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"Bad Blood" is a song by American recording artist Taylor Swift, from her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). The single version, featuring American hip hop artist Kendrick Lamar, was released on May 17, 2015 by Republic Records.

Writing and composition

Swift wrote "Bad Blood" about an undisclosed female musical artist. Swift says the artist attempted to sabotage one of her concert tours by hiring people who worked for her. Publications such as Billboard, Rolling Stone, Time, and The Washington Post have speculated that Katy Perry is the subject of the song. Daniel D'Addario for Time and Emily Yahr for The Washington Post noted parallels between "Bad Blood"'s lyric "If you live like that, you live with ghosts" and "Ghost", a song from Perry's 2013 album Prism. The album version of the song only contains Swift as the vocalist on verses, while the single version features a re-worked instrumental and guest vocals from rapper Kendrick Lamar on verses.

Jem Awad of Billboard felt the song was "reminiscent of Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl". The Guardian's Kitty Empire wrote that the song "faintly recalls Charli XCX with its stark beats."

Commercial performance

"Bad Blood" first charted at the US Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in November 2014 and January 2015 as an album cut from 1989, peaking at No. 78. Following the music video premiere at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, the remixed version of the song featuring Kendrick Lamar re-entered the chart at No. 53 and No. 26 at the Digital Songs Chart selling 47,000 digital copies. To date, the song has sold 514,000 digital copies. The song is predicted to sell between 300,000 and 350,000 digital downloads in the week ending May 24.

Critical reception

The remix received positive reviews. George Seabrook of The Edge awarded the song four and half stars out of five, and called it "glorious" and "intoxicating". He praised the song for "the memorable and catchy chorus" and "Lamar’s simple, brutally effective verses", acknowledging the collaboration as "not just one more meaningless stunt collaboration, but a powerful new duo".

Music video

The music video was directed by Joseph Kahn, who previously directed the music video for the second single from 1989, "Blank Space". The video was filmed in Los Angeles, California on April 12, 2015, but the setting for the video is London's Liverpool Street. The music video premiered on May 17, 2015, at the start of the Billboard Music Awards. Each actor chose their character's name. Swift began teasing the video in May on Instagram by posting photos of each character. The video broke Vevo's 24-hour viewing record by accumulating 20.1 million views in its first day of release, beating the 19.6 million 24-hour record previously held by Nicki Minaj for the music video of her song, "Anaconda", in 2014.

Synopsis

The music video starts with Catastrophe (Swift) and Arsyn (Selena Gomez) fighting off a group of men wearing suits in an office somewhere in London. When all of the men are defeated, Arsyn decides to betray Catastrophe by kicking her out of a window. The song begins with Catastrophe laying on a broken car, as Welvin da Great (Kendrick Lamar) begins to rap his verse. Catastrophe is shown being nursed back to health by The Trinity (Hailee Steinfeld), and after some time, she is ready to start training for her revenge. She is shown training in different scenarios with all of the other characters in the video, including knife-fighting with Cut-Throat (Zendaya), boxing with Knockout (Karlie Kloss), riding motorcycles with Domino (Jessica Alba), and others such as The Crimson Curse (Hayley Williams), Destructa X (Ellie Goulding), Frostbyte (Lily Aldridge), Slay-Z (Gigi Hadid), Lucky Fiori (Lena Dunham), Dilemma (Serayah), Luna (Ellen Pompeo), Justice (Mariska Hargitay), Mother Chucker (Cara Delevingne), Homeslice (Martha Hunt), and Headmistress (Cindy Crawford). When her training is complete, Catastrophe and her friends exact their revenge on Arsyn and her henchmen. The two teams approach each other while an enormous explosion goes off in the background, blotting out the London skyline, including 30 St Mary Axe, and the video ends with both of the women simultaneously striking each other in the face.

Reception

Rolling Stone described it as a "futuristic neo-noir" video. Daniel D’Addario of Time called it Swift's "most elaborate" music video yet, and compared the visuals to Sin City. Slate agreed and found other film inspirations: "Along the way, they pay homage to countless films. Besides the video’s Robocop premise, there’s its Sin City aesthetic, its nod to Tron’s light cycles, and its Kill Bill-like fight in the snow." Billboard drew parallels between the video and the music videos for the Britney Spears songs "Toxic" and "Womanizer", which were both directed by Kahn.

Chart performance

Certifications

Release history

References

1. Eells, Josh (September 8, 2014). "Cover Story: The Reinvention of Taylor Swift". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 10, 2015.
2. Strecker, Erin (September 9, 2014). "Did Katy Perry Confirm Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood' Song Is About Her?". Billboard. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
3. Drell, Cady (December 31, 2014). "12 Biggest Feuds of 2014: Taylor Swift vs. Katy Perry". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
4. ^ D'Addario, Daniel (October 27, 2014). "Is Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood' About Katy Perry? A Textual Analysis". Time. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
5. ^ Yahr, Emily (October 27, 2014). "Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood': How we can tell she's singing about Katy Perry". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
6. Aswad, Jem (October 24, 2014). "Album Review: Taylor Swift's Pop Curveball Pays Off With '1989'". Billboard. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
7. Empire, Kitty (October 26, 2014). "Taylor Swift: 1989 review – a bold, gossipy confection". The Guardian. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
8. ^ Gary Trust (May 21, 2015). "Wiz Khalifa Tops Hot 100, Taylor Swift Re-Enters Following BBMAs Video Premiere". Billbaord. (Prometheus Global Media). Retrieved May 22, 2015.
9. ^ Trust, Gary (May 22, 2015). "It's Wiz Khalifa vs. Taylor Swift for No. 1 on Hot 100 Next Week". Billbaord. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
10. Trust, Gary (May 22, 2015). "It's Wiz Khalifa vs. Taylor Swift for No. 1 on Hot 100 Next Week". Billboard. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
11. Seabrook, George (May 20, 2015). "Review: Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – Bad Blood". The Edge. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
12. "Taylor Swift to Debut 'Bad Blood' Video During 2015 Billboard Music Awards". Billboard. May 7, 2015. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
13. ^ "Watch Taylor Swift's Futuristic, Neo-Noir 'Bad Blood' Video". Rolling Stone. May 17, 2015. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
14. Erin Strecker (May 21, 2015). "Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood' Video Breaks Vevo Record". Billboard. (Prometheus Global Media). Retrieved May 21, 2015.
15. D’Addario, Daniel (May 18, 2015). "Watch Taylor Swift's Star-Studded Music Video for 'Bad Blood'". Time. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
16. Shetty, Sharan (May 18, 2015). "Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" Video Has Enough Celebrities to Be an Actual Movie". Slate. Retrieved May 17, 2015.
17. Strecker, Erin (May 17, 2015). "Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood' Video: 15 Things We Need To Talk About Right Now". Billboard. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
18. "ARIA Australian Top 50 Singles Chart". Australian Recording Industry Association. May 23, 2014. Retrieved May 23, 2015.
19. "Taylor Swift feat. Kendrick Lamar – Bad Blood" (in Dutch). Ultratip. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
20. "Taylor Swift feat. Kendrick Lamar – Bad Blood" (in French). Ultratip. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
21. "Taylor Swift Chart History (Canadian Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
22. "Chart Track: Week 21, 2015". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
23. "NZ Top 40 Singles Chart". Recorded Music NZ. May 25, 2015. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
24. "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
25. "Taylor Swift feat. Kendrick Lamar – Bad Blood". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
26. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
27. "Taylor Swift Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
28. "Taylor Swift Chart History (Adult Pop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
29. "Taylor Swift Chart History (Dance Mix/Show Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
30. "Taylor Swift Chart History (Pop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
31. "Taylor Swift Chart History (Rhythmic)". Billboard. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
32. "American single certifications – Taylor Swift – Bad Blood". Recording Industry Association of America.
33. "Bad Blood (feat. Kendrick Lamar) – Single". iTunes Store (US). Retrieved May 18, 2015.
34. "Future Rleases". All Access. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015.

External links

• "Bad Blood" on YouTube

• Single chart usages for Germany2
• 2014 songs
• 2015 singles
• Taylor Swift songs
• Kendrick Lamar songs
• Music videos directed by Joseph Kahn
• Song recordings produced by Max Martin
• Song recordings produced by Shellback (record producer)
• Song recordings produced by Ilya Salmanzadeh
• Songs written by Kendrick Lamar
• Songs written by Max Martin
• Songs written by Shellback (record producer)
• Songs written by Taylor Swift