Whether we were ready for it or not, Taylor Swift’s Reputation era is upon us. The singer-songwriter dropped her new single on Thursday night, “Look What You Made Me Do,” which hints that Swift is going darker than usual, putting her long list of public enemies on blast (Kanye West? Kim Kardashian? Katy Perry? etc.). The song’s music video also hints at the, um, edgier reinvention of her image, but Twitter user T. Kyle MacMahon seems to have found a subtle connection to the old Swift hidden within the track.
As we’re all painfully aware by now, Perry and Swift’s lengthy feud includes a reference to Mean Girls. After Swift accused Perry of stealing her backup dancers in a now-infamous Rolling Stone interview in 2014, Perry subtweeted that we should all “watch out for the Regina George in sheep’s clothing.” Funnily enough, “Look What You Made Me Do” uses the same beat that’s in the background of this Mean Girls scene:
Taylor was once called “Regina George in sheep’s clothing” and her new song uses the beat from this scene in Mean Girls. 👀 pic.twitter.com/lpRCCIIk1w
– T. Kyle (@tkylemac) August 25, 2017
Coincidence? Not at all. In the same way that “Look What You Made Me Do” interpolates Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy,” the song also uses the throbbing, digital beat from the 2003 song “Operate” by electropop act Peaches, which is the very song that plays during the Halloween montage in Mean Girls. Though Swift’s new single is widely thought to be about her ongoing issues with West, we wouldn’t count out any potential jabs at her many rivals (in this case, Perry).