Taylor Swift is back and this time she has bought the ultimate revenge album with her. Reputation is her sixth studio album and she has got quite a lot to say, which comes as no surprise to her fans as since her last album 1989 dropped three years ago, she has feuded with Kanye West (again), had two breakups with a couple of A-listers, found a new boyfriend, battled music giant Apple (and won), appeared in court over an assault case (and won), and attended a ton of weddings.
Once upon a time, Taylor would always play the victim and even though she would lash out at her ex's in her songs, she told the media they were just being mean. "(I had) a bit of a reputation for having a lot of boy-bashing songs. Which is a sexist way of saying heartbreak songs. To trivialize someone who’s heartbroken is really cruel," she told The Daily Telegraph. Now she's heading out on a one-woman revenge path and she's about to turn savage on everyone who has ever wronged her.
After deleting all her Instagram, she told her fans that the "Old Taylor is Dead" and now this reborn savage is not holding back. As we have come to learn over the years, there's no grudge quite like a Taylor Swift grudge.
16 She Admits Cheating And Would "Do It Over Again" If She Could
So some groundbreaking news - Taylor isn't as innocent as she makes out and it's highly likely that she actually CHEATED. Let's rewind - when Taylor was still dating Calvin Harris, she was pictured at the Met Ball dancing with Tom Hiddleston but it looked harmless enough. Then weeks later, Taylor and Calvin announced they had split and he tweeted: "The only truth that remains here is a relationship came to an end and what remains is a huge amount of love and respect."
Then days later in a dramatic U-turn, Calvin went on a purge of all their photos together and tweeted: "Oh boy it's about to go down" followed by the skull emoji. This connected with Taylor's lyrics on her track I Did Something Bad where she sings, "They say I did something bad. Then why does it feel so good? Most fun I ever had. I'd do it over again if I could" proves it's very likely she is finally confessing to cheating - oh, and doesn't care who knows it.
15 When She Pointed Out How Much Money She Made Calvin Harris
When Taylor and Calvin were dating, she basically created his hit track This Is What You Came For but used the pseudonym Nils Sjöberg for her songwriter credit. Before they split, Calvin said on Ryan Seacrest's radio show, "You know, we haven't even spoken about (collaborating). I can't see it happening, though. No." Proving that he was quite willing not to let anyone know that Taylor had written one of his biggest hits. Then Taylor's team released the truth following their split - she had written the song herself. Calvin accused his ex-girlfriend of trying to "bury" him and things just got quite heated.
There are a few references to the feud on her new track I Did Something Bad, she sings, "I owe him nothin'. And if he spends my change, then he had it coming." Also, the song was debuted at Coachella Festival where Taylor was famously in the crowd, she also sings, "So I fly 'em all around the world" which is a reference to when she flew him into the festival on her own private jet. It's petty but that's Taylor.
14 She Responded To Rihanna Laughing At How "Good" She Was
This Is What You Came For was Rihanna's 21st top-five song but Taylor would still like to remind her that she was the one who had handed it to her. Rihanna had previously thrown shade at Taylor's 'squad' as she told NME, "I don't think I would (join Taylor's Squad). I just don't think it makes sense. I don't think our brands are the same: I don't think they match, I don't think our audiences are the same. In my mind she's a role model, I'm not." Basically, RiRi was trying to say Taylor was a little too goody-goody for her liking.
In the video for Taylor's Ready For It? she points fun at this idea as she poses in the same transparent box Rihanna did for the This Is What You Came For but in contrast to the good light - Taylor comes across as the evil one. Maybe when Taylor is finished with all her other enemies she is going after RiRi next? That's one pop battle we would love to see.
13 She Hooked Up With Tom Hiddleston Just To Get Away From Calvin
When Taylor and Tom Hiddleston first got together at the Met Ball, he was wearing a black suit and tie for the occasion, she had on THAT metallic minidress and the tables surrounding their dance were covered in hundreds of candles. Which is why her lyric on the track Getaway Car is so obviously about this first meeting as she sings, "The ties were black, the lies were white. In shades of grey in candlelight. I wanted to leave him. I needed a reason."
The last line is a little trickier to decode - who did she want to leave? Leave Tom so she wouldn't give into temptation and cheat on Calvin? Or leave Calvin so she could be with Tom? The answer lies in the lyrics that appear on I Did Something Bad, which read, "I let them think they saved me. They never see it comin'. What I do next. This is how the world works. You gotta leave before you get left." Sorry Calvin, but Taylor was finished with you before you even had a chance to see it coming.
12 But Both Of Them Were Just Her "Playthings"
Taylor's bad side is really coming out on this album especially when she admits to using her ex-boyfriends as "playthings." She sings in Don't Blame Me, "I've been breakin' hearts a long time, and toyin' with them older guys." (Her oldest three ex-boyfriends are Jake Gyllenhaal, John Mayer, Calvin Harris and Tom Hiddleston." "Just playthings for me to use." All this time we thought Taylor was the broken-hearted girl but it appears to be the other way around.
She also adds that her new boyfriend Joe Alwyn is the real deal as she sings on King of my Heart, "All the boys and their expensive cars. With their Range Rovers and their Jaguars. Never took me quite where you do." Calvin owns a Range Rover and Tom Hiddleston owns a Jaguar F-Type - so it's quite obvious which "boys" she is singing about.
11 She Also Throws Shade At How Old Her Ex-Boyfriends Are
Taylor used to like an older guy but now with her younger boyfriend Joe Alwyn on her arm it appears she has changed her attitude. She dated John Mayer when she was 21 and he was 32, also when she was 21 she dated Jake Gyllenhaal who was 31, then she shrunk the gap through dating Calvin with their four year age gap, but then went back again as there is nine years between her and Tom Hiddleston.
Joe Alwyn is just two years younger than Taylor but she still poked fun at having someone who feels like a toyboy in comparison to her other guys. In the video for Ready For It? she walks through a door with '89' and '91' painted on the wall behind her - the birth years of her and Joe.
10 She Blames Tom Hiddleston For Creating The Media Circus
Things between Taylor and Tom Hiddleston started off well between them which was obvious from the romantic beach pictures and his "I Love T.S." vest. One source told The Sun, "Taylor completely bought into Tom, he was a refreshing, charismatic bundle of fun, a joy to be with and she was besotted." Then things turned sour as it "quickly became apparent that his intentions were different to hers - forcing her to cut ties."
The rumors were that Tom was desperate to piggyback on Taylor's fame so he could secure the top job for any man in Hollywood - the role of James Bond. However, Taylor was not a fan of the media circus that followed them both from L.A dinners to his mother's home in Suffolk, England. She sang in her song, "A circus ain't a love story and now we're both sorry."
9 She Labels Katy Perry The Real Joker
One of the longest-running feuds in pop culture history is showing no signs of going away anytime soon, as Katy Perry released her Taylor diss-track Swish Swish this year. Okay, so Taylor did start it by going public about Katy stealing her tour dancers and writing Blank Space but Swift is clearly out to finish it.
In Swish Swish, Katy sings, "Karma's not a liar. She keeps receipts" and "Don't you come for me. No, not today. You're calculated. I got your number. Cause you're a joker, and I'm a courtside killer queen." Now Taylor has hit back with her song Call It What You Want To, as she sings, "All the drama queens taking swings. All the jokers dressing up as kings. They fade to nothing." With Katy's latest album flop hanging over her head, we're guessing the "fade to nothing" line must have packed some extra sting.
8 When She Made Katy's Career Look Like A Car Crash
Even a diss-track aimed directly at Taylor couldn't help Katy Perry's Witness album from flopping and her "purposeful pop" didn't exactly set the world on fire as she had planned. So just when Katy would have been feeling at her lowest point, Taylor released her video for Look What You Made Me Do and basically "killed off" her pop rival in a scene that showed her crashing into a wall.
Taylor, dressed in a short blonde cut, bright lipstick, with leopard a leopard print coat as a savage nod to Katy’s Roar - she can be seen holding a Grammy (an award Katy has failed many times to win herself) before the 'car crash' moment. It was one moment that certainly paved the way for the rest of the savagery on Reputation.
7 Her Ex-Boyfriends Are Just Her "Background" Guys
One of the shadiest moments in Look What You Made Me Do was when Taylor appeared to lineup eight men as backing dancers and she took center stage. This was interpreted by fans as a nod towards her eight most high profile relationships to date especially as they were all wearing "I Love T.S." vests.
In 2008, she broke up with Joe Jonas over the phone during a conversation which lasted a record 27 seconds. Then a year, after meeting on the set of Valentine's Day, she dated Taylor Lautner for a few months. Following that split, she dated John Mayer for less than half a year but that didn't stop her from dedicating the song Dear John to him.
Then came the three-month whirlwind romance with Jake Gyllenhaal who didn't show at her birthday party so she ended up crying in the bathroom. Moving on, there were the three months spent with Conor Kennedy but the long-distance got in the way. Harry Styles was next and let's just say that last a few weeks before they had a heated argument and called it quits. Then came Calvin Harris who lasted a record 15 months followed by a brief four-month long romance with Tom Hiddleston.
All we can say is - hang in there Joe Alwyn.
6 She Calls Kanye West A Narcissist and Backstabber
There are many references aimed at Kanye West throughout the Reputation album. A brief history between them both was when Kanye interrupted Taylor's acceptance speech at the MTV Music Video Awards and said he believed Beyonce should have won. Then he released the track Famous where he refers to Taylor as "That B****" and claims he made her famous. If I Did Something Bad she sings, "I never trust a narcissist but they love me" as a reference to Kanye's constant obsession with her.
In This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, she also sings, "It was so nice being friends again. There I was giving you a second chance. But you stabbed me in the back while shaking my hand. And therein lies the issue. Friends don't try to trick you. Get you on the phone and mind-twist you. And so I took an axe to a mended fence."
5 She Then Reminds Kanye How He Lost Jay-Z For Good
In another savage attack on Kanye, Taylor also sings in This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, "But I'm not the only friend you've lost lately." This will pour a lot of salt on Kanye's wounds as his most recent outbursts on stage lost him the friendship of his long-time best friend and mentor, rapper Jay-Z.
Kanye ranted on his most recent tour that Jay-Z had not reached out to him following the aftermath of Kim Kardashian's robbery in Paris. He also added that his daughter North has never had a playdate with Jay-Z and Beyonce's daughter, Blue Ivy. The rant, which was caught on camera by fans at the gig, had clearly reached The Carters as Jay-Z responded, "He knows he crossed the line. He knows. And I know he knows."
4 She Claims The Kardashians Tried To Burn Her Like A Witch
Taylor was not only targeted by just Kim and Kanye but all the Kardashian sisters had a little dig at the feud in some way or another. Khloe backed Kim when she chose to release the video on Snapchat where Taylor appears to agree to her name being used in the song Famous as she tweeted, "I'm dying. Kim is a savage! Don't f*** with her man hunni."
Kendall also posted a photo of her "sipping tea" with a smug look on her face as if she was relaxing and just soaking up all the drama. When the video blew up on Twitter, the word "receipts" starting trending as a word given to the evidence that Taylor had lied. So it's quite obvious who Taylor is singing about in I Did Something Bad when she said, "They're burning all the witches even if you aren't one. They got their pitchforks and proof. Their receipts and reasons."
3 She Also Claims Kim Kardashian Is A Liar And The Real Snake
Following Kim basically calling out Taylor for being a snake which caused fans to flood Taylor's Instagram with the snake emoji - Taylor tried to explain her position when she posted to Instagram: "Where is the video of Kanye telling me he was going to call me 'that b****' in his song? It doesn't exist because it never happened. Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination. I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009."
In Look What You Made Me Do, Taylor posed with many snaked throughout the video and she sings in Call It What You Want, she sings, "They took the crown but it's alright. All the liars are calling me one." Also, in the Ready For It? video, there is Chinese graffiti on the wall which a fan later translated to: "Year of the Snake." We can't get enough.
2 She Still Won't Give Up On The Harry Styles Drama
Taylor needs to seriously loosen up over her split from One Direction's Harry Styles because they dated for less than two months more than four years ago - seriously. In her track Gorgeous, she sings, "You should take it as a compliment. That I got drunk and made fun of the way you talk."
This was once again another stab at Styles as she recalls back to her performance during the 2013 Grammys when she faked a British accent whilst singing I Knew You Were Trouble when she was mocking him on stage. Styles was in the crowd that night with his former bandmates and could not do much other than stare at the stage looking quite angered. Nothing like having that one former flame you just can't seem to shake off.
1 She Has Now "Forgotten" All Her Exes
Although this album is filled with references to her former relationships, Taylor made it very clear that she has "forgot their names" and has moved on with Joe Alwyn. In Ready For It? she sings, "Every love I've known in comparison is a failure. I forget their names now, I'm so very tame now. Never be the same now, now." The pair is reported to be "very much in love."
Although they have never spoken about their relationship, she sings in a sultry tone on So It Goes, "Gettin’ caught up in a moment. Lipstick all in your face. You know I’m not a bad girl, but I do bad things with you." Then on New Year's Day, she sings, "You squeeze my hand three times in the back of the taxi. I can tell that it’s gonna be a long road. I’ll be there if you’re the toast of the town babe. Or if you strike out and you’re crawling home." Let's hope this relationship goes the distance or we can expect another breakup album coming our way soon.
Sources: people.com, genius.com, dailymail.co.uk
