Music

People Are Wildly Confused About Katy Perry And Taylor Swift’s Reconciliation

"This picture of Katy Perry and Taylor Swift is the perfect symbol of their unabashed attempts to use feminism as marketing."

by Joseph Earp  18 June 2019
Katy Perry and Taylor Swift reunite in the new music video for 'You Need To Calm Down'

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After unsuccessfully trying to jack Miley Cyrus’ Bangerz heel turn with her uneven record Reputation, Taylor Swift has shifted into a new direction with her forthcoming album Lover. And said direction just happens to be deeply reminiscent of the early singles of her one-time rival Katy Perry.

Swiftie has traded in the snake iconography and Right Said Fred-sampling weirdness of her Reputation-era for sub-Sesame Street sing-alongs.

‘Me!’ and ‘You Need To Calm Down‘, the first two tastes of Lover, are ‘I Kissed A Girl’ and ‘Hot N Cold’ but with their edges sanded down. Hell, Taylor has even pivoted her image from goth-lite into full-blown pastel pinks and lavenders, transforming visually as well as sonically into a weird simulacrum of the skin Perry herself shed years ago.

To celebrate cribbing from the popstar she wrote ‘Bad Blood’ about, it looks like Swift has decided to finally bury the hatchet. After years spent fighting over the perceived slight of Perry nicking some of her backup dancers, Swift has opened her arms to her rival in a warm embrace, and the two have made a headline-grabbing reconciliation just in time for the roll-out of one of their albums. Funny how that timing works, hey!

The on-camera make-up comes during the star-studded clip for ‘You Need To Calm Down’, as the two musicians — dressed as a burger and hot chips — come together and embrace.

In an interview with BBC Radio, the Reputation singer explained that the pair thought it would be funny if they made amends while dressed like two foodstuffs that compliment each other perfectly. “I would love for us to be a symbol of redemption and forgiveness,” she said, somewhat optimistically.

 

Anyway, the internet appears to be firmly divided on the subject of this whole feud finale. Fans of both artists, who have had to keep up their own digital version of the feud with each other, seem to have largely accepted the end of the rift, celebrating with joyous memes.

Others, mind you, are less impressed.

But hey, we’re only at the very beginning of this brand new era for Swiftie — who knows what the coming weeks will bring?