The response to “Look What You Made Me Do,” Taylor Swift’s new single/snaked-filled declaration of vengeance, from her upcoming album Reputation, has been decidedly mixed. Criticism of the track has ranged from “Yep, that’s a song,” to widespread mockery of some of its more melodramatic touches, all the way over to conspiracy theories that Swift’s upcoming album release has been timed to eclipse the anniversary of the death of her enemy Kanye West’s mom.
Of course, to rip into the song and it’s Grand Guignol, “I’m watching you, motherfuckers,” vibe, you have to listen to it first, which might explain how “Look What You Made Me Do” has just broken a YouTube record for most views on a lyric video in its first 24 hours. (The previous holder in the lyric video category was the one for The Chainsmoker’s “Something Just Like This,” which scored less than half of “LWYMMD”’s 19 million views.) That also grabs the song a spot at Number 16 on the list of fastest viewed online videos overall, placing it behind those old mainstays “Chewbacca Mom,” “Massive Pillow Chair,” and Swift’s own, star-studded video for “Bad Blood.”
Of course, this is all just for the lyric video; Swift will debut the actual music video for the song tomorrow night at the VMAs. An early teaser of the video has already been getting ripped for hewing too closely to Beyoncé’s “Formation” video, although the designer for Swift’s new opus has tried to downplay those connections on Twitter.