PHOTO: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Stop everything you're doing right now: Taylor Swift just dropped her new single, and it's friggin' amazing.
It's called "Look What You Made Me Do," and it's by far Swift's darkest song yet. Listen to it, below:
The track is certainly a departure from Swift's 1989 sound ( and aesthetic ). She swaps anthemic choruses and sun-drenched hooks for a grimy, electro-tinged bass line. Lyrically, she's never been this director angry. " 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," Swift snarls in the beginning of the track before crashing into the cool, techno chorus. "Oooh, look what you made me do," she repeats over and over with breathy intensity.
The climax of the song happens at the 2:50 mark, when Speak literally speaks, "I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, 'cause she's dead!" If this doesn't signify the beginning of her new era, nothing does.
This new song is the culmination of six days of mysterious promo. Swift hinted new music was coming on Friday (August 18) when she blacked out her Instagram and Twitter pages . However, things really kicked into overdrive on Monday (August 21) when she dropped a video of a snake's tail on social media. Fans immediately took this as a reference to the snake emoji people started using to describe her after the Kim Kardashian-Snapchat debacle. (Remember that nonsense from 2016 ?) Swift followed this up with another snake video on Tuesdayand then a third one Wednesday morning.
And that's when it happened: At 12:30 P.M. EST Wednesday, Swift revealed the name of her album ( Reputation ), the cover art (see below), and its release date (November 10). She also included a message that her first single would drop Thursday night, and now here we are: in pop-music utopia.
So what can we expect from this new album? This single suggests Swift's new direction is darker and grittier than 1989, which took home the 2016 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Fans should still expect a pop aesthetic, but one grounded in harder beats and sonics than, say, "Blank Space." We're definitely on board with that.
This new music is coming off the heels of Swift winning her countersuit against former radio DJ David Mueller. (If you're unfamiliar with that story, Swift claimed Mueller reached under her skirt and grabbed her bare bottom during a meet-and-greet in 2013. Mueller said the claims were false and sued Swift for $3 million in damages. Swift countersued for just $1and the court sided with her.)
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Taylor Swift Just Dropped Her New Song, and It's Her Darkest Yet - Glamour
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