Look What You Made Me Do

About

"Look What You Made Me Do" is a dance-pop song by American recording artist Taylor Swift. Following its release in late August 2017, the song was widely mocked and criticized online for being a stark departure from Swift's lighter pop works.

Origin

Swift released "Look What You Made Me Do" on August 24th, 2017 with a lyric video on YouTube that has gained over 41 million views in less than four days. It was produced by Jack Antonoff. Members of the band Right Said Fred have songwriting credits, as the song's chorus interpolate's the rhythm of the Right Said Fred song "I'm Too Sexy."^[1]

Spread

The song polarized critics. Some praised the song's stylistic departure from Swift's previous work. The Telegraph^[6] wrote "It is crisp, pristine pop at its most polished, and clearly the work of Swift’s 1989 collaborator Jack Antonoff, who recently worked on the superb Melodrama by Lorde." More vocal critics reviewed the song negatively. Pitchfork^[7] wrote the song was "a half-rapped, half-assed airing of grievances that seems to be aimed at, among others, the Kardashian Wests… Taylor Swift continues to insist she is definitely not owned." Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone^[2] argued the song continued the singer's feud with Kanye West. In the previous year, West had released the song Famous, in which he said he wondered if he might still have sex with Swift. The first lyric of "Look What You Made Me Do" reads:

I don't like your little games
Don't like your tilted stage
The role you made me play
Of the fool, no, I don't like you

The reference to a "tilted stage" has been interpreted as a direct reference to West, who performed on a suspended, tilted stage during his tour for The Life of Pablo. ^[3] Other lyrics in the song have been interpreted to be references to Swift's ongoing feud with Katy Perry as well as previous songs of hers including "Blank Space." A preview of the upcoming music video posted on August 25th to Swift's Instagram^[4] had many fans thinking Taylor was attempting to reference Beyoncé's 'Lemonade'. ^[5] That and lyrics in the song itself, notably an interlude in which Swift pretends to be on the phone and says "I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, 'cause she's dead!" led to jokes mocking Swift online.

Video Release

On August 27th, 2017, Swift premiered the music video at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards. In less than 24 hours, the video accumulated over 21 million views (shown below).

The video is very self-referential. It features Swift emerging from a grave, signifying the death of "Taylor Swift's Reputation." Swift also acknowledges the meme that she is a snake and parodies popular music videos by Lady Gaga, Madonna, and Beyoncé. She also references characters she's played in previous music videos in a final scene where all the characters talk to each other and echo criticisms lobbed at Swift at various points in her career. Jokes about the video spread online following its premiere.

Search Interest

External References