Rebirth & Retribution: "Look What You Made Me Do" Meaning, Explained

You may think that Taylor’s Look What You Made Me Do meaning is clear. It’s about the Kanye West and Kim Kardashian drama, right? Snakegate?

Sure, that’s one way to look at it. But it wouldn’t be a Taylor Swift song if it didn’t have multiple meanings wrapped in metaphors, analogies, imagery, and symbolism.

Taylor rises from the dead in more ways that one in these lyrics, and this is her battle cry on her path to retribution and rebirth.

Here’s my complete English teacher analysis of Taylor’s Look What You Made Me Do meaning, line by line.

Cover image styled as a newspaper front page for an analysis article on Taylor Swift's 'Look What You Made Me Do.' The title 'Daily Swift' appears in gothic lettering with the phrases 'Breaking News' and 'Special Edition' in rectangular boxes above. The main headline 'Analyzing LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO' is bold and serif. The lyric quote, 'All I think about is karma,' is featured prominently, and 'Swiftly Sung Stories' is credited in a whimsical script at the bottom.

Look What You Made Me Do by Taylor Swift

Title: “Look What You Made Me Do”
Written by: Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, Richard Fairbrass, Fred Fairbrass, Rob Manzoli.
Track: 6, Reputation (2017)
Pen: Fountain (with some dark glitter gel pen)
Lyrics from Genius

Look What You Made Me Do Narrative Summary

Setting: After a scandal, rising up from the metaphorical grave.
Characters: Narrator (Taylor), subject (“you,” her nemesis).
Theme: Revenge.
Mood: Vengeful, spiteful, karmic, powerful.
Conflict: Someone tried to tear her down, and she is trying to claw her way back.
Inciting Incident: “A perfect crime” committed against the narrator.
Quest: Rise up from the dead, find karmic retribution, get revenge.
Symbols & Metaphors: “rose up from the dead,” “games,” “Kingdom keys,” “perfect crime,” “gun,” “feast,” “tilted stage.”
Lesson: Karma will come back to get you.

What is Look What You Made Me Do About?

This song is a classic Taylor Swift diss track, except this time, it’s not about an ex-boyfriend. Here, the drama seems to revolve around someone who tried to knock Taylor off her celebrity pedestal.

The lyrics describe this person’s deception and tricky tactics, and Taylor’s revenge: rising from the metaphorical grave, and summoning karma to enact her revenge.

Who is Look What You Made Me Do About?

Taylor has never explicitly revealed who Look What You Made Me Do may have been inspired by, but most fans assume the lyrics are directed at Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.

The then-married pair released a doctored phone call, which portrayed Taylor as a liar and began the harsh backlash against her: Snakegate. The internet attempted to “cancel” Taylor, leading to her retreat from the spotlight for over a year.

These harsh lessons are the driving force behind reputation, and as she said in the prologue, “We think we know someone, but the truth is that we only know the version of them they have chosen to show us.”

LWYMMD is about not being believed, being manipulated, and losing the trust that took so long to establish. Taylor is now out for revenge against those who have wronged her, metaphorically rising from the ashes and on the hunt.

Look What You Made Me Do Meaning: Line by Line

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" lyrics on a newsprint background. Red English teacher's pen translates each line, points out double meanings, and helps the reader understand the tone and message of the song lyrics.
The first verse lyrics read: "I don't like your little games
Don't like your tilted stage
The role you made me play
Of the fool, no, I don't like you
I don't like your perfect crime
How you laugh when you lie
You said the gun was mine
Isn't cool, no, I don't like you (Oh)"

“I don’t like your little games,” she says in the iconic first line. Someone has been manipulating her, and she’s not having it.

“Don’t like your tilted stage,” she says. This could be a covert reference to Kanye’s use of a real tilted stage in a performance, but it’s also a metaphor: A tilted stage is one that’s made to buck you off and fall down.

A stage – a place that puts you in the public eye, for all to see – It should be a platform that holds you aloft. But this particular platform is set up to make Taylor fail, and fall from grace.

“The role you made me play / Of the fool, no, I don’t like you,” she says. This person has cast her as the fool, but this doesn’t only mean she feels foolish. The Shakesperian fool is a character trope used to deepen the narrative.

In King Lear, the role of the fool is used to provoke those in a position of power; to make them question what they’re doing. She’s been made to look foolish, but in the media circus of Snakegate – once it all shakes out – Taylor will (eventually) be the Shakespearean fool. Her cautionary tale will make everyone question why they believed the lies, and question why they wanted to tear down a successful woman.

“I don’t like your perfect crime,” she continues, “How you laugh when you lie.” A perfect crime is one where there is no evidence a crime was ever committed. This likely refers to the doctored phone call Kimye released, portraying Taylor as agreeable to Kanye’s derogatory use of her name in his lyrics.

She portrays her nemesis as psychopathic or sociopathic: laughing when you lie means you don’t care about the impact those lies have on others. This person lies easily and casually, like it’s second nature.

“You said the gun was mine,” Taylor says, being framed in the “perfect crime”. Taylor has been left ‘holding the gun’ or ‘holding the bag’ – being punished for a crime she didn’t commit.

All this “Isn’t cool, no, I don’t like you,” which is the understatement of all understatements. This screams sarcasm – the emotions Taylor is going through in this song go far, far beyond just not liking someone. She loathes them.

🐍🐍🐍 Are you ready for the reputation Lyrics Quiz? 🐍🐍🐍

Pre-Chorus: “I Rose Up From the Dead, I Do it All the Time”

“But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time,” she says in the pre-chorus. This situation made her wise up, and thicken her skin. She did it just in time, which likely reflects her re-emergence into the pop world with reputation.

She saved her reputation, and her career, before it was too late. She’s grateful that she saved herself. Like she told us in Why She Disappeared, she arose and “Said a prayer of gratitude for each chink in the armor she never knew she needed.”

“Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time,” she says, casually rising like a phoenix from the ashes. This reflects Taylor’s constant reinvention with each album and era, and she takes it in stride, rising up from her metaphorical grave to greatness, over and over.

“I’ve got a list of names and yours is in red, underlined,” she says, writing her hit list. Her number one target is marked with blood red ink.

“I check it once, then I check it twice,” she says, like an evil Santa Claus (also hinted at in “nick of time,” as in “jolly old Saint Nick”).

Who has been naughty, and who has been nice? Who deserves a platform, and who will fall from the tilted stage? The world will soon find out.

The chorus repeats a simple phrase, over and over: “look what you made me do.” ‘You started it,’ she’s saying, ‘not me.’ Like in her future song Vigilante Shit, “I don’t start shit but I can tell you how it ends.”

It’s a justification for whatever is about to happen; for whatever revenge is about to take place. She’s been set up to fail and to play the fool, but she won’t take it lying down. She’ll enact her revenge, and cross another name off her hit list.

Verse 2: “All I Think About is Karma”

The second verse moves into even more intricate metaphors.

“I don’t like your kingdom keys,” she says, “They once belonged to me.” Taylor used to hold the keys to the kingdom, but this person has stolen them.

What are the “kingdom keys”? Her career. Her position as the biggest pop artist in the world.

Taylor frequently uses the metaphor of a kingdom as her career, in songs like Long Live, New Romantics, Call it What You Want, hoax, The Archer, Castles Crumbling, long story short, and Bejeweled. Here, her “kingdom” has been stolen.

“You asked me for a place to sleep,” she says, of when she used to live in her metaphorical castle, “Locked me out and threw a feast.” This person came to her for a favor, but instead of being grateful, they stole Taylor’s entire “home.” Then they “dance on her grave,” by throwing a celebration – a “feast” – in their stolen kingdom.

“The world moves on, another day, another drama, drama,” she says, the controversy slowly subsiding in the public eye, “But not for me, not for me, all I think about is karma.” That old saying, ‘forgive and forget’? Taylor can’t do either one.

This is also the first time Taylor mentions karma specifically, which will become a major theme in songs and albums to come (see Karma, My Tears Ricochet, Invisible String and The Prophecy).

“And then the world moves on, but one thing’s for sure,” she says, “Maybe I got mine, but you’ll all get yours.” She may have taken some licks, and gotten her own karmic retribution, but karma – and vengeance – will come back to bite those who have wronged her.

Bridge & Interlude: “The Old Taylor Can’t Come to the Phone Right Now”

The bridge is a simple, ruminating repetition: “I don’t trust nobody and nobody trusts me / I’ll be the actress starrin’ in your bad dreams.”

In this new place where she sits, her kingdom stolen and her reputation tarnished, no one trusts her anymore. The “tilted stage” and being cast as the fool have painted her as a liar in his false narrative.

But, in this new chapter, Taylor flips the script. She’ll be the star – the “actress” – and take center stage. What’s the role? A ghostly nightmare, one that will haunt him for years and years to come.

He painted her as a faker and manipulator, so she’ll take that and run with it. She’ll lean in, and play the role of living nightmare, starring in this new production: Karmic Retribution, The Musical.

“Look what you made me do” repeats again in the interlude, then Taylor’s speaking voice – the real Taylor – emerges. She doesn’t do this often (see We Are Never Getting Back Together and Better Than Revenge for two similar examples), so when she does, we pay attention.

“I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now,” she says, and it’s not pop star singer Taylor speaking: it’s the real Taylor. Her voice comes over an answering machine, alluding to the doctored phone call of the Kimye drama.

Her outgoing message? There is no more “old Taylor.” We’ve had hints of this new Taylor all along in reputation, and in the marketing for reputation, but here she says it explicitly: ‘I am not who I used to be.’

“Why? Oh, ’cause she’s dead,” she proclaims. The old naive and trusting Taylor is gone. And, like she told us in Why She Disappeared: “In the death of her reputation, she felt truly alive.”

Is this dramatic? Yes. Is it apropos? Also, yes.

In her Time Magazine interview, the author explains how hard Taylor fell and how devastating Snakegate was for her: “She felt canceled.” So ‘rising up from the dead’ is not dramatic at all, if it’s really how Taylor was feeling.

Personally, I think the death and rebirth motifs of this song are larger metaphors for being a woman in a patriarchal society (which Taylor will further explore in The Man, would’ve, could’ve should’ve, mad woman, and more).

As women, we have to do more, be more, and contribute more. We have to constantly be young, reinvent ourselves, and find new facets of ourselves to be shiny to remain relevant. We can’t always come to the phone, because parts of us die all the time.

Final Chorus: Revealing Repetition

The song closes out with repetition once again: “Look what you made me do.” It feels like Taylor saying over and over again ‘it’s your fault, it’s your fault, it’s your fault.’

But it’s also karmic retribution, set to music. ‘Look at how karma comes back around,’ she says between the lines, ‘and watch out: I’m targeting you. I may forget, but I will never forgive.’

She’s incredibly angry, reinforced in the repetition. She’s angry that this person got to her. She’s angry that it changed her life. But now that she’s gotten all that anger and frustration out, it’s time to take action.

It’s time to take back the “kingdom keys” and rise up from the dead once again. “The old Taylor can’t come to the phone” because he can no longer reach her. The lines have been severed, and he’ll never be able to get to her again.

🐍🐍🐍 Are you ready for the reputation Lyrics Quiz? 🐍🐍🐍

Look What You Made Me Do Meaning: Final Thoughts

This song is full of rage and anger, but it’s also hopeful: she’ll come back stronger than ever. She learned her lesson, and now she’s about to teach some.

Taylor just taught a masterclass in this song for how to make a comeback, and she makes it look “oh so easy.”

In hindsight, it doesn’t matter who this song is about. It was a feud, sure, but the participants don’t matter. What matters is that it gave Taylor the ammunition to change things up.

At this point in her career, she shook off her young, naive country star character once and for all, and came back as a polished, cunning and calculated new Taylor.

This is the Taylor that will move mountains, and set herself up for the most epic years of her career yet.