Look What You Made Me Do: Song Against the World
Swift’s newest song, “Look What You Made Me Do,” gives Swift a new, dark persona.
Many fan theories are out there, including the connection between Swift’s song and the song “I’m Too Sexy.” However, there’s a deeper meaning. This song is adding fire to the feud between her and other celebrities including Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and Katy Perry.
West and Kardashian
If you’re lost on why West-Kardashian and Swift are at each other’s throats, here’s a short recap: Their feud goes way back to 2009. When Swift received the Best Female Video at the VMA’s, West interrupted her awarding speech to basically say she didn’t deserve it, but Beyonce did, stirring up bad blood.
Flash forward to 2016, when Swift admitted that she never gave permission for West to mention her in his song “Famous”, which, let’s just say, don’t show Swift in a good spotlight. After her denial of giving permission to West, Kardashian stepped in and shared on Snapchat videos of Swift and West discussing the complete opposite of what Swift claimed!
Later in 2016, Kardashian posted about “National Snake Day” on her Twitter which fans interpreted as a reference to Swift.
Katy Perry
What did Perry do to Swift in order to have Perry referenced throughout her song? Here’s a little summary of their drama. Perry tweeted on 2014 a reference to Mean Girls’ Regina George and her burn book; linking Swift to that bish Regina.
Perry then adds fire to the flame when she brought back Swift’s incident with West and adds to her song “Swish Swish” the lyric: “Karma’s not a liar — she keeps receipts,” making the metaphor that Kardashian is Karma and her Snapchat videos are her receipts towards Swift.
Now that you know why they hate each other, here are the references in Swift’s song:
The lyric “don’t like your tilted stage” is a direct reference to West’s performance during his Life of Pablo tour.
The lyric “the role you made me play, of the fool”, is a reference to West using her name in his song “Famous.”
The lyric “I don’t like your perfect crime, how when you laugh when you lie” is a reference to Kardashian’s shady involvement in the debacle.
This same lyric in Swift’s official music video is also a reference to Kardashian’s robbery incident in Paris, where Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in a hotel bathroom on October 2016. The music video shows Swift bathing in riches, then signaling a gun; low key throwing shade on Kardashian and West’s bling.
Another way Swift throws shade at West is by referencing the 2016 New York Fashion Week model incident when West’s models all fainted due to the harsh, hot conditions they endured. It was a PR disaster for West, and Swift highlights it perfectly in her music video when she sings the chorus and shows a group of doll-like women fainting on the ground.
Swift also embraces Kardashian’s snake reference in her song, showing snakes all over the music video.
In the lyric video, Ouroboros is shown during the chorus. The Ouroboros is an ancient Egyptian symbol of a snake eating its tail, a metaphor that the drama will keep feeding itself.
Now onto the Katy Perry References:
Perry’s phase of tigers especially, in her 2013 song “Roar,” was an influence for Swift’s shade toward Perry. She makes subtle tiger references in her music video. She wears a cat mask as she robs a bank, and also wears a sweater with a tiger boldly emblazoned on the front.
Another way Swift uses cat references in her video were in the beginning instances of the music video she’s in a car accident, her outfit looking a lot like Perry’s outfit she wore in inspo for “Roar.”
The lyrics “I don’t like your kingdom keys. They once belonged to me. You asked me for a place to sleep; locked me out and threw a feast,” refers to Swift and Perry’s once upon a time a friendship. It’s a direct link to Perry’s newest song “Bon’ Appetite” and, well, Swift threw a feast.
Remember Perry’s tweet about Mean Girls? Swift embraced that title too in her song with the lyrics, “I got a list of names and yours is in red underlined. I check it once, then I check it twice.”
Perry’s new song “Swish Swish” also sings, “can’t touch this, another one in the casket,” in which Swift replies with: “Honey I rose up from the dead/ I do it all the time.”
Who else did Swift diss in her newest song? If anything, songwriting is an outlet for Swift to release her emotions and this genius song obviously shows Swift had too many things bottled up. But she finally rose up from the dead and look what we made her do.
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