Reputation (album)
Reputation is the sixth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on November 10, 2017, and it was her last album under Big Machine Records. Secluding herself from public appearances, Swift conceived Reputation as a response to the media scrutiny after her previous album, 1989 (2014), propelled her toward pop stardom.
For other albums, see Reputation (disambiguation) § Music.Reputation
November 10, 2017
- Conway Recording (Los Angeles)
- MXM (Los Angeles/Stockholm)
- Rough Customer (Brooklyn)
- Seismic Activities (Portland)
- Tree Sound (Atlanta)
55:38
- Taylor Swift
- Max Martin
- Shellback
- Jack Antonoff
- Ali Payami
- Oscar Görres
- Oscar Holter
Publicized celebrity disputes and romantic relationships inspired the album's songs, which are about anger, vengeance, and ultimately finding solace in love. Swift worked mainly with Jack Antonoff, Max Martin, and Shellback to produce Reputation, an electropop and R&B record with elements of urban styles such as hip hop, trap, and EDM. Its densely arranged electronic sound is characterized by programmed drum machines, pulsating synthesizers and bass, and manipulated vocals.
Whereas Swift had employed television and press interviews to promote past albums, she opted out of such a campaign for Reputation. Before the album's release, she cleared out her website and social media accounts, which generated widespread media attention. The lead single "Look What You Made Me Do" topped charts worldwide, the single "Delicate" topped US airplay charts, and the Reputation Stadium Tour became the highest-grossing North American tour of all time. In the United States, Reputation was Swift's fourth consecutive album to sell one million first-week copies, spent four weeks atop the Billboard 200, and was certified triple platinum. The album also topped charts and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
When Reputation was first released, music critics generally praised Swift's songwriting about intimate themes of love but some were divided by the production and songs about fame and celebrity, which they described as harsh and repetitive. Some critics deemed the album disappointing in the context of Swift's celebrity and the US political landscape. Retrospective reviews opined that the initial reception was clouded by the negative press and described the album as a work of experimentation and artistic evolution for Swift. Reputation was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, and it was listed on Slant Magazine's list of the best albums of the 2010s.
Release[edit]
Marketing[edit]
On August 18, 2017, Swift blanked out all of her social media accounts,[78] which prompted media speculation on new music.[79] In the following days, she uploaded silent, black-and-white short videos of CGI snakes onto social media, which attracted widespread press attention.[79][80][81] Imagery of snakes was inspired by the West–Kardashian controversy and featured prominently in the album's promotional campaign.[82] On August 23, she announced on Instagram the title Reputation and released the cover artwork.[83] Photographed by Mert and Marcus,[84] the cover is a black-and-white photograph of an expressionless Swift in slicked-back hair, a loose-fitting grey sweatshirt with a zig-zag stitch on the right shoulder, and a choker necklace.[85] Her name is printed multiple times over one side of her face, in a typeface resembling that used in newspapers.[86] Media outlets interpreted the design as a mockery at the media scrutiny.[g] The cover inspired many internet memes and was listed among the worst album covers of 2017 by Billboard and Exclaim!.[90] The latter dismissed it as a "packaging for a sickly sweet, heavily discounted celebrity fragrance you'd find on the back shelf at Shoppers Drug Mart".[91]
Reputation's lead single, "Look What You Made Me Do", was released on August 24.[92] The single peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in just its second week of charting, with the biggest single-week sales and streaming figures of 2017 in the United States[93] and was Swift's first number one on the UK Singles Chart;[94] its music video broke the record for the most 24-hour views on YouTube.[95] Shortly after the single's release, UPS announced a partnership with Swift, which included Reputation-branded trucks and award-winning contests promoting the album across US cities.[96] Other corporate tie-ins were a Ticketmaster partnership for a concert tour; an AT&T deal for a behind-the-scenes series chronicling the making of Reputation; and a Target partnership for two deluxe album editions, each featuring an exclusive magazine with poetry, paintings, handwritten lyrics, and behind-the-scenes photography.[97][98] Swift collaborated with ESPN to preview the second single, "...Ready for It?", during a college football match on September 2;[99] it opened at number four on the Billboard Hot 100.[100] Kate Knibbs of The Ringer labelled the partnerships as "maximum commercialization" and wrote, "If [Swift] was going to be a snake, she was going to be an ultracapitalist snake."[16]
Prior to the album's release, the tracks "Gorgeous" and "Call It What You Want" were released for download and streaming as promotional singles,[101] and the track "New Year's Day" premiered during the broadcast of an episode of ABC's Scandal.[102] Reputation was released in various territories on digital and physical formats on November 10, 2017, by Big Machine Records.[103] Although the streaming provider Spotify initially promoted Reputation on its playlists and commercial billboards, Swift and Big Machine kept the album off streaming platforms until December 1.[104][105] Throughout late 2017 and early 2018, a string of singles were released to support the album: "End Game" was released to French radio by Mercury Records on November 14,[106] "New Year's Day" impacted US country radio on November 27,[107] and "Delicate" was released to US pop radio on March 12.[108] The last of which was the album's most successful radio single,[5] peaking atop three Billboard airplay charts: Pop Songs, Adult Pop Songs, and Adult Contemporary.[109]
Commercial performance[edit]
Reputation sold two million copies worldwide within one week of release.[120] In the United States, the album sold roughly 700,000 copies after one day of availability,[121] and 1.05 million after four days.[122] It opened at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week figures of 1,238,000 album-equivalent units that consisted of 1,216,000 pure sales—more than any other albums on the chart that week combined.[120] With the achievement, Reputation made Swift the first artist to have four albums each sell more than a million copies within one week since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.[123] The album spent four non-consecutive weeks at number one,[124] was 2017's best-selling album in the United States,[125] and topped the 2018 Billboard 200 Year-End chart.[126] The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in December 2017 certified the album 3× Platinum for surpassing three million album-equivalent units.[127] By January 2024, Reputation's US sales stood at 2.478 million.[128]
Reputation topped the albums charts in many European territories including Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and Switzerland.[129][130] The album was certified platinum in Austria,[131] Belgium,[132] Denmark,[133] and Sweden.[134] In the wider English-speaking world, it topped the albums charts of Australia,[135] New Zealand,[129] the United Kingdom,[136] Ireland,[137] and Canada.[138] The record was certified platinum or higher in the first three countries,[139] being certified 4× Platinum in Australia[140] and 5× Platinum in New Zealand.[141] In Asia-Pacific, Reputation was certified platinum in Singapore[142] and gold in Japan.[143] It sold over one million units in China as of August 2019, becoming one of the best-selling digital albums there.[144] According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Reputation was the world's second-best-selling album of 2017, with 4.5 million copies sold.[145]
Accolades[edit]
Reputation featured on several publications' lists of the best albums of 2017, ranking on such lists by Time (fifth),[154] Rolling Stone (seventh),[155] Slant Magazine (17th),[156] The Independent (19),[157] Complex (26th),[158] NME (31st),[159] and Spin (48th).[160] On the mass critics' poll Pazz & Jop coordinated by The Village Voice, the album ranked at number 71 out of the 100 albums voted as the best of 2017.[161] On individual critics' lists, it appeared on those by Sheffield (second),[162] Caramanica (fifth),[163] and Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times (unranked).[164] On Slant Magazine's list of the best 2010s-decade album published in 2019, Reputation ranked at number 88.[165]
At industry awards held in 2018, the album won an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Album,[166] a Billboard Music Award for Top Selling Album,[167] a Libera Award for Independent Impact Album,[168] and a Japan Gold Disc Award for Best 3 Albums (Western).[169] It received nominations including an ARIA Music Award nomination for Best International Artist,[170] a Billboard Music Award nomination for Top Billboard 200 Album,[167] and a Juno Award nomination for International Album of the Year.[171] At the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, Reputation was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album,[172] with several publications viewing the lack of a nomination for Album of the Year or any other category as being a snub.[173][174][175] The album's packaging and design won two awards from the American Advertising Federation.[176]
Legacy[edit]
Released amidst negative press, Reputation was regarded by several journalists as her "comeback".[87][177] Some critics interpreted the release during the Donald Trump presidency as a political statement—whereas many celebrities voiced their opposition to Trump's controversial policies, Swift's inaction during the 2016 presidential election was highlighted in the press as a shocking phenomenon.[178][179] Detractors denounced her as aloof and tone-deaf to contemporary political landscape,[10][179] with a Guardian editorial dubbing her an "envoy" for Trump's values.[180] The Guardian journalist Laura Snapes observed Swift's silence, coupled with the celebrity controversies, considerably damaged her status as a "peerless pop princess".[181] Her inclusion as one of the "Silence Breakers"—a group of six women who publicly spoke out against sexual misconduct—for the cover of Time 2017's People of the Year was criticized by some who disdained her "spineless feminism and political passivity".[111] Some others regarded Reputation as Swift's first commercial disappointment, partly because of its diminished success next to its predecessor, 1989.[179][182] In defense of Swift, the academic and journalist Jane Martinson said that Swift's disengagement from the press represented her efforts to control the narrative and was an empowering move for young women.[111]
Retrospectively, a few music critics have opined that Reputation surpassed the initial disappointment and stood the test of time.[179][183][184] Billboard journalist Andrew Unterberger in August 2019 wrote; "With a couple years' clarity, removed from all the backlash against Swift for her perceived insincerity (and political neutrality), we can now look back on Reputation for what it actually was: a very good pop album that was very successful."[182] Mary Siroky of Consequence observed how time proved it to be an authentic record, contrary to some initial reviews claiming otherwise[185] and, as part of a 2022 piece titled "What Were We Thinking? 15 Times We Were Wrong", opined that the publication's initial review was influenced by Swift's negative press and its score should have been higher.[183] Joe Lynch of Billboard attributed the initial criticism to the general preconception disregarding lyrics in synthesizer-based arrangements; "Which is a shame, because on Reputation, Swift's words deliver vivid Polaroid shots directly to your brain."[186] Rolling Stone's Kara Voght said the album was Swift's first to "truly be in conversation with its pop contemporaries" and identified some of its songs as her artistic heights.[10] For some critics, though Reputation is not as accomplished as Swift's other albums, its hip-hop experimentation and detail-heavy songwriting led to her refined craftsmanship on subsequent records, namely Folklore (2020), Evermore (2020), and Midnights (2022).[10][187][188]
Other opinions observed how the public backlash during promotion of Reputation contributed to Swift's political engagements after 2018; she publicly endorsed political candidates, supported LGBT rights, and criticized systemic racism.[16][179][189] The promotional campaign of Reputation, specifically Swift's use of social media, was subject of an academic paper analyzing popular music marketing by Linda Ryan Bengtsson and Jessica Edlom, two media and communications scholars. They argued that Reputation was the "most adequate" release in terms of marketing, driven by fan-oriented social media promotion and Swift's long-standing relationship with her supporters.[79] Her "social media blackout" set a precedent for other pop stars to emulate.[190] Commenting on the album's rollout cycle, the music scholar Jadey O'Regan remarked how Swift used "the art of pop in the best way" for utilizing "the way she's been stereotyped in popular culture".[191] The film director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson cited Reputation as an inspiration for her 2022 teen comedy film Do Revenge.[192]