...Ready for It?

"...Ready for It?" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her sixth studio album Reputation (2017). She wrote the song with its producers, Max Martin, Shellback, and Ali Payami. An electropop and industrial pop song, "...Ready for It?" incorporates elements of dancehall, tropical house, and trap. It features Swift rapping over heavy synthesizers, bass drops, and programmed drums. Lyrically, the track uses criminal imagery such as bank heist and ransom to depict a newfound romance.

The song premiered in a college football match by ESPN on September 2, 2017, before being released for digital download the following day. On September 17, Big Machine released the track to US radio as the second single from Reputation. Music critics generally described the production of "...Ready for It?" as anthemic, but some felt that it was generic and indiscernible from other popular songs on contemporary radio. The single peaked within the top ten on charts and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Canada, and the United States.

The accompanying music video, directed by Joseph Kahn, features a dark, futuristic aesthetic and references sci-fi franchises. Swift performed "...Ready for It?" live on the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018) and the Eras Tour (2023–2024).

Background and release
Taylor Swift released her fifth studio album, 1989, in October 2014. 1989 synth-pop production transformed Swift's sound and image from country-oriented to mainstream pop. Although the album propelled Swift's status to a global pop star, she was a target of tabloid gossip. Publicized celebrity disputes and short-lived relationships blemished her "America's Sweetheart" reputation, making her seclude from interactions with the press. During a self-imposed hiatus, she conceived her sixth studio album, Reputation, as an answer to the media commotion surrounding her celebrity.

On September 2, 2017, Swift premiered a snippet of "...Ready for It?" during ABC's Saturday Night Football broadcast of ESPN's Florida State vs. Alabama college football game. A day after the snippet premiere, the track was released for digital download. It was the second song released from Reputation, after the lead single "Look What You Made Me Do". In the United States, "...Ready for It?" impacted contemporary hit radio on September 17, and rhythmic contemporary radio on October 24, 2017. A remix by BloodPop was released on December 10, 2017.

Writing and composition
Swift wrote "...Ready for It?" with its producers: Max Martin, Shellback, and Ali Payami. Martin and Shellback recorded the track at MXM Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. All three producers programmed the song and played keyboards on it. "...Ready for It?" was mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound Studios in New York.

In the 2024 documentary Taylor Swift vs. Scooter Braun: Bad Blood, Heather Wirth, Swift’s former personal assistant for The 1989 World Tour, revealed that Swift wrote the song on a plane during the tour.

"...Ready for It?" is an electropop and industrial pop song. It incorporates influences of dancehall and trap music. The song features deep synths, a tropical house chorus, a dubstep bass drop, drum machines and rapping. The atmosphere of the song drew comparisons to Kanye West and Rihanna. The song is performed in the key of E minor with a tempo of 80 beats per minute, with Swift's vocals spanning from G3 to E5.

The song lyrically revolves around Swift's fantasies about an individual whom she describes as a "killer" who has had multiple relationships and is "younger than her exes" but "acts like such a man". These fantasies include "holding him for ransom", committing a bank heist together, moving to a secret offshore location and being held in jail. Swift uses images of Hollywood romance, islands and going undercover so that "no one has to know". She also addresses the perception of her own romantic history by comparing herself to Elizabeth Taylor and her lover to Richard Burton.

Critical reception
"...Ready for It?" received positive reviews from music critics, calling it an improvement from Swift's previous single, "Look What You Made Me Do". Tom Breihan of Stereogum said the songwriters "made something ungainly and goofy, something that was probably a terrible idea, and they still made it sound like towering, colossal pop music". Patrick Ryan of USA Today expressed some skepticism concerning Swift's rapping, but noted the contrast between the "anthemic chorus" and "dark", intense verses made for a "promising second glance on her reputation era". Richard He wrote for Billboard that "Swift has never sung more expressively, nor sounded more in tune with the way modern pop production uses the voice as an instrument" and that the song's chorus has "one of the prettiest melodies of her career".

However, Craig Jenkins of Vulture gave it a lukewarm review, stating that the song "doesn't reinvent pop or Taylor, but it does get her name out on a product built to keep pace with current trends". Mike Wass for Idolator dismissed the song as "not good" and called it "equally underwhelming" as "Look What You Made Me Do". He concluded by saying "If you can get past the cringeworthy lyrics and jarring production, a cute chorus awaits. But that's a lot of work for a minor payoff".

Commercial performance
In the United States, "...Ready for It?" debuted and peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Swift's 22nd top 10 song and her fourteenth top 10 debut on the chart, the most among female artists and second most overall behind rapper Drake. It also became her thirteenth number one song on the Billboard Digital Song Sales chart with opening sales of 135,000 copies, entered the Billboard Streaming Songs chart with 19 million streams in its first week of availability, and opened at 35 on the Billboard Pop Songs chart with a radio audience of 13 million. On other Billboard charts, "...Ready For It?" peaked at number 12 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart, number 10 on the Billboard Adult Top 40 chart, and number 26 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

In Canada, the song peaked at number seven. It opened atop the digital sales chart, dethroning another single from Reputation, "Look What You Made Me Do". Likewise in the UK, it also peaked at number seven, while in Scotland and New Zealand, it peaked at numbers three and number nine, respectively. In Australia, "...Ready for It?" entered at its peak position of number three on the ARIA Singles Chart, becoming her twelfth top five entry in the nation.

Production and release
The music video was directed by Joseph Kahn.

An audio for the song was released on September 3, 2017, that has more than 300 million views to date. On October 23, 2017, Swift released a teaser of the music video for the song. The teaser was met with controversy, with many online commentators and media outlets claiming that Swift is physically naked in the music video; many social media users criticized Swift's alleged nudity in the teaser. Subsequently, Swift posted an Instagram story denouncing the nudity claims alongside a selfie of her wearing a bodysuit, captioned "It truly warms my heart that ppl had so much to say about this bodysuit." The full video premiered on October 26. The video features homage references to sci-fi and anime, such as Blade Runner, Tron and Ghost in the Shell.

Synopsis
The video starts with Swift dressed in a black cloak walking through an alley, making her way past several guards and typing in a code to access a room where a cyborg clone of Swift in a white bodysuit is being held inside a small cell. Graffiti seen on the walls are lyrics from the Reputation album. The cloaked Swift walks up to the cell walls and watches as the cyborg Swift transforms into several iterations - she wears futuristic armor, rides a white horse, manipulates various flickers of energy, and shoots lightning bolts from her fingertips. Eventually, the cyborg Swift breaks through the cell walls, with shards of glass cutting the cloaked Swift across the face, revealing she is a cyborg as well. The cyborg guards try to contain both of them to no avail, and the video ends with the white cyborg Swift walking away from her demolished cell and moving up an escalator.

Live performances
Swift performed "...Ready for It?" for the first time during an episode of the 43rd season of Saturday Night Live on November 11, 2017, alongside an acoustic version of "Call It What You Want". Swift also performed "...Ready for It?" as part of the KIIS-FM's Jingle Ball 2017 on December 1, 2017, in Inglewood, California. Two days later, Swift returned onstage to perform the song again as part of 99.7 Now!'s Poptopia in San Jose, California with the same setlist. The following week, Swift performed the song again on three other occasions, such as the B96 Chicago and Pepsi Jingle Bash 2017 in Chicago, the Z100 Jingle Ball 2017 in New York City and Jingle Bell Ball 2017 in London.

The song was the opening number of Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour and included on the set list of the Eras Tour (2023–2024) where it was the first song in the Reputation segment. On May 27, 2018, Swift opened her set as part of BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend in Singleton Park in Swansea, Wales with the song.

Personnel

 * Taylor Swift – lead vocals, background vocals, songwriter
 * Max Martin – producer, songwriter, recording, keyboards, programming
 * Shellback – producer, songwriter, recording, keyboards, programming
 * Ali Payami – producer, songwriter, keyboards, programming


 * Şerban Ghenea – mixing
 * John Hanes – mix engineer
 * Randy Merrill – mastering