Bad Blood (Taylor Swift song)

"Bad Blood" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). She wrote the song with the producers Max Martin and Shellback. A pop song with hip hop beats and keyboards, the lyrics are about betrayal by a close friend. A remix featuring the American rapper Kendrick Lamar, with additional lyrics by Lamar and production by Ilya, was released to radio as the fourth single to promote 1989 on May 17, 2015, by Big Machine and Republic Records.

Music critics gave the album version of "Bad Blood" mixed reviews; some found it to demonstrate a defiant attitude and deemed it a highlight, but others criticized the production as bland and the lyrics repetitive. The remix version received somewhat more positive comments for Lamar's verses, and it received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Although NME and PopMatters ranked "Bad Blood" among the best songs of 2015, critics have retrospectively considered it one of Swift's worst songs. The single reached number one and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Canada, and the United States.

Directed by Joseph Kahn and produced by Swift, the music video for "Bad Blood" incorporates futuristic and neo-noir elements. The video received extensive media coverage for its ensemble cast consisting of many singers, actresses, and fashion models. It won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video and MTV Video Music Awards for the Video of the Year and Best Collaboration. Swift performed "Bad Blood" on the 1989 World Tour (2015), the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018), and the Eras Tour (2023–2024). Following the 2019 dispute regarding the ownership of Swift's back catalog, she re-recorded both the album version and the Lamar remix for her 2023 re-recorded album 1989 (Taylor's Version); both re-recordings are subtitled "Taylor's Version".

Background and production
Taylor Swift had identified as a country musician until her fourth studio album, Red, which was released on October 22, 2012. Red 's eclectic pop and rock styles beyond the country stylings of Swift's past albums led to critics questioning her country-music identity. Swift began writing songs for her fifth studio album in mid-2013 while touring. She was inspired by 1980s synth-pop to create her fifth studio album, 1989, which she described as her first "official pop album" and named after her birth year. The album makes extensive use of synthesizers, programmed drum machines, and electronic and dance stylings, a stark contrast to the acoustic arrangements of her country-styled albums.

Swift and Max Martin served as executive producers of 1989. On the album's standard edition, Martin and his frequent collaborator Shellback produced 7 out of 13 songs, including "Bad Blood". Swift wrote "Bad Blood" with Martin and Shellback, who both programmed the track and played electronic keyboards on it. The song was recorded by Sam Holland at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles, and by Michael Ilbert at MXM Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. The song was mixed by Serban Ghenea at Mixstar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and mastered by Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound Studio in New York.

Music and lyrics
"Bad Blood" is a pop song with prominent hip hop stylings. It incorporates surging keyboards, hip hop beats, and a pulsing bassline. According to Jon Caramanica of The New York Times, the "booming drums" of the song evoked the "Billy Squier ones often sampled in hip-hop". Jem Aswad of Billboard described the production as "simplistic" and compared it to Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" (2005), The Observer Kitty Empire likened the "stark beats" to the music of Charli XCX, and NME 's Matthew Horton deemed the song a "bitter stomp" that evokes Beastie Boys. The lyrics portray resentment and anger that result from betrayal, through lyrics such as, "These kinda wounds, they last and they last," and "Band-aids don't fix bullet holes/ You say sorry just for show." The refrain consists of repeated phrases, "Now we got bad blood/ You know it used to be mad love." Jon Pareles described Swift's vocals throughout the refrain as tense, while Consequence of Sound's Sasha Geffen wrote that she sang "through gritted teeth".

In an interview for the September 2014 cover issue for Rolling Stone, Swift said that "Bad Blood" was about a fellow female artist. Although Swift had thought of this person as a close friend, she attempted to "sabotage an entire arena tour" by "[hiring] a bunch of people out from under me". She wanted to make it clear that it was about losing a friend and not a lover because she "knew people would immediately be going in one direction", referring to how the audience interpreted her songs in association with her love life. The media widely speculated the subject to be Katy Perry, who had a publicized fallout with Swift after being friends for a few years. In another interview for GQ in October 2015, Swift responded to the speculation: "I never said anything that would point a finger in the specific direction of one specific person." According to GQ 's Chuck Klosterman, by revealing the idea behind "Bad Blood" without disclosing the subject, Swift "propagated the existence of a different rumor that offered the added value of making the song more interesting".

Release and commercial performance
After 1989 was released on October 27, 2014, "Bad Blood" first charted on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in November 2014 and January 2015, reaching number 78. In May 2015, a remix version featuring the rapper Kendrick Lamar was released as the fourth single to promote 1989. According to Lamar, Swift reached out to him personally and he agreed because they had been fond of each other's music. On the remix, Lamar raps two verses written by himself, and Ilya Salmanzadeh contributed additional production. Lamar recalled that the collaboration with Swift went smoothly because "the vibe was right"; he finished his verses in a few takes during a studio session in Los Angeles. When Rolling Stone asked him in 2017 whether he was "taking sides in a pop beef", he responded that he was unaware of it.

Big Machine Records released the remix for digital download on May 17, 2015, the same day that the premiere of its music video took place at the Billboard Music Awards. In the United States, Big Machine and Republic Records sent "Bad Blood" to contemporary hit radio on May 19, and to rhythmic radio on June 9, 2015. Universal Music Group released the song to Italian radio on June 12, 2015. "Bad Blood" re-entered the Hot 100 at number 53 upon its single release and reached number one the following week, on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated May 24, 2015; it marked one of the largest jumps to the top in Billboard chart history. "Bad Blood" was the third single from 1989 to reach number one, after "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space"; it was Swift's fourth and Lamar's first career number-one Hot 100 single. In its next five weeks, it charted at number two.

On Billboard 's airplay charts, "Bad Blood" reached number one on Pop Songs and Adult Pop Songs. On the Pop Songs chart, after it debuted at number 13 and rose to number 9 the following week, the single tied the record for the quickest timeline to enter the top 10. By reaching number one in five weeks, it registered the shortest duration to top the chart since Nelly's "Over and Over" (2004) featuring Tim McGraw, which spent three weeks before ascending to the top. In the week ending July 12, 2015, the single broke the record for the most single-week plays in the Pop Songs chart's 22-year history, surpassing Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth's "See You Again" (2015). According to Nielsen SoundScan, "Bad Blood" was the 10th-best-selling song of 2015 in the United States, selling 2.584 million digital copies. The Recording Industry Association of America certified the single six-times platinum for surpassing six million units based on sales and on-demand streams, and the track had sold 3.2 million digital copies in the United States by July 2019.

"Bad Blood" topped the charts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Scotland. It peaked within the top five on charts of South Africa (two), Lebanon (four), and the United Kingdom (four). The song also reach the top ten in Hungary, Finland and Ireland. The single was certified multi-platinum in Australia (eight-times platinum), Brazil (diamond), and Canada (triple platinum), platinum in Austria, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, and gold in Denmark, Germany, Italy, and New Zealand. In the United Kingdom, the single had sold 373,000 downloads as of July 2021.

Critical reception
Many critics deemed "Bad Blood" the weakest song on 1989. Mike Diver from Clash described it as "a litany of diary-page break-up clichés set to directionless thumps and fuzzes". Critics who deemed "Bad Blood" a generic song without the trademarks of Swift's songwriting included Mikael Wood from the Los Angeles Times and Andrew Unterberger from Spin; the former deemed the beat reminiscent of Katy Perry's "Roar" (2013) while the latter thought that the lyrics were "stunningly inoffensive" because they lacked the specificity that had characterized songs like "Dear John". Lindsay Zoladz from Vulture considered "Bad Blood" an "ironic" song to be taken as a Perry diss track because "the faceless mall-pop" of other 1989 tracks "proves that Swift is no better with early-'90s pastiche than Perry was on Prism 's duds". The musicologist James E. Perone wrote that there is "very little" about the song's composition and vocals "to suggest to someone who had never heard the song before that it is a Taylor Swift song", deeming it not "engaging or distinctive". Retrospective rankings by Rolling Stone Rob Sheffield, Paste Jane Song, and Vulture Nate Jones all ranked "Bad Blood" among the worst songs Swift had released.

In more positive reviews, several critics considered "Bad Blood" one of the highlights of 1989. The Quietus 's Amy Pettifier said that it was one of the album tracks "crammed with merit" and called it "all sass and bile", and Entertainment Weekly Adam Markovitz said that the track was a "potential [hit]" as a "chant-along fight song". Consequence of Sound 's Sasha Geffen and Drowned in Sound's Robert Leedham found the song to showcase a defiant attitude; the former attributed this to the production elements of hip hop beats and deep bassline: "they let her slice out her words with real anger, not just passive regret", and the latter wrote that it recalled "iconic hardcore bands you've probably never heard of".

Reviewing the remix version featuring Lamar, August Brown of the Los Angeles Times expressed confusion towards the rapper's appearance and contended that it was a move to garner a mainstream audience after "his thorny epic exploration of the black male psyche, To Pimp a Butterfly". While Brown said that Lamar's delivery was "not at his most fiery", it proved his artistic versatility "from difficult free jazz [...] to the tightest, glossiest pop out there". Slate's Chris Molanphy praised Ilya's production for highlighting the refrain's musical highlights and lauded Lamar's "tongue-tripping turns of phrase", but he contended that the rapper was in "accessible, maximum-pop mode" and that "many of us hold him to a higher standard now". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian dubbed the single "a masterstroke" with "potent and effective" verses from Lamar and an "even more anthemic" chorus compared to the album version. "Bad Blood" featuring Lamar was listed among the best songs of 2015 by NME (11th) and PopMatters (6th).

Development and synopsis
"Bad Blood" was supported by a high-budget music video directed by Joseph Kahn and produced by Swift. It was filmed in Los Angeles on April 12, 2015, and premiered at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards on May 17, 2015. The video features an ensemble cast consisting of singers and fashion models, whose public appearances with Swift during the subsequent 1989 World Tour led the media to call them Swift's "squad". Each member of the cast chose her character's name. The cast include (in order of appearance): Catastrophe (Swift), Arsyn (Selena Gomez), Welvin da Great (Lamar), Lucky Fiori (Lena Dunham), The Trinity (Hailee Steinfeld), Dilemma (Serayah), Slay-Z (Gigi Hadid), Destructa X (Ellie Goulding), Homeslice (Martha Hunt), Mother Chucker (Cara Delevingne), Cut Throat (Zendaya), The Crimson Curse (Hayley Williams), Frostbyte (Lily Aldridge), Knockout (Karlie Kloss), Domino (Jessica Alba), Justice (Mariska Hargitay), Luna (Ellen Pompeo), and Headmistress (Cindy Crawford).

Set in a fictional London, the music video starts with Catastrophe (Swift) and her partner, Arsyn (Gomez), fighting off a group of men in a corporate office for a mysterious briefcase. When all of the men are defeated, Arsyn betrays Catastrophe by stealing the briefcase in her hand and kicking her out of a window. The song begins with Catastrophe lying on a broken car, as Welvin da Great begins his rap verse and Lucky Fiori smokes a cigar. Catastrophe is shown being nursed back to health by a trio of girls called The Trinity, and after some time, she is ready to start training for her revenge. When her training is complete, Catastrophe and her friends strike out to exact their revenge on Arsyn and her masked henchwomen. The two teams approach each other in what seems to be slow motion while an enormous explosion goes off in the background, blotting out the London skyline. The final bits of the song contains various scenes from the video and it ends with Catastrophe and Arsyn simultaneously striking each other in the face.

Reception
The video received positive feedback regarding its production and styling, with comments pointing out several references to action movies. Rolling Stone described it as a "futuristic neo-noir" video. Daniel D'Addario of Time called it Swift's "most elaborate" music video yet, and compared its visuals to those of Sin City. Slate agreed and found other film inspirations: "Along the way, they pay homage to countless films. Besides the video's Robocop premise, there's its Sin City aesthetic, its nod to Tron's light cycles, and its Kill Bill-like fight in the snow." Billboard drew parallels between the video and the music videos of Britney Spears's "Toxic" and "Womanizer," which were both directed by Kahn. The video broke Vevo's 24-hour viewing record by accumulating 20.1 million views in its first day of release, which was later broken by Adele's "Hello" in October 2015, with 27.7 million views in the first 24 hours.

The video's content, allegedly to be about Swift's feud with Katy Perry, drew criticism from some commentators regarding its allegedly anti-feminist message contradicting Swift's feminist identity. Jennifer Gannon from The Irish Times observed that Swift's celebrity friends were a tool for her to build a cult of personality rather than female empowerment, writing: "Her intentions may be honourable but tangled up within this complicated web of victimhood and tired gossip is her own form of girl power." The Atlantic Spencer Kornharber defended the video, describing it as Swift's effort to counterattack "old stereotypes about women as inherently catty ... and that females must necessarily compete for the top spot in arenas from music to dating". Hannelore Roth, a literature professor, acknowledged Swift's feminist identity, but argued that the cast featured in the video implied that feminism is only accessible to rich and attractive women. Roth also noted that, since Welvin da Great (Lamar's character) appears to be the ringleader behind these women, the video proves to be "just a violent, pre-modern copy of the patriarchal structures at the office." In a retrospective review, Consequence critic Mary Siroky called the video "The Avengers of music videos".

Accolades
"Bad Blood" was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, and won Best Music Video at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards in 2016. At the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, the music video for "Bad Blood" received eight nominations and won two: Video of the Year and Best Collaboration. The song was one of the awarded songs at the 2016 ASCAP Pop Music Awards and the 2016 BMI Awards, where Swift became the first woman to win a prize named after its recipient, the Taylor Swift Award.

The song received accolades at fan-voted awards such as Teen Choice Awards (including Choice Music - Collaboration), MTV Europe Music Awards, Radio Disney Music Awards, and the Philippines' Myx Music Award. It received nominations at the American Music Awards (for Collaboration of the Year), People's Choice Awards, Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, and iHeartRadio Music Awards. Its music video won accolades at the UK Music Video Awards, Mexico's Telehit Awards, and France's NRJ Music Award.

Live performances and covers
At the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards on August 30, Swift and Nicki Minaj jointly performed "Bad Blood" and "The Night Is Still Young". Swift also sang the song during her concerts at the United States Grand Prix on October 22, 2016, and the pre-Super Bowl event Super Saturday Night on February 4, 2017.

On the 1989 World Tour (2015), Swift performed "Bad Blood" wearing a black leather suit as dancers performed acrobatics behind her. She included the song in the set list of the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018), where she performed it in medley with "Should've Said No" (2008), which incorporated a country-influenced guitar riff. She also performed "Bad Blood" on the Eras Tour (2023–2024).

The song has been featured on several occasions. English rock band Drenge covered the song for BBC Radio 1's live session on June 23, 2015. The animated web series How It Should Have Ended released a parody video based on "Bad Blood," titled "Bat Blood," in September 2015. "Bat Blood" parodies the marketing of the 2016 film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Canadian rapper-singer Drake included the song in his advertisement for Apple Music in November 2016.

Ryan Adams covered "Bad Blood" as part of his track-by-track interpretation of Swift's 1989. Adams's version is a guitar-driven alt-country song, as opposed to the original's electronic production. He released "Bad Blood" as a single preceding the release of his 1989 cover on September 17, 2015, through Apple Music's Beats 1 radio. Andrew Unterberger from Spin preferred Adams's stripped-down version to Swift's original song, and Annie Zaleski of The A.V. Club called it "the quintessential Adams-style alt-country shuffle." Adams's "Bad Blood" peaked at number 25 on the Ultratop chart of Belgian Wallonia and number 36 on Billboard Rock Airplay chart.

Credits and personnel

 * Taylor Swift – vocals, backing vocals, songwriter
 * Kendrick Lamar – featured vocals, backing vocals, songwriter
 * Max Martin – producer, songwriter, programmer, keyboards, piano
 * Shellback – backing vocals, producer, songwriter, programmer, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drums, percussion, sounds (stomps and knees)
 * Ilya Salmanzadeh – backing vocals, producer, programmer, recording engineer
 * Michael Ilbert – recording engineer
 * Sam Holland – recording engineer
 * Ben Sedano – assistant recording engineer
 * Cory Bice – assistant recording engineer
 * Peter Carlsson – Pro Tools engineer
 * Serban Ghenea – mixing engineer
 * John Hanes – mixer
 * Tom Coyne – mastering engineer

"Bad Blood (Taylor's Version)"
A re-recorded version of "Bad Blood," titled "Bad Blood (Taylor's Version)," was released on October 27, 2023, as part of 1989 (Taylor's Version), Swift's fourth re-recorded album. It is a part of her counteraction to her 2019 masters dispute. A snippet of the re-recording was featured in the 2022 animated film DC League of Super-Pets.

A re-recorded version of the hip hop remix of "Bad Blood" featuring Kendrick Lamar was surprise released as the only bonus track of the deluxe edition of 1989 (Taylor's Version), hours after the standard album's release. Lamar re-recorded his rap section for the remix, an act which Swift called "surreal and bewildering."

Personnel

 * Taylor Swift – lead vocals, background vocals, songwriting, production
 * Christopher Rowe – production, background vocals, vocal engineering
 * Mike Meadows – synthesizer, acoustic guitar
 * Dan Burns – drum programming, synth bass, synthesizer, additional engineering
 * Matt Billingslea – drum programming, drums
 * Derek Garten – programming, engineering, editing
 * Ryan Smith – mastering
 * Bryce Bordone – mix engineering
 * Max Martin – songwriting
 * Shellback – songwriting
 * Kendrick Lamar – rap vocals, songwriting
 * Ilya Salmanzadeh – background vocals