Taylor Swift's latest single "Gorgeous" may share a title with a song from Kanye West's critically acclaimed album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), but its much closer in style and substance to Katy Perry's Teenage Dream era and Charli XCX's recent hit "Boys". Against playful synth chimes and a pristine pop production that would fit neatly into her previous album, Swift presents a tongue-in-cheek ode to a devastatingly handsome love interest that is making her sound slightly airheaded, like a Valley girl: "You're so gorgeous/ I can't say anything to your face/ 'Cause look at your face/ And I'm so furious/ At you for making me feel this way". She even pokes fun at herself, extending the meta-commentary that punctuated the "Look What You Made Me Do" music video and some of the verses from "...Ready For It?": 'Guess I'll just stumble on home to my cats/ Alone, unless you wanna come along, oh!".
With her face emblazoned on UPS trucks, a partnership with AT&T and DirecTV for exclusive videos, and a new app (The Swift Life) in the works, Swift's cultural ubiquity when Reputation is released on November 10 is imminent. It is highly likely that the music video Swift was shooting in London, which will pay homage to and introduce the world to her current boyfriend, British actor Joe Alwyn (who has mostly stayed out of the tabloids), will be for "Gorgeous". The Telegraph reported that shooting for the video took place at Kentish Delight (a kebab shop), the Millennium Bridge, on the night bus around Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square, and at Alwyn's local pub.
As Pacific Standard's Kelsey McKinney and The Atlantic's Spencer Kornhaber have observed, Swift's upcoming album will be released at a time (i.e. Trump's America) when female singers are having a particularly difficult time at topping the Billboard 100. Can Swift's celebrity cachet, her talent for catchy melodies and telegenic prowess tip the gender parity scales at the top of the charts? One can hope so, but having a largely one-dimensional song about being boy-crazy soar to the top of the charts it will also hardly seem like a feminist victory. It's up to some possibly clever subtext in the upcoming music video to make all the difference.
