Reputation Album Review

I meant to write this a year ago, but I never got around to it. You know how it goes, life just gets busy...

What did I think of Taylor Swift's Reputation album? That is one of the reasons I have been putting off writing this post. I have to say I am not the biggest fan of the album. I have come to terms with the fact that there will be more favorite albums than others from Taylor and I am perfectly fine with that. I hope Taylor if you read this know how much I still love you and care for you, but how it is okay if I did not love this album.

Why is it not my favorite album? It is not my favorite album, because it is two albums in one. It is not sonically cohesive. Reputation is not lyrically cohesive either. Excuse me while I hold my head in shame. One of the messages is about anger and resentment and how she deals filled with harsh sounds. The other message is about her finding love filled with beautiful lyrics and sounds. "End Game" tries to be both of these concepts and loses badly. When I listen to End Game I enjoy the first verse about love and "end games" and then all of the sudden she breaks into rap about her reputation. And goes back and forth the whole song. Just separate the two I say. "King of My Heart" is also two songs in one, starting out nicely and then big and loud with weird sounds. It goes back and forth the whole song too.

Every artist has an album or song like this. What kind of song or album is it? It is about being famous and the problems that go along with it. Britney Spears had the song "Gimme More". She talks about camera flashes and being the center of attention. This is that album for Taylor. She talks about a major fallout she had with Kanye West for most of the album and finding love on the big stage.

The year 2016 was really harsh for Taylor. Not only did she break up with her boyfriend Calvin Harris very publicly, she had a major falling out with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. Kanye basically said that Taylor owed him sexual favors because he made her famous. Taylor stood up for herself at the Grammy's in 2016, and rightly so.

Taylor said:
"I want to say to all the young women out there: There are going to be people along the way who try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame. But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday, when you get where you’re going, you will look around and you will know — it was you, and the people who love you, who put you there. And that will be the greatest feeling in the world."

Why couldn't we have a whole album about this concept? Kanye and Kim came back later and said Taylor speech was hypocritical because she was okay with him saying she owed him favors because he recorded a phone call with her with him asking about it.  Kim Kardashian and Kanye manipulated the situation (I think for ratings, isn't everything Kim K does for ratings) to make Taylor look like the bad guy. Why would anyone in their right mind be okay with their husband saying such a thing? Taylor was trying to be nice and not start a huge fight. But she does not need to be pushed around by him, no women should be pushed around or accept that as their fate. But because she said she was okay and then she decided she was not okay with him saying she owed him something, all of the sudden Taylor has a bad reputation.

In this album Taylor describes Kanye West's constant, undeserving, belittling of her and how it makes her feel and how she gets past it.  She was not the bad guy even though people said she did "something bad". Kanye was treating Taylor with disrespect and Taylor was not having it. This is what the whole #metoo movement is about. Women not putting up with men's crap. I think she missed the mark because she was too afraid to "blame" him, too afraid to come out and say hey no you can not treat me like that besides that reference. She mentioned it in "I Did Something Bad" possibly the best song on the album, "If a man talks S%$%, then I owe him nothing", but does not explore that message much more in the album. She focuses on her "reputation" too much in the album. The actual word is mentioned in the album in at least 3 or 4 songs and the idea of her reputation is mentioned in most of them. Taylor wrote this before the #metoo movement. I wonder how different the album would have been if she had written it after the movement came out. Would she have had the courage to call out the bad behavior more?

The other message about finding love is epitomized in "Call It What You Want". Taylor says if people hate her, she is okay as long because she has a boy to love her. No Taylor!  This song takes a step back from the independent strong nature of 1989 that was epitomized with the song "New Romantics", where she was fine being alone. People do not need love to conquer all. People can be okay without having to have some romantic interest.

The Reputation Album may conveys the struggles that Taylor was going through at the time. Maybe if the #metoo movement had not been happening at the same time the album would have been okay. But it was. When I heard the album it did not resonate and made me want something more. I wanted the album to call out all those men, and all those that accepted sexual abuse/harassment as the norm and say, we are not having it anymore!!! We needed more songs like "I Did Something Bad" on the album and less songs about her reputation. I think she might have been afraid because of the repercussions after the Grammy speech. I hope Taylor is not too afraid in the future to talk about these concepts. We need it. Men need to know it is not okay to sexually abuse or harass women.

(I will say that on tour Taylor did a great job with "I Did Something Bad". She lengthened the song and really emphasized the story and how when she did something bad, she was not really doing something bad, but standing up for herself. And how that is okay and not Bad.)

"Look What You Made Me Do" Song Meaning and Lyric Video

Today's Taylor Swift song is the the meaning of "Look What You Made Me Do" from her album "Reputation".

The first listen of this song was a bit rough for me. The beginning was really good but the chorus got me. I wondered why she repeated "Look What You Made Me Do" over and over? After watching the lyric video I totally get it. She was emphasizing a point. It has been revealed that Taylor based this off of "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred. She credits Fred Fairbrass, Richard Fairbrass and Rob Manzoli for co writing the song. Remember that song from the 90's that said, "I'm too sexy for my shirt"? The "Look What You Made Me Do" has the same rhythmic pattern as that line. You can literally sing the "I'm So Sexy" on top of "Look What You Made Me Do".

After listening to the song a few times it reminds me soooo much of Blank Space. It is a very cynical song. She wrote Blank Space to make fun of the media's perception of her. This time she wrote this song to show the cynical side of an event that happened to her.

Here is the lyric video, it is very important to understanding the song. It was produced by Joseph Kahn, a producer that has worked on many of her videos. He is known for his artsy, symbolic, and abstract music videos. It is honestly one of the best lyric videos I have seen.


The video starts out with a chessboard, signifying a game. Taylor knocks over the piece. She does not "like your little games".

Who is playing this game?

It's none other than Kanye West, Kim Kardashian and Katy Perry. The back story goes a few years back with Kanye and Kim. Kanye wrote a song about Taylor in the summer of 2016. He said Taylor owing him sex because he made her famous and he called her a not nice name. He says he made her famous because of the 2009 VMA incident where he took the stage and said Beyonce should have won best video over Taylor. Taylor did not like him writing about her this way. I would not like it either.

In a conspiracy on national Snake Day in 2016 Kim released a video on Snapchat  from her and Kanye's "titled stage" (Kanye had a tilted stage in his show) showing a phone call where Taylor said the song lyrics were okay. Somehow Kanye had recorded the conversation, which is illegal to record without consent. Taylor says the "role [they] [her] play" was a "fool". It's not "cool". I think she is saying here she felt pressured to be okay with the song at the time of the phone call.  But here's the thing, no matter what Taylor said, the song had a bad message, why would she have to put up with it anyway? Why did she have to play that game? I think Kim did it all for ratings, she did have a new season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians on. And she probably grew her Snapchat followers. Kim will do anything for fame, including smearing other people's good name.

Taylor was smeared in the press and who knows what went on behind closed doors. Kim made all these people choose a side. It was just horrible.

The next verse talks about a closer friendship. This is where Katy Perry comes in. Katy Perry has always been a mean girl to Taylor. Taylor wrote about this in "Bad Blood". They were friends. It sounded like Katy asked "for a place to sleep", meaning they were close and probably talked to each other about their lives and offered advice. They are both in the Pop genre. Taylor talks about "kingdom keys", the pop princess keys. Taylor had them with "1989", but Katy is trying them with her new release. In the lyric video we see a crown. Katy "locked [her] out, and threw a feast". In Katy Perry's Bon Appétit music video she is throwing a feast with her head on the platter. During Katy's promotional tour for her new album she talked about Taylor ALL the time flip flopping on whether she was mad or not. Katy said she was not writing a song about Taylor then she came out with "Swish, Swish" which was blatantly about Taylor and her relationship. It was not a nice song basically calling Taylor calculated and fake. I think Katy did all of this for press, if Taylor's name was in the quote it got instant coverage.

Taylor acknowledges she did something wrong with both of them, "Baby, I got mine". But she also says "but you'll get yours". Other times in the song she said you, this time you all. That is why it is about more than one person/situation. She is convinced they will get their just rewards for what they did to her.

Taylor learned from both of these experiences. She "got smarter", "got harder", she has risen up from the "dead". She has done it lots of times. She alludes to others not liking her either, there being a "list of names". This is a mock at the press. She then says she checks the list once, she checks it twice, like Santa Clause. But this is the naughty list and both of them are on it. These incidents made Taylor not trust as much. She says "I don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me." In the video the lyrics are on a paper bill and some trees with eyes. And the way it played out probably made some of her friends not trust her as much anymore. I think the dollar bill symbolizes that every one is all in it for the money and the fame. The trees represent everyone hiding. Taylor also alludes to the fact that they changed her " 'I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now.' 'Why?' 'Oh, 'cause she's dead!' ". She is different now from this experience. I think this is also a jab at Kanye and Kim saying she will not be answering their phone calls and playing their games anymore. The push around Taylor is gone.

And finally the chorus is symbolized in the video with a snake biting itself is "Look what you made me do." Look at how she has changed. The snake was an emoji people were using on her Instagram to shame her. Instagram actually blocked people from using it.

So the question is, should Taylor have wrote and published this song? My answer is mixed. It is good to forgive people but it is also good to get things out on the table. She uses her songs to express the feelings in her life and this was a very powerful incident that shaped her and changed her. I think Kim and Kanye have this coming. They can not act like they own the world and damage Taylor with a very disrespectful song. I have even written a whole article about it. She is justified and I am frankly glad to see she is still sharing her world through song and can not wait to see what the rest of the Reputation album brings! I have a feeling all the songs will not be as harsh. She wanted to come back with a bang.

Click here for the lyrics to the song, "Look What You Made Me Do."

Click here to see the music video and detailed analysis for "Look What You Made Me Do". It is a definite continuation of the "Blank Space" video.

Taylor Swift Versus Kanye West (And Maybe Kim Kardashian too)

I usually only post about Taylor Swift's songs, but this drama with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West has gotten out of control and I feel like I need to say something about it.

Let's first analyze these people are.

Swift grew up in the north, Wyomissing, Pennsylvania where her mother stayed at home and father was a financial adviser.  West grew up in midwest in Chicago with his mother where she worked at the University.  Both were interested in music at a young age, West hip hop and Swift country. Kim grew up in west in LA, and did not necessarily excel at anything. Which by the way is fine, most people are in her boat. She became famous with a sex tape. Swift and West are both really smart and started picking up their poetic and musical talents in their teens. I would call both of them musical geniuses, on par with many other musical geniuses. They have both won Grammy's, West 21 and Swift 10.  With all their success their worlds were bound to collide at one point.

The collision
In 2009 Swift won Best Female Video for "You Belong With Me" over Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". West did not feel like Taylor should win the award so what did he do, interrupted her acceptance speech and told the whole world about it.  He also felt like Beyonce should have won the Album of the Year in 2015.  He walked on the stage with Beck who won the award, but walked off.  Later he told people that Beck should give the award to Beyonce.

What causes a grown man to act like this? One thing is that he thinks the music is better.  And maybe to him it is.  He has different musical tastes, grew up with different music in his life.  I do not know if he has ever listened to country or alternative rock.  They are different genres of music.  The second reason he acts like this and I believe the most important is he is egotistical and lacks social skills.  It is one thing to have a difference of opinion and express it, it is another to act on it at inappropriate times.  To storm the stage after another artist has won an award is plain rude and shows lack of basic social skills.  He could say something later in an interview, aside from the stage of the award.  But he did not.  He thought his opinion was so important he had to rush the stage.  In his mind he was the only right one and it did not matter what he did, because he was the most important person in the room, and his opinion was the one that mattered.  What did he think was going to happen? Was he trying to force Taylor to give her award to Beyonce, have the organizers of the VMA's give the award to Beyonce instead?  It did not work and he looked like a fool.

Swift went on to write a song called "Innocent" about West. In the song she says "It's okay, life is a tough crowd/32, and still growin' up now/Who you are is not what you did./You're still an innocent." She basically was telling him he had not grown up, but if he was sorry he could get over it.  The whole song is saying, yes you screwed up, "lost your balance on a tightrope", but he could have another chance if he was truly sorry for what he did.

Did Swift forgive West?  Even though she said she did, she did not really.  I would not have either, what he did was mean.  He had shown his out of control angry side and I would not want to be near that again. In 2015 Swift invited Beyonce and Jay Z, two good friends of Wests to her birthday party.  During this time Jay Z encouraged Swift to be friends with West and truly forgive him. Jay Z may have felt some pressure to encourage this because West was mad about not being included in the party. Under the advice of Jay Z and because she was being the bigger person she tried to make peace with West.  And it seemed to work for a few minutes until that fateful day when West struck again.

The Second Incident
The second incident involved the lyrics and music video to the song, "Famous" from the Life of Pablo.

The song, "Famous" came out and the lines included, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that b*** famous (God d***)/I made that b*** famous".  This lyric is saying Swift owes West sexual favors because he made her famous.  In the music video West depicts Swift naked in a bed with him, something she never gave her consent for.  The lines in the song are very inappropriate, but the music video takes it one step further and is beyond excusable.  If someone circulated a picture of what they thought I would look like naked for millions of people to see, I would be beyond angry.  It is inappropriate and sexual harassment.

What caused West to think this about Swift?  Why is he trying to get under her skin?  It is explained by the second line.  He thinks Swift owes him something, that he made her famous.  In his erroneous line of thinking that means she should put out for him.  Let's pretend for a second that West is a saint.  That he is faithful to his wife Kim Kardashian.  Why would someone want to put a line in there like that anyway?  Why would you write a song talking about all the people you had slept with before your wife and who he will sleep with?  Aren't there some things that are better left private?

If I was Kim and my husband wrote a song like that I would have his head.  I would never allow it to see the light of day.  But Kim is stuck under the thumb of her husband.  He transformed her image, started picking out her outfits etc.  Why would she one be okay with her husband saying she should have sex with another person and two having him depict her naked in a music video?  What is West trying to get out of all of this? And why is Kim okay with this?  Kim is okay with this because she needs a man.  She is on her third marriage.  Her second marriage was a sham, she did not love the Kris Humphries.  She only did it for ratings.  She did not even try to get along with him.  Who starts their marriage living with another couple with a kid?  They needed time alone to get to know one another, not cameras for the world.  Her popularity stems from being a sexual object.  She needs the approval of men otherwise she is nothing.  She is not nearly as talented or smart as her husband or Swift, which is okay.  She needs to realize she can be as strong though.  She knows West has her in his pocket and pulls the strings in her marriage. If you have ever seen her show, you will know how obsessed her family is with their public image and the ratings on their show.

This is exactly why Kim leaked the conversation.  She wanted ratings, she wanted to be popular for taking down Swift.  Who yes has had issues with others in the past.  But who hasn't?  Kim never talks to Paris Hilton who made her famous.  But is Paris trying to take Kim down?  No.  Paris has better things to worry about like running a majorly successful company.  Why doesn't Kim talk to Paris?  Should we go find out and smear Kim with that? Just because Swift has problems with people doesn't mean she needs to be taken down Kim.  Honestly Kim could probably care less about Taylor's other problems, she wants ratings for her show Keeping Up With The Kardashians.  Sure Taylor might have been okay with some of the lyrics of the song, but the point is did she feel she had to be to keep in the good graces of West?  She was not okay with him implying she owed him sexual favors.  Swift is not in that kind of business. And the whole conversation was not released, just bits and pieces. There are parts of the conversation that would make a lot more sense hearing the whole thing.

West sees a strong female in Swift who is wildly successful as smart as him and maybe on track to beat his Grammy record, with music he does not like. This is the real story Beyonce is getting there, is he trying to take her down? No.  Because he likes her music.  West can not appreciate anything that is different than him.  He can not accept there is another world out there besides his own.  He sees Swift as a person he needs to put in her place.  She needs to know that she owes him.  He knows she only talked to him because Jay Z asked her too and he does not like that.  That is not good enough for him.  He wants Swift to know he is the man and he is responsible for her success. This is the real story.  I do not know why Swift is taking the brunt of this incident, when she is not in the wrong. People say she is playing the victim, but she is the victim.  She has been sexually harassed and the world should not be okay with that.  This man Kanye West is harassing her and everyone should support her, not celebrating in her demise.

Kim please stand up to Kanye, and realize you are your own person and do not need to put up with your husbands antics.  You are a stronger person and deserve a man that will treat you right. Put your husband in his place. Media please tell the story the way it needs to be told and stop trying to make women look weak. Talk about the misogynist messages in the song.  Stop asking them about their fashion choices and being okay with them being called bad names and humiliated. And stop pitting women against one another. Other celebrities, especially women, please stand up for Taylor.  Do not let men treat women this way. #heforshe

Lastly, Taylor if you are reading this.  I know you may have looked at my blog in the past. We all believe in you and you should not have to put up with his harassment from Kanye West. Keep being you.  Keep writing your insightful songs.  Yes they may be personal and they may be about others, but they relate to so many.  They help so many people out in life.  Thank you for sharing your soul this many years so others can be stronger.  Thank you for being famous because you are talented not for other reasons (cough cough, Kim).  The world needs you.  It needs your strength. It needs your sincerity. It needs your kindness. There will be people trying to take you down forever, but you are the stronger person. We need you. #IStandWithTaylor

"Innocent" Song Meaning

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Innocent" from her "Speak Now" album.

Taylor performed this song for the first time at the 2010 VMA's, September 12th.  She chose to perform this song because of a specific event that took place at the 2009 VMA's.

Taylor performing at the 2010 VMA's, 9/12/2010

  Click here for video of the live performance to "Innocent".

What happened at the 2009 VMA's?

Taylor Swift had just won Best Female Video for "You Belong To Me".  She was delivering her acceptance speech when Kanye West came onstage, stole the microphone and said, "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you and I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!"  It was a shock to everyone there including Beyoncé who let Taylor come back up on stage when she won Video of the Year.  President Obama even weighed in on the controversy.

Kanye West and Taylor Swift, 2009 VMA's, September 13, 2009

Taylor told The View September 15, 2009, "Well, I think my overall thought process was something like, 'Wow, I can't believe I won, this is awesome, don't trip and fall, I'm gonna get to thank the fans, this is so cool. 'Oh, Kanye West is here. Cool haircut. What are you doing there?' And then, 'Ouch.' And then, 'I guess I'm not gonna get to thank the fans.' You know, I'm not gonna say that I wasn't rattled by it. But I had to perform live five minutes later, so I had to get myself back to the place where I could perform."

Kanye did feel bad for what happened that night, but I don't know if it was more over the bad press he was getting or he really felt sorry.  In a series of Twitter messages Kanye said, "She deserves the apology more than anyone... Who am I to run on stage? I would never ever again in a million years do that. Sorry to let you down. It is distasteful to cut people off as a general rule. What's the point of dressing tastefully if I'm going to act the complete opposite? Yes I was that guy. A 32 year old child. When I woke up from the crazy nightmare I looked in the mirror and said GROW UP KANYE ... I take the responsibility for my actions. Beyonce didn't need that. MTV didn't need that and Taylor and her family friends and fans definitely didn't want or need that."

So what did Taylor do? She wrote a song. In the song "Innocent" she compares making mistakes in childhood versus making mistakes when you are older. She let Kanye know that she accepted his apology and that grown ups can make mistakes too.  "It's okay, life is a tough crowd/32, and still growin' up now/Who you are is not what you did./You're still an innocent."  

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Innocent".

Taylor told Access Hollywood "The decision to perform 'Innocent' on the VMA's was very inline with what the album is about. The album is called Speak Now, it's about saying, saying what you need to say at the moment that you need to say it.  I had a bunch of different options going into the VMA's.  I could have sung a different song, I could've not gone, I could've done a bunch of different things, but I felt like going to the VMA's and singing a song about how I had felt, it seemed like the right call if I'm going to live my life in the way that I wrote that album."

I think that Kanye is a still a jerk for what he did, but kudos to Taylor for taking the higher road and forgiving him.