After three years of musical silence and even countless more turns in the public eye, Taylor Swift chose August 25th, 2017 to release her first single off of her sixth album. Named reputation (lower cases certainly intended), the first single, "Look What You Made Me Do", can certainly be read as a shout out to all that had attempted to ruin Swift's reputation over the years.
Such names probably include Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Katy Perry, and most recently, Robert Mueller, the radio DJ who'd faced off against Swift in a sexual harassment legal trial that ended in Swift's triumphant payout of a single dollar. The song doesn't explicitly doesn't mention any names, but the line "I got a list of names and yours is in red, underlined" implies that the song is meant to call out her enemies.
For Swift, it's nothing new - for years, she's written songs calling out people who had wronged her in some ways. On her second album, Fearless, Swift called out Joe Jonas in "Forever and Always". On Speak Now, her third album, John Mayer got a shoutout in "Dear John"; Camilla Belle was the star of "Better Than Revenge". Of course, "Bad Blood", on her fifth album, 1989, was a lovely tribute to her feud with Katy Perry - or so the rumors say.
Throughout all of the relationships and feuds, Swift managed to maintain her image as a sweet, doting character, earning her fans of all ages. Her music reflected the saccharine sweet personality for four whole albums; even as 1989 took a turn towards pop, it still managed to remain distinctly Swift.
That's what makes reputation so shocking. "Look What You Made Me Do" is so blunt, so blaringly accusatory, so out of character that it almost seems as if there's none of the previous Taylor fans had come to know and love. During one point in the song, Swift says "I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, because she's dead."
If she isn't, her music style as everyone knew it certainly is. Taylor Swift has no time for subtleties.
What's interesting about the song itself is its disjointedness - the song's verses alternate between spoken and sung words. It's almost as if it's a mirror to the events that have shaken Swift's life, such as the various feuds and relationships dotting her life. Yet, both seem to fit together in the song, again mirroring Swift - it's hard to imagine anyone else experiencing her series of events and handling them the way she had.
While the song was well received by many of her diehard fans, there were, of course, critics, both of the song and the way Swift was choosing to present herself as an image. In a way, it's little like her release of 1989. Way before her release, it was revealed that the genre of the album steered more towards pop and away from her normal, comforting country. It took time to adjust to her change in sound before one could fully appreciate it in the context of being a Swift fan.
Perhaps it will be the same here - that it'll take time for listeners to adjust to her newer, more synthesized sound, but will be absolutely won over once they're able to see Swift in a new light.