“I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now/Why?/Oh, ’cause she’s dead!” Now this line sums up Taylor Swift’s new album Reputation. Taylor has been changing her music and lifestyle and the media has had mixed opinions.  

Taylor was only 12 years old when she wrote her first song and was 16 years old when she produced her first album. This album consisted of 11 songs and one of the songs, “Our Song”, reached number one on the Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. She then continued to write songs and now has sold more than 40 million albums. Taylor is a 10 time Grammy winner and became the youngest recipient in history of the music industry’s highest honor, the Grammy for Album of the Year. Taylor is also the only artist in history to have an album hit 1-million first week sales 3 times with albums Speak Now (2010), RED (2012), and 1989 (2014).

Taylor has recently released her new album Reputation featuring Ed Sheeran and Future and has received varied opinions. Some of the songs on her new album are focused on drama which began back in 2009. In 2009, Taylor Swift attended the VMAs and won Best Female Video for her song You Belong With Me. However, when giving her acceptance speech she was interrupted by Kanye West who stated, “I’m really happy for you i’ll let you finish but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time”. This irritated Taylor and initiated her feud with Kanye. A few years passed, until a second incident involving Kanye West occurred when he mentioned Taylor in his music video. In Kanye’s song Famous written on his album The Life of Pablo, Taylor is mentioned. The song states,” I feel like me and Taylor might still have s3x / Why? I made that b!*?h famous”. Taylor claimed that she did not give consent and that he was exploiting her fame. During her speech at the Grammys in 2016 Taylor states, “I want to say to all the women out there, there are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame but if you focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you someday when you get where you’re going you’ll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there and that will be the greatest feeling in the world.” This speech demonstrated her disapproval of Kanye for making her accomplishments his own.  Another thing Taylor said to defend herself was that her consent was not given to use her name in the song. However, there is video that Kim Kardashian released of Kanye and Taylor on the phone with Taylor giving approval. But in an Instagram post uploaded by Taylor she states, “Where is the video of Kanye telling me he was going to call me ‘that b!*?h’ in his song? It doesn’t exist because it never happened.” Kanye defended himself and tweeted, “First thing is i’m an artist as an artist I will express how I feel with no censorship” “2nd thing I asked my wife [Kim Kardashian] for her blessings and she was cool with it” “3rd thing I called Taylor and had a hour long convo with her about the line and she thought it was funny and gave her blessings”. Fans of both artists have mixed views on this topic. You may be asking why this involves Taylor’s new album, but there are many references in some of the songs to her interactions with Kanye. In Taylor’s song Reputation she states, “I don’t like your tilted stage”:  Kanye used a tilted stage in his Life of Pablo tour. She also wrote the lyrics, “The role you made me play/ of the fool/ no I don’t like you”. The album was also released on the 10th anniversary of Kanye mother’s passing. 

Not every song on the album tries to prove a point about what she did and how she is rebelling against Kanye.  There are songs on the album that are pleasant with upbeat melodies, including the song New Year’s Day. This is one of my favorite songs on the album. It is a song that reminds me of the old Taylor who I loved. After listening to the entire album I felt that she had significantly altered her style. I admit that I do prefer the old pop country Taylor instead of the new electropop Taylor. We all know that the old Taylor is dead, but after listening to her new album, I have also discovered that so is her music.