I Kendrick Lamar Album Version

[Dinah Lianes]

Bad Blood" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). She wrote the song with the producers Max Martin and Shellback. A pop song with hip hop beats and keyboards, the lyrics are about betrayal by a close friend. A remix featuring the American rapper Kendrick Lamar, with additional lyrics by Lamar and production by Ilya, was released to radio as the fourth single to promote 1989 on May 17, 2015, by Big Machine and Republic Records.

Music critics gave the album version of "Bad Blood" mixed reviews; some found it to demonstrate a defiant attitude and deemed it a highlight, but others criticized the production as bland and the lyrics repetitive. The remix version received somewhat more positive comments for Lamar's verses, and it received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Although NME and PopMatters ranked "Bad Blood" among the best songs of 2015, critics have retrospectively considered it one of Swift's worst songs. The single reached number one and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Canada, and the United States.

Taylor Swift had identified as a country musician until her fourth studio album, Red, which was released on October 22, 2012.[1] Red's eclectic pop and rock styles beyond the country stylings of Swift's past albums led to critics questioning her country-music identity.[2][3] Swift began writing songs for her fifth studio album in mid-2013 while touring.[4] She was inspired by 1980s synth-pop to create her fifth studio album, 1989, which she described as her first "official pop album" and named after her birth year.[5][6] The album makes extensive use of synthesizers, programmed drum machines, and electronic and dance stylings, a stark contrast to the acoustic arrangements of her country-styled albums.[7][8]

Swift and Max Martin served as executive producers of 1989.[9] On the album's standard edition, Martin and his frequent collaborator Shellback produced 7 out of 13 songs, including "Bad Blood".[10] Swift wrote "Bad Blood" with Martin and Shellback, who both programmed the track and played electronic keyboards on it. The song was recorded by Sam Holland at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles, and by Michael Ilbert at MXM Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. The song was mixed by Serban Ghenea at Mixstar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and mastered by Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound Studio in New York.[10]

"Bad Blood" is a pop song with prominent hip hop stylings.[11][12] It incorporates surging keyboards,[13] hip hop beats, and a pulsing bassline.[14] According to Jon Caramanica of The New York Times, the "booming drums" of the song evoked the "Billy Squier ones often sampled in hip-hop".[15] Jem Aswad of Billboard described the production as "simplistic" and compared it to Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" (2005),[16] The Observer's Kitty Empire likened the "stark beats" to the music of Charli XCX,[17] and NME's Matthew Horton deemed the song a "bitter stomp" that evokes Beastie Boys.[11] The lyrics portray resentment and anger that result from betrayal, through lyrics such as, "These kinda wounds, they last and they last," and "Band-aids don't fix bullet holes/ You say sorry just for show."[14] The refrain consists of repeated phrases, "Now we got bad blood/ You know it used to be mad love."[13] Jon Pareles described Swift's vocals throughout the refrain as tense,[13] while Consequence of Sound's Sasha Geffen wrote that she sang "through gritted teeth".[14]

In an interview for the September 2014 cover issue for Rolling Stone, Swift said that "Bad Blood" was about a fellow female artist. Although Swift had thought of this person as a close friend, she attempted to "sabotage an entire arena tour" by "[hiring] a bunch of people out from under me".[18] She wanted to make it clear that it was about losing a friend and not a lover because she "knew people would immediately be going in one direction", referring to how the audience interpreted her songs in association with her love life.[18] The media widely speculated the subject to be Katy Perry, who had a publicized fallout with Swift after being friends for a few years.[19][20][21] In another interview for GQ in October 2015, Swift responded to the speculation: "I never said anything that would point a finger in the specific direction of one specific person."[22] According to GQ's Chuck Klosterman, by revealing the idea behind "Bad Blood" without disclosing the subject, Swift "propagated the existence of a different rumor that offered the added value of making the song more interesting".[22]

After 1989 was released on October 27, 2014, "Bad Blood" first charted on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in November 2014 and January 2015, reaching number 78.[23] In May 2015, a remix version featuring the rapper Kendrick Lamar was released as the fourth single to promote 1989.[24] According to Lamar, Swift reached out to him personally and he agreed because they had been fond of each other's music.[25] On the remix, Lamar raps two verses written by himself, and Ilya Salmanzadeh contributed additional production.[26] Lamar recalled that the collaboration with Swift went smoothly because "the vibe was right"; he finished his verses in a few takes during a studio session in Los Angeles.[27] When Rolling Stone asked him in 2017 whether he was "taking sides in a pop beef", he responded that he was unaware of it.[28]

Big Machine Records released the remix for digital download on May 17, 2015,[29] the same day that the premiere of its music video took place at the Billboard Music Awards.[30] In the United States, Big Machine and Republic Records sent "Bad Blood" to contemporary hit radio on May 19,[31] and to rhythmic radio on June 9, 2015.[32] Universal Music Group released the song to Italian radio on June 12, 2015.[33] "Bad Blood" re-entered the Hot 100 at number 53 upon its single release[23] and reached number one the following week, on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated May 24, 2015; it marked one of the largest jumps to the top in Billboard chart history.[34] "Bad Blood" was the third single from 1989 to reach number one, after "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space"; it was Swift's fourth and Lamar's first career number-one Hot 100 single.[34] In its next five weeks, it charted at number two.[35]

On Billboard's airplay charts, "Bad Blood" reached number one on Pop Songs[36] and Adult Pop Songs.[24] On the Pop Songs chart, after it debuted at number 13 and rose to number 9 the following week, the single tied the record for the quickest timeline to enter the top 10.[37] By reaching number one in five weeks, it registered the shortest duration to top the chart since Nelly's "Over and Over" (2004) featuring Tim McGraw, which spent three weeks before ascending to the top.[36] In the week ending July 12, 2015, the single broke the record for the most single-week plays in the Pop Songs chart's 22-year history, surpassing Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth's "See You Again" (2015).[24] According to Nielsen SoundScan, "Bad Blood" was the 10th-best-selling song of 2015 in the United States, selling 2.584 million digital copies.[38] The Recording Industry Association of America certified the single six-times platinum for surpassing six million units based on sales and on-demand streams,[39] and the track had sold 3.2 million digital copies in the United States by July 2019.[40]

"Bad Blood" topped the charts in Australia,[41] Canada,[42] New Zealand,[43] and Scotland.[44] It peaked within the top five on charts of South Africa (two),[45] Lebanon (four),[46] and the United Kingdom (four).[47] The song also reach the top ten in Hungary, Finland and Ireland. The single was certified multi-platinum in Australia (eight-times platinum),[48] Brazil (double diamond),[49] and Canada (triple platinum).[50] It was certified platinum in Austria,[51] Norway,[52] Portugal,[53] and the United Kingdom,[54] and gold in Denmark, Germany, Italy, and New Zealand.[55] In the United Kingdom, the single had sold 373,000 downloads as of July 2021.[56]

Many critics deemed "Bad Blood" the weakest song on 1989.[57] Mike Diver from Clash described it as "a litany of diary-page break-up clichs set to directionless thumps and fuzzes".[58] Critics who deemed "Bad Blood" a generic song without the trademarks of Swift's songwriting included Mikael Wood from the Los Angeles Times and Andrew Unterberger from Spin; the former deemed the beat reminiscent of Katy Perry's "Roar" (2013)[59] while the latter thought that the lyrics were "stunningly inoffensive" because they lacked the specificity that had characterized songs like "Dear John".[60] Lindsay Zoladz from Vulture considered "Bad Blood" an "ironic" song to be taken as a Perry diss track because "the faceless mall-pop" of other 1989 tracks "proves that Swift is no better with early-'90s pastiche than Perry was on Prism's duds".[61] The musicologist James E. Perone wrote that there is "very little" about the song's composition and vocals "to suggest to someone who had never heard the song before that it is a Taylor Swift song", deeming it not "engaging or distinctive".[62] Retrospective rankings by Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield,[63] Paste's Jane Song,[64] and Vulture's Nate Jones all ranked "Bad Blood" among the worst songs Swift had released.[65]

In more positive reviews, several critics considered "Bad Blood" one of the highlights of 1989. The Quietus's Amy Pettifier said that it was one of the album tracks "crammed with merit" and called it "all sass and bile",[7] and Entertainment Weekly's Adam Markovitz said that the track was a "potential [hit]" as a "chant-along fight song".[66] Consequence of Sound's Sasha Geffen and Drowned in Sound's Robert Leedham found the song to showcase a defiant attitude; the former attributed this to the production elements of hip hop beats and deep bassline: "they let her slice out her words with real anger, not just passive regret",[14] and the latter wrote that it recalled "iconic hardcore bands you've probably never heard of".[67]

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