Hook & Reel: Y’all, the new Taylor Swift single really isn’t that bad

Welcome to Hook & Reel, a series showcasing music that’s guaranteed to catch your ear.

I’ve been perusing the internet today and per usual…people are mad. But they’re not just mad, they’re MAD mad. Earlier this morning, Taylor Swift released her new single “ME!” from her forthcoming yet-to-be-titled album, after a substantially subtext-heavy, clue-filled build up that apparently has been going on for half a year (or even before that? I’m too tired to keep up). The song features Panic! At The Disco’s Brendon Urie, and it’s a sticky-sweet pop affair, sugarplums and candied apples and hooks tossed into a blender and ground up into a fruity and frothy pop smoothie. People are real angry about it though – angry at how goofy it sounds, how kiddie it sounds, how it seems void of substance, how it’s almost unbearably pop. Hot takes are being drummed up left and right that essentially sound like every review from when “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” or “Look What You Made Me Do” or “Shake It Off” first came out. Taylor Swift has made radio-friendly by-the-numbers-pop for (counting this current era) the past four albums (which means pretty much the entire decade), and her debut singles for these album eras have always been the most guilty-pleasure pop songs on the album. People forget that, or they choose to forget that so they have something to write about.

But maybe there is substance to this song, and maybe, much like how “Shake it Off” was revealed to have a darker meaning in the context of 1989‘s story arc, and how “LWYMMD” had some well-placed shots at Kanye and Calvin Harris, there’s some bite behind the single. Taylor’s taken a much more public political stance in the time between the end of the Reputation era and the release of “ME!,” and part of that political stance has been showing her strong support to the LGBTQIA+ community. On top of that, Brendon Urie has openly shared in the past year that he is pansexual. Thus, his presence in the song feels purposeful to the song’s overall message. The track’s lyrics switch back and forth between an inspirational message to the masses and Taylor proclaiming her own self-love so excessively it’s almost defiant. The video’s color pallet is uninhibitedly bright, and some of the fashion choices made by both Taylor and Brendon in the video feel queer, at least subtly queer. And then there’s the part that seems to rub everyone the wrong way, when Taylor and Brendon shout “HEY KIDS, SPELLING IS FUN!” before following it up with “THERE AINT NO I IN TEAM, BUT YOU KNOW THERE IS A ME.”

So maybe this song is actually more for the LGBTQIA+ community, and for other marginalized groups who feel that they’re being suppressed and oppressed under the current administration, or just the idiots of the world, in general. Maybe the “ME!” that’s so emphasized in the song is a message to her fans to not bend to anyone else’s expectations but your own, and to love who you are so loudly and proudly that it pisses other people off. Maybe the garish start to the bridge is Taylor Swift giving those people that constantly belittle her and her fans a big middle finger. Shrieking about the joys of spelling, and then reminding everyone that there’s a “ME” in team seems like a pretty sarcastic way of telling everyone that you’ll put yourself before them on any and every occasion, because your self-worth is more important. And maybe Brendon’s line “I never wanna see you walk away, and there’s a lot of lame guys out there” means two things: one, he’s better than any of the other guys his lover could be with, and two, he doesn’t want to be single and have to deal with trying to date all the lame guys out there (I relate heavily Brendon).

Regardless, everyone needs to relax. For every Taylor song like “ME!,” there are at least three others on the same album that have that old-school Taylor flair, that tell stories and explore the complex emotions of love and loss. I, for one, think this is a fun and perfectly fine introduction to this era, and I’m excited to see what else is on the horizon.

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