Less than two months from now, Taylor Swift’s newest album “reputation” will be available to purchase. There is some speculation over whether or not Swift’s newest tracks are going to be similar to her previous songs. The first two singles that have been released, “Look What You Made Me Do” and “…Ready For It?” have been causing a lot of hype, the former breaking several notable records for “Most Views/Streams in a 24 Hour Period” on both YouTube and Spotify. These records were previously held by notable artists like Adele, Ed Sheeran, and Psy. However, these songs seem to be a switch for Taylor Swift, as it appears to be that the album is a reference to her old reputation.
After the Kim Kardashian West and Taylor Swift incident, it was unclear how Swift would make her comeback. After all, her reputation took a hit from the incident. Exposed of being dishonest by Kardashian, Swift’s good-girl victim persona was called into question. However, her newest album may either become her chance to mend it, to become the pristine girl again, or to shed it and embrace the villain.
A preview of the “new” Taylor Swift can be heard in the lyrics of “Look What You Made Me Do”, where she sings about the fatal blow to her reputation, and she embraces the dark side. Lyrics like “Maybe I got mine / but you’ll all get yours” and spoken line of “The old Taylor can’t come to the phone…because she’s dead” reveal Swift rebranding herself.
Swift clearly and blatantly has revenge plotted (which is rather dark) but she makes it obvious that the girl that she once was, several times a victim and a perfectly good-girl, is no more. This more villainous persona came as a shock to many fans, but that is exactly what Swift needs: to become a new person. Her damaged reputation from the Kardashian incident was impossible to recover from, and so she’s creating a new reputation. This is exactly what Swift needs. She needs to rebrand herself after being torn down, and so her relinquishing the good-girl act is exactly the change that will be able to fix the damage that was inflicted upon her.
Photo Credit: Hollywood Life