LOS ANGELES: Taylor Swift’s vengeful “Look What You Made Me Do,” is smashing records on YouTube, garnering more than a record-breaking 43 million views in its first 24 hours of release.
Youtube claimed on Tuesday it was the biggest debut of any video in the history of YouTube, beating the 36-million mark set by South Korean singer Psy’s “Gentlemen” for the very same time frame in 2013.
In “Look What You Made Me Do,” Swift takes aim at those who have attacked her professionally as well as personally in the last 10 years – heavily being scrutinized by fans and entertainment media since its premiere at the MTV Video Music Awards show on Sunday.
Swift, 27, who has been absent from award shows and red carpet events within this year after highly publicized feuds with Kanye West, Kim Kardashian and Katy Perry, was not present at the ceremony.
The video averaged over 30,000 views per minute in its first 24 hours, according to YouTube, with hourly views pushing up to over 3 million. By Tuesday, YouTube views had transgressed the 53 million mark.
The music video starts with Swift crawling out of a grave and declaring her old self dead, in an attempt to portray a hard-edged artist who has nothing left to lose. It ends with the singer tracing out and reviving all the personas of her music career and having them bicker with each other for pretending to be fake, being nice and playing the victim card.
The single is the first of many from a new Swift album all due for release in November, titled “Reputation.”
Though the music video is accredited with groundbreaking views, it has some way to go before it breaks the all-time YouTube music video held by Latin singer Luis Fonsi’s 2017 global hit “Despacito,” – it surpassed the 3 billion mark in early August, according to Reuters.
