Swift wrote "Bad Blood" about an undisclosed female artist. She says that the artist attempted to sabotage one of her concert tours by hiring people that worked for her (Swift).[1] There are rumors from Rolling Stone, Billboard, Time and Washington Post that singer-songwriter Katy Perry is the subject of the song.[2][3][4] The original album version of "Bad Blood" only has Swift singing.
Commercial performance
"Bad Blood" first charted on the U.S.Billboard Hot 100 for 2 weeks in November of 2014. It also charted in January of 2015 as an album cut from 1989. It peaked at #78.[5] After the music video premiere at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, the remixed song with Kendrick Lamar re-entered the chart at #53 and #26 on the Digital Songs Chart. It sold over 47,000 digital copies. The song hit #1 on Billboard Hot 100 on the week ending May 24, 2015.[6] It sold 385,000 copies. It became Taylor's fourth #1 single. It was also her third from 1989 (following "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space"). That made Taylor Swift the first artist since Adele to have three Hot 100 chart-toppers from the same record. It was also her fourth consecutive top-ten single from 1989.
Critical reception
The original album version of "Bad Blood" received mixed reviews from music critics.[7][8][9] But, the remixed version of the song received mostly positive reviews. Much of the praise was for Lamar's guest verses and the reworked instrumental.[10][11] George Seabrook, writing for The Edge in Southampton, England, gave the song four-and-a-half stars out of five. He praised the song for "Lamar’s simple, brutally effective verses". He also said that Swift and Lamar made "not just one more meaningless stunt collaboration, but a powerful new duo".[12]
Music video
The music video was directed by renowned director Joseph Kahn, with Swift producing it. He had also directed the music video for "Blank Space". The video was shot in Los Angeles on April 12, 2015. The setting for the video is the City of London. The music video premiered on May 17, 2015, at the start of the Billboard Music Awards.[13] Several friends of Swift are present in the music video, such as British singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding, American entertainer Selena Gomez, and American actresses Lena Dunham and Jessica Alba.[14] All members of the cast chose their own names for their characters.
