Shut Up, Taylor Swift Wasn't Lip-Syncing on 'SNL'

Taylor Swift was the musical guest on SNL last night, performing two songs from her endlessly-discussed new record, Reputation. She played two of the album's singles, "…Ready for It" and "Call It What You Want." But, as ever, the conversation quickly shifted away from Swift's music and towards some Twitter bullshit. "Was Taylor Swift lip-syncing?" thousands of poorly-worded tweets seemed to ask in unison.

The answer is, no, Taylor Swift was not lip-syncing, shut up. There was an audible backing track on "…Ready for It," which is hardly unusual, but Swift was hooked up on top of that: the loudness lines up with the distance that Swift holds the mic from her face, her vocals aren't shaky but they're not flawless either, and I can't believe how many times I've had to watch this video already today.

That's not to say that either performance was captivating. She brought plenty of energy to "…Ready for It"—dressed in black, flanked by backup dancers, smiling at individual crowd members like a presidential hopeful—but the song itself is still dull. No amount of attitude can rescue lyrics like, "But if I'm a thief, then he can join the heist / And we'll move to an island-and."

"Call It What You Want" is the better song, and this full acoustic performance could have brought out the best in Swift, but it came off awkwardly. Her voice fell off-balance; she checked her guitar neck at every chord change; she never settled in.

In other Taylor Swift news, Reputation sold 700,000 copies on its first day of release in the United States, so who gives a shit what I think.

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