Taylor Swift Goes to a Darker Place: Discuss<br />Specifically, the lyrics of “Look What You Made Me Do” — which announces its melodrama with a dark, fantasy-film string swell<br />and plinking piano keys before turning harsh and electronic — make barely veiled reference to Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, who became Ms. Swift’s most confrontational rivals last year in a drawn-out scrap over the lyrics to Mr. West’s song “Famous.” (Katy Perry, another longtime adversary, may emerge from this one unscathed.)<br />“I’m sorry, but the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now,” Taylor Swift announces near the end of her<br />new single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” which was released across streaming services on Thursday night.<br />Near the end, she announces that the old Taylor is dead — that’s true in several ways, most notably in the way<br />she leans in to the drama she once tried to dodge: “I don’t like your tilted stage,” she hisses at Mr. West.<br />(There are other indications that Mr. West remains near the front of Ms. Swift’s mind: some of her new merchandise<br />uses a font that’s similar to the one Mr. West popularized on his “The Life of Pablo” T-shirts.<br />Her new single is ongoing litigation — a broadside against Kanye West<br />and Kim Kardashian, a retort to their campaign against her in the wake of the fallout following the release of Mr. West’s “Famous,” which Mr. West took as a joke and Ms.<br />But her most treasured persona — Taylor the avenger — remains alive and more unforgiving than ever on “Look What You Made Me Do.”<br />Ms. Swift’s songs have been settling scores — and showing her fans<br />that wronged women can speak up — ever since her music had country trappings and her (ex-)boyfriends weren’t necessarily famous.
