Taylor Swift's Video Director Is Accusing Beyoncé Of Copying Her
So, you remember that “Look What You Made Me Do” video from country and pop singer Taylor Swift that had the internet in a tizzy, right?
Sure you do. It’s the one where T. Swift dropped a preview of the visual as she’s dressed up in all-black and striking a fierce pose with an edgy ensemble of dancers. Also, the same one that earned her a full-blown drag session from Twitter for what they deemed a rip-off of Beyoncé’s iconic “Formation” visual and the album it piloted, Lemonade.
But according to the director behind Swift’s latest visual, it was the Queen Bey who is guilty of the style biting.
Joseph Kahn, who readied Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” from the video director’s chair, spoke with the Los Angeles Times on the visual’s controversy and its connection to “Formation.” He completely dismisses the idea of Swift’s video being even remotely close to Bey’s. Not only does he believe the comparison doesn’t exist, Kahn alleges that Bey actually swiped the creative ideas behind one of Swift’s videos from two years ago.
"They try to say [Taylor’s] wearing a black crop top and Beyoncé wore a black crop top,” he argued. “But they don’t realize in 2015, in ‘Bad Blood,’ Taylor Swift was wearing a black crop top. I really do think, by the way, that Beyoncé copied ‘Bad Blood.’”
If we revisit the action-packed, superhero visuals of “Bad Blood,” there isn’t much to relate back to any of the creative components in Bey’s 2016 opus. Lemonade’s avowal of Black womanhood and socio-political contexts such as police brutality and Black oppression are definitively expressed from the album’s artistic vantage point.
In other words: BeyHive, we’ll let you take this one.
Let us know if you spot any similarities with Swift's "Bad Blood" music video below.