Taylor Swift Can't Be The Victim And The Villain

Are we entering Taylor Swift's Hot Topic phase? "Look What You Made Me Do," the first single from Reputation, is a sleek and dark piece of electro-pop that swells and seethes. After celebrity feuds, media battles and even court cases, it confirms our suspicions that Swift is out for blood, but also makes us wonder who this song is for. Lyndsey McKenna, Marissa Lorusso and I all work in the same office pod (shout-out to my roséwave co-conspirators!) and spend a lot of time dishing on pop music/culture online and IRL. So we got together to make sense of Taylor's attempted heel turn. --Lars Gotrich

Lyndsey McKenna: The old pop culture is dead. So is Taylor Swift, according to her. So am I.

Marissa Lorusso: R.I.P.

Lars Gotrich: On that note! I've had a whole pot of tea and I'm ready to get a lil' salty about "Look What You Made Me Do." But first, I'd love for us all to state our current level of Taylor Swift devoutness. I'll go first: Hi, I'm Lars, Taylor Agnostic. I genuinely like the hits ("You Belong With Me," "Wheeee-hee! Are Never Getting Back Together," etc.), and will defend her place in pop culture drunkenly at parties and soberly on Twitter (maybe drunkenly, too).

I guess this framework makes me the Taylor Atheist, though I don't, like, not believe in her existence — she is, unfortunately, definitely real. I agree that she has some bangers