Monday 18 May 2015

Taylor Swift - Bad Blood ft. Kendrick Lamar (Official Video) [+ Review]


As if you haven't been waiting for this for the past week or so. Yes, it's T-Swift's new music video for 'Bad Blood' (watch below), which features an abundance of cameos from famous singers, models and actresses. 'Bad Blood' is of course taken from Taylor Swift's studio album 1989, which was both highly successful, critically and commercially. However, this version is slightly remixed, with added verses from Kendrick Lamar, who also stars in the video. 

The acoustics are also a little different, with this new version having a slightly more urban, dub-step feel, which is appropriate considering the sin-city esque nature to the video. You can check out our review of the original version, here. Now onto the music video itself. Let's just start off by saying it is certainly a great concept for a video. The result? A little bit like The Hunger Games, Tron and Men in Black combined, with a little bit of Machete Kills on the side. Overall, it's a intriguing and action-packed blow-out that could do with being a little bit longer. Yes, we said it. When you've got around 20 cameos in one video, you need to allot more time for it than just 4 minutes. 



Seriously, go the Gaga route and turn it into a short film if needs be. Speaking of films, how insane would this be if it were an actual film? Seriously, I'd pay good money to go see that. Someone make it happen, please. The narrative of the video is as follows: Taylor a.k.a. Catastrophe and her gal-pal Selena Gomez a.k.a. Arsyn are kicking bad-guy ass in a high-rise building when suddenly once Catastrophe has the case they are looking for, Arsyn pulls a Judas and pushes the former out a window, taking the case for her own. 



Yep, now the two officially have what is more commonly known as 'Bad Blood'. Naturally, Tay-Tay wants her revenge and goes back to base to get fixed up, and recruits her fellow ladies to help take down Arsyn. This is when the several cameos come into the works. Kendrick Lamar a.k.a. Welvin Da Great, is first up, singing his verses with relative perfection, which add a new, bold edge to the song. Next you have Lena Dunham who is smoking a cigar, introduced as 'Lucky Fiori'. We're not entirely sure what her role is in the video though, some sort of mega-boss? Who knows. 



Then we have the bad-ass Hailee Steinfeld as 'The Trinity', a robotic woman who has 2 identical counterparts, who fixes Taylor and provides her with new gear. Now Catastrophe heads down from the medical bay to the training ground, where Serayah is waiting as Dilemma, making literal holes in the wall. Slay-Z, portrayed by Gigi Hadid is next with her deadly compact, and just around the corner is Ellie Goulding a.k.a. 'Destructa X' with a massive Bazuka. Catastrophe then breaks through a wall (ouch) and joins 'Homeslice' (Martha Hunt) and the two have a Samurai Sword battle. 



Not satisfied with that killer affair, Swift joins pal Cara Delevingne a.k.a. 'Mother Chucker' (ok, this is actually one of the better nicknames along with Homeslice and Slay-Z) who produces a handbag which she drops for a pair of nun-chucks. Up next is the very intimidating Zendaya who portrays Cut-Throat, and she certainly looks like she could do some serious damage, throwing one of her knives at a cute teddy bear.


 Front-flipping into view is the impressive Hayley Williams (complete with signature Red Hair) as 'The Crimson Curse' (seriously, she looks like she could pull off a good Harley Quinn here). Next is Lily Aldridge as Frostbyte, who has another battle with Catastrophe (wow, that girl can really not catch a break, can she?) to train her up to head after Arsyn.



 Now Taylor must face Karlie Kloss a.k.a. Knockout and the two get in some impressive punches. Now we're onto our 'Tron Segment' where Swift rides around with Jessica Alba a.k.a. Domino. Ok, potential best bit coming up now. Swift then walks through a corridor where she comes face-to-face with Olivia Benson a.k.a. Mariska Hargitay a.k.a. Justice and Meredith Grey a.k.a. Ellen Pompeo a.k.a. Luna, who Swift has named her cats after. 



And if that wasn't enough, absolute legend Cindy Crawford is up next as The Headmistress. Seriously, how did Taylor get all these people in her music video?!? Catastrophe and her friends then meet on the battlefield and engage Arsyn and her crew in a smack-down fight, complete with all manner of effective weaponry and Hollywood-esque explosions. 

It's very 'Blockbuster'. The whole premise of the video and song is that you feel betrayed by someone and therefore have 'Bad Blood', with a considerable portion of audiences believing this to refer to her feud with Katy Perry (although this has never been confirmed). Whatever the motivation and inspiration behind the song and video, it is certainly a reminder to keep your gal pals close and a testament to loyalty and solidarity amongst women. And the song's not bad either. 

Check out Taylor's epic new video below, and let us know your thoughts in the comments! 


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