--- title: Taylor Swift Ready For It: Internet Reacts to Music Video description: Taylor Swift's new music video is filled with hidden messages and meanings — and her fans are overwhelmed by the layers of intrigue. canonical: https://time.com/5000102/taylor-swift-ready-for-it-reactions/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-27T14:47:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:48:19.361Z og:title: The Internet Was Unprepared for the "...Ready For It?" Video og:description: Taylor Swift goes sci-fi — and her fans are overwhelmed og:url: https://time.com/5000102/taylor-swift-ready-for-it-reactions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt56754157d4155360/6988e3a4bc6cfc94033e3b6d/screen-shot-2017-10-27-at-10-17-11-am.png?branch=production&width=807&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 807 og:image:height: 454 og:image:alt: taylor-swift-ready-for-it og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Was Unprepared for the "...Ready For It?" Video twitter:description: Taylor Swift goes sci-fi — and her fans are overwhelmed twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt56754157d4155360/6988e3a4bc6cfc94033e3b6d/screen-shot-2017-10-27-at-10-17-11-am.png?branch=production&width=807&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How Unprepared the Internet Was for Taylor Swift's '...Ready For It?' Video > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=1df4d2af-570f-4cee-b246-dded374f30ea&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 27, 2017 2:47 PM UTC  YouTube  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 27, 2017 2:47 PM UTC At midnight Thursday night, Taylor Swift dropped her [new video for “…Ready For It?”](http://time.com/4994243/ready-for-it-video-swift-trailer/) And while she had teased the visual in cryptic Instagram posts in advance, fans were definitely not prepared for the emotional sci-fi journey the _Reputation_ singer was about to take them on. Between apparent references or similarities to [_Blade Runner_](http://time.com/4973818/blade-runner-2049-weekend-box-office/), [_Ghost in the Shell_](http://time.com/4718852/ghost-in-the-shell-review/)_, TRON,_ _X-Men_ and HBO’s[_Westworld,_](http://time.com/4869998/westworld-season-2-trailer/) the video — in which a hooded droid Taylor faces off against a second, superpower-equipped-but-imprisoned droid Taylor in a grungy hangar — fans were left parsing through the packed visuals to find the metaphors and messages. But mostly, they were just overcome with the inner-struggle narrative of new Taylor, a battle-ready bot that shows human emotion. Like a supercharged version of her [“Bad Blood”](http://time.com/4225085/taylor-swift-grammys-selena-gomez/) persona, new Taylor — both versions, as seen in this video — packs serious punch and is not to be messed with. > [](https://twitter.com/ylracbutler/status/923770056491917318) > [](https://twitter.com/morganbaila/status/923766312698105856) > [](https://twitter.com/MsTaylorBanks/status/923764833312321536) > [](https://twitter.com/indiexswiftie/status/923765885537607680) > [](https://twitter.com/BAHjournalist/status/923769910500655104) > [](https://twitter.com/taylorintheclub/status/923765550093881344) > [](https://twitter.com/alexandergold/status/923764351386796032) > [](https://twitter.com/alexandergold/status/923782338986651648) > [](https://twitter.com/ChrisCrocker/status/923766091863781377) > [](https://twitter.com/BAHjournalist/status/923775303419342849) > [](https://twitter.com/swftnotragedies/status/923884529365987328) > [](https://twitter.com/ShadesOfTaylena/status/923823872855613440) > [](https://twitter.com/MCST93/status/923768541035106304) As music video director (and frequent Swift collaborator) [Joseph Kahn](http://time.com/4932012/taylor-swift-music-video-director-says-beyonce-copied-bad-blood/) put it in response to the wild reactions: “Love that you are digging deep. Have fun!” There’s no question that the video has plenty of intentional layers to keep fans and conspiracy theorists busy for a while, then. > [](https://twitter.com/JosephKahn/status/923786793421381632) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5000102/taylor-swift-ready-for-it-reactions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5000102/taylor-swift-ready-for-it-reactions/"},"headline":"Here's How Unprepared the Internet Was for Taylor Swift's '...Ready For It?' 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