Chances are, you’ve seen Taylor Swift’s newest music video for her single, “Look What You Made Me Do”, and it’s interesting, to say the least.
The video is an elaborate, dramatic feature, showing all sorts of striking imagery. For one, it shows Taylor in different personas: as a zombie, a snake queen, and a bank robber, among others! Yet the video has left viewers scratching their heads about what all of those really mean. Well, leave it to the diehard Swifties to lay it out for you!
One Pinoy Swiftie, in particular, has dedicated an entire Facebook album to explain details of the LWYMMD you may have missed, or meanings that may have flown over your head. Jan Michelle Corbeta, a self-proclaimed “100% stan for years” (stan is millennial slang for “obsessed fan”, BTW) elaborates every single detail. Here are just some of the symbolisms she elaborated on:
The opening scene
Basically, Taylor Swift’s reputation is dead. At least, that’s what the media and her detractors say. This stemmed from the whole “Kim Kardashian ended Taylor on Snapchat” party, where Kim released a series of snaps proving that Kanye West called Taylor Swift to get approval for his song “Famous”. As Jan explains:
This basically depicts the fall of her reputation in the middle of last year at the release of Kim Kardashian’s edited snapchat video of Taylor and Kanye West’s phonecall where she agreed that he would make a song and include “Taylor and I might still have sex” in the lyrics. But Taylor didn’t know the next line “Cos I made that bitch famous”, however, the haters already sided with KimYe and called Taylor, snake, liar, traitor, etc. A hater in Australia even painted a mural of Taylor Swift, RIP, 1989-2016. After that, Tay-tay went into hiatus for months.
Who is Nils Sjoberg?
ICYMI, after zombie Taylor Swift emerges from the dead, a grave that reads “Nils Sjoberg” is behind her in a quick-to-miss scene. Nils Sjoberg was the pseudonym she used for the writing credits of ex Calvin Harris’ hit “This Is What You Came For”. Yes, Taylor wrote the lyrics.
The snake queen and her throne
After the whole Kim Kardashian Snapchat reveal, people started leaving snake emojis on Taylor’s Instagram photos, calling her the queen of snakes — that is to mean that she lied and manipulated the media by making Kanye seem like the bad guy. Of course, Taylor turned the whole thing around by owning the “snake queen” label, while sitting on a golden throne that read, “Et tu, Brute”. According to Jan:
This phrase is a Latin phrase that means a surprise when you got betrayed by a person you saw as a friend. Julius Ceasar [said] it to his friend Brutus, when he found out he was a traitor. Much as like Kanye West, who Taylor [forgave] in 2014, and still betrayed her [in] 2016.
The mannequin “squad”
Taylor Swift has been criticized in recent years for her “squad”, which detractors saw as “cliquish” and “exclusive”. Many of Taylor’s squad members are famous actresses, pop stars and models: conventionally beautiful people who are mostly white and skinny. In Taylor’s video, her squad is represented as mannequins.
I <3 TS
Aside from the whole Kanye debacle, Taylor’s love life has grabbed several headlines in recent years, with other celebrities making fun of her dating life as well. Taylor stands behind eight male dancers, representing eight ex-boyfriends. All of them are wearing the I <3 TS shirt, the same shirt that Tom Hiddleston wore on one Fourth of July outing.
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