After her 2016 feud with nemesis Kim Kardashian-West, Taylor Swift has remained relatively out of the limelight. That is, until this week, when Swift surprise-dropped her new song "Look What You Made Me Do," and then shortly after the reference-packed music video.
Swift's video tells the story of her many feuds and criticisms
In the video, Taylor plays many variations of her former self, including past Taylor's from her early music videos. She begins the video as a zombie, coming out of the grave to bury her former self. On one of the headstones in the cemetery is the pseudonym Taylor used when co-writing "This Is What You Came For," a popular song written by ex-boyfriend, Calvin Harris.
After the cemetery scene, Taylor is shown in a bathtub filled with jewels, with a single dollar bill laying next to her. This is a direct reference to her sexual assault case against David Mueller, a former radio host. Swift counter-sued Mueller and won, asking for only one dollar in reparations.
Swift is also depicted as a cultish "squad leader" in the video. Clad in all leather, the singer gives directions to a group of mindless, cookie-cutter models, who are meant to be seen as her "girl squad." This references the hate Taylor has gotten in the past for her ever-growing circle of model friends.
In one of the most iconic scenes in the video, the new Taylor stands atop a mountain of her old personas, a gigantic illuminated "T" behind her.
She sings, "I don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me," and with a wave of her arm, her past selves plummet towards the ground. Taylor Swift has left her old self behind, and it is time for a completely new era.
Finally, at the end of the video, all of the Taylors talk together, addressing different pieces of criticism she has received over the years.
One criticizes the other for her constant "fake surprised" face, saying that no one could really be that surprised all the time. Another pokes fun at the original "country" version of the now pop star, saying that she's once again playing the victim.
The good-girl Taylor is gone, replaced by a new version of the pop star
Lastly, a Taylor dressed in her 2009 VMA dress, says that she would "like to be excluded from this narrative," an homage to her response to the Kardashian-West feud.
This prompts the rest of her personas to promptly tell her to shut up, showing that the days of the nice-girl, drama avoiding Taylor Swift are long gone.
For years, Taylor Swift has played the victim. She spent her early career creating an image based around being the wholesome "America's Sweetheart." But now, as it says in her video, that old Taylor is dead, and the new, confrontational, purposefully shady Snake Queen persona is here to stay.
