What do “Tim McGraw,” “Love Story,” “Mine,” “We Are Never Getting Back Together” and “Shake it Off” all have in common? They were the first singles released from each of Taylor Swift’s albums, and it’s time to add another — “Look What You Made Me Do.”
Swift released her new single Thursday night and announced that its video will debut at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night. Swift is known for her epic music videos, so this is bound to be great.
Official #LWYMMDvideo world premiere.
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) August 25, 2017
Sunday 8/27 at the @vmas pic.twitter.com/tjAxr8qdsY
Though she throws some major shade at her enemies, the lyrics aren’t up to par with most of her catalog. The unsophisticated lyrics are masked by the complexity of the beat.
Swift’s bridges are arguably the strongest part of every song she produces, and the same goes for “Look What You Made Me Do.” She often incorporates spoken word into that element of the song (see “Shake It Off” and “We Are Never Getting Back Together”), and she did so in her new single, giving way to the best lyrics in the song. Swift says, “I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now/Why?/Oh, 'cause she's dead!”
Swift wants everyone to know she’s not the same person she was on her self-titled album or even 1989, which might be why all of her old social media posts have been deleted.
Though “Look What You Made Me Do” isn’t as advanced lyrically, it probably doesn’t reflect her new album, Reputation, as a whole. Luckily, the world only has to wait two more months to listen to Reputation in its entirety.