Taylor Swift drops music video for ‘Anti-Hero,’ her first single off ‘Midnights’
In her latest video, Taylor Swift’s toughest critic is Taylor Swift.
In the lead-up to the release of “Midnights,” Taylor Swift herself said this 10th record of hers was inspired by haunting late-night thoughts and, believe it or not, a bit of “self-loathing.” Her first single, “Anti-Hero,” in particular, she said delves “far into my insecurities” — and on “Midnights” release day, we get to see what that means.
While the lyrics certainly show a Swift who’s hard on herself — “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me,” she declares — the music video too reflects how a person is often their own toughest critic. In a tweet, Swift called the video a depiction of her “nightmare scenarios” and “intrusive thoughts.”
The Anti-Hero video is HERE, which I wrote and directed. Watch my nightmare scenarios and intrusive thoughts play out in real timehttps://t.co/3ieastDifu pic.twitter.com/h5mpzVLKDY
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) October 21, 2022
Swift wrote and directed the video, which follows a Swift tortured by monsters like ghosts, bathroom scales and judgey people at parties. Then things start to get more deep as she faces different versions of herself that she’s also tortured by. Metaphors!
There is a moment of silliness about midway through, after a verse in which Swift sings about a dream she had about a future daughter-in-law who kills her for money, but Swift left her out of her will. The video shows how that scenario may have played out, with actors Mike Birbiglia, Mary Elizabeth Ellis and John Early lending a bit of camp to it all. (Laura Dern, the Haim sisters and a few other celebrities are credited too, though unclear how and where they appear.) It’s always fun when Taylor Swift can flex her star power and tap her famous friends for projects.
The Swifties are enjoying “Anti-Hero” too, based on the discourse around Twitter. Here’s a peek at what everyone’s saying:
https://twitter.com/hazeerasmo99/status/1583439621865672706?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1583439621865672706%7Ctwgr%5Ed91600ba9ad77cea44d66ad63258bc4b05fd4a14%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fiframe.nbcnews.com%2F48YxNIS%3F_showcaption%3Dtrueapp%3D1
tiktoks featuring anti-hero already getting hundreds of thousands of views and likes oh yeah we’ve got a hit on our hands pic.twitter.com/My4TMUGU8O
— shan (@sapphicrogue) October 21, 2022
Lots of moments to pick up from Taylor Swift's Midnights, but what first jumps out from Anti-Hero is that "It's Me. Hi. I'm the problem, it's me" will most likely become a tiktok trend.
— Sally Salado ☀ (@sally_salado) October 21, 2022
Anti-Hero on the new TSwift album just pic.twitter.com/FoXsZzQ0Cu
— ♡ Nikki ♡ (@NikkiFlowerr) October 21, 2022