Reputation (Taylor Swift album)


Reputation is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released on November 10, 2017, through Big Machine Records. The record was primarily produced by Jack Antonoff, Max Martin, Shellback and Swift herself, who also serves as the executive producer. Described by Swift as her "most cathartic album", the album is influenced by Swift's highly publicized personal life and disputes. The album's sound features a darker and heavier tone compared to Swift's previous projects, delving into her vulnerable side. Musically, it is a pop, electropop and synth-pop record that contains influences of urban genres like hip hop, EDM, trap and tropical house. Reputation is regarded as Swift's comeback album.
Artists featured on Reputation include English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and American rapper Future. The album was preceded by two singles, both reaching the top-five of the Billboard Hot 100: the lead single "Look What You Made Me Do" topped the Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks, becoming Swift's fifth number-one single on the chart, while the second single "...Ready for It?" debuted and peaked at number four. The promotional track "Gorgeous" debuted and peaked at number 13, while the third single "End Game" reached number 18. The final single "Delicate" was a sleeper hit, peaking at number 12 on the Hot 100; it became the longest-charting single from Reputation and one of Swift's biggest radio hits.
Upon release, Reputation garnered generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised the sophisticated production and Swift's new direction, but downplayed the brash lyricism on fame. The album reached number-one in many countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Japan, Spain, the UK, and the US. In the US, the album sold 1.216 million copies in its first week of release, making it the country's best-selling album of 2017. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry named Reputation the best-selling album by a female artist of 2017 with a global sales total of 4.5 million copies, and second overall, behind Ed Sheeran's ÷. As of January 2018, the album has been certified 3× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for exceeding 3 million units in the country.
Reputation received a nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 61st Grammy Awards, becoming her second nomination in the category, following 1989. To support the album, Swift embarked on the Reputation Stadium Tour, starting on May 8, 2018 and ended on November 21 of the same year. The tour grossed $345.7 million, becoming the second highest-grossing concert tour of the year and the highest-grossing tour of all time in the United States and North America. On December 31, 2018, a concert film of the tour was released on Netflix.

Release

Swift first announced through Instagram on August 23, 2017 that her sixth album would be titled Reputation and released on November 10, 2017. The album's lead single, "Look What You Made Me Do", was released the next day on August 24. On September 2, Swift teased a second song during ABC's Saturday Night Football telecast and was later posted on Instagram, titled "...Ready for It?", previewing the new track. The song was released on September 3, 2017 as a promotional single. On October 20, 2017, Swift released a third song titled "Gorgeous" at midnight as a promotional single. A track named "Call It What You Want" was released on November 2, 2017 as a promotional single with an accompanying lyric video.
On November 7, Bloomberg reported the album would be kept off streaming services upon release for an undetermined amount of time and would only be available to purchase in digital and physical formats. Later that same day, Swift posted the album's track list to her social media accounts. Reputation became available to streaming services on December 1, 2017. Digital purchases were initially exclusively sold through iTunes and as a full album only. Streaming was limited to a branded internet radio station on iHeartRadio's website and app until December 2017.
Released after a period of highly publicized disputes and immense media and internet scrutiny of Swift, Reputation is regarded as a comeback album by critics and fans alike, seeing Swift "claim her narrative". The lead single, "Look What You Made Me Do", released after a year of hiatus from public spotlight, is considered as one of pop music's most memorable moments, bolstered by its music video. Prior to the song's release, Swift cleared out her website and all her social media, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Two days after the blackout, cryptic, glitchy and caption-less snake videos were uploaded to her social media, leading to the announcement of the album and its lead single. Reputation was Swift's last studio album to be released under Big Machine Records. In November 2018, Swift departed Big Machine Records for Republic Records.

Music and lyrics

Swift described Reputation as her "most cathartic album", "a real process of catharsis", and "a defense mechanism", while stating that the album is a metaphor. She further described the album's aesthetic as "evening-night", "all cityscape, darkness, full swamp witch". In 2019, Swift revealed the reason why the album's title is in all lowercase, stating that Reputation "felt like it wasn't unapologetically commercial". Swift also highlighted out that she played an alter ego in Reputation, explaining "it was just so fun to play with on tour — the darkness and the bombast and the bitterness and the love and the ups and the downs of an emotional-turmoil record". The album's title alludes to many of its lyrical themes, such as handling fame and media scrutiny of celebrities. The cover artwork, which portrays Swift over a background of a tabloid publication, reinforces these themes. The title also is derived from lyrics on the songs "End Game" and "Delicate".
Greg Kot, writing for Chicago Tribune, described the album as "another shift, this time into electropop". Neil McCormick, from The Daily Telegraph, defined it as "brash, weaponised pop", Rolling Stones Rob Sheffield said that "Reputation builds on the synth-pop of 1989", while Sam Murphy of Junkee described Reputation sound as inflected to "dark trap". NPR's Ann Powers pointed out the influences of urban genres, such as hip hop and EDM, found throughout the album. Swift explained that the album had a linear timeline, starting with how she felt when she started working on the album, and transitioning to how she feels now, with several songs inspired by the epic fantasy television series Game of Thrones.

Songs

The opening track, "...Ready for It?", is a "pop-oriented", "electronic-inspired" electropop and industrial pop song, with a thumping bassline and elements of tropical house, rap, dubstep and trap music. Swift states the song "introduces a metaphor you may hear more of throughout the rest album, which is like this kind of Crime and Punishment metaphor". The track is "basically about finding your own partner in crime", Swift said. "End game", featuring Future and Ed Sheeran, is a self-reflective hip hop, R&B and pop-rap slow jam. It centers around the idea of Swift wanting to be some guy's "end game" or the one that he's aiming for. Heavily manipulated by electronic elements and punctuated by strong beats, "I Did Something Bad" is a "bombastic" track with "unapologetic" lyrics that address "some of the narratives" that have surrounded Swift, incorporating a funky dubstep drop. The song was initially developed on a piano. Swift explained to iHeartRadio that the idea for the production of the song came to her in a dream. Swift described the concept to producer Max Martin, who used Swift's voice and pitched it down to create the desired effect in the post-chorus. The song's lyrics were inspired by events taking place in the season 7 finale episode of Game of Thrones and four of the series' central female characters: Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, and Cersei Lannister. "Don't Blame Me" is a moody, atmospheric, "thunderous" electropop song with a dark, "thick" production of slick synthesizers, echoes and self-harmonization, building into a gospel-backed EDM anthem. The song is noted for Swift's "fierce" vocal performance, and the gothic "love-as-a-drug" imagery. "Delicate" is a melodic "electro-ballad" and love song, with tropical house and dance-pop inflections, and a notable resonant refrain. Swift's goal for the song was to use a vocoder to create an "emotional" and "vulnerable" sound for the track. The song is about "what happens when you meet somebody that you really want in your life and then you start worrying about what they've heard before they met you".
The sixth track, "Look What You Made Me Do", started out as a poem and is "about realizing that you couldn't trust certain people, but realizing you appreciate the people you can trust." It interpolates the song "I'm Too Sexy" by the British dance-pop group Right Said Fred. "So it goes..." opens with a murky segment and advances into a "trap-lite" chorus. Lyrically, it sees Swift "getting caught up in the moment" and "reflecting on just how a new love interest might help her out of her fixations". "Gorgeous" has been described as a "fizzy" and "delightful", radio-friendly pop song, that depicts "the pursuit of a maddening love interest", whom Swift describes as "gorgeous". The song has an electropop production that employs a 808 drum, over a bubbling, chime-like beat. The baby voice featured in the song's intro is a sample of that of James Reynolds, daughter of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. "Getaway Car" is a cinematic synth-pop number with a shimmering '80s production, reminiscent of the sounds of 1989. The song sees Swift performing a metaphorical heist, through an "ill-fated love adventure", attempting to leave a "doomed" relationship for someone else, using a crime scene escape imagery. Swift also mentions the infamous criminal couple Bonnie and Clyde in the lyrics. "King of My Heart" is a synth-heavy track, which Swift structured such that each individual section of the song was its own phase of a relationship, with the sections getting deeper and more fast-paced as the song went on. The song's lyrics were inspired by the romantic relationship between the Game of Thrones characters, Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo, whereas the programmed drums in the song were influenced by the drums played by Dothraki, a clan in the series.
The eleventh track, "Dancing With Our Hands Tied", begins as a melancholic downtempo song that discusses Swift's "will-we-won’t-we tale" of star-crossed lovers, "separated by an unkind fate", and also sees her singing about how "her every action is under the microscope". The sultry "Dress" contains Swift's breathy vocals, with lyrics that she "came up with like a year before". It has been described as Swift's "most overtly sexual work yet" and "sexiest song to-date", bringing out "her sensual side at last". Opening with a siren sound, "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" heavily references Swift's highly publicized feud with American rapper Kanye West and television personality Kim Kardashian. The song is a "stomping call-out of the haters", and features "a burst" of Swift's laughter. "Call It What You Want" was recorded at Jack Antonoff's home studio in Brooklyn. Swift said the song best represents her then emotional state. The song has been described as a "slow-burning meditation" and the "most by-the-book Swift song", filled with lyrical puns. It is a "stark" synth-pop, electropop and R&B love song, in which Swift raps softly over a production "made with an MPC, live kick, dx7 strings", sampling her voice in the intro and throughout, "making her voice into an instrument". Reputation concludes with the country tune "New Year's Day", which explores the flip-side of the romanticism of a New Year's Eve kiss, and is about how "the one that sticks around the next day" to "give you Advil and clean up the house" is the person that matters more. The track is a tender, intimate, acoustic piano ballad and love song, with lyrics acting as "evocative" snapshots, such as: "glitter on the floor after a party", "candle wax and polaroids on the hardwood floor", and "holding hands in the backseat of a taxi".

Artwork and packaging

Reputations cover art was photographed by Mert and Marcus in London. The cover features Swift in a grey sweater and choker necklace with newspaper headlines of her name over one side of her face. The typeface used for the headlines is reminiscent of the signature font of The New York Times.
Target released two 72-page magazines that contain different content, including the album in the US. Walmart distributed it in Canada. The magazines contain photos, handwritten lyrics, poetry and paintings by Swift. The Reputation Vol. 1 magazine cover was shot by Mert and Marcus. Vol. 2 was shot by Benny Horne and features Swift in a camouflage jacket.

Promotion

In August 2017, United Parcel Service announced it would be the "Official Delivery Partner" for Reputation. UPS trucks in select cities featured the Reputation album cover, and fans were encouraged to take pictures of the trucks and post images to Twitter with a hashtag for an "improved opportunity" to buy concert tickets.
A month before the album's release, Swift hosted exclusive secret sessions in London, Rhode Island, Los Angeles and Nashville. She said, "Everything about this album is a secret." Each party had a number of attendees, with a total of 500 fans chosen from around the world, for whom the album was played but none of them leaked any music. The behind the scenes footage for the sessions was released on November 7 on ABC's Good Morning America. Swift partnered with AT&T to produce a multi-part behind-the-scenes series chronicling the making of Reputation, titled "The Making of a Song". The online series started on November 1 on AT&T's YouTube channel.
On November 9, a performance of the song "New Year's Day" was premiered during the broadcast of an episode of ABC's Scandal. It was filmed in one of the secret sessions, held at Swift's home in Rhode Island on October 18, with an audience of 100 fans. An extended version of Swift's performance was aired on November 10, during The DUFFs air on Freeform. On November 11, Swift was the musical guest on the fifth episode of the 43rd season of Saturday Night Live, where she performed "...Ready for It?" and "Call It What You Want" from the album. It was her first appearance on live television following the album's release, and her first appearance on the show since 2009.

Singles

On August 24, 2017, "Look What You Made Me Do" was released as the lead single from Reputation. The song broke several major records including the most Spotify streams in a 24-hour period by any artist. It hit number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 with the biggest sales and streaming figures of the year, becoming the fifth song by Swift to top the chart and also the first solo number one by a woman with 84.4 million streams since Adele's "Hello" in 2015 and the second biggest after "Harlem Shake". Its accompanying music video later premiered at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards and was viewed 43.2 million times on YouTube in its first 24 hours, the most in any video in history breaking the 36 million views of "Gentleman" in 2013.
On September 2, 2017, Swift teased on Instagram that the first track off Reputation, titled "...Ready for It?", was going to be released as a promotional single. It was made available for digital download with the pre-order of Reputation on September 3. On October 24, the song was sent to rhythmic contemporary radio as the album's second single and the official music video premiered three days later.
"End Game", featuring Ed Sheeran and Future, was released to French radio on November 14, 2017 and American contemporary hit radio stations on December 3, 2017 as the album's third single. The song's music video was released in January 2018 after Sheeran confirmed its existence in early December 2017.
"New Year's Day" was serviced to American country radio as the album's fourth single on November 27, 2017.
On October 19, 2017, Swift announced she would be releasing a new song titled "Gorgeous". It became available the next day through digital retailers and streaming services as a promotional single from the album. The song reached the top ten in Canada and Australia and the top twenty in the United Kingdom and United States. It was sent to UK radio stations on January 12, 2018 as the album's fifth single.
"Delicate" was sent to contemporary hit and adult contemporary radio as the album's sixth single on March 12, 2018. Its music video premiered at the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Awards.
"Getaway Car" was sent to Australian and New Zealand radio stations on September 7, 2018 as the album's seventh single.

Promotional singles

On November 2, 2017, Swift announced she would be releasing the third promotional song from Reputation, while posting teasers on her official Twitter and Instagram accounts. The track, titled "Call It What You Want" was released at midnight on November 3, 2017.

Tour

In August 2017, Swift partnered with Ticketmaster for a bundling program, with people wishing to buy her concert tickets could gain priority by purchasing merchandise and pre-ordering Reputation. On November 13, 2017, Swift announced she would be embarking on the Reputation Stadium Tour in 2018 in support of Reputation, first announcing North American dates. The tour began on May 8, 2018, at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, and concluded on November 21, 2018 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, with a total of 53 dates in stadiums throughout North America, Europe, Oceania and Asia. A concert film of the tour was released on Netflix on December 31, 2018, and it was filmed during the two last concerts of the North American leg, on October 5 and 6 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Critical reception

Reputation received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received a weighted average score of 71 based on 28 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The Guardian writer Alexis Petridis opined Reputation, "may be mired in bitterness and gossip, but the pop star's songwriting smarts and lyrical prowess are impossible to deny on her sixth album", noting the songs see "Swift cutting her last ties with her Nashville roots in favour of the blare and honk of EDM-influenced pop". Rolling Stones Rob Sheffield writes Reputation, "shows the darker, deeper side of the pop mastermind". Sheffield also remarked, "As one of the all-time great pop masterminds, she's trying something new, as she always does."
Roisin O'Connor of The Independent says "Call It What You Want" is "arguably, the best song Swift has ever made", also praising Jack Antonoff's production, calling it "essential" to the album; " love of Eighties synth-pop is the perfect counterbalance to Max Martin and Shellback's dance and electronic touch". Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph states, "Reputation is a big, brash, all-guns-blazing blast of weaponised pop that grapples with the vulnerability of the human heart as it is pummelled by 21st-century fame." McCormick continued, "This is an album with blockbuster event status, preceded by a satirical hit in which she provocatively ditched her "girl-next-door" image for something more glamorously sophisticated." Troy Smith from The Plain Dealer said the album served as a reminder of Swift's songwriting talent, labeling "New Year's Day", "End Game", "Delicate" and "Dress" as standouts of the album.
In a negative review, Geoff Nelson of Consequence of Sound gave the album a D+ rating writing, "Swift's sixth studio album, is a bloated, moving disaster." Nelson continued, "Reputation doesn't improve past its initial singles, even if the chorus of "...Ready for It?" is one of the few vestiges of 1989 Taylor on the album. Elsewhere, Swift finds trouble: She raps, she adopts African-American Vernacular English, and she bizarrely collaborates with Future." Nelson called "Gorgeous", "Delicate", and "Call It What You Want" the "strongest moments on the album".

Year-end lists

Decade-end lists

Awards and nominations

Commercial performance

Worldwide, Reputation sold two million copies in its first week. A week prior to the album's release, pre-orders for it were reported to be over 400,000 units in the United States. Billboard stated that this is over twice the amount of pre-sales than Swift's previous album, 1989, which sold 1.29 million copies in its first week. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album sold roughly 700,000 copies during its first day in the country and 1.05 million within four days of release, becoming 2017's biggest-selling album in the US. The album ultimately became Swift's fifth number-one album on the US Billboard 200 when it debuted atop the chart with 1.238 million album-equivalent units that consisted of 1.216 million traditional sales, becoming her fourth album to sell a million copies in the country in its first week. As a result, Swift became the only act to have four albums sell more than a million copies there within a week since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991. Reputation also had the largest album opening in the United States since Adele's 25 in 2015 as well as the 10th largest overall sales week in the nation for an album since Nielsen SoundScan tracked its sales, and became the first album since 25 to sell a million copies there within a week. It additionally sold more that week than all other albums on the chart combined.
With 256,000 more album-equivalent units earned and another 232,000 copies sold the next week, Reputation stayed at number one and became the first album to top the country's chart for two weeks since Jay-Z's ' earlier that year, the first by a female to overall spend more than one week at the summit since Rihanna's Anti in 2016, and first by a female to hold the highest position for its first two weeks since 25. Reputation then became the fourth album to spend three or more weeks at the top spot during 2017 after Starboy by The Weeknd, More Life by Drake, and Damn by Kendrick Lamar as well as the first album since 25 by a female artist to do so overall, receiving 147,000 more album-equivalent units and selling an additional 131,000 copies during its third week. The album subsequently dropped to number 3 in its fourth week with 70,000 copies sold and 112,000 album-equivalent units earned before returning to the top spot three weeks later. It was then displaced the next week by '. With 1,903,000 copies sold and 2,336,000 album-equivalent units earned by the end of 2017, Reputation was the year's best selling album in the country and had its third largest overall consumption behind Damn and Sheeran's ÷. It has been certified 3× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. According to the IFPI, it was the second best selling album of 2017, with 4.5 million copies shipped globally. By March 2018 the album sold over two million pure copies in the US, becoming the first album to do so in two years. As of July 2019, the album has sold 2.23 million copies in the US.
After selling 50,000 copies in Canada during its first day of availability, the record also became Swift's fifth album to top the Canadian Albums Chart, entering at number one with 80,000 copies among 81,000 consumption units. It had the country's largest opening for an album since Drake's Views in 2016. The record then sold 15,000 more copies and earned another 17,000 consumption units over the following week, giving Swift her fourth consecutive album to spend more than one week at Canada's top spot. After receiving an additional 11,000 consumption units during its third week, Reputation became the first album since Damn to spend three consecutive weeks atop the Canadian charts and gave the singer her second-longest run at number one behind 1989. It then descended to number 3 during its fourth week on the chart.
The album sold slightly over 65,000 copies in the United Kingdom within three days, and opened atop the UK Albums Chart with 84,000 copies, becoming her third album to reach the nation's summit. Reputation also had the UK's fifth-biggest album opening sales week of 2017. It then fell down to number eight the following week. The album has been certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry. It had Australia's third largest opening of the year with first week sales of 54,976 copies behind ÷ and Pink's Beautiful Trauma, and gave the singer her fourth number-one album on the ARIA Albums Chart. Reputation was also the country's 458th album to debut at its summit and 814th overall to reach the top position. The record then remained atop the chart for another week and was certified Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association, giving the singer her fifteenth week at number one in the nation, before Beautiful Trauma replaced it at the top spot. It additionally entered at number one and returned to that position in June 2018 in Ireland and New Zealand, and was certified double platinum by Recorded Music NZ for shipments of 30,000 units.
In China, Reputation became the first western album in Chinese history to receive a diamond certification on the music platform QQ Music; 1989 also achieved this feat eventually, making Swift the first western artist to garner two diamond records in the history of QQ Music. Along with 1989 and Lover, Reputation ranks as one of the top 10 best-selling digital albums of all time in China, making Swift the first non-Chinese act to achieve this; all the three releases have exceeded one million digital units in the country.
Reputation was ranked as the number one album of 2018 on the Billboard 200.

Track listing

Sample

Adapted from the album liner notes.

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Australian Albums 11
Belgian Albums 77
Canadian Albums 4
Danish Albums 87
Irish Albums 16
Japanese Albums 72
Mexican Albums 62
New Zealand Albums 9
South Korean International Albums 84
UK Albums 37
US Billboard 2001

Chart Position
Australian Albums 27
New Zealand Albums 45
Spanish Albums 93
US Billboard 20074

Decade-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications and sales

Release history