Were Trouble." Was she still playing the victim card? Yes. But at least we all had the wool pulled over our eyes, as we listened to good music with good lyrics. I truly do not find myself relating the lyrics in her latest single. I also find the lyrics very lazy since she repeats the same thing over and over again, and even synchronizes the same phrase.

With her new single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” Swift is playing the victim role again. This time she’s ditched the jeans and sneakers, and is wearing a lot of black with a tight choker. I honestly think that the best thing she could do with this album is to be upfront and own her true self. That, I would respect. What I don’t respect is another song where she paints herself as this independent woman with the undertones of victim noises. This would have been her time to squash all of the Kim and Kanye drama, get over her beef with Katy, and come out with a groundbreaking catchy tune. Instead, she is once again playing the victim—only this time with subpar pop music.

Again, this post was not meant to be overly political. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion—this is just the opinion of a former Swiftie!

#popculture #music #branding