By now, you may be one of the over 100 million people (at the time of writing) who have seen Taylor Swift's new video for her song "Look What You Made Me Do." It's common knowledge that I'm a fan of T-Swizzle. On a stressful day, I'm likely to turn up
"Shake It Off" and have a solo dance party. However, I don't follow the drama. I have no clue who she's dating or who she has beef with, and frankly, I don't care.
The headlines I saw after the new video was posted all had to do with who she was referencing and calling out in her video...except this one. The majority of this article by Mark Harris in Slate isn't even about Swift; it's about pop culture in the age of Trump. And it makes an interesting point: Harris maintains that Swift's refutation of blame, which she frames as empowerment, is only possible, and in fact entirely appropriate, in Donald Trump's America. "Look what YOU made me do," she sings. Who, Katy Perry? Or the lying media? And does any of this have to do with the musical value of the song?
My friend and colleague, Lyndi Hewitt, sent me a link to this mashup. Actually, she sent me a link to a Buzzfeed article entitled, "If You Hate Taylor Swift's New Song, Then Listen To This Mashup With Toxic." I don't hate Taylor Swift's new song, but I
do love this mashup by Andy Wu!
The majority of the track features Taylor Swift's vocals from her new single over the instrumentals from Britney Spears's 2003 song
"Toxic." The songs fit together remarkably well. "Look What You Made Me Do" is originally in A minor, and it has been transposed up to B minor for the mashup; "Toxic" is originally in C minor, and has been transposed a half step down. (It's difficult to transpose vocals by large intervals without altering the timbre noticeably; that's probably why Wu decided to transpose both tracks and meet in the middle.) Below is a transcription of part of the first verse.
There is also a visual element of the mashup, as is typical for tracks that are posted on YouTube. Although I don't immediately place them in quite the same category, certain elements of Swift's and Spears's videos are strikingly similar. At different points, they're each in costume (zombie and flight attendant, respectively), they're each covered in jewels (Swift in a bathtub, Spears in a bodysuit), and they're each wearing black leather while on a motorcycle. These visual elements, along with the strong melodic/harmonic correspondence, almost force the audience to compare these two women. They both started their journey toward stardom at a young age, and that journey certainly took a toll on Spears. Recalling her now-memeified head-shaving meltdown in 2007, can we believe that Swift will fare much better in the long run? Hollywood (society in general?) has a way of chewing up young women and spitting them out. I can only hope that Taylor Swift takes a step back from Trump's post-shame age [Harris], and works to become a voice of resistance.