Right Said Fred, Peaches and ‘Mean Girls,’ Oh My! Breaking Down Taylor Swift’s New Single
If you thought Taylor Swift's new single, "Look What You Made Me Do," sounded a bit familiar when it dropped Thursday night (August 24), you weren't wrong.
As many fans on Twitter pointed out, the electro-clash clapback anthem samples not one, but two totally unexpected tracks: Peaches' "Operate" and — wait for it... — Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy."
(Yes, folks, we have reached peak 2017 pop culture surrealism.)
According to Genius, the two songs are interpolated in "Look What You Made Me Do," particularly the beat from "Operate" (which is a direct sample) and the iconic hook from "I'm Too Sexy." And the titular Freds of Right Said Fred are stoked to be included: On Twitter, the brothers called the track a "[marvelous] reinvention."
Their rep also confirmed to the BBC that the band was approached by Swift's team prior to the release, and that they gave their blessing for their 1991 hit to be used by the pop star.
Meanwhile, "Look What You Made Me Do" also sounds pointedly similar to another pop culture entity, one with an even deeper connection to Swift.
As some Twitter users pointed out, the song sounds like the music playing in the background of the scene in Mean Girls where Cady Heron goes to a Halloween party and gets manipulated by the Plastics' vicious queen bee, Regina George. Take a listen:
It's a fitting reference, if it was deliberate: After all, "Look What You Made Me Do" is likely a clapback against Katy Perry (amid other celebrities), who famously seemingly referred to Swift as a "Regina George in sheep's clothing" on Twitter.
What goes around comes around in the world of pop. Listen to "Look What You Made Me Do," below:
"Look What You Made Me Do" is off Swift's sixth studio album, Reputation, out November 10.
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