Taylor Swift welcomed fans to her “Torture Poet Department” on Friday night to premiere the music video for “Fortnite,” the first single from her new album.
Singer-songwriter Post Malone, who is featured in the single, appears in the music video, playing the role of an ex-lover who, as the lyrics suggest, had an affair that lasted only 14 days. Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles, who starred in Dead Poets Society, also make a surprise cameo as a pair of scientists who conduct Swift's experiment, which taps electricity beyond the power of heavy machinery. An intertitle reminiscent of a silent film concludes the music video.
“I wanted to show you the world in my head that led to the creation of this music,” Swift says. “Almost everything on it is a metaphor or reference to one corner of the album or another.” released a statement on social media in conjunction with the music video release. “For me, this video turned out to be the perfect visual representation of this record and the story we tell within it. Post Malone, playing our tormented tragic hero, was on set. It amazed me, and I'm so grateful for everything he put into this collaboration.”
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When I was writing the music video for Fortnite, I wanted to show the world in my head that led to the creation of this music. Almost everything in it is a metaphor or reference to somewhere on the album. For me, this video… pic.twitter.com/TLaUg9jEoo
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) April 20, 2024
“Fortnite” was heavily teased as the first music video for The Tortured Poets Department, but Swift officially announced its debut just before the new album was released late Friday night. was.
“The first single from The Tortured Poets Department is in 2 weeks,” Swift told fans on Instagram Thursday afternoon. “I'm a big fan of Post because he's a writer and his musical experiments and the melodies he creates are forever haunting. When we work together, the magic becomes real. I was able to witness it firsthand.”
Swift first announced “The Tortured Poets Department” during her acceptance speech for Best Pop Vocal Album at the Grammy Awards, which many fans had expected to be a reference to her final album 2. It was a big departure from the release of one of the albums, “Reputation''. Taylor's Version” re-recording project. Pre-order links were immediately posted on Swift's official website and socials.
In a review for Variety's Tortured Poet Category, senior music writer and chief music critic Chris Willman wrote that Swift's latest work is “the best of her 11 original albums to be delivered straight to the brain.” It feels like it's the closest thing to letting the listeners hear it.” She said, “She mainlines what comes out,” praising it as “spirited, vulnerable, sassy, and not to be underestimated in this day and age, but handmade.”
Swift also announced that The Tortured Poets Department is a top-secret double album, with 15 additional songs to be released in the morning to make the event release even more eventful. , which surprised fans (and media personnel). This artist also broke his Spotify record on the day of release, making the album the first in history for him to reach 200 million streams within 24 hours.
You can watch the “Fortnite” music video here.
