But ever since last week when Taylor Swift dropped the first single off her upcoming album, Reputation, I’ve been seeing the word crop up in reference to every aspect of Look What You Made Me Do. And … really? We are going there … all the way to problematic, that non-word, over Taylor Swift? YOU GUYS.
She’s Not That Important Until You Make Her So
Please show me the last time NPR or Time went out of their way to write detailed investigative pieces on every lyric, image and nuance of a Pink, Kelly Clarkson, or Katy Perry song. I’ll wait. The only other artist to receive this amount of newspaper inches is Beyonce, and she’s apparently meant to be immune to criticism, so I’ll stop typing right there.
But back to Taylor: yes, she’s carefully and cunningly crafted a pop culture empire off the backs of speculation, innuendo, minute word choices in her songs and almost undetectable personal image evolution. But on its face, her music is NOT that important. It’s almost invariably about her personal life, and it’s unapologetically pop. Why are all these intellectual types spending so much time sussing out what she meansssssss like a couple of squirrels with their wrists tied together trying to get the last nut?
Because it’s exactly that effort that makes Taylor Swift’s music actually important. And I don’t mean important in the pop world. She’s always been important to teenage girls, some of whom are now women. And that matters. Her particular brand of pop feminism may not pass muster in some Bernie Bro’s progressive purity test, but being able to scream “shake it off” and “take a look what you’ve done” when you’re a hormonal, angsty teenage girl is a power move. Tracks like “Clean” from 1989 have gravitas, messages that resonate beyond the teen crowd and can honestly help people in pain. That’s important.
But I mean important as a topic of conversation. Important to SEO. Important to the greater conversation about art, media, celebrity and identity that all intersect on our twitter feeds and podcast charts.
Two Things Can Be True At Once
Try it. For every feeling one has about Taylor Swift, there is an equal and opposite feeling that is just as true. For instance:
- You can be sick of Taylor Swift, and still recognize that she just did something worth talking about in pop culture. After all, you threw down that “hot take” on TSwift in your Instagram story the same day “Look What You Made Me Do” dropped.
- You can stan like mad for Taylor Swift’s music, and also think this song is a trash heap of disjointed bridges. Because it is nearly UNsingable, and that’s saying something coming from a Grammy-award-winning pitch-killer.
- You can think she’s the most basic milquetoast vanilla bean frapp that you ever wasted $1.29 on and still be amazed that she manages to be the only pop princess to skewer own persona and make it legit.
- You can think Katy Perry is cooler and came out on top in their feud, but admit that you know less about Katy’s newest single than you do Taylor’s. Let’s face it, even if you favor Katy, you can’t stomach that Swish video. How embarrassing.
- You can think Taylor is one of the most adept and savvy songwriters alive and believe very strongly that the phrase “Look What You Made Me Do” is harmful because of its connotations with abusive relationships. It definitely won’t be one we are screaming at the top of our lungs around the pool.
- You can not give a single shit about her problems with Kimye or Katy or Calvin or her fakery, but still believe that a girl with that much baggage is either pissing people off because she’s awful or pissing them off because she’s awesome.
- You can love that she counter-sued an asshole who sexually assaulted her for $1, and promised to donate funds to help sexual assault victims defend themselves, and still be royally pissed that she never spoke out against Trump in the 2016 election, even after his pussy grabbing comment. We’re all pissed about that one, Taylor.
My Lukewarm Take
I like Taylor Swift. I didn’t at first. I don’t listen to country, and I really hate pop country, and I DESPISE singers who can’t sing live. But she grew on me every time I saw her. She was unafraid to put a huge amount of honesty and tongue-in-cheek gossip tea into every public appearance, while putting pen to paper on music that has real artistic soul to it.
She steps up her game every time. Each album is better than her last, and she continually churns out lyrics that eclipse her pop contemporaries. If we want get literary about it, we can go down the road of all the throwbacks and easter eggs and imagery she threw into this one video. Nevermind, we don’t have to. TIME MAGAZINE did it for us.
Like all of us, Taylor is not monolith. She’s not going to get it all right, every time. She’s gonna be pitchy. She’s gonna be kitsch. She’s gonna be unduly influenced by other artists. But she’s also going to speak out for women and girls’ rights. She’s going to be silent when the ravenous hoards are calling for blood and instead put it into her art. And at the end of the day, she’s going to give us something worth talking about. And I’m ok with pre-ordering that.
