I might've swapped LWYMMD with I Did Something Bad, tbh. That was such a red herring for a first single.
Absolutely. Such a weird outlier. But that video sealed it for me/did what she wanted. Just kinda wish it was a bonus track at the end or something.
I think maybe even dropping the song and the video at the same time so you couldn't see one without the other would've been a cooler move. I'm not sure, I've come around on it and I think the video was brilliant but it took the context of the album for me to really be sold on the track. Then again, I've never once agreed with the way the girl chooses her singles so, here we are.
LWYMMD was the perfect "shock single" which is kinda what you need as a pop artist these days. Something so brash, bold and controversial. Literally EVERY publication wrote about it, positive or negative, it kicked off the era was an insane amount of press. I don't think any other songs, except maybe End Game, would have generated that much discussion right off the bat.
I've been thinking a lot about the most successful shock singles, "Wrecking Ball" is an obvious one, "Hold On We're Going Home" was a really good one, in a different way.
i'm thinking about this too, it's actually a lot harder than i expected. you don't see that many pop acts go off in shocking directions too often and do super well with it.
"Shake It Off" will always be the pinnacle shock single. Or at least it's the one that was most successful in recent times.
Taylor making another satirical song about her image and how it's totally not her actual self and it's soooo ridiculous is kinda exactly what I expected from her. Harry styles def wasn't shocking to anyone who followed the band cause it was an extension of their last few records. I remember being surprised by Nelly furtado going from being like a bird to a promiscuous girl. And as a kid jewel going the intuition route stuff.
Justin Timberlake's inital sexiness after NSYNC was certainly shocking at the time, today it wouldn't be surprising at all