Taylor Swift has been on a long hiatus and finally returned to Instagram on Aug. 21, posting about a new song she was about to release.  Being a huge Swift fan myself, I grew eager and excited about this new song “Look What You Made Me Do.”

I have listened to Swift for many years and have been to three of her concerts.  I have never been disappointed with any of Swift’s work, but to my surprise I was utterly unsatisfied with this new song.

“Look What You Made Me Do” is very different from Swift’s past work.  Goodbye, beautiful ballads and love songs.  Hello, electric pop, darkness and revenge.

This song is about her feud with Kanye West; however, if that is all she has, then I think she is letting him win.  The song does not encompass Swift’s talents, and makes her sound petty, especially when she says, “All I think about is karma.”

“I personally don’t really like the song that much because it is really repetitive and I feel like it has no purpose or real meaning behind it,” said junior Tiara Caldwell.

The lyrics don’t have as much substance and heart as they do in a majority of her other songs.

 She says, “I’ll be the actress starring in your bad dreams,” but as I listened to this song, I was just hoping this was a nightmare.

Some people may say that Swift is just changing up her style, which is not uncommon for artists.  She has already transitioned from country to pop and now seems to be going more electronic or dubstep.

By electronic I mean more beats, bass drops and sounds.  This is different from Swift’s common use of the acoustic guitar and other mainstream instruments that are easily noticeable.  When I say it sounds electronic, I also mean it sounds like she is using more auto-tune.  Swift’s voice does not seem natural anymore: it sounds “worked on.”

“I don’t like how she changed her style so much and talks more than sings,” said senior Claire Aft.

The video for “Look What You Made Me Do”  was released Aug. 27.  Although full of fun costumes, the video is utterly terrifying.  It starts with a “dead” Swift zombie.  The zombie would relate to the line,  “Honey, I rose up from the dead I do it all the time,” or “I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now.  Why? Oh cause she’s dead.”

I fear the Taylor Swift I once loved may actually be dead.  Later on in the video, Swift stands on a pile of her past selves in different phases throughout her life and pushes them down.  I get the message that she has changed and is now more edgy, but all of her past phases have been wonderful and I cherish them.  If the old Taylors could rise up and overtake this new one, that would be great.

After Swift’s first release, I went from “Fearless” that she would produce killer music to fearful that she was about to kill her career.

On Sept. 3 Swift dropped another song called “…Ready for It?” Needless to say, I was not ready for it.  With it only being a week since her last release, I was sure that nothing could be worse and it could only get better from there.

I was partially right.  The beginning of the song starts with a loud static sound and then goes into what almost sounds like Swift trying to rap but it comes out as more as fast harsh talking.

To my surprise, the chorus was good and showcased some of the old Swift I know and love.  The chorus is softer and sounds less auto-tuned.  She sounds like herself and that gives me hope that the rest of the album may lean that way as well.

The rest of the song is mediocre, but, is a step in the right direction for Swift compared to “Look What You Made Me Do.”

I understand that not every single is going to be a love song and that songs can be about pain, hurt and revenge.  That being said, I think if she really wanted to make a jab at someone she should have written better songs to really make them feel something.  These two songs are trash compared to all of her others.

Though I believe it was a mistake for Swift to release those two songs as her first ones in a year, I am still excited about the rest of her upcoming album “Reputation.”  I will be nervously awaiting the release in hope of something better.

Don’t agree with this article? Check out the article by Taylor Ann Hartley: https://reaganrooster.com/?p=2337&preview=true