Taylor Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do video is a pileup of self aware moments

 Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” video is a pileup of self-aware moments

         

Taylor Swift wasn’t nominated for any VMAs this year, but that didn’t stop her from having the most anticipated moment of the ceremony. The video for “Look What You Made Me Do,” her new robotic snarl of a kiss-off anthem to anyone who’s dared to give her shit over the years, premiered half an hour into the show.

And it was, as anticipated, a lot.

The single dropped days after Swift wiped out her social media accounts last weekend, signaling that some kind of image rehab, ditching her usual bland platitudes and “carefully staged dinner party” Instagram photo shoots, was on its way. With this video, it’s clear that’s exactly what she’s trying to do. The video features Swift mercilessly mocking her own reputation from over the years — which is fitting for the lead single off an album called Reputation.

We see her crash a car and pose for paparazzi while holding a Grammy. We see her crawling out of a grave like a zombie. (The “Old Taylor ... is dead!”) We see her being served tea by her snake minions (a possible nod to fans swarming her social media with snake emojis after Kim Kardashian West released an incriminating clip of Swift last year). We see her swinging in a birdcage, robbing a bank, heading up an army of women in bondage latex, and trying to dance. And, most pointedly, we see her lording over a desperate pile of other Taylor Swifts, dressed like versions of herself from videos and appearances past.

The video ends on a lineup of those old Swifts, from the geeky girl from her “You Belong with Me” video to the silver-dress-wearing Swift who had her 2009 VMA acceptance speech crashed by Kanye West insisting that Beyoncé should’ve won. They then snipe at each other by basically quoting her critics:

“Stop making that surprised face it’s so annoying.”

“Stop acting like you’re all nice you’re so fake.”

“There she goes, playing the victim again.”

”

Basically: Swift wants very badly for us to know she doesn’t give a damn about her bad reputation — or, at the very least, that she’s all too aware of it.

Taylor Swift blows all the special effects budget in “Look What You Made Me Do” Video: Watch

Taylor Swift premiered her video for “Look What You Made Me Do” during the MTV VMAs on Sunday night, making an early bid for next year’s awards. Before the debut, a teaser clip had people thinking Swift had ripped off Beyoncé with the artistic direction of the new video. Now that it’s here, however, it’s clear that this is, as the director Joseph Kahn put it, “not in

Made with what seems like more special effects budget than your average Hollywood blockbuster, the clip sees the pop star taking on a number of flashy roles, from snake queen to zombie to bank robber. In the end, it turns out these are all the different sides of her own self, with the climax seeing Swift standing atop a swarming hoard of her former identities. There’s the sweet country pop star, the attention-hungry celebrity, and even the innocent girl-interrupted-by-Kanye-West persona. The whole thing is about T. Swift attempting to proudly claim her current identity while also acknowledging the career that got her here. Take a look above.
“Look What You Made Me Do” is the lead single off Swift’s new album Reputation, set for release on November 10th. The fact that that’s the 10th anniversary of Kanye West’s mom’s passing is apparently a complete coincidence