She’s back! (Or is she dead?) The new Taylor Swift has been making waves with her latest single "Look What You Made Me Do," releasing the music video Sunday Night during the MTV Video Music Awards. While many are commenting on the darker, edgier, Swift one thing has certainly not changed: her attention to detail.
Many fans have taken to the internet to uncover hidden gems within the video like the tombstone reading "Nils Sjoberg" (the pseudonym she used to write Calvin Harris's "This is What You Came For"); the dollar bill lying in her bath tub of jewels representing her winnings from her sexual assault trial against DJ Mueller; and her t-shirt at the end clad with the names of her best friends, including Todrick who is actually a dancer in the video. But if you watch closely, you’ll realize the entire video parody is wrought with specific references to many scandals in the pop star’s life. Here are some moments that you may have overlooked the first time around.
It starts with her (reputation’s) death
It’s important to note that the video begins with her zombie emerging from a grave wearing her blue dress from the Out of the Woods music video, the last video from 1989, symbolizing the end of that era of Swift. As she’s pouring dirt on top of her own deceased body, the video shifts to her sitting in a bathtub filled with diamonds. It’s a flashback to when she was still “alive”. This is meaningful because it’s showing that the video is not depicting her life after death; rather, the whole thing is telling the story of how she ended up “dead” in the first place.
She’s wearing stiletto nails
It’s not unusual for a pop star to indulge in recent trends, and claw-like nails have become quite a sensation. However, Taylor has notably sported simple manis for the entirety of her career. I suspect it’s because she plays a multitude of musical instruments (unlike most pop stars) and needs full use of her fingers in order to play her own music. However, many of her frenemies including Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, and Nicki Minaj have notably sported this cutting look. Taylor’s prominent flaunting of this manicure could be a shot at these rivals and their over the top style.Her throne says et tu brute
As Taylor sits on a throne crawling with serpents, the phrase “et tu brute” is engraved in gold. This is Latin and translates to “even you, Brutus?” referring to the infamous stabbing of Julius Caesar led by a man who he believed to be his friend. The snakes are no doubt a nod to when Kim K leaked Taylor’s phone call with Kanye West regarding his song Famous along with her alleged approval of lyrics she never heard, quickly sparking the internet to brand Taylor a snake. The inscription suggests that Taylor thought she was friends with the duo and felt stabbed in the back by their eventual betrayal.She drinks tea (but that’s none of my business)
Trolls, anyone? Taylor has thrown shade at naysayers before singing haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate and asking Why you gotta be so mean? but now she’s throwing shade right back at those who regularly throw shade at others on the internet. One of the most popular memes and gifs for passive aggressive online comments is Kermit sipping on some tea. It’s a stretch, but perhaps Taylor is imitating her online trolls by partaking in some tea herself.
She addresses the car crash that is Katy Perry’s career
A gold car crashes into a pole with an over accessorized female trapped inside. She’s jostled but quickly strikes a provocative pose and is photographed by the audience of nearby paparazzi and photographers. She is then shown holding up a Grammy and the angle of her wig bears a striking resemblance to Katy Perry. This could be a suggestion that Katy Perry is running her career into the ground (or, in this case, a pole) with mediocre tracks like Bon Appetit and Swish, Swish all in hopes of receiving a pervasive Grammy award which Perry has yet to snag. Perhaps Katy’s over the top antics and ploys for attention are a result of the responsive media… Look what you made Katy do.
She robs streaming companies
Taylor received both praise and backlash for her 2014 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal where she stated, “It’s my opinion that music should not be free”. She removed all of her music from Spotify that same year, though she has returned to the streaming service just this past June. People complained that a multimillionaire like Swift was being greedy and shouldn’t worry about not getting paid enough. Swift defended her position, insisting she was trying to use her influence to stand up for up-and-coming musicians who were not getting paid their fair share. But in the video, she coyly leans into the public’s negative persona as she is shown breaking into a vault filled with cash and exiting with blinking lights overhead reading “STREAM CO.”
She’s an evil dictator with a squad army
She bursts in on her backup dancers like Meryl Streep from The Devil Wears Prada
She brought “I Heart T.S.” shirts
Remember when Tom Hiddleston was photographed at Taylor’s Fourth of July party wearing a tank top that read “I <3 T.S.”? The internet certainly does. Photos of Hiddleston were plastered everywhere. It was later explained that Tom had borrowed the shirt from one of Swifty’s squad members, which of course led to backlash that Taylor is self-absorbed enough to force people around her to wear shirts with her initials on them. If she didn’t before, she certainly does now. Each of her backup dancers sports a shirt clearly reading “I <3 T.S.”.
She destroys a plane… The left wing
This is perhaps the most subtle detail in the LWYMMD video. Brief clips between the beginning of her group’s choreographed dance number show Taylor with a chainsaw standing on the left wing of a plane. She destroys the wing, detaching it from the plane altogether. This could be a reference to her political silence. Taylor did not publicly endorse a candidate in the 2016 election. She has been called out for staying silent; some even blame her for Hillary’s loss. In a way, she destroyed left wing politics. While it’s silly to blame one pop star for the outcome of an entire presidential election, Taylor may be eluding to her proposed responsibility for weakening a political party.
Her reputation has killed her accomplishments
This is the most important scene in the video and may be the very reason her album is titled reputation. Tay is shown wearing a shirt that says “rep” while standing atop a pile of her most memorable career moments. These are not the scandalous moments previously included in the video; these are trademark moments including notable performances, videos, and award show ensembles. These are the moments that should be celebrated but instead have been eclipsed by celebrity drama and media scandals. These Taylors are all kicked away, leaving only her reputation to take phone calls and let everyone know that the old Taylor is “dead”.She would very much like to be excluded from this narrative
The final scene includes the most classic complaints people have about Taylor Swift; she’s fake, she has an overused surprise face, she plays the victim, she cries. This scene also includes a brief Kanye reference when one Taylor calls another a b*tch and she gets offended. Another Taylor, the one with the Katy Perry wig, “prints receipts” which is a direct reference to Swish, Swish which claims that karma keeps receipts. Taylor says she’s going to edit them, suggesting that Katy’s accounts have been tampered with. Finally, 2009 VMA Taylor reiterates her 2016 Instagram plea “I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative” to which the rest of the Taylors yell “Shut up!”The closing lines suggest that Taylor would love to have a career that is not plagued by topical drama but instead focuses on her music. However, after years of experience, it seems that Swift has discovered this dream may be an impossibility. So now, instead of running from her reputation, she’s using it. She knows what we think about her and she isn’t trying to change our minds. She used this video to play into every negative idea we’ve had about her. She’s done trying to fight it. She’s become it. Look what we made her do.
