--- title: Taylor Swift Video Director Said Beyonce Copied Bad Blood description: Taylor Swift's music video director Joseph Kahn is making an interesting claim that Beyoncé copied Swift's video "Bad Blood." canonical: https://time.com/4932012/taylor-swift-music-video-director-says-beyonce-copied-bad-blood/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-07T18:09:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:33:30.607Z og:title: Taylor Swift Video Director Says Beyoncé Copied 'Bad Blood' og:description: Apparently, Joseph Kahn isn't afraid of the Beyoncé's fan og:url: https://time.com/4932012/taylor-swift-music-video-director-says-beyonce-copied-bad-blood/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03d74a76d6f5b754/6988dcda4ee2626e1030ee95/taylor-swift-music-video-director-says-beyonce-copied-bad-blood.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: 2017 DIRECTV NOW Super Saturday Night Concert In Houston - Taylor Swift Performance og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Taylor Swift Video Director Says Beyoncé Copied 'Bad Blood' twitter:description: Apparently, Joseph Kahn isn't afraid of the Beyoncé's fan twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03d74a76d6f5b754/6988dcda4ee2626e1030ee95/taylor-swift-music-video-director-says-beyonce-copied-bad-blood.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Taylor Swift's Music Video Director Hits Back at Criticism: 'Beyoncé Copied 'Bad Blood' > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a2da7cd1-f855-403f-9297-1423678d24c0&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Taylor Swift Releases New Single ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ – All the Details [Watch (HLS stream): Taylor Swift Releases New Single ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ – All the Details](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0B4OCaeF.m3u8) (1:41)  _Published 2017-08-25. Taylor Swift can make all the tables turn_  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Sep 7, 2017 6:09 PM UTC  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Sep 7, 2017 6:09 PM UTC [Taylor Swift](http://time.com/4912680/taylor-swift-album-reputation-internet-reactions/)‘s music video director Joseph Kahn is doubling down on his defenses of the singer and himself following the release of her buzzy and seemingly revenge-themed “[Look What You Made Me Do” music video](http://time.com/4918411/taylor-swift-look-what-you-made-me-do-music-video-references/). While [Kahn earlier called out what he saw as a gendered double standard following critiques of Swift and himself after the video’s release](http://time.com/4923073/joseph-kahn-taylor-swift-video/), this time he’s calling out Beyoncé, showing apparently no fear of her avid fan base, the Bey Hive. In an interview with the [_Los Angeles Times_](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-bodied-toronto-joseph-kahn-eminem-20170907-story.html), Kahn addressed online critics that he’s been sparring with many on Twitter who found visual similarities between “Look What You Made Me Do” and Beyoncé’s groundbreaking [“Formation” video.](http://time.com/4533627/police-officer-beyonce-formation-dance/) “It’s not ‘Formation’ at all,” Kahn said. “They try to say she’s wearing a black crop top and Beyoncé wore a black crop top. But they don’t realize in 2015 in ‘Bad Blood,’ Taylor Swift was wearing a black crop top. I really do think, by the way, that Beyoncé copied ‘Bad Blood.’” It’s a bold statement from a man who’s already felt the fire of the _Lemonade_ singer’s fans, but Kahn is no stranger to controversy when it comes to his collaborations with Swift. He came to Swift’s defense in a statement [in 2015,](http://time.com/4020783/taylor-swift-wildest-dreams-director-defends-controversy/) explaining his creative vision with Swift after the “Wildest Dreams” video was widely criticized for glamorizing African colonialism. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4932012/taylor-swift-music-video-director-says-beyonce-copied-bad-blood/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4932012/taylor-swift-music-video-director-says-beyonce-copied-bad-blood/"},"headline":"Taylor Swift's Music Video Director Hits Back at Criticism: 'Beyoncé Copied 'Bad Blood'","datePublished":"2017-09-07T18:09:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:33:30.607Z","description":"Apparently, Joseph Kahn isn't afraid of the Beyoncé's fans","url":"https://time.com/4932012/taylor-swift-music-video-director-says-beyonce-copied-bad-blood/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Music","Beyonce","Taylor Swift","bad blood"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03d74a76d6f5b754/6988dcda4ee2626e1030ee95/taylor-swift-music-video-director-says-beyonce-copied-bad-blood.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03d74a76d6f5b754/6988dcda4ee2626e1030ee95/taylor-swift-music-video-director-says-beyonce-copied-bad-blood.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2017 DIRECTV NOW Super Saturday Night Concert In Houston - Taylor Swift Performance","caption":"2017 DIRECTV NOW Super Saturday Night Concert In Houston - Taylor Swift Performance","creditText":"Kevin Winter—Getty Images for DIRECTV","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4932012/taylor-swift-music-video-director-says-beyonce-copied-bad-blood/","name":"Taylor Swift's Music Video Director Hits Back at Criticism: 'Beyoncé Copied 'Bad Blood'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Taylor Swift Releases New Single ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ – All the Details","description":"Taylor Swift can make all the tables turn","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0B4OCaeF/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-08-25T15:36:46.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0B4OCaeF.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4932012/taylor-swift-music-video-director-says-beyonce-copied-bad-blood/","duration":"PT1M41S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4932012/taylor-swift-music-video-director-says-beyonce-copied-bad-blood/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```