[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mean_8.jpg]]

->''"Someday, I'll be living in a big old city\\
And all you're ever gonna be is mean\\
Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me\\
And all you're ever gonna be is mean\\
Why you gotta be so mean?"''

Mean is a 2010 song by Music/TaylorSwift, from her album, ''Music/SpeakNow''. It was made into a music video in 2011, which can be seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYa1eI1hpDE here]].

The song was reportedly written in response to a cruel review by music critic[[note]](Swift has never gone on record directly identifying them, but based on some of the lyrics, it's widely believed to have been controversial music critic and blogger Bob Lefsetz)[[/note]] who claimed Swift "couldn't sing" and would have a short career. The video expands on this message, turning it into a general anti-bullying [[AnAesop aesop]]. It shows scenes of other underdogs brushing off haters and eventually achieving their dreams, as Swift would go on to do.
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!!"Someday, I'll be troping in a big old city":
* AmbiguouslyGay: One of the characters is a young man (in a purple sweater and bow tie) who is tormented by jocks when they catch him with a fashion magazine; he ends up being a successful designer. He could be gay or just bullied for his "feminine" interests.
* AnAesop: When you devote your life to criticizing and putting people down, you become a JadedWashout while your victims actually improve their lives.
* BadJobWorseUniform: Chippy Cheddar's, where you're the star! (The waitress has to dress up as a giant cardboard star.)
* BrandX: The boy in the locker room reads ''Fashion'' magazine, while the Chippy Cheddar's girl graduated from "College".
* CausticCritic: The critic makes the narrator feel like nothing, lies to humiliate her, and rants about how she can't sing. And sure enough, this person is a FutureLoser.
* ChainedToARailway: Swift winds up tied up on a railroad tracks by the [[DastardlyWhiplash villain]], but she frees herself without much difficulty.
* TheChainOfHarm: The narrator speculates that her bully has become the way they are because they were bullied, too, and [[DefiedTrope vows to break the chain and not become like them]].
-->I bet you got pushed around\\
Somebody made you cold\\
Well, the cycle ends right now\\
'Cause you can't lead me down that road
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The girl bullies in the video all wear pink, while their victim wears blue.
* DamselOutOfDistress: ChainedToARailway Taylor gets out on her own.
* DastardlyWhiplash: The mustachioed villain who ties Taylor up.
* DrinkingOnDuty: The bad guys doing this is how Taylor gets away.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Literally, for the Chippy Cheddar's girl, who is working a job she hates to save up for college. She gets there in the end!
* EatingLunchAlone: A girl [[IndividualityIsIllegal who is dressed differently from her peers]] is ostracized and forced to eat lunch alone ''in the bathroom''.
* EvilGloating: The bad guy does this. A lot.
* FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: The narrator suspects that person tormenting them was once bullied in the same way, but refuses to give them any sympathy for it.
* FutureLoser: Taylor anticipates this fate for her critic:
-->And I can see you years from now in a bar\\
Talking over a football game\\
With that same big loud opinion\\
But nobody's listening\\
Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things
* TheGreatDepression: An inspiration for the music video's setting.
* IndividualityIsIllegal: A girl in the video has to eat lunch alone because she's wearing a different dress than everyone else.
* JerkJock: A group of them bully a [[Series/{{Glee}} Kurt Hummel]]-{{e|xpy}}sque boy in the locker room.
* KidsAreCruel: The [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience girls in pink]], who torment a girl they've decided to exclude.
* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: The subject of the song calls her out when she's wounded.
* NemesisAsCustomer: A high-school girl has a [[BadJobWorseUniform demeaning job]] working in a fast-food restaurant where she has to dress like a five-pointed star. A lot of her mean classmates show up to mock her.
* OnASoundstageAllAlong: The PerformanceVideo aspect turns out in the end to have been a live performance in what looks like a high school auditorium. The video ends with [[AudienceSurrogate the bullied little girl applauding from the audience]].
* PerformanceVideo: The video alternates between the scenes with other characters and footage of Taylor's band performing the song.
* ThePowerOfLanguage: Following the album's theme, the bully's words are knives to torment the narrator, and the song is her retaliation against this guy.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: The whole song, but especially the bridge.
-->All you are is mean\\
And a liar, and pathetic\\
And alone in life and mean
* RevengeBallad: The song ''is'' the revenge.
* TheRoaringTwenties: Another inspiration for the setting Taylor's dress in the performance bits is [[TheFlapper flapper-esque]].
* TakeThatCritics: "Mean" was reportedly written in response to a cruel review by music critic (speculated by many to be Bob Lefsetz), who claimed Swift "couldn't sing" and would have a short career. The song and the video bunch {{Caustic Critic}}s up with bullies and mean jerks of all sorts and paints them out to be bitter, pathetic losers.
* TroubledAbuser: The narrator speculates this about her bully:
-->I bet you got pushed around / Somebody made you cold
* TheVillainSucksSong: The song brands {{Caustic Critic}}s, bullies and jerks as mean, pathetic liars and {{Future Loser}}s.
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