Vengeance is the order of the day in the music video for Look What You Made Me Do, the latest single from reigning pop monarch Taylor Swift.
Directed by longtime collaborator Joseph Kahn, the video opens with a zombified Swift literally digging her own grave, replete with a headstone that solemnly proclaims “Here Lies Taylor Swift’s Reputation”. The American pop star’s excoriating flair is dialled up to 11 as the video then cuts to her partially submerged in a bathtub full of diamonds.
To achieve the music video’s over-the-top visuals, Kahn and Swift enlisted the help of celebrity jeweller Neil Lane, who gave the duo “unprecedented access” to his private collection. Swift’s designer reportedly “cleaned out” one of Lane’s stores, forcing the jeweller to fetch more items from a vault.
Pop culture commentators have interpreted the scene as a mocking allusion to the robbery of Kim Kardashian West. In 2016, the American TV celebrity was restrained in a bathtub at gunpoint while thieves stole an estimated HK$78.2 million worth of jewellery. In an entirely unsurprising twist, it is reported that the diamonds used in Swift’s controversial new music video are worth the aforementioned amount.