Hi, hello, I'm an adult human who refuses to move forward with my life until I get a definitive answer on whether Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" actually is about Katy Perry. I thought I was ready to put this behind me, but then Selena Gomez went on Watch What Happens Live and refused to talk about it, and now everything is upside down again. I have a job, a boyfriend, an apartment, friends, my health, but none of it fills the hole in my heart that Swift put there when she started calling into question what we all felt so sure about by saying "Bad Blood" isn't about one person. What? Since when? In one interview, Swift tried to dismiss all those months of speculation, and now I don't know what to believe, or who I am, or what all those warrior ladies were doing in that video anyway.
But I refuse to keep drifting around waiting for Taylor Swift to tell me what I already know, so I'm going to plant my feet on the ground and puzzle this out. There are plenty of clues out there suggesting that, no matter how Swift tries to throw us off the scent, "Bad Blood" was about Katy Perry all along. Maybe if I put all of them in one place, I can get back to that feeling I had of being so sure before the Interview That Changed Everything.
Here are the seven reasons I'm still convinced that "Bad Blood" is about one person, and that that one person is Katy Perry.
1. Because Selena Gomez Wouldn't Answer A Question About It
The interview that started my wheels turning again! When asked whether "Bad Blood" was about Katy Perry during the Oct. 18 episode of Watch What Happens Live, Selena Gomez pleaded the fifth without blinking an eye, even though it meant she might have to answer revealing questions about her own personal life later in the segment. Suspicious!
2. Because Of How Vague Taylor Swift Was In Her Response
In that GQ cover story, Swift denied that Perry was the subject of the song, but did so with some of the vaguest language I've ever seen her muster:
You’re in a Rolling Stone interview, and the writer says, “Who is that song about? That sounds like a really intense moment from your life.” And you sit there, and you know you’re on good terms with your ex-boyfriend, and you don’t want him -- or his family -- to think you’re firing shots at him. So you say, “That was about losing a friend.” And that’s basically all you say. But then people cryptically tweet about what you meant. I never said anything that would point a finger in the specific direction of one specific person, and I can sleep at night knowing that. I knew the song would be assigned to a person, and the easiest mark was someone who I didn’t want to be labeled with this song. It was not a song about heartbreak. It was about the loss of friendship.
If you really wanted to get the point across that it wasn't about Katy Perry, wouldn't you just say, "It's not about Katy Perry?"
3. ...Versus How Specific She Was The First Time Around
Remember how you just said you didn't include any details in "Bad Blood" itself or any of the interviews you gave about it that would point to anyone specific? Challenge. Here's a direct quote from that Rolling Stone interview:
The angriest song on 1989 is called "Bad Blood," and it's about another female artist Swift declines to name. "For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not," she says. "She would come up to me at awards shows and say something and walk away, and I would think, 'Are we friends, or did she just give me the harshest insult of my life?'" Then last year, the other star crossed a line. "She did something so horrible," Swift says. "I was like, 'Oh, we're just straight-up enemies.' And it wasn't even about a guy! It had to do with business. She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me.
Where to even begin? Not only is this person immediately labeled a female artist, but she also shares that she did an arena tour "last year," and has employed some of the same people as Taylor Swift. So 100 percent she dropped some identifiers.
4. Because Even Katy Perry Seems To Think It's About Her
If it wasn't about Katy Perry, why would she be reacting like she did in the above tweet? Wouldn't she tweet something like, "Everyone seems to think Taylor is talking about me, but she isn't, we're on great terms!?" In my experience, you only subtweet when you really care about something, and Perry wouldn't care about this if it didn't have anything to do with her.
5. ...And She's Reportedly Firing Back
Apparently Katy Perry is working on a song right now called "Crocodile Tears," about Taylor Swift, throwing the shade right back at her. Once again, why go to all this effort if the song wasn't about you?
6. Because Swift Admits When She's Written A Song About An Ex-Boyfriend
Taylor Swift has never been shy before about admitting who a song is about, so why would she have waited so long to reveal that this one was about an ex-boyfriend as well? It doesn't make any sense.
7. Because Swift Has Invited Everyone Else To Do Guest Appearances At Her Shows
I'll believe that Taylor Swift and Katy Perry are cool the moment the latter prances down the runway at the former's concert. She's had everybody else up there!
So, those are all my suspicions come to light, and I'm actually feeling much better now. And also much more sympathetic toward Selena Gomez for keeping her mouth shut — with all these details tangled up in the story, and no one speaking out definitively to answer this great mystery, Gomez knows way better than to get involved.
Images: Giphy (5)
