500 Words or Less Reviews: Look What Taylor Swift Made Me Do
I am not a fan of Taylor Swift. Never have been. Her only album I have been able to tolerate is 1989. I feel that disclaimer is necessary from the outset.
Unless you live under a rock, you probably noticed that Taylor released a new song a few days ago. It is titled, “Look What You Made Me Do.” The song is awful – filled with all the poorest elements of modern pop music. However, looking beyond the melody and the beat, the song is emblematic of the very worst of our society. It is the quintessential anthem of our narcissistic and victim culture. If there was any doubt before, we can now crown Taylor Swift as the Queen Victim of our age.
The song is a list of the times Taylor feels she has been slighted, wronged, offended, judged, criticized, and blamed. It is whiny and screechy and so inwardly focused that it is difficult to take any of it seriously. There isn’t a whiff of self-awareness. No trace of self-reflection. She even sees herself as a Christ figure in the music video – arms outstretched with a crucifix behind her. In Taylor’s fantasy world, there are many who have lied about her and stabbed her in the back, so hers is a righteous anger. It’s hard to hear all this self-pity coming from a 27-year-old woman who is worth nearly $300 million. The end result of the song is to declare that due to all the horrible, unfair, mean stuff that has been said about or done to her, that the old Taylor Swift is dead and she has become someone else – someone angry and vengeful. The problem with that declaration is that Taylor Swift has been a “mean girl” for a long time. You only have to listen to her older albums to see the spitefulness with which she has always operated. But in her warped view, she is the put-upon victim, the innocent, the martyr. In her mind, her enemies forced her to create and release this song and now that she has taken all she can, she is ready to get down in the mud with all those “liars and dirty, dirty cheats of the world.” So, we have that to look forward to…
We are a society of self-aggrandizers, self-promoters, and self-congratulators who in our minds can do no wrong, bear no responsibility for any of our actions, and are in a constant state of victimization. Everyone is out to get us. So if no one is on our side, then we have to do everything we can to get ours. We are “me monsters” of the highest order. And society will praise us for that. Society will champion us until it has no more use for us and then it will destroy us. That is the end that is awaiting Taylor Swift. And based on the reception to her new single, it is an end that could be here sooner than she expects.
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This is great!
Maybe Taylor Swift will be “swiftly”
on her way out the pop music door!
Debbi will be here all week folks! 🙂
The situation is “Taylor” made for it.
I can think of few things more opposite Biblical Christianity than “I don’t trust nobody and nobody trusts me”.
BEAR no responsibility. Get a proofer before getting on your high horse to tear someone down. Thank you.
Thanks for the comment Kathleen. We made the edit. We do have “proofers” but we obviously missed that.
I guess since I messed up that one word it invalidates everything else I wrote. Dang it!
Good article. I actually think she can be a decent song writer. I completely agree that this song is terrible (both musically and lyrically) and yet somehow a perfect reflection of many in our society.
As a person who appreciates some of her work (“Out of the Woods,” Anyone?), I think this song is horrible. I want it to flop because it’s bad on an artistic level and in its message. And I don’t think a flop will hurt her financially.
great writing and a very appreciated message about the culture of victimhood as expressed by an ultra rich skinny white girl. Taylor and those of her ilk just make me tired, and as a mother i’m honestly thrilled that my (now adult) daughter didn’t listen to her music growing up.