"The Man" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her seventh studio album, Lover (2019). Swift wrote and produced the song with Joel Little. "The Man" is an uptempo synth-pop and electropop song with flashy harmonies, murky synths, and rumbling beats. In the lyrics, Swift imagines how she would be treated if she were a man. The song received a positive reception from critics, who praised its feminist message for the greater good.
The track peaked at number 23 on the US Billboard Hot 100 upon the album's release, and entered the top-forty in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom. It impacted US adult contemporary and pop radio formats on January 27 and 28, 2020, as the fourth single from the album. On February 18, 2020, a live acoustic version of the song, titled "The Man (Live from Paris)", was released on all music platforms, accompanied by its live video.
An official music video for "The Man" was released on February 27, 2020, directed by Taylor Swift herself, marking her solo directorial debut. The satirical video sees Swift in her theoretical male alter-ego named "Tyler Swift", voiced by Dwayne Johnson, presenting several prevalent examples of sexist double standards in society, including objectification, sexualization of women, toxic masculinity, and patriarchy. The video received critical acclaim for its concept and Swift's transformation into a man. It was nominated for the Video of the Year, Video for Good, and Best Direction at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, winning the latter, making Swift the first solo female director in VMA history to win the category.
Background and composition
The recording process for Taylor Swift's seventh studio album Lover took under three months and concluded in February 2019. Joel Little was revealed as one of the producers for the album with the release of the lead single "Me!" in April. He co-wrote and co-produced four of the eighteen tracks for the album. The song title was revealed along with the lyrics "I'd be a fearless leader / I'd be an alpha type / When everyone believes ya— / What's that like?" in Swift's Vogue cover interview for the September 2019 issue.
"The Man" is a synth-pop and electropop song that features flashy harmonies and a murky synthesizer. Swift imagines society's treatment of her if she were a man, over an uptempo production. Swift challenges societal sexist double standards, with lyrics including a reference to American actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Swift uses the actor as an example to explain sexism, singing "And they would toast to me, oh, let the players play/I'd be just like Leo in Saint-Tropez". In outtakes from an interview with Billboard in December 2019, Swift said she wrote the song not only from personal experience, but also from hearing the general experiences of women working across all parts of the music industry.
According to Billboard Gil Kaufman, "The Man" is a pointed statement about "how much harder women need to work than men to get to the same finish line". Jason Lipshutz of the same magazine described the song as a "biting look at gender dynamics within both the pop industry and celebrity-driven culture", noting that it is sonically composed of a rumbling beat and crackling synths and lyrically provides wry humor and an honest perspective. An animated lyric video for "The Man" was released on February 7, 2020.
Critical reception "The Man" received acclaim from music critics. The Atlantics Spencer Kornhaber described "The Man" as "one of the most straightforwardly catchy songs" on Lover, and further called it Swift's "most explicit musical statement on sexism". He opined that the Leonardo DiCaprio reference is the "most memorable" line of the song. Brittany Hodak of Forbes praised the song as "the most important song she's [Swift has] ever written". She also stated that the song is "a brilliant portrayal of the subtle and not-so-subtle sexism women face every day". Times Raisa Bruner labeled the song as "a bombastic, empowering bop" that is "an anthem for anyone who's felt blocked by sexist double standards". Comparing the song to Swift's 2017 album, Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone described "The Man" as "a righteous feminist bombshell Reputation could have used". Slates Carl Wilson opined that the song "widens the lens and makes a more convincing case for her [Swift's] grievances than on any beefing track she's ever written". He further described the song as a "synth-strut mode very reminiscent of Haim" that "takes aim at sexist music industry and media double standards and just keeps firing bull's-eyes".
Writing for Elite Daily, Sade Spence and Kristen Perrone stated that the lyrics of the song are "super bold and carry a powerful message about women". They further stated that the song is an addition to the "legendary canon of crafty takes on sexism" in music. Allie Gemmill of Teen Vogue stated that the song "gives women permission to keep challenging sexist double standards, and fans are here for it", adding that the "fierce" song includes "many incredibly good lyrics". Writing for Billboard, Jason Lipshutz called it "a complete jam" and ranked it as the 12th best track on the album, and further expanded that it "will draw attention for its searing subject matter, but it's also one of Lovers most complete productions". The same magazine's Gab Ginsberg opined that "The Man" is "catchy-as-all-heck". Writing for The New York Times, Jon Caramanica described the song as "excellent and pointed". Jordan Sargent of Spin negatively compared the song to "You Need to Calm Down", stating that the lyric "If I was a man, then I'd be the man" doesn't really offer much insight.
Release and commercial performance On August 16, 2019, Swift announced the track listing of her seventh studio album, Lover, where "The Man" was unveiled. One week later, the project was released, with "The Man" serving as the fourth track. Next year, the song was serviced to the US adult contemporary and pop radio formats on January 27 and 28, 2020, as the fourth single from Lover. The following month, the track was issued by Universal Music Group to Italian radio airplay on February 14, whilst the live version was made available to digital download and streaming worldwide four days later.
In the United States, following the release of its parent album Lover, "The Man" debuted at number four on the Billboard Streaming Songs chart, number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 32 on the Billboard Digital Song Sales chart, all dated September 7, 2019. The song peaked at number 20 and 10 on Billboard Pop Songs and Billboard Adult Pop Songs charts. In Europe, "The Man" charted at number 16 in Ireland, 62 in the Netherlands, 24 in Norway, 82 in Scotland, 63 in Sweden and 80 in Switzerland. It reached number 21 on the UK Singles Chart. It was also commercially successful in Oceania, peaking at number 17 in Australia and 15 in New Zealand.
Music video
Background On February 25, 2020, Swift announced via her social media accounts that the music video would be released in two days. The video was directed by Swift, making it her official solo directorial debut. Swift answered fan questions in the hour before the music video's premiere on YouTube on February 27, 2020. She stated that the entire preparation for the music video—including planning meetings, creating mood boards, scouting locations, and costume and set design—took several months. She also confirmed that there would be many of her trademark "easter eggs" in the video.
The video features cameos from TikTok stars Loren Gray (the second most followed on the platform at the time) and Dominic Toliver, actress Jayden Bartels, and Swift's father Scott Swift; actor Dwayne Johnson appears in a brief voice role. The video's production team includes producer Jil Hardin, executive producer Rebecca Skinner, assistant director Joe Osborne, cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, production designer Ethan Tobman, and makeup artist Bill Corso. Swift's transformation involved a "muscle suit", prosthetic makeup, eyebrow wigs, and facial sculptures, which took between four and six hours to apply each day. She also worked with movement coaches Stephen Galloway and Spenser Theberge, as well as editor Chancler Haynes. Visual effects were handled by Ingenuity Studios.
Synopsis and analysis The satirical music video explores Swift's life as her theoretical male counterpart, an alter-ego named "Tyler Swift". The video presents numerous prevalent examples of double standards in society, and comments on the objectification and sexualization of women, toxic masculinity, patriarchy, as well as performative allyship. Throughout the video, the male version of Swift is seen rudely inconveniencing the people around him, leading a luxurious and promiscuous lifestyle, manspreading, receiving praise for the bare minimum, and throwing tantrums without consequences. It contains visual references to The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), a film involving the lyrically name-checked actor DiCaprio and cinematographer Prieto, and journalists felt the tennis scene referenced tennis player Serena Williams' match controversy with a chair umpire at the 2018 US Open Championships.
The video has several easter eggs alluding to Swift's other work, including Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation graffiti on a wall. Fearless is written backwards, while the title of her eponymous debut album appears in a sign saying "Missing: If Found Return to Taylor Swift". The "missing" sign, along with another wordless sign that appears to ban riding scooters, references her 2019 dispute with Scooter Braun and Big Machine Records over the ownership of the master recordings of her first six studio albums. Lover, the first album that Swift completely owns herself, is absent, but the word "karma" is written twice on the wall, a possible reference to Swift's plan to re-record her previous works thus lowering the value of the originals. The camera subsequently pans over a "Mr. Americana" poster for a film starring Tyler Swift, directed by Larry Wilson, and premiering at the 2020 Mandance Festival, a word play on Swift's Netflix documentary Miss Americana directed by Lana Wilson, which debuted at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Swift's alter-ego runs down a hallway giving high-fives to nineteen disembodied hands, alluding to double standards behind the walk of shame that women are often forced to take after a sexual encounter. The hands are said to be a reference to the 19th amendment of the United States Constitution, which granted women the right to vote in the country.
In the final scene, Swift herself appears as the video's director to instruct her male alter-ego to be both "sexier" and "more likeable" in the next take—a dig at the entertainment industry's objectification of and sexist treatment toward women. Ending on messages of female empowerment, Swift then turns to praise Loren Gray for her acting performance as a tennis ball girl, despite her role consisting of nothing more than an eye roll. The end credits list Swift as the director, writer, owner, and star of the music video, Johnson as the voice of "The Man", and shows photos of Swift's transformation process into the male lead of the video. It ends with a disclaimer stating "No men were harmed in the making of this video".
Reception