MTV held its yearly video music awards and the great winner of the evening was probably the one that didn’t show up: Taylor Swift.
The VMAs were hosted by Katy Perry, saw Fifth Harmony winning best pop video and Kendrick Lamar went home with the most trophies.
Swift was only nominated for a single award (in the category Best Collaboration, for “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever (from the movie Fifty Shades Darker)” a duet with Zayn Malik, which she ended up winning)
As stated, Swift didn’t even show up to the VMA’s. However, she got everyone talking about the release of a new, and for her style very dark video for the news single: Look What You Made Me Do. And as the ultimate burn, she released it on the same day as Katy Perry’s new Swish Swish (Perry and Swift have a famous pop music rivalry).
The visuals for the new song are quite stunning. Taylor can be seen as a zombie, a bank robber and the head of a robot cult. Taylor mirrors a beginning which seems stolen from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video and the scene where she rides a motorcycle is a clear reference to Marlon Brando’s famous pose from ‘The Wild One’.
Of course, all this is carefully calculated. The publicity machine of the 27-year-old has a new album to promote called Reputation, to be released in November. Already the lyric video that she released for this first single from that new album broke viewing records.
Swift is certainly eager to break with her past it seems. The video implies in a way that the old Taylor is dead and a darker one has emerged.
Reviews for the track have mixed so far yet sales are looking robust and, as stated, the lyric video got 19m views in 24 hours, setting a new record.
Seems Taylor Swift has emerged as a new personae. The question remains on whether her fans will follow. Our prediction is yes.
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