Summary

• Reputation is the next Taylor's Version, with Debut finishing the project off
• No album drove Taylor's career in a sharper direction than Reputation
• Though some many not remember that way now, Reputation was essentially Taylor's comeback record

It's hard to explain where exactly Taylor Swift was in her career when Reputation came out. Seeing her now, selling out stadiums around the world and the biggest phenomenon music has seen in decades, most people have short memories about the journey that got her here. She's been in and around the charts since her second album Fearless in 2008, and so a lot of people assume she's been consistently popular since then - but that's not the case at all.

Prior to Reputation, Taylor was not just in a slump. It wasn't like she had suffered a few misses and general audiences were listening to something else. In fact, her previous album - 1989 - was her biggest hit to date, and she still has few more recognisable tunes than Shake It Off, Bad Blood, and Blank Space. She should have been going into Reputation on a high, with the only worry being the pressure of measuring up to one of the most commercially successful pop albums of the century. But in 2016, Taylor hit the first serious roadblock of her rise to superstardom: overexposure.

Reputation Marked A Change In Taylor Swift's Celebrity Status

𒁃 Our relationship with celebrities has changed a lot over the past two decades, with an increasingl🐟y parasocial link between fans and stars leading to sharper lenses being cast on celebrities. They have always built you up to knock you down, but the rise of social media made the building and the knocking far easier. Taylor Swift was built higher than many had ever been built before... and then she was knocked down.

I am writing this on Friday morning, and while Taylor is widely (amongst always-online superfans) expected to drop Reputation (Taylor's Version) tonight in Warsaw, I have clowned too often to put all my chips on that. I still don't know why she held the phone upside down.

After graciously burying the hatchet with Kanye West following his still-infamous VMA "Imma let you finish" interruption, Taylor was suddenly pulled back into his world. Kanye's song Famous included the line "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/I made that b*tch famous", while the video included naked waxworks of Kanye in bed between Taylor and his then-wife Kim Kardashian, while other figures in the bed included Donald Trump, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Kim's ex Ray-J, Kanye's ex Amber Rose, and Caitlyn Jenner.

Another indicator of how our view of celebrity culture has changed rapidly over the past decade - everyone was on Kanye's side here. Taylor was expected to take the 'joke' with good humour, and when she did not, she became public enemy number one. She denied giving Kanye permission for the song, so Kim released a video of the three of them on the phone. On it, Taylor appears to give approval for "me and Taylor might still have sex" lyric.

Kim Kardashian And Kanye West Altered Taylor Swift's Trajectory

, and reminded Kanye that the reason he was able to interrupt on stage was because she was on stage at all after selling seven million copies of an album that also won Album of the Year at the Grammys, so he didn't actually make her famous. Taylor conceded that he, as an artist, had the right to tell his story his way and if he hadn't heard of her, then his perception might be his responsibility for the fame. The line about sex was also a concession, with Taylor called in to settle an argument between Kim and Kanye about whether the line should be "might still have sex" (Kanye's preference) or "might owe me sex" (Kim's preference), to which she uncomfortably says that she doesn't want to interfere with their marriage.

They were a very odd couple, weren't they?

In the end, Kim Kardashian was built up high enough for it to be deemed fun to knock her down and by the time the full transcript was released, Taylor had already earned her place back at the top table through Reputation's success. But for a while, the narrative was set in stone. Taylor Swift was a snake. The once beloved pop sensation could no longer have any online or public presence without being bombarded by hisses and snake emojis. Right when her career had kicked into the stratosphere, it seemed to be over.

"There will be no explanation, there is only Reputation" has been retrofitted as Reputation's motto, but this album did not have a lowkey rollout. Taylor deleted all of her social media posts following fans plaguing her with snake emojis, and it seemed like she was stepping out of the spotlight. Then a hiss emerged from the shadows.

Taylor Swift Reclaimed The Snake, And Her Career, With Reputation

A trio of snake videos ꧋were posted to Instagram (back when it was cool to make your posts into collages), and Reputation was announced with the lead single Look What You Made Me Do. The single got a huge push and became one of her biggest hits commercially (and her first UK number one), arriving alongside an iconic video that saw her rise from the grave and reflect on her past eras.

It is not seen as a 'comeback record' because it followed on from 1989, an even bigger hit. But Taylor was at her lowest point while writing and recording Reputation. The world had turned on her. Many artists have floundered in these uncharted waters, either going softly into that good night or desperately grabbing at anything and falling short, even tarnishing the work that came before. Taylor made it look easy - so easy many have forgotten how hard it was.

Though Lover was the first album Taylor released while striking out on her own, hence why it and all that follow will not get Taylor's Versions, it feels as though Reputation was the true turning point for her career. She took on more creative control of the album's visuals, began including more pointed references to her life beyond prior references to break ups, and worked closely with Jack Antonoff who has become the architect of her current sound. Though 1989 made her a superstar and Lover was her first record under more equitable label management, it feels like Reputation was the catalyst for the Taylor Swift we know today, both as a celebrity icon and as a more rounded music artist.

For some fans, Reputation (Taylor's Version) is important simply because it’s their favourite, or because they are interested in the Vault Tracks. Personally, of the two left, I think Debut is the more compelling for purely musical reasons, but getting into ranking Taylor's work is impossible as you have to have something last and fans will never be happy with any album being placed at the bottom. My favourite is Evermore but I'm old enough to have listened to Debut when it was a new record (and I did), which I feel is a position few will agree with but also one difficult to get mad at, so I'll end the ranking there.

But Reputation (Taylor's Version) is deeper than the music. Taylor's public persona and her indomitable work ethic can be traced back to Reputation, as can the fiery desire to state her worth that is at the heart of the Taylor's Version project. For that reason, wherever it falls on your individual ranking, Reputation (Taylor's Version) might be Taylor Swift's most important record to date.