I Knew You Were Trouble.
Single | RED (2012) | RED (Taylor's Version) [2021]
Background and Production
Although Taylor wanted to experiment with various musical styles, she, as a songwriter, prioritized the lyrics over the production, striving to capture her temporary emotions. She went to Los Angeles to meet with Swedish producer Max Martin, whose chart-topping pop songs had impressed her by “how [they] can just land a chorus”. For “I Knew You Were Trouble”, Taylor developed the song as a ballad on piano, and asked Martin and Shellback to accompany the intense emotional sentiment with a “chaotic” sound. She told Rolling Stone in 2020:
«I remember bringing in this slow, sad thing that I had written, called ‘I Knew You Were Trouble.’ I had originally called it ‘Trouble’. I was like, ‘I don't know if we could have some kind of intense bass drop or something, like dubstep is really awesome…’ And they were just like, ‘Yes, absolutely!’ And then Shellback was like, ‘In the verse, let's do this really frantic drum beat.’ And it just was something I would never have thought of; to make the beat of the verse really up-tempo, and then make the intensity drop off the chorus, and then have it build back up, and then have a production explosion at the end of the chorus. It was so thrilling! I couldn't believe the song started where it started and then their added ideas with production. They ended up seeping into my brain and I started thinking the way that I would hope they would think. I would write a verse and Max would be like, ‘This is this many syllables, can you shorten it and make it more succinct, but convey the same message?’ And I would just go off into a corner and I felt like I had like this amazing assignment. So the challenge of it was so thrilling for me.»
Lyrical Theme
«[It’s] about knowing the second you see someone like, ‘Oh, this is going to be interesting. It’s going to be dangerous, but look at me going in there anyway.' I think that for me, it was the first time I ever kind of noticed that in myself, like when you are curious about something you know might be bad for you, but you know that you are going to go for it anyway because if you don’t, you’ll have greater regrets about not seeing where that would go.»
Release
Music Video
«I wanted to tell the story of a girl who falls into a world that's too fast for her, and suffers the consequences. This video is edgy because the narrative of it is edgy. The song sounds different than anything I've ever done before, so I thought, 'Why not make this video unlike anything we've done before?'. We knew we wanted it to be this sort of corruption. You know, good girl runs into this force. She'll do anything to fit into his world, including changing everything about herself.»
Live Performances
On January 18, 2013, following an appearance at the NRJ Music Awards, Taylor held a private concert in Paris, where she included “I Knew You Were Trouble.” in the set list. She also made live appearances in the U.K., notably performing the song at the 33rd Brit Awards on February 20, and on The Graham Norton Show on February 23, 2013. “I Knew You Were Trouble.” was part of the regular set list of “The RED Tour” (2013-2014). During the concerts, she first performed in a white-and-gold gown with masquerade dancers, and midway changed the costume to a black romper and high heels.
Nowadays, “I Knew You Were Trouble.” is a recurring song included in many of Taylor’s live performances outside promotion of RED. She performed the song at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2013. During the concerts of “The 1989 World Tour” (2015), she included an industrial rock-oriented version of “I Knew You Were Trouble.” in the set lists. An acoustic version of the hit was a “surprise song” Taylor performed at the first concert in Manchester, England, and the concert in Perth, Australia, as part of her “reputation Stadium Tour” (2018). During the promotion of her 2019 album Lover, Taylor again performed the song at the Wango Tango festival on June 1, the Amazon Prime Day concert on July 10, and the City of Lover one-off concert in Paris on September 9, 2019. At the 2019 American Music Awards, where she was honored as the “Artist of the Decade,” Taylor performed “I Knew You Were Trouble.” as part of a medley of her biggest hits.
Critial Reception
Commercial Performance
In Canada, the single peaked at No. 2 on the Canadian Hot 100 and was certified five times platinum by Music Canada (MC). “I Knew You Were Trouble.” charted in the top ten on record charts of European countries, peaking at No. 1 in the Czech Republic, No. 3 in Denmark, No. 4 in Ireland, No. 6 in Austria and Russia, No. 8 in the Commonwealth of Independent States and Switzerland, No. 9 in Germany, and No. 10 in Belgian Flanders and Finland. The song received platinum certifications in Germany and Switzerland. In the U.K., “I Knew You Were Trouble.” peaked at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart and was certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). It peaked at No. 3 and was certified multi-platinum in Australia (six times platinum) and New Zealand (double platinum). As of 2021, “I Knew You Were Trouble.” is eligible for a “Diamond” certification by the RIAA for selling over 10 million copies in the United States.
Accolades
«'I Knew You Were Trouble.' was a big signal flare. When I did something like that, that I thought people were going to be freaked out over, and it ended up spending seven weeks at No. 1 on the pop charts, it felt like I had tried on something new that fit really well.»
Taylor's Version
«'I Knew You Were Trouble.' is a song that I think really made me expand my horizon of what kind of music I wanted to make, and what kind of music I was allowed to make. At this point in my career I was a completely straight forward country artist that sort of toyed around with pop melodies every once in a while. But when I had gotten this idea, I brought it to Shellback and Max Martin. It was a piano ballad and I thought it was just gonna be a really sad, down tempo song. And I remember Shellback going, 'What if we do like a dubstep bass drop?' And I was like, 'Um, yeah! Let's do that.' It was one of the most shocking moments that we had in the studio, making RED. I think the whole time we were making the song we were all like, 'Can we really do this?' And I love moments like that! Because that means you're pushing boundaries, you're going for it. I've learned that since. I felt that when I was making folklore like, 'Am I allowed to make an alternative album?' You just gotta listen to that feeling sometimes.»
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Once upon a time, a few mistakes ago
I was in your sights, you got me alone
You found me, you found me, you found me
I guess you didn’t care, and I guess I liked that
And when I fell hard you took a step back
Without me, without me, without me
[Pre-chorus 1]
And he’s long gone when he’s next to me
And I realize the blame is on me
[Chorus]
‘Cause I knew you were trouble when you walked in
So shame on me now
Flew me to places I’d never been
‘Til you put me down, oh
I knew you were trouble when you walked in
So shame on me now
Flew me to places I’d never been
Now I’m lying on the cold hard ground
Oh, oh, trouble, trouble, trouble
Oh, oh, trouble, trouble, trouble
[Verse 2]
No apologies
He’ll never see you cry,
Pretends he doesn’t know that he’s the reason why
You’re drowning, you’re drowning, you’re drowning
Now I heard you moved on from whispers on the street
A new notch in your belt is all I’ll ever be
And now I see, now I see, now I see
[Pre-chorus 2]
He was long gone when he met me
And I realize the joke is on me, yeah!
[Chorus]
I knew you were trouble when you walked in
So shame on me now
Flew me to places I’d never been
‘Til you put me down, oh
I knew you were trouble when you walked in
So shame on me now
Flew me to places I’d never been
Now I’m lying on the cold hard ground
Oh, oh, trouble, trouble, trouble
Oh, oh, trouble, trouble, trouble
[Bridge]
And the saddest fear comes creeping in
That you never loved me or her, or anyone, or anything, yeah
[Chorus]
I knew you were trouble when you walked in
So shame on me now
Flew me to places I’d never been
‘Til you put me down, oh
I knew you were trouble when you walked in
(You were right there, you were right there)
So shame on me now
Flew me to places I’d never been
Now I’m lying on the cold hard ground
Oh, oh, trouble, trouble, trouble
Oh, oh, trouble, trouble, trouble
[Outro]
I knew you were trouble when you walked in
Trouble, trouble, trouble
I knew you were trouble when you walked in
Trouble, trouble, trouble
| Albums | RED RED (Taylor’s Version) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Released | October 9, 2012 | |||
| Re-Released | November 12, 2021 | |||
| Studio | Conway (Los Angeles) MXM (Stockholm) | |||
| Genre | Dance Pop | |||
| Length | 3:39 | |||
| Labels | Big Machine Records Republic Records | |||
| Songwriters | Taylor Swift Max Martin Shellback | |||
| Producers | Max Martin (original) Shellback Christopher Rowe Taylor Swift | |||
RED CHRONOLOGY | ||||
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![RED (Taylor's Version) [Republic Records, 2021]](https://taylorswiftswitzerland.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/8k-RED-Taylors-Version-scaled.jpg)
