The Lead-Up to 'reputation'

On November 11th, 2008, Taylor Allison Swift released her second-studio album, Fearless. The songs climbed the Hot 100 Billboard very quickly, which led to Swift making various music videos for the album, including for the 6th track, *You Belong With Me*. The music video got so popular that it was nominated for 2009's MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video, or simply the 2009 VMA'S. Taylor won the award on that night and got called up to the stage to receive it by Taylor Lautner and Shakira. When she started her acceptance speech, Kanye West drunkenly got up on stage, and said the infamous following words: ''*Yo, Taylor. I'm really happy for you, and I'mma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time!''.* This caused most atendees to boo West off the stage. He eventually did leave, but Swift still thought she was the one being booed at.

Ex-President Obama even commented: ''*The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person. She's getting her award. He's (Kanye West) a jack-ass.''.* P!nk says: *''I just think he's an idiot. He's just a waste. He's just a toolbox.''* As all of this was unfolding in front of everyone's eyes, Taylor gained popularity and praise from the media, while Kanye was exiling himself. He stayed in Japan to get away from the paparazzi for a while, and then moved to Rome, followed by Hawaii. He eventually made a music comeback on January 1st, 2010, with the single *Christmas in Harlem*.

On August 3rd, 2015, the 2015 VMAS were held. Taylor Swift won 4 different awards, and in one of those speeches, she says: *''So I guess I have to say to all the other winners tonight: I'm really happy for you, and I'mma let you finish... but Kanye West has had one of the greatest careers of all time!''.* Doing this, she was obviously mimicking West's behaviour six years prior, which most people found funny, but empowering at the same time. She also praised Kanye in many different ways on that same speech, stating that he defines what it is to be a creative force in music. Taylor and Kanye then proceeded to make ammends, and apologized to each other. Apparently, that was still not enough for West, because on June 10th, 2016, he released his 8th studio album, *The Life of Pablo*, which included the song *Famous*. Here's a short snippet of the song:

**I feel like me and Taylor might still have s\*x**

**Why? I made that b\*tch famous (Goddamn)**

**I made that b\*tch famous**

Once Taylor spoke out on it, it was too late. Kim Kardashian, West's wife at the time, had released an illegally and edited recorded part of a phone call between West and Swift. In that video, Kanye in no way told Taylor about the atrocities he would say about her, but the world just wouldn't listen. On that day, Taylor Swift was called a liar, a manipulator, annoying, etc. She later tweeted that she never gave Kanye consent to use those words, and that she would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that she has never asked to be apart of, since 2009. Kim K. followed by tweeting: *''Wait it's legit National Snake Day?!?!?They have holidays for everybody, I mean everything these days!''* with a bunch of snake emojis after that. #KimExposedTaylorParty was officially trending, and with Taylor Swift's reputation destroyed, she went into hiding.

No one had physically seen Taylor Swift for a year now, nor heard any news from her. Has she disappeared forever? Is this the end of her music career? No. Definitely not. On August 21st, 2017, Swift release an un-captionned video of a snake on a black background with no more information. All of her social media had been already wiped, so... what does this mean? In total, there were three videos of snakes posted, referencing the Kim K. tweet, of course, until she officially announced that her 6th studio album would be called *reputation*, on August 23rd, 2017. The album had 15 tracks in total, and was a complete hit. The sixth song was called *Look What You Made Me Do* and was filled with different references such as:

**I don't like your little games**

**Don't like your tilted stage**

**The role you made me play of the fool**

**No, I don't like you**

The music video for this song also included different versions of Taylor throughout the years including the 2009's VMAS look, which only further proves the role Kanye had influencing the making of this album. *reputation* is a very dark themed album and was definitely 'edgier' in some ways than her other albums. That is a great part of the charm her fans find in it, and also how she was able to make a sonically cohesive album, even if it was nothing like anything she had done before. Today, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West both got exposed for editing that infamous video, and everyone who didn't before, now believes Taylor. If only she had been excluded from this narrative...