The title, release date, and cover art for
reputation were revealed on August 16, 2017, after Taylor removed all of her previous social media presence, a move which many other artists started mimicking and which is now called a “social media blackout”. Two days later, she posted glitchy ten-second videos of a snake, as a reference to the “nickname” she was given during the
summer of 2016, after public fallouts with Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry and ex-boyfriend Calvin Harris. Two more such videos were posted in the next couple of days. On August 23, 2017, Taylor made posts across her social media, introducing
reputation as her upcoming sixth album, and added that its lead single, “Look What You Made Me Do” would come out the following night.
“Look What You Made Me Do”, released after a year of hiatus from public spotlight, is considered as one of pop music’s most memorable moments, bolstered by its music video, which gained over 43.2 million views during its first day on
YouTube, breaking the record for the most-viewed music video within 24 hours. Among many other things, throughout the video Taylor is seen as the not-so-benevolent leader of a huge squad of models lined up like an army, a baseball bat-wielding robber of a streaming company, and a controlling dancer leading a group of eight ex-boyfriends wearing shirts that read “I

TS”. “If everything you wrote about me was true,” Taylor said in a behind-the-scenes look at the music video, “this is how ridiculous it would look.” The song topped the
Billboard Hot 100 chart for three consecutive weeks and instantly found a place in cultural ubiquity.
On September 2, Taylor teased a second song during
ABC‘s “Saturday Night Football” telecast and on Instagram, titled “…Ready for It?” The song was released on September 3, 2017 as a promotional single. On October 20, 2017, Taylor released a third song titled “
Gorgeous” at midnight as a promotional single. A track named “
Call It What You Want” was released on November 2, 2017 as a promotional single with an accompanying lyric video.
Taylor also partnered with
AT&T to produce a multi-part behind-the-scenes series chronicling the making of
reputation, titled “
The Making of a Song“. The online series started on November 1 on
AT&T‘s
YouTube channel.
A month before the album’s release, Taylor hosted the exclusive “
reputation secret sessions” in London, Rhode Island, Los Angeles and Nashville. A total of 500 fans were chosen from around the world, for whom Taylor played the entire album. None of them leaked any music. The behind the scenes footage for the sessions was released on November 7 on
ABC‘s “Good Morning America”. On November 9, a performance of the song “
New Year’s Day” was premiered during the broadcast of an episode of
ABC‘s “Scandal”. It was filmed in one of the secret sessions, held at Taylor’s home in Rhode Island on October 18, with an audience of 100 fans.
On November 7,
Bloomberg reported that
reputation would be kept off streaming services upon release for an undetermined amount of time and would only be available to purchase in digital and physical formats. Later that same day, Taylor posted the album’s track list to her social media accounts.
reputation was finally released on November 10, 2017. According to Taylor’s father,
Scott Swift, it was supposed to come out months before it did, but her
sexual assault trial in Denver pushed it back. The album became available to streaming services on December 1, 2017.