Call It What You Want (Taylor Swift song)

"Call It What You Want"
Promotional graphic for the song
Promotional single by Taylor Swift
from the album Reputation
ReleasedNovember 3, 2017 (2017-11-03)
StudioRough Customer (Brooklyn Heights)
Genre
Length3:24
LabelBig Machine
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
  • Taylor Swift
  • Jack Antonoff
Lyric video
"Call It What You Want" on YouTube

"Call It What You Want" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released as the second promotional single from her sixth studio album Reputation on November 3, 2017, by Big Machine Records. Written and produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff, "Call It What You Want" is an atmospheric synth-pop and R&B-trap song. Critics received the song with positive reviews, and praised the production and lyrics. Commercially, "Call It What You Want" peaked at number 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the top 50 on singles charts in Austria, Hungary, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. The song was included on the set list of her 2018 concert tour, the Reputation Stadium Tour.

Background

The American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift released her fifth studio album, 1989, in October 2014. It was a synth-pop record that transformed her image from a country artist to a pop star. The album received wide commercial success, reaching one million copies within one year and producing three Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles. During its promotion, Swift was targeted by the tabloid media; her image as "America's Sweetheart", a result of her being wholesome and innocent, disappeared from publicized short-lived relationships and disputes with other celebrities. Swift therefore became increasingly silent on social media and avoided the press during tumultuous affairs. Her sixth studio album, Reputation (2017), was conceived as a message to the media commotion surrounding her as a celebrity.

Composition

"Call It What You Want" was engineered by Laura Sisk at Rough Customer Studio in Brooklyn Heights. It was mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound Studios in New York. "Call It What You Want" is an atmospheric synth-pop and R&B-trap song. Jack Antonoff revealed on Twitter that "Call It What You Want" was "made with an MPC, live kick, dx7 strings and samples of Taylor's voice as the intro and throughout. Making her voice into an instrument." He also added that he was "honored to have 'Call It What You Want' out in the world. That song means a great deal to me", and recommend fans to "listen on headphones at night on a walk". "Call It What You Want" also features Swift rapping. It follows a chord progression of D – A – E – D/F – Fm7, and Swift's vocals span from E3 to C5.

Release and commercial performance

"Call It What You Want" was released on November 3, 2017. The song debuted at number 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Billboard Digital Song Sales chart with 68,000 digital copies. Swift became the first artist to have 15 entries reach the latter's summit and extended her record with most debuts at number one on the chart with 14. It is also the fourth Reputation track to top the chart after "Look What You Made Me Do", "...Ready for It?", and "Gorgeous". In March 2018, the song received a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

"Call It What You Want" peaked at number 16 in Australia and was certified gold. It reached number 29 in the United Kingdom and received a silver certification. Elsewhere, "Call It What You Want" debuted on the charts of several countries: it peaked within the top 50 of Hungary (5), Malaysia (13), the Philippines (27), New Zealand (34), Austria (43), and Ireland (44), and further reached Portugal, France, Switzerland, and Germany.

Critical reception

The song received critical acclaim. The song was named the 20th best song of 2017 by Rolling Stone. According to Entertainment Weekly, the song, in which Swift says she is "doing better than [she] ever was" and details her romantic life, was well received by her fan base. Frank Guan of Vulture stated that the song "deals in gossamer and light; its spare, airy production evokes, or attempts to evoke, a sense of radiant, protective romance in the wake of a devastating social debacle; listeners ready to view that loss as the one she suffered last year at the hands of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West will meet no resistance." USA Today gave it a positive review, saying it was more subdued than her other recent singles, and "the most perceptive and unabashedly romantic song of the singer's new era", and "surprisingly effective and grown-up". Complex Magazine had the opinion that the song was the first single pre-released from her album that was not "distressing", as "Call It What You Want" is "actually good," and also dropped the "revenge narrative to great effect." Spin Magazine gave it a similar review, saying it was much better than her other recent material.

Live performances

Swift performed an acoustic version of "Call It What You Want" during a SiriusXM Fishbowl session on November 10, 2017. A day later, Swift performed an acoustic version of the song again during an episode of the 43rd season of Saturday Night Live, alongside "...Ready for It?". The song was part on the regular set list of her fifth concert tour, the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018). On July 1, 2023, at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, Swift performed "Call It What You Want" as a "surprise song" as part of the Eras Tour (2023–2024).

Credits and personnel

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Reputation.

Charts

Chart performance for "Call It What You Want"
Chart (2017–2018) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA) 16
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40) 43
Canada (Canadian Hot 100) 24
France (SNEP) 76
Germany (Official German Charts) 99
Hungary (Single Top 40) 5
Ireland (IRMA) 44
Malaysia (RIM) 13
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ) 34
Philippines (Philippine Hot 100) 27
Portugal (AFP) 65
South Korean International Singles (Gaon) 80
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade) 96
UK Singles (OCC) 29
US Billboard Hot 100 27

Certifications

Certifications for "Call It What You Want"
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA) Gold 35,000
United Kingdom (BPI) Silver 200,000
United States (RIAA) Gold 500,000

Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

See also


This page was last updated at 2024-01-30 15:01 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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