"Look What You Made Me Do" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released on August 24, 2017, by Big Machine Records, as the lead single from her sixth studio album, Reputation (2017). Swift wrote and produced the song with Jack Antonoff. Released after a year of her public hiatus, several publications have noted the song as one of pop music's most memorable comebacks, buoyed by its accompanying music video.
The single is an electroclash, dance-pop, and electropop song with lyrics about various events that contributed to the tarnishing of Swift's reputation. Right Said Fred members (Richard Fairbrass, Fred Fairbrass, and Rob Manzoli) received songwriting credits since the hook interpolates the melody of their 1991 song "I'm Too Sexy". Upon release, the song polarized music critics, some of whom complimented Swift's new direction and praised it as a fierce return, while others were disappointed with her change of style.
Breaking a string of records, "Look What You Made Me Do" became Swift's fifth number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 and one of the most dominant number-one hits in the chart's history. It amassed the most plays in a single day on Spotify and topped the Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks. It also debuted atop the Billboard Digital Song Sales and Streaming Songs charts, with 353,000 song downloads and 84.4 million streams. The song debuted and peaked at number one in several countries worldwide, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom.
The music video, directed by Joseph Kahn, premiered at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, three days after the song's release. Upon its release on YouTube, the music video garnered 43.2 million views in its first 24 hours, breaking the record for the most views in its first 24 hours of release, at that time; it also broke the 24-hour Vevo record, which is now held by Swift's own 2019 single "Me!". The video garnered critical acclaim and was ranked by Billboard and Rolling Stone as one of the best music videos of 2017. As of July 2018, "Look What You Made Me Do" is certified 4× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for exceeding 4 million units in the US. The song has also received platinum or multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, and the UK, as well as a diamond certification in Brazil.
Promotion and release
On August 23, 2017, Swift announced that the first single from her upcoming sixth album, titled Reputation, would come out the following night. The song was released to streaming services on August 24, and earned over eight million streams within twenty-four hours of its Spotify release, breaking the record at the time for the highest first-day streaming for a single track. Since then, the record has been surpassed by four songs, including Swift's own "Anti-Hero" (2022). "Look What You Made Me Do" was released the next day onto iTunes for digital download through Big Machine Records and to Italian contemporary hit radio. It impacted American contemporary hit radio on August 29, 2017. A CD single release followed in Germany on October 27, 2017.
A lyric video heavily based on the Saul Bass imagery used in the film Vertigo was released through Swift's official Vevo account on August 25, 2017. The video was produced by Swift and Joseph Kahn and directed by ODD. It gained more than 19 million views during its first 24 hours on YouTube, surpassing "Something Just Like This" by the Chainsmokers and Coldplay as the most viewed lyric video within that time. As of August 2022, the lyric video on YouTube has amassed over 140 million views.
Regarded as her comeback, "Look What You Made Me Do" was released after a year of Swift's hiatus from the public spotlight, which followed the immense media and internet scrutiny she faced due to her highly publicized disputes. Mainstream media interpreted the song as Swift "claiming her narrative" back. The song, and its release, are considered one of pop music's most memorable moments, spurred by its music video and the numerous records that were broken. Before the song's release, Swift blacked out her website and her social media, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Two days after blacking out, cryptic and glitchy snake videos were uploaded to her social media, leading to the announcement of the song and her new album, Reputation.