#bttws

[midnightsslut]

thinking about how ‘my sadness is contagious’ is one of the statements that is explored all over midnights and how that ties into an album called the tortured poets department

#everything I touch becomes sick with sadness #how long could we be a sad song #all of dear reader and anti-hero #idk idk #midnights #ttpd #the tortured poets department #hits different #bttws #anti-hero

[foreverfeelslike]

#taylor swift #ttpd #the tortured poets department #cold as you #last kiss #dear john #atw #sygb #lover #hoax #champagne problems #rwylm #bttws #so long london #loml #How did it end #taylor swift poll #poll

[taylorswiftarthistories]

Moonlight on the Sound by Childe Hassam, 1906 / "Bigger Than The Whole Sky" by Taylor Swift

#moonlight on the sound #child hassam #impressionism #post impressionism #art history #bigger than the whole sky #taylor swift #midnights #taylor swift midnights #midnights album #bttws #art #lyrics #edit

[always-rolling-my-eyes]

Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

You were bigger than the whole sky 😭

#bb25 #big brother #taylor swift #lyrics #bttws #midnights

[new-york-no-shoes]

Taylor Alison Swift is the literal QUEEN of “sharp pen, thin skin, open heart” and this PERFECTLY exemplifies that fact !!!

#no i will not be elaborating #taylor swift #the eras tour #eras tour #BTTWS #surprise songs #midnights

[anhandfulgirl18]

Every single thing to come has turned into ashes...

#chicago fire #chfedit #one chicago #chicagofireedit #onechicagoedit #hawkami #hawkamiedit #hawkami x taylor swift #taylor swift #bigger than the whole sky #bttws #midnights #hanako greensmith #jimmy nicholas #violet mikami #evan hawkins #tvdaily #musicdaily #gifset #taylorswiftedit #lyric edit #taylorswiftdaily

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

I have thoughts about the TTPD speculation/two years/loneliness/sharing feelings through songs train but I'm putting them under a cut because. Yeah.

OK, so I'm giving a warning:

I'm talking about BTTWS, but NOT about the speculation/inspiration behind it. Just about the feelings in it and the Midnights of it all/the idea that sharing the difficult things brings comfort/companionship. So getting that out of the way so we can remove that part of the discourse out of it.

Regardless of whatever the inspiration/event behind BTTWS may be, whether it's about a loved one or personal, I've long felt that its inclusion on Midnights, an album about things that have kept her up at night, is significant in the feelings it portrays.

For instance, we can be fairly certain that Taylor wasn't actually turning in Scooter B. to the FBI and conspiring with his ex-wife to bring him down (or was she?) in Vigilante Shit, just as we can safely guess that she probably did actually pick up that pebble in Wicklow that reminded her of a peaceful time in Sweet Nothing. The line between fiction/reality, personal vs. narrative matters less on Midnights in this case than the feelings she was expressing in the songs, which are very personal and truthful. The revenge fantasy in Vigilante Shit is her working through her anger over having her masters stolen and how she's fought hard to have the last laugh over someone who is a sworn enemy. Sweet Nothing is her reflecting on the dichotomy of her (presumed) quiet home life she felt was safe and the noise of the outside world. (Now, we might speculate on why she was ruminating on this, but that's another story.)

So with that preamble out of the way, BTTWS's inclusion in the tracklist I feel is just as important, again regardless of the inspiration behind it or her personal connection to it. Even if it is a song about someone other than herself, including it as the only "not personal/not diaristic" song on an album as ostensibly self-reflective as Midnights would stick out if that were thecase, though obviously it's her album so she can do whatever she wants and could have her own reasons. (Just like she included Ronan on Red and Soon You'll Get Better on Lover about similar themes, it could just be a tribute to a loved one.) But given all the thematic arcs and parallels on Midnights, I do feel like it's there to include a specific set of feelings being processed, even if the origin on the feelings may or may not be her own. (I'm trying to be really sensitive in my word choices here, hope they make sense.)

BTTWS is a song about loss and grief, and specifically the fallout of an event outside of her/the narrator's control. The person in the song has nothing to turn to to deal with their pain: no faith to guide them, no wisdom to tell them everything will be alright. Throughout the song there is a pervasive sense of isolation: everything is over, they're living without something that was once theirs but suddenly was not. It captures the fog and confusion of living through a painful event without having any way to process. She even says from the start that, "no words appear before me in the aftermath," which for someone like Taylor who has stated over and over how writing is literally how she processes her life would be the ultimate reflection of the depths of her hurt.

(To be clear I do not think this is a song about a breakup whatsoever: IMO it clearly is not about a relationship dissolution of any kind. I just think that the feelings of grief and loneliness in the song may have felt relevant to whatever she was going through during the time the album was coalescing in 2021-22.)

Knowing what we know now about at the very least the period between 2021-2023, Taylor was going through a time of significant difficulty in her life behind the scenes, which is how The Tortured Poets Department came to be, right on the heels of her completing Midnights sometime in early 2022. She has said herself that making TTPD was a lifeline, that she had to keep writing to deal with whatever it was that she was experiencing and going through. And as I posted about earlier today, she's also said repeatedly on tour that not only is writing about her feelings how she processes her pain and loneliness, but that then sharing that music with fans brings her great comfort because it makes her feel less lonely to know people understand and relate to what she's going through.

And we know that she has self-edited her albums over the years (including Midnights) to protect herself and perhaps even the subjects of her songs, which we have seen with the inclusion of the vault/bonus tracks in the re-records and on Midnights. Obviously some of these reasons are logistical -- album was too long, cut songs sounded too much like others, maybe she or her producers felt the ones that were originally chosen were stronger, narrative or sonic cohesion, etc. -- but with what we've seen over the last few years, these songs also filled in the lines of the stories being told and reframed the narrative being told.

Nowhere is that clearer than with You're Losing Me, for example. It's pretty obvious why it was held back: presumably she wouldn't want to release a song about a relationship at its breaking point when she was still actively in the relationship. Yet as soon as the relationship ended, she released it, we can only assume because of her realization that sharing the music and having people respond to it validates her feelings and makes her feel embraced, as it were. Then with the announcement of TTPD and how it's been brewing for essentially the intervening period between when YLM was written and now, we can also surmise that these songs will be dealing with feelings she also felt the need to hold back for whatever reason at the time, but has now decided should be out there so she can feel more whole.

So coming back to BTTWS, it being included on Midnights the way that it was strikes me as a form of sharing feelings that may have been too difficult to process. Again, not implying I have any insight into what the origin of the song is about, or imposing my own beliefs onto her, or that she was sending some sort of secret message with its inclusion! But thematically, BTTWS deals with an intense loss and feeling completely unmoored and alone as a result, which is present in her other work. And that the dreams the narrator once held have gone up in smoke, leaving her reeling about what's to come next. She's cut off from the world because of the event, unable to speak about or grasp what has happened. Similar feelings are also explored in You're Losing Me for instance, and even Dear Reader (not to mention on past albums like evermore, this is my trying, arguably hoax, etc.). Just reading context clues from TTPD and her surprise song choices of late, I don't think it's outrageous to presume some of those emotions are going to be present on the new album as well.

So this is just a long-winded way of saying, I feel like the sense of loss, confusion and uncertainty about the future likely resonated with both what she had gone through in the past, and the story as a whole she was trying to tell on Midnights. And while the origin may or may not be personal or relevant to the new story she's going to tell, I also feel like these same kinds of themes are going to be present on TTPD because they're so important for her to share. (I could even mention that the response to BTTWS may even provide evidence that people sharing their experiences in general brings comfort to those going through it, but that may be veering too far into parasocial "why did Taylor do X" speculative territory.) She sings about these kinds of all-consuming losses so eloquently and mindfully that I know the new album is going to be an absolute gut punch.

(not being self-promotional but I delved a little deeper into the Midnights 3am tracks including this one a few months ago so it's why it's top of mind and why the connections and thematic parallels are so resonant to me lately.)

#sorry i tried to tread very carefully so i hope it still makes sense #i know we all kind of talk around this stuff so I was trying to do the same #while leaving room for interpretation and not getting stuck on the content! #i'm just talking about mood here etc #me thinking too hard about taylor lyrics #writing letters addressed to the fire #midnights #putting it under a cut may have been overkill on my part #but just trying to be mindful of people's dashboards etc #you're losing me #ylm #bttws #bigger than the whole sky #(bttws is a song i have thoughts on but not thoughts about its origin so much as its *metaphorical* (? idk) or perhaps narrative importance #(but it's hard to talk about it without the discussion turning into one about its origin) #(so this is my best attempt to do so) #just clarifying there is no speculation or discussion here just talk about themes #it’s not about the event it’s about the story being told in midnights

[ihavehyperfixationsanditshows]

MAIOR DO QUE TODO O CÉU

❝ Quando tudo acaba o que me faltam são as palavras

Pois como posso me atraver a descrever o luto que sinto por algo que sequer criou asas?

Rios de líquido salgado se escorrem pelos cantos dos meus olhos

Atravessam meus poros, caem em minha cama

Como se diz adeus para alguém que você ama?

Será que alguém dia irei te superar?

Irei conseguir olhar para aquele banco na praça sem imaginar você lá?

Será que algum dia me perdoarei por não ter tido coragem?

Coragem o suficiente para me confessar, coragem o suficiente para te amar

Te olhar nos olhos e deixar todas as palavras que gostaria de dizer desde que te conheci fluir

Mas eu nunca vou conseguir fazer isso, já é tarde, pois já te vi ir

O que eu não daria, agora, para te ter na minha porta

A chuva bate lá fora, o travão é forte o suficiente para tremer o mundo

Mas não o meu, pois o meu mundo era você

E agora nunca mais conseguirei te ver

Tudo o que posso dizer

É adeus

Adeus

Adeus

Adeus

Pois apesar de eu nunca ter te dito nada

Apesar de nunca ter me expressado

E me escondido atrás das grades de minha mente como uma réu

Você era maior do que todo o céu. ❞

━━━━ POEMA ORIGINAL.

#poema original #poemas #poema de amor #poesia #inspirado em taylor swift #bigger than the whole sky #bttws #taylor swift #original poem #original poetry #first poem #pt br #português brasileiro #brazilian portuguese #Spotify #inspired by taylor swift #fixed post #solely because it's the first poem that i'm actually pride of having written #and also to show that AQUI É BRASIL PORRA

[cinnamon-notes]

when taylor swift wrote i was ridin'–cryin'–dyin'–said goodbye in a getaway car and she basically told us that for her saying goodbye is worse than dying so literally saying goodbye is death by a thousand cuts. no wonder when she had to actually say goodbye she went all goodbye goodbye goodbye you were bigger than the whole sky

#txt #txt post #taylor swift #getaway car #bigger than the whole sky #bttws #dbatc #lyrics parallels #cinnamon analysis

[jyndor]

she did bigger than the whole sky in rio tonight. I couldn't stop crying hearing the performance. for ana, for all the pain and suffering in the world tbh because it's been a lot lately. frankly a lot always but idk, it's weighing on me more with each year.

to me its like the inverse of what my mom has said, that she didn't know how she could possibly have enough love for me and my little sister and then she had her and its like her hearts got bigger. idk how my heart has enough to it to keep breaking like this, over and over. that song resonates in so many ways and in this performance particularly.

#taylor swift #eras tour #the eras tour #bttws

[evermorre]

rivulets descend my plastic smile, salt streams out of my eyes and into my ears, now my eyes leak acid rain on the pillow. taylor is really feeding us girlies who cry constantly with poetic phrases to use to describe our experiences

#mbobhft #bttws #happiness #ttpd #i was never good at telling jokes

[liv45no]

Midnights 3AM Edition

Track 1: The Great War

Track 2: Bigger Than The Whole Sky

Track 3: Paris

Track 4: High Infidelity

Track 5: Glitch

Track 6: Dear Reader

Track 7: Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve

Track 8: Hits Different

#bonus tracksssss #hits different and would’ve could’ve should’ve are both my number 1 #taylor swift #taylor swift album #midnights taylor swift #midnights 3am edition #bonus tracks #the great war #bttws #bigger than the whole sky #paris #high infidelity #glitch #dear reader #would’ve could’ve should’ve #hits different #made by moi

[evermoredeluxe]

bigger than the whole sky is about mourning something you didn’t even fully get to have (but it still means more than the whole world to you), and that feeling is so distinct, and she put it into words so perfectly. that song means so much to me.

#that’s all im capable of saying about it #good night #bttws #arshia talks

[new-york-no-shoes]

I really truly didn’t think she would play this one live on tour PERIOD

#this is honestly so brave of her #she’s so choked up #taylor swift #the eras tour #eras tour #bttws

[please-picturemeintheweeds]

Bigger Than The Whole Sky is the 3AM feeling of mourning who you could’ve been 🫠

#bigger than the whole sky #bttws #midnights (3am edition) #Taylor swift

[ts-song-tournament]

Afterglow vs Bigger Than the Whole Sky

#taylor swift #afterglow #afterglow taylor swift #bigger than the whole sky #bttws #ts song tournament #polls #tournament #round one