I have never been a video fan. The wrong generation. When MTV broke in 1982, I was too rigid to embrace the pinks and oranges of modern pop, didn’t have my MTV, and was too stuck in my ways to believe a video could add anything to music: I mean, either the music works or it doesn’t, if it doesn’t no amount of dress up will save it.
But we all grow younger and I must admit the Taylor Swift “Bad Blood” video had me interested, her “Blank Space” was a wow and it could be all that and a bag of chips. Two Lamar verses is something but a cast of thousands is something else for a song that is a hit at Katy Perry. Backstabbing all about eve featuring Selena Gomez, Jessica Alba, Lena Dunham, Ellie Goulding, Hayley Williams,and more, that was the dream. What I got was a Superheroe takedown as Bionic Taylor goes for revenge. No inside baseball here.
Swift, who refused to aloow her performance at Rock In Rio last week, is rich man’s weather. While it is true you need money to make money, and we aren’t socialists here, still there is something very 1% about the star nowdays: she is damaging her image. I am reminded of the One Direction fan in that documentary, a tween girl from England, who couldn’t afford a ticket to their concert so her parents took her to Madame Tussaud to see their waxworks. Taylor prices out so many opportunities for her friends and while it doesn’t effect me, it must surely hurt many kids. It is all very Madame Tussaud.
Meanwhile, everybody looks like money on this video, especially Tay, all legs and snarl, and while Kendrick phones it in, so what? Just wow it for the cultural hosannas.
Grade: B
Love Taylor, her songs, and the only two videos I’ve seen, Blank Space and Shake It Off, are great fun. Both showcase her sense of humor and self-awareness, remarkable traits in such a young person.
The Bad Blood video, however, suffers from Kevin Smith Syndrome, in which an artist who produces fine work is handed a princely sum with which to work, and the result is meh.
Where is the humor? The jabs at her image? The willingness to look foolish? Perhaps she’s grown past all that, but the Bad Blood video doesn’t cover any new ground. A bunch of star cameos, lackluster fight scenes against expensive sets and even more costly CGI doesn’t work to sell the song.
I’m sure kiddies and Swifties will lap it up, but it’s disappointing when you look at her earlier earlier use of the video medium. Worth many more listens, but few views. – C