I have been an avid, obsessive Taylor Swift fan as long as I can remember. I reveled in her catchy lyrics, even labeled myself a “hopeless romantic” such as she self-deprecatingly called herself when being critiqued for her naive, high school romance-esque songwriting style. My first concert was the show for her second album Fearless in 2010, and I continued attending these (often horrendously priced) concerts of hers every year to come. I spent all of my piggy bank money on copycat PJ’s like the ones she wore in her “We Are Never Getting Back Together” music video, and my first guitar was the custom model she designed with the brand Taylor Guitars called the ‘Taylor Baby Taylor’ (a bit excessive, right?). Taylor Swift taught me how to be confident as a six-foot-tall girl who is unathletic and gawky– and I will forever love her for that.

Anyone who has been a fan of Swift for a while now has gotten used to some token features; blonde curly hair, uber personal love songs, a kind and bubbly attitude, and an uncanny love for cats. This image all changed when she released her new album, simply titled Reputation. Taylor ditched her straight-edge, good girl energy for an unapologetically bad girl appearance. Some argue that this was in direct response to the multitude of hate and criticism she’s received over the years, while others say it is her fighting back against the allegations of her always playing the victim. Some also argue that the Kanye West drama– regarding using Taylor’s name crudely in his song “Famous” and her approving/disapproving of it– pushed her over the edge (especially when everyone was calling Taylor a snake, which became a dominant theme within this album). Either way, something pushed Taylor to a point of no return and she has her guard up now more than ever.

Reputation is very different from her previous albums. When looking through Swift’s discography, it isn’t hard to follow the ebb and flow of her music stylistically. Her first album, self-titled Taylor Swift, was very much a country album. Fearless, the album after that, became more country pop. Speak Now, the album following Fearless, became half country and half pop. Red, the next album, became pop with small elements of country. 1989, the album right after, was full-on pop, and now Reputation is 100% bubblegum surface-value radio-hit pop music.

Upon first hearing Reputation, I was honestly let down. There was nothing too notable about it– it sounded like any other pop album on the radio. Autotuned singing fuzzed out by heavy bass drops and lots of lyrics alluding to sex– but never explicitly mentioning it.

“You’re so gorgeous/ I can’t say anything to your face/ Cause look at your face”, “I don’t wanna hurt you, I just wanna be/ Drinking on a beach with you all over me/I know what they all say/ But I ain’t tryna play”, “I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now ‘Why? Oh, ’cause she’s dead!’”

The album itself is not particularly notable to me. It retained certain basic elements of Taylor’s romantic, candid, honest songwriting style but missed the mark in regards to the sweet acoustic guitar ballads and giggly, lighthearted tracks (listen to Stay, Stay, Stay from Red) her previous albums all encompassed. However, in a lot of ways, this album is an important turning point in Swift’s career. It represents certain elements of growing up and recognizing that there is bad in the world, realizing that people will walk all over you if you let them. Taylor has been in the spotlight since she was 16 years old and it was only a matter of time until fame wore her down. She has been forced to come to terms with the fact that people would be rude to her, and that sometimes she would have to fight back. Taylor has let so much hate and criticism roll off her shoulders for more than 10 years now, I can’t imagine how she hasn’t gone completely insane.

Even though sonically this album does not impress as much as some of her previous work, Taylor Swift’s new album Reputation serves as an interesting turning point in her music career. Swift directly addresses her reputation in the song ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ through a bold comeback towards those who publicly criticize her. She candidly sings about flaws in her relationships, encounters of a more sexual nature, and even begins using curse words which are things she has never done in previous albums. This album paints Swift as a person more than a magical, blonde, fairytalesque dreamgirl and I believe that this will liberate her to feel more like a human among the crazy lifestyles of the rich and famous. This album creates a new era for Taylor Swift and I am excited to see where she goes next.