After Swift held several listening parties during October 2017, where she played her sixth studio album Reputation for 100 fans from all around the world and after releasing "Gorgeous" as the second promotional single of the album, on November 2, 2017, Swift announced she would be releasing "Call It What You Want" as the third promotional single from Reputation, while posting teasers on her official Twitter and Instagram accounts. The track was released at midnight on November 3, 2017 along with a lyric video on YouTube.
Composition
"Call It What You Want" has been described as a "well-crafted electro-pop ballad", "atmospheric, R&B-trap crossover" and "stark synth-pop love song". Jack Antonoff, the co-producer and co-writer of the track, revealed on Twitter that "Call It What You Want" was "made with an MPC, live kick, dx7 strings and samples of Taylor's voice as the intro and throughout. Making her voice into an instrument." He also added that he was "honored to have 'Call It What You Want' out in the world. That song means a great deal to me", and recommend fans to "listen on headphones at night on a walk". "Call It What You Want" also features Swift rapping. The song is performed in the key of A major in cut time with a tempo of 82 beats per minute. It follows a chord progression of D – A – E – D/F – Fm7, and Swift's vocals span from E3 to C5.
Critical reception
The song received critical acclaim. The song was named the 20th best song of 2017 by Rolling Stone. According to Entertainment Weekly, the song, in which Swift says she is "doing better than ever was" and details her romantic life, was well-received by her fan base. Frank Guan of Vulture stated that the song "deals in gossamer and light; its spare, airy production evokes, or attempts to evoke, a sense of radiant, protective romance in the wake of a devastating social debacle; listeners ready to view that loss as the one she suffered last year at the hands of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West will meet no resistance." USA Today gave it a positive review, saying it was more subdued than her other recent singles, and "the most perceptive and unabashedly romantic song of the singer's new era", and "surprisingly effective and grown-up". Complex Magazine had the opinion that the song was the first single pre-released from her album that was not "distressing", as "Call It What You Want" is "actually good," and also dropped the "revenge narrative to great effect." Spin Magazine gave it a similar review, saying it was much better than her other recent material.
Commercial performance
In the United States, "Call It What You What" entered at number 27 on the BillboardHot 100 and at number one on the BillboardDigital Song Sales charts with 68,000 digital copies. As a result, she became the first artist to have 15 entries reach the latter's summit and extended her record with most debuts at number one on it with 14. It is also the fourth Reputation track to top the chart after "Look What You Made Me Do", "...Ready for It?", and "Gorgeous". In Australia, it opened at number 16 on the ARIA Singles Chart.
Lyric video
A lyric video for the song was uploaded to Swift's Vevo channel on YouTube on November 2, 2017. The video featured homemade footage and pictures of Swift. It gained 5 million views in its first 24 hours of upload. As of May 2020, the lyric video has garnered over 67 million views.
