Reputation (album)
Themes and lyrics
Themes and lyrics
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Swift said that *Reputation* consists of a linear timeline: it begins with how she felt when she started working on the album and transitions to how she felt by the time she completed it. Inspired by the fantasy series *[Game of Thrones](/wiki/Game_of_Thrones "Game of Thrones")*, she split the album into two sides; one contains songs about vengeance and drama, and the other about finding love, friendship, and "something sacred throughout all the battle cries". The series' characters and little hints to foreshadow the story lines, which Swift considered "cryptic", prompted her to finesse her songwriting and include "cryptic" messages through which she hoped to communicate with fans. She identified *Game of Thrones* influences for certain songs: "I Did Something Bad" was inspired by [Sansa](/wiki/Sansa_Stark "Sansa Stark") and [Arya Stark](/wiki/Arya_Stark "Arya Stark")'s plot to kill [Littlefinger](/wiki/Littlefinger "Littlefinger"), "Look What You Made Me Do" by Arya Stark's "kill list", and "King of My Heart" by [Daenerys Targaryen](/wiki/Daenerys_Targaryen "Daenerys Targaryen") and [Khal Drogo](/wiki/Khal_Drogo "Khal Drogo")'s romance.

[Steven Hyden](/wiki/Steven_Hyden "Steven Hyden") considered *Reputation* a [concept album](/wiki/Concept_album "Concept album") about Swift's celebrity and said it encapsulates her attention to the conversation about her. It references alcohol and sex more than any of Swift's previous records, which *The New York Times*' Lindsay Zoladz considered her gradual and deliberate decision at 27 years old to abandon her prior youthful and innocent music and image, unlike former teenage female singers who provocatively publicize their sudden "loss of innocence". Despite the first few tracks about outright vengeance and anger, much of *Reputation* is about romantic themes of finding love, intimacy, and expressing one's vulnerability when one thinks they might have suffered too much to love again. For [Rob Sheffield](/wiki/Rob_Sheffield "Rob Sheffield"), the album is a [song cycle](/wiki/Song_cycle "Song cycle") about how one stops chasing romance and defining their life based on others' perspectives. Some critics interpreted the overarching narrative as a love story chronicling the burgeoning days, fallout, and recovery, which Swift corroborated in a 2019 *Rolling Stone* interview: "The one\-two punch, bait\-and\-switch of *Reputation* is that it was actually \[...] a love story in amongst chaos."

Swift's image as a woman with serial romantic relationships and her defiant attitude against this reputation are recurring themes on the first tracks. Opener "...Ready for It?" has lyrics about falling in love with a new partner. Inspired by the novel *[Crime and Punishment](/wiki/Crime_and_Punishment "Crime and Punishment")* by [Fyodor Dostoevsky](/wiki/Fyodor_Dostoevsky "Fyodor Dostoevsky"), it incorporates a criminal metaphor that recurs on other tracks. Swift said its mentions of bank heists, robbers, and thieves, a "twisted" but "interesting" way to depict "finding your partner in crime". In "End Game", Swift, Future, and Sheeran rap and sing about finding true love in spite of the gossip surrounding their perceived images. "I Did Something Bad" is narrated from the perspective of a female character who manipulates men and "Don't Blame Me" compares a love that "makes \[her] crazy" to a drug addiction. Designated by Swift as *Reputation*'s "first point of vulnerability", "Delicate" is where the narrator begins to worry if her tarnished reputation could affect a new romance. In the song, she wonders because "\[her] reputation has never been worse", the love interest must love her for herself. The album continues with "Look What You Made Me Do", which Swift initially wrote as a poem about her realizing she "couldn't trust certain people". She indicated the most important lyrics of the song as, "Oh, I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, 'cause she's dead", which reference the phone recording between her and West that Kardashian had released.

In "So It Goes...", which features sexual imagery of smeared lipstick on her lover's face and leaving scratches on his back, the narrator details how he helps her get out of her fixations and promises she will "do bad things with \[him]" despite not being a "bad girl". "Gorgeous" has playful lyrics about newfound romantic attraction, where the narrator feels tempted to cheat on an existing boyfriend for another. It is followed by "Getaway Car", which uses [crime scene escape](/wiki/Crime_scene_getaway "Crime scene getaway") imagery and a [Bonnie and Clyde](/wiki/Bonnie_and_Clyde "Bonnie and Clyde") reference to tell the story of how the narrator leaves her former lover in a hotel room and escapes in the getaway car with a new lover. "King of My Heart" is a straightforward love song in which the narrator proclaims herself as her lover's "American queen" and how the couple rules their "kingdom inside \[her] room". Swift structured the song such that each of the sections (verse, pre\-chorus, chorus) depicts a separate phase of a relationship, and they altogether form a complete love story. The next track, "Dancing With Our Hands Tied", describes a narrator's reflection on a past relationship when she was 25 years old and how the lover turns her bed "into a sacred oasis".

In "Dress", which features overtly sexual lyrics, the narrator claims that she "only bought this dress" to be taken off by her lover and how she does not "want \[them] like a best friend". "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" was inspired by Swift's observation of how people take things for granted. It references her [4th of July](/wiki/Independence_Day_%28United_States%29 "Independence Day (United States)") parties, filled with champagne and having her "feeling so [Gatsby](/wiki/Jay_Gatsby "Jay Gatsby") for that whole year". In the track, the narrator calls out her enemies and former friends. When she tries to get diplomatic with them ("forgiveness is a nice thing to do"), she laughs at the idea. The two closing tracks, "Call It What You Want" and "New Year's Day", summarize Swift's state of mind after she learned how to welcome and prioritize certain things in her life. In "Call It What You Want", the narrator accepts that her reputation might be unredeemable ("They took the crown but it's alright") and meditates on the transformative power of her relationship ("My baby's fly like a jetstream, high above the whole scene"). The closing track, "New Year's Day", sees the narrator and her lover cleaning up after a New Year's party. On the inspiration, Swift explained that although kissing someone on New Year's Eve is a romantic idea, having someone by one's side the morning after "to give you Advil and clean up the house" is even more so.


What is the main idea behind the song 'This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things'?