Bad Blood, the newly released single from Swift’s album 1989, is making shock waves on Vevo and in the media. Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda gained its 24-hour Vevo Record in August 2014 after receiving 19.6m views and had held its title for many months. But its time to move over Minaj, because Swift has made a splash with her new video as it has stolen the spotlight with a massive 20.1m views in the space of 24 hours.
The anticipation of a new music video is often revealed by the artist leaking small clips of what’s to come, i.e. Beyoncé’s 7/11. However, Swift had a cheeky marketing strategy that left fans wanting more and more, day after day.
Using social media as the foundation, Swift would post a new poster every day on her Instagram and Twitter highlighting the characters in her video, almost like a lead-up to a feature length film.
She said on her Twitter: “Each individual actor/actress chose their character name and persona” which gives the video their personal touch. Her own character “CATastrophe” is based on her love of cats… and may also be a hint at who the video is aimed at.
The video and song lyrics follow Swift’s, once close and now “frenemy” relationship with (rumoured) Katy Perry. Starring all of her super star celebrity friends from Kendrick Lamar to Cindy Crawford, who has fired up a Team Taylor attitude on Twitter, sparking the argument that what Katy Perry did was actually bullying.
However, Swift has spoken out: “I know people are going to obsess over who it’s about, because they think they have all my relationships mapped out. But there’s a reason there are not any overt call-outs in that song. My intent was not to create some gossip-fest. I wanted people to apply it to a situation where they felt betrayed in their own lives.”
As both a Swift and Perry fan, I personally enjoyed the video; the pre-release posters, which kept me on my toes, and the Kill Bill/Tarantino style that makes it that bit cinematic. Far better than her (usual) soppy videos about boys…
Watch the video and add your opinions in the comment section below!
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