F  L  A  U  N  T

If you’re reading this, it means that the Internet has been restored after Taylor Swift nearly broke it. Every Swifty and non-Swifty alike couldn't help but notice Taylor’s return to social media and the release of her first single since the 2014, _1989_ album. On August 24 Swift released “Look What You Made Me Do” and last night (August 27) at the VMAs the music video premiered. It seems like Taylor has a long history of outdoing herself with every album and music video release. They have always been so different from each other, more dramatic, more provoking. And so, so extra. But they keep us coming back for more.  And she’s done it again.  I’ll be honest here, I still have Taylor’s very first album that I bought at 14 and I sang “Stay Beautiful” yesterday evening as I swept the floors of my home. Many of us have been with every single Taylor that scrambles at Dark Taylor’s feet in the video. But when I first heard this song I thought, “What is going on here? This belongs in the early 2000s,” turns out my ear did not deceive me too much as the song interpolates Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy,” which was released the year I was born--’92 and remixed in 2006.  Maybe a little piece of me thought, “She’s _lost_ it,” or “she’s lost _it_.” This of course was before the music video dropped. I was hard at work cleaning when my equally—if not more Taylor obsessed friend sent me the music video.  Let me start with this: it. was. wicked.  Not only was it aesthetically pleasing, with little moments like where her fingers, positioned like a gun, shoots out a bullet (reminiscent of when Jim Sturgess coughed up smoked from an imaginary blunt in _Across the Universe_) but the line up of old Taylor’s acting much too peppy or innocent is fantastic. It is so great because fans and haters alike can kind of look back and chuckle at that time in Taylor’s life—maybe that time in our life.  She is making fun of herself. Most importantly, it is fresh. We see a Taylor that is embracing new things, much like the hip-thrusting dancing going on in the video. She is embracing "Dark Taylor." This is the reason that at six studio albums, the singer is still getting this much hype.  A lot of what makes up Taylor is the fact that she is always taking her fans on a roller coaster with her and this was the first stomach lurching drop. Maybe you like it, maybe you think the song is trash like I did at first, (whatever your opinion is, it is likely you will be singing along at some point) but the music video itself is genius in a Taylor way. It warmed me up to the song, the purpose of music videos.  This video is likely to hit hard with every Taylor fan that has been with her from the start. Yet can still be an fun for new comers.  But don’t take my word for it. Check out the video here. * * * Written by Evelyn Mateos