Everybody and their brother, it seems, is hating on Taylor Swift's new single, but, honestly, I love it. Just in case you've been living under a rock, here's the video:
Now I will start by saying that the first time I heard this song was when I watched the video and the video makes the song about a million times better, but so do most music videos.
The video is amazing because Taylor and her creative team thought of a lot for this video. There was not a single thing that they missed and if you don't mind watching it a million times, you can probably find all of the easter eggs, but I'll gladly point some out for you.
1. Tilted Stage
The first easter egg is actually in the lyrics as well as the video. The second lyric of the song, "Don't like your tilted stage," is actually a jab at Kanye West, who used a tilted stage in his most recent Saint Pablo tour.
It is also believed that the rest of the lyric -- "the role your made me play of the fool. No I don't like you" -- is also a jab at the feud with Kimye.
2. 13th Snake?
In the scene with the snakes, when the snakes surround Taylor on the throne, you can count 12 snakes. So where's the 13th? It's Taylor. During Taylor's feud with Kimye, many people were calling Swift a snake so she's taking advantage of it now.
3. The Crash
If you haven't noticed it, the Taylor who gets in a crash looks a lot like one of her other feuds. Katy Perry. And she's holding a Grammy. The theory floating around about this is that Taylor is poking fun at Katy because she has won 10 Grammys while Katy has only been nominated.
4. The "I <3 T.S" shirt
In the mansion scene with the male dancers, you'll notice when they take off their jackets, they're wearing I heart TS shirts. This is to mirror the one that Tom Hiddleston wore when he and Taylor were dating.
5. Chainsaw Taylor
So during the first mansion scene with the male dancers (the one I mentioned above), there is also snippets of Taylor wearing all white and covered in what is probably supposed to be blood. Outfit aside, there is a theory floating around that this Chainsaw Taylor on the plane is the Taylor that the media never sees, as she is the only one featured in the end scene that just kinda stands in the background and never says anything. It's also believed that she's the Taylor that we'll be seeing in Reputation.
6. The Climbing Taylors
Now it's kinda hard to see unless you know what you're looking for, but if you take a minute and just look as some of the shots where you can see some of the Taylors other than the main ones that you see at the end of the video, you can find other Taylors that you may recognize from media shots.
7. The Phone
If you're a long-time Swiftie, like myself, you probably thought something along the lines of, "Man, I know I've seen that phone somewhere," during this scene. You would be right of course as it looks almost exactly like the one Taylor used in the beginning of the "Our Song" music video.
8. The End Scene
Now, let's talk about the end scene. I'm going to be mentioning a lot of references in this so just hang tight.
First, the visual. There are 15 Taylors in this end scene and it's widely believed that this specific number was chosen because there's going to be 15 songs on "Reputation."
Zombie Taylor snaps when Dancer Taylor calls her a bitch. I personally believe that this is also a reference to the Kimye feud as Taylor's main problem with the lyrics was that Kanye called her a bitch and tried to take credit for her fame.
The back and forth after the bitch comment is Taylor saying all the things that people say about her, all the things people think that she is, and the famous, "I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative."
I think the "Shut up!" at the end is not only directed to the Taylor who spoke but to everyone who feels the need to hate on Taylor and focus on things who don't matter and the media.
Bonus! Where was Taylor's lucky 13?
It was on the back wall on the last panel of the wall on the right-hand side. Here, I even circled it for you!
Hopefully, you at least got a kick out of these and who knows, maybe you'll find even more references. That will require watching the video at least ten times though and I'm sure by then you'll like the song, if you didn't already.