Bad Blood (Taylor Swift song)

Writing and composition

Swift co-wrote "Bad Blood" about an undisclosed female musician. Swift says the artist attempted to sabotage one of her concert tours by hiring people who worked for her. Publications such as Billboard, Rolling Stone, Time, and The Washington Post have speculated that Katy Perry is the subject of the song. Daniel D'Addario for Time and Emily Yahr for The Washington Post noted parallels between "Bad Blood"'s lyric "If you live like that, you live with ghosts" and "Ghost", a song from Perry's 2013 album Prism. The album version of the song only contains Swift as the vocalist on verses, while the single version features a re-worked instrumental and guest vocals from rapper Kendrick Lamar on verses.

Jem Aswad of Billboard felt the song is "reminiscent of Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl". The Guardian's Kitty Empire wrote that the song "faintly recalls Charli XCX with its stark beats." It is written in the key of G major, and runs at 88 bpm.

Critical reception

The original version of "Bad Blood" received generally negative reviews from music critics. Many described the song as "clichéd" while also criticizing its writing, chorus, and production. Entertainment Weekly listed it as one of the best songs on the album.

In contrast, the remixed version of the song featuring guest vocals from Kendrick Lamar received generally positive reviews, with praise from music critics directed at Lamar's guest verses and the reworked instrumental. George Seabrook of The Edge awarded the song four and half stars out of five, and called it "glorious" and "intoxicating". He praised the song for "Lamar’s simple, brutally effective verses" and acknowledged the collaboration as "not just one more meaningless stunt collaboration, but a powerful new duo".

Commercial performance

"Bad Blood" first charted on the US Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in November 2014 and January 2015 as an album cut from 1989, peaking at number 78.

Following the music video premiere at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, the remixed version of the song featuring Kendrick Lamar re-entered the chart at number 53 and number 26 on the Digital Songs Chart, selling 47,000 digital copies. The following week, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 on the week ending May 24, 2015, selling 385,000 copies and jumping 52 positions, one of the largest jumps to the top spot in Billboard history. It became her fourth number one single and the third number one from 1989 (following "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space"), making Swift the first artist since Adele to yield three Hot 100 chart toppers from the same album; it is also her fourth consecutive top-10 single from 1989. It also became her 18th top 10 single and Lamar's second (also his first number-one single in the United States). It dropped to number two the week after, being replaced by Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again", where it stayed for five consecutive weeks. It spent another five consecutive weeks at number four, before leaving the top ten of the chart after thirteen consecutive weeks in it on September 5, 2015. By the end of 2015, the song had sold 2,584,000 digital copies in the US, becoming the tenth best selling single of the year.

Background

The music video was directed by Joseph Kahn, who previously directed the music video for the second single from 1989, "Blank Space". The video was filmed in Los Angeles on April 12, 2015, but is set in London. The music video was premiered on May 17, 2015, at the start of the Billboard Music Awards. Each actress chose her character's name. Swift began teasing the video in May on Instagram by posting photos of each character.

Synopsis

The music video starts with Catastrophe (Taylor Swift) and her partner, Arsyn (Selena Gomez), fighting off a group of men wearing suits in an office in London, for a mysterious briefcase. When all of the men are defeated, Arsyn double crosses Catastrophe by stealing the briefcase in Catastrophe's hand and kicking her out of a window. The song begins with Catastrophe lying on a broken car, as Welvin da Great (Kendrick Lamar) begins to rap his verse and Lucky Fiori (Lena Dunham) smokes a cigar. Catastrophe is shown being nursed back to health by a trio of girls called The Trinity (all played by Hailee Steinfeld), and after some time, she is ready to start training for her revenge. The other characters in the video are shown in succession, some in training with Catastrophe. They are (in order of appearance):

When her training is complete, Catastrophe and her friends exact their revenge on Arsyn and her masked henchwomen. The two teams approach each other in what seems to be slow motion while an enormous explosion goes off in the background, blotting out the London skyline, including 30 St Mary Axe, and the video ends with both of the women simultaneously striking each other in the face.

Reception

Rolling Stone described it as a "futuristic neo-noir" video. Daniel D’Addario of Time called it Swift's "most elaborate" music video yet, and compared its visuals to those of Sin City. Slate agreed and found other film inspirations: "Along the way, they pay homage to countless films. Besides the video’s Robocop premise, there’s its Sin City aesthetic, its nod to Tron’s light cycles, and its Kill Bill-like fight in the snow." Hair and outfits reminiscent of The Fifth Element also appear on several occasions throughout the video. Billboard drew parallels between the video and the music videos for the Britney Spears songs "Toxic" and "Womanizer", which were both directed by Kahn. The video broke Vevo's 24-hour viewing record by accumulating 20.1 million views in its first day of release, beating the 19.6 million 24-hour record previously held by Nicki Minaj for the music video of her song "Anaconda" in 2014. It was later broken by Adele's "Hello" in October 2015, with 27.7 million views in the first 24 hours. As of February 2017, the video has amassed over 1.02 billion views.

"Bad Blood" received eight nominations at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards. Ultimately, it won Video of the Year and Best Collaboration. It also won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video.

Track listing

1. "Bad Blood (feat. Kendrick Lamar)" – 3:19

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes of 1989.

Usage in media

In 2016, the song was used in an Apple commercial which Drake starred in.

For their tenth anniversary, How It Should Have Ended released a cover parody video based on "Bad Blood", titled "Bat Blood". Performed by Batman, voiced by show creator Daniel Baxter, the video parodies the marketing of the then-upcoming film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and uses characters from HISHE's entire history. The lyrics were re-written by Baxter, and the music composed by Bryan English.

The song is also used in the trailer of the 2017 film, The Lego Ninjago Movie.

Certifications

Since May 2013, RIAA certifications for digital singles include on-demand audio and/or video song streams in addition to downloads.