Taylor Swift Just Hit Back at All Her Trolls With Her New Song, 'You Need to Calm Down'
Taylor Swift has some things to say about the Internet, social media, and trolls—and she’s letting it all out in the latest single from her upcoming seventh album.
The song, “You Need to Calm Down,” dropped at midnight, and its message is clear just from the title: We must chill, guys. Musically, the new song feels very in line with the first single from the album, “ME!” And though it’s laying out a clear message to trolls and those who drag Swift and her friends online, the overall tone is positive. The actual video for “You Need to Calm Down” will be released next week. “I wanted you to hear the song first, then see the video,” she said during an Instagram livestream on Thursday, June 13. “Because the video is very worth the wait. There’s a lot going on in the video, so I wanted that to be a separate discovery.”
So let’s break down what Tay’s got to say on this new song.
She sets the tone with the first verse, calling out the difference between saying something to someone’s face versus putting it on social media: “You are somebody that I don’t know/But you’re takin’ shots at me like it’s Patrón/And I’m just like, damn, it’s 7 AM/Say it in the street, that’s a knock-out/But you say it in a Tweet, that’s a cop-out/And I’m just like, “Hey, are you OK?”
Swift goes on to say she’s not against self-expression, but she’s learned to let it go because “snakes and stones never broke my bones,” seemingly a reference to the pre-Reputation Kim Kardashian drama.
There’s also more than one reference to the LGBTQ+ community in the song. At one point, Swift sings, “Why are you mad when you could be GLAAD? (You could be GLAAD)”. GLAAD is the organization formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation that describes itself as being at the “forefront of cultural change, accelerating acceptance for the LGBTQ community.” Later she says, “And control your urges to scream about all the people you hate/’Cause shade never made anybody less gay.” This is in line with a newly more politically active Swift, who recently released a letter she wrote to her Tennessee senator about protecting LGBTQ+ rights.