Taylor Swift's post-Reputation era has championed self-acceptance, with her first single "ME!" serving as an all-encompassing message about owning who you are. In "You Need To Calm Down," the singer's latest single that dropped overnight ahead of her just-announced album Lover, she gets more specific, appearing to dedicate most of the song to the LGBTQ+ community in honour of Pride Month.
Swift kicked off June by writing a letter to her senator to support the Equality Act, which would protect the LGBTQ+ community from discrimination, posting it on social media and encouraging her fans to do the same. Now, she's released a song for them to sing while they're putting pen to paper. As she explained ahead of the single's release, "You Need To Calm Down" is about negativity in general, but there are a number of undeniable LGBTQ-inspired lyrics that have fans losing their minds.
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At first listen, you may have missed the sneaky spelling of the "Why are you mad when you could be GLAAD?" lyric, but it was confirmed in both the lyric video for the song and the response from GLAAD itself on Twitter.
did @taylorswift13 just -- pic.twitter.com/MkfkkBComN
— GLAAD (@glaad) June 14, 2019
GLAAD stands for The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and Swift gave them a "generous" donation back on June 1 alongside her support of the Equality Act.
In the song, Swift appears to reference the Pride parades currently happening across the country, as well as protests against them, when she sings, "Sunshine on the street at the parade
/ But you would rather be in the dark ages / Makin' that sign must've taken all night."
/ But you would rather be in the dark ages / Makin' that sign must've taken all night."
Then, in the lyric that had people buzzing most on Twitter, she sings, "You just need to take several seats and then try to restore the peace / And control your urges to scream about all the people you hate / 'Cause shade never made anybody less gay."
"You Need To Calm Down" also references online hate in a broader sense, particularly online, when she sings, "Say it in the street, that's a knock-out / But you say it in a Tweet, that's a cop-out" and later touches upon a familiar motif, singing, "snakes and stones never broke my bones."
"And we see you over there on the internet / Comparing all the girls who are killing it," she sings towards the end of the single. "But we figured you out / We all know now we all got crowns."
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The response from fans has been emphatic, to say the least:
Y’ALL IN THE BACK HERE THAT? TAYLOR SWIFT JUST SHUT DOWN HOMOPHOBIA, DONALD TRUMP, FAKE FRIENDS, SEXISM, & HATE RHETORIC. I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR YOU MUSTY MF’s COMPLAINING ABOUT TAYLOR BEING “SILENT” ANYMORE. TAKE SEVERAL SEATS. @taylorswift13 #YouNeedToCalmDown
— sami (@sraihane1) June 14, 2019
Honestly though, #YouNeedToCalmDown talks about self-expression, bullying, double standards, being gay, AND it's an 80s synth-esque bop. Thank you, @taylorswift13. pic.twitter.com/zjNgLqcAxH
— Ryan Schocket (@RyanSchocket) June 14, 2019
from being painfully silent abt social issues to actually writing a whole ass song abt homophobes skdkdkkd taylor swift said motherfucking gay rights!!!
— ?????? (@an9elu) June 14, 2019
"You Need To Calm Down" is streaming now.