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Taylor Swift · S6 E3
Bad Blood
Katy Perry, the dancers, the lawsuit, the video with fifty celebrities, and the Grammy performance that closes the feud.
September 8, 2014. Taylor Swift tells Rolling Stone that a song on her upcoming album is about a fellow female pop star who tried to sabotage her arena tour, and the internet identifies Katy Perry within hours.
...Ready for It?, Taylor Swift (2017). Three years after Bad Blood, Taylor returns armored in the same combative energy. The video's battle sequences and futuristic aesthetic feel like Bad Blood's spy-movie world evolved into something even more intense.
The Dancers
The feud traces back to 2013. During Taylor's Red Tour, several of her backup dancers leave mid-run to join Katy Perry's upcoming Prismatic World Tour. Taylor considers it a deliberate act of sabotage, and the friendship between the two biggest pop stars in the world is over.
Sources
Josh Eells, "The Reinvention of Taylor Swift," Rolling Stone, September 2014
“She did something so horrible. I was like, oh, we're just straight-up enemies. And it wasn't even about a guy. She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour.”
— Taylor Swift, Rolling Stone, September 2014
TAP TO REVEAL: How did Katy Perry respond when the internet figured out Bad Blood was about her?
The Blockbuster
Director Joseph Kahn shoots the Bad Blood video like a summer action movie: fight sequences, explosions, and over a dozen celebrities each assigned a custom character name. The Kendrick Lamar remix replaces the original version entirely, turning a pop feud anthem into a genuine hip-hop crossover. It premieres at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards and breaks the VEVO record with 20.1 million views in its first 24 hours.
Sources
Billboard, May 2015
Bad Blood by the Numbers
Wonderland, Taylor Swift
The 1989 deep cut that mirrors the Bad Blood story in metaphor. Taylor borrows from Alice in Wonderland to describe a relationship that starts magical and turns chaotic, with a chorus that warns "didn't they tell us don't rush into things?" The fairy tale going wrong is Bad Blood's origin story, told through someone else's framework.
Wonderland, Taylor Swift (2014)
Read the lyrics while you listen. Taylor uses Lewis Carroll's world to describe a bond that felt like magic until it collapsed, and every repeat of "we found wonderland" sounds more desperate than the last.
What record did the Bad Blood music video break when it premiered in May 2015?
The Bad Blood video reveals something beyond a feud: Taylor has assembled an army of famous friends that the tabloids will call "The Squad." Next: the friend group that defined a cultural moment, then tore itself apart.
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