Peak
2
Weeks
36
Score
6,878
Chart Year
2013
Anthony Mandler directed the music video for "I Knew You Were Trouble".[77] Shot in Los Angeles over two days, the video stars Reeve Carney as Swift's love interest.[78][79] In the video, Swift wears a pink ombré hairstyle, a ripped tee-shirt, and skinny jeans.[80][81] Marie Claire commented that this "edgy" look coincided with her much publicized relationship with English singer Harry Styles, which signified her outgrowing "good girl" public image.[82] Swift summarized the video's narrative: "I wanted to tell the story of a girl who falls into a world that's too fast for her, and suffers the consequences."[81] The video begins with Swift waking up in a desert filled with trash and debris from a concert the night before, intertwined with flashbacks of her and her love interest.[83] Swift delivers a monologue reflecting on the past relationship, concluding: "I think that the worst part of it all wasn't losing him. It was losing me."[82] As the song begins, Swift and the love interest are seen sharing intimate moments together. He exhibits behaviors that are unreliable, engaging in bar fights and making out with other girls in a rave.[84] The video concludes with Swift alone in the same desert from the beginning.[85] Media publications commented on the video's narrative and style. Spin's Chris Martins and Vulture's Amanda Dobbins noted similarities—the desert settings, the "bad boy" love interests, the partying scenes—to Lana Del Rey's 2012 video for "Ride",[77][85] while Rolling Stone compared the downward spiral of Swift's relationship to that portrayed in Rihanna's 2011 video for "We Found Love".[83] Comments by Wendy Geller from Yahoo!,[81] Melinda Newman from Uproxx,[80] and Rachel Brodsky from MTV focused on the video's dark narrative, which depicted a new aspect of Swift's artistry.[84] Martins was not enthusiastic, calling the video unoriginal.[77] A remix of "I Knew You Were Trouble" containing sounds of a screaming goat went viral, resulting in internet memes and boosting the video's popularity.
Swift previewed this upbeat track on the October 8, 2012 episode of ABC's Good Morning America. The country-pop songstress penned the tune with the Swedish hitmaking duo of Shellback and Max Martin, the same pair that she collaborated with on her hit single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." Taylor explained the back story to the tune before playing it to Good Morning America viewers. "It's a song that is one of my favorites on the album, because it sounds just as chaotic as the feeling was when I wrote it," she said. "It's a song about being frustrated with yourself because here you are heartbroken and you knew when you first saw this person, you saw all these red flags and you went for it anyway. So, shame on me." Max Martin is one of several songsmiths that Swift reached out to write with her on Red. "I have always been so fascinated by how Max Martin can just land a chorus, "she told Billboard magazine. "He comes at you and hits you and it's a chorus - all caps, with exclamation points." The song features some dubstep elements but Swift admitted to Spin magazine that she was unaware that she was dipping her toe in the EDM genre when she recorded this tune. "I've written some with Ed Sheeran, and he's become a good friend of mine, and he always plays me really interesting stuff from the UK whenever he comes over and hangs out," she explained. "But I never really thought, 'Hey, I want to download some dubstep music!' " "What ended up happening was, I wrote this melody for this chorus on the piano [for "Trouble"], and I brought it to Max Martin and Shellback, and I said, 'At the end of the chorus, I just want this to go crazy. I want it to be really chaotic.' I want the bass line to do this, like [makes loud GUH GUH GUH sound]." Swift went on to explain that it was the Swedish producers who put a name - dubstep - to her description. "I don't really know what to call it, but I just kind of sing it how I want it to sound," she explained. And they're like, 'Oh, sort of like a dubstep thing.' And I'm like, 'I guess, I don't know? Whatever that is, whatever that ridiculous sound that I made with my mouth when I was trying to figure out what to say,' " she recalled. "You end up doing a lot of that when you're recording and writing, being like, 'It kinda sounds like this!' [Does a laser-y SCHOOM sound]. I wanted the song to sound as chaotic as the emotion felt. I wanted it to be loud and out of control." The song was Swift's 50th Billboard Hot 100 entry. The singer reached the landmark sum just six years and one month after the arrival of her debut entry, "Tim McGraw," the week of Sept. 23, 2006. In doing so, Swift overtook Aretha Franklin to become the fastest female performer to her 50th Hot 100 hit. The song's music video was shot in Los Angeles, with Reeve Carney as Taylor's co-star. The American actor is best known for his lead role in the Broadway production, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark a 2011 Rock musical with music and lyrics penned by U2's Bono and The Edge. The video was Taylor's 23rd that she's filmed and it premiered on MTV on December 13, 2012, Taylor's 23rd birthday. Speaking with Cosmopolitan magazine, Taylor admitted to having gone into a relationship knowing it was the wrong thing to do. "I think that idea of love I hope for is that you learn a lesson and you don't have to learn it twice," she said. "But the song 'I Knew You Were Trouble' is about when I knowingly made the same mistake twice. I couldn't resist it ' there's that temptation to push yourself into a risky situation with someone who is going to hurt you, and that's what that song is about: not trusting your own instincts and ignoring all the red flags." Swift spoke to The Boot about the inspiration for the song. "I've written about 'shame on you, you broke my heart,' but I've never written about 'shame on me, you broke my heart. I knew when you walked in, you were going to be complete bad news and I ran toward you anyway. I believed you anyway. I fell for you anyway, even though every red flag was going up every step of the way,'" she said. "We find ourselves where we are in that situation where we want to think we're the exception. We want to think we can change someone, tame a lion, or make a bad guy good. But nine times out of ten we end up looking back going, 'Shame on me. Should have seen that one coming!'" Taylor plays a girl in the video who gets caught up in a torrid love affair with Carney's tattooed bad boy and falls prey to his wicked ways. "She's not a full bad girl," Carney explained to MTV News. "She's someone who's drawn in by the temptation and the thrill of it all, but at the same time, she's halfway: She's got one foot in and one foot out. Whereas, I'm kind of both feet in, I guess. But there's enough charisma with the character that it kind of pulls her in." This song was rumored to be about Swift's tumultuous split with John Mayer, but she cleared the air at the 2013 MTV VMA's when she turned her ire on another ex: One Direction's Harry Styles. Accepting her award for Best Female Video, she quipped: "I also want to thank the person who inspired this song because he knows exactly who he is, because now I've got one of these." The cameras hovered on Styles and his smirking band mates. According to one source, Swift penned the track after seeing images of Styles kissing model Emma Ostilly in New Zealand. She confirmed the song's inspiration when talking with The Sunday Times magazine about her raunchy performance of the song at The Brit Awards, which Styles also attended. She said: "You're balancing the analytical side of your brain which is telling you where to go and how to go there, with the other side of your brain, which is saying 'Feel everything you're singing, and show it on your face. Feel everything exactly as you felt it when you wrote the song'." Swift was then asked how she felt performing the song knowing Styles was there, to which she replied: "Well, it's not hard to access that emotion when the person the song is directed at is standing by the side of the stage watching." This won the YouTube Phenomenon award at the first ever YouTube Awards. Nominees were chosen by taking into account the YouTube views, likes and subscription figures for different artists. Taylor Swift wrote this on piano and originally imagined it as a slow ballad.
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 And he's long gone When he's next to me And I realize The blame is on me '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 lyin' on the cold hard ground Oh, oh Trouble, trouble, trouble Oh, oh Trouble, trouble, trouble 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 And 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 He was long gone When he met me And I realize The joke is on me, hey I knew you were trouble when you walked in (oh) 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, yeah Now I'm lyin' on the cold hard ground Oh, oh (yeah) Trouble, trouble, trouble Oh, oh Trouble, trouble, trouble And the saddest fear Comes creepin' in That you never loved me Or her Or anyone Or anything Yeah I knew you were trouble when you walked in So shame on me now Flew me to places I'd never been (never been) 'Til you put me down, oh I knew you were trouble when you walked in (knew it right there) So shame on me now (knew it right there) Flew me to places I'd never been (Ooh) now I'm lyin' on the cold hard ground Oh, oh Trouble, trouble, trouble (oh) Oh, oh Trouble, trouble, trouble I knew you were trouble when you walked in Trouble, trouble, trouble I knew you were trouble when you walked in Trouble, trouble, trouble
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oct 27, 2012 | 3 | 123 |
| 2 | Nov 3, 2012 | 23 | 103 |
| 4 | Nov 17, 2012 | 59 | 67 |
| 5 | Nov 24, 2012 | 73 | 53 |
| 6 | Dec 1, 2012 | 77 | 49 |
| 7 | Dec 8, 2012 | 47 | 79 |
| 8 | Dec 15, 2012 | 32 | 94 |
| 9 | Dec 22, 2012 | 15 | 111 |
| 10 | Dec 29, 2012 | 10 | 116 |
| 11 | Jan 5, 2013 | 4 | 122 |
| 12 | Jan 12, 2013 | 2 | 124 |
| 13 | Jan 19, 2013 | 3 | 123 |
| 14 | Jan 26, 2013 | 4 | 122 |
| 15 | Feb 2, 2013 | 5 | 121 |
| 16 | Feb 9, 2013 | 4 | 122 |
| 17 | Feb 16, 2013 | 5 | 121 |
| 18 | Feb 23, 2013 | 5 | 121 |
| 19 | Mar 2, 2013 | 5 | 121 |
| 20 | Mar 9, 2013 | 4 | 122 |
| 21 | Mar 16, 2013 | 4 | 122 |