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lithopsy · 2 years

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Controlling the Narrative: Analysis of Taylor Swift's "...Ready For It?"

I wrote a short personal essay about my time in the closet, the inherent queerness of Taylor Swift's Reputation, why I will defend the album to my last breath, and why I think that track one could be about bearding. (2,186 words)

Personal note: Throughout this essay and analysis, I use the word “queer” to describe members of the LGBT+ community for ease of language. While I, personally, am not entirely comfortable with the reclamation of this slur in all contexts, especially by people who are not members of the LGBT+ community, I have found no better alternative for this purpose. This serves as a disclaimer and a warning for those who are also uncomfortable with its use.

When Taylor Swift dropped her sixth studio album Reputation in 2017, I was a nineteen year old Baptist seminary student coming to terms with my identity as a lesbian. I made a lot of strong choices that year; I went no-contact with my childhood best friend, I secretly dated a woman who was five years older than me and lived in a different state, and I ultimately dropped out of seminary college over a winter break. I felt like an outcast and I had trouble relating to straight Christian girls while I was actively losing my religion.

After Taylor dropped Reputation, I felt less alone. All of the gossip and personal drama that surrounded this tumultuous time in my life started to feel much less like a personal failing and a lot more like a Reputation Era.

I leaned into it. I blasted I Did Something Bad in my car after arguing with a conservative professor, posted lyrics from Look What You Made Me Do to my Snapchat story where I knew my ex-friends would see it, and — though I wasn’t able to swing body guards carrying me out of my apartment in a suitcase — I became elusive on campus. Hiding in my dorm room, leaving home, and losing friends all while listening to Reputation, I was able to come to terms with the idea that being my most authentic self might cause some people to dislike me.

Because of this, Reputation has always been a queer album to me. It’s always been about building a life that you’re proud of despite hatred and judgement from people on the outside. It’s always been about telling lies and crafting narrative for the sake of one’s personal safety. It’s always been about secret, and often forbidden, love. Whether or not Taylor herself is queer (and I personally believe that she could be), she understands the experience of hiding her ‘true’ self and she understands the danger of being authentic in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I’m turning twenty-four this week and I am out to my friends and family. I am happy and surrounded by a bright community of people who I don’t have to lie to. Being that I am no longer Baptist and quite comfortable in my lesbian identity, one of the few things that connects twenty-four-year-old me to nineteen-year-old me (and thirteen-year-old me and sixteen-year-old me, etc. I am a life-long swiftie) is my love for Taylor Swift's music.

Out of excitement for Taylor’s tenth(!!) studio album Midnights, I’ve been listening to her music pretty constantly over the past month. And, due to a rise in #gaylor-ism online, I have been revisiting her old lyrics with a fine-toothed comb and a queer perspective.

To be fair, I did a bit of this when Reputation came out. Posting something to the effect of “dress is the gayest song on rep” to my close friends Snapchat story during release week. But my current life experience and knowledge of LGBT history and culture deepens my readings much further now.

To start, many of her love songs — even songs from her country eras, though these are sometimes overlooked by queer fans who prefer her pop — are gender-neutral. She uses the pronoun “you”, speaking directly to her love interest, more than any other pronoun. While this stands as evidence of queerness alone to some gaylors, it is, at the very least, a happy coincidence for swifties who don’t date men.

What I’ve become most obsessed with, though, lately, are the songs in which she switches between “you” and “he” or “him” throughout. I wondered if, as an experiment in lyrical-analysis, I could extrapolate some deeper meaning by imagining that these two sets of pronouns delineate between two muses. Track one on my beloved Reputation, “…Ready For It?” is a perfect specimen for this and is the subject of my experiment for the end of this essay.

Before I begin the analysis, a disclaimer. LGBT people who read their own experiences into Taylor’s work get a lot of guff online for doing so. Often, gaylors are criticized for “outing her” or “speculating about her sexuality” or “assigning labels to her”. So, before anyone gets mad, I am not doing that. At the end of the day, I don’t think Taylor Swift’s real life sexuality has anything to do with the experiment I’m about to do. You don’t have to know who any of her songs are about to relate to them. It is also my personal belief that alternate readings of texts are valuable, even if there is no objective truth to them.

For my purposes, though, I’m not going to name names or speculate about who I think these disparate muses are, and I am not going to tie anything to specific events in Taylor’s life. I don’t know her like that and I think it only complicates analysis here.

(However, in this vein, Taylor Swift is a multi-million dollar brand and I am not not doing these things out of some desire to protect her honor or maintain any parasocial relationship with her. Most of the time, speculation about her on the internet is harmless and serves as free publicity to her. People who shame gaylors for “speculating about her sexuality” are usually doing so because of an internal homophobic rejection to the idea of her being queer. I’m neutral to a little harmless speculation, when it comes to Taylor Swift.)

[Verse 1]

Knew he was a killer first time that I saw him Wonder how many girls he had loved and left haunted But if he’s a ghost, then I can be a phantom Holdin’ him for ransom Some, some boys are tryin’ too hard He don’t try at all, though Younger than my exes but he act like such a man, so I see nothing better, I keep him forever Like a vendetta-ta

What’s interesting to me about this description of The Man (capitalized because I’m using The Man in place of a name, not to be confused with “The Man”, track 4 on Taylor’s album “Lover”) in this song is that it has nothing to with him on a personal level or how he treats her as a partner. It lacks the intimate descriptions of the relationship or individual’s characteristics that are present in most of her earlier love songs. She’s singing in a fast-paced lower register (we’ll come back to this) about how this man appears to other people. He’s a heartbreaker, he’s effortlessly cool, he’s independent and ideal.

Showing my hand, I want to analyze this song as if the relationship with The Man is a fake, public relationship formulated in order to hide some part(s) of Taylor’s true self and the relationship with The Listener (“you”) is a real, yet secret relationship. I think that this is, at least in some form, an intentional choice made in the song. Whether the listener and the man are the same person is up to interpretation, though. While I personally am going to be making the argument for the song being about bearding, I think it’s possible that the same separation could exist within a relationship between Taylor and one man with whom she has a clearly delineated private and public relationship with. (I’m not going to pander to this point because it’s probably been done, but I think that this is a valid reading.)

[Pre-chorus]

I-I-I see how this is gonna go Touch me and you’ll never be alone I-Island breeze and lights down low No one has to know

I think the pre-chorus reads as a general statement and could be said to both The Man and The Listener interchangeably.

The line, “Touch me and you’ll never be alone” could speak either to her own loyalty in a private relationship or a material benefit of being publicly affiliated with a woman as powerful as her.

“No one has to know” speaks to the private nature of either relationship, that there is some planned duality or arrangement with The Man or a secret relationship with the listener.

[Chorus]

In the middle of the night, in my dreams You should see the things we do, baby In the middle of the night, in my dreams I know I’m gonna be with you So I’ll take my time Are you ready for it?

The chorus is the first full pronoun switch, Taylor begins speaking directly to The Listener while singing at a higher register than the rest of the song. The delineation between each set of pronouns is accented by the production as well as the architecture of the song itself. The chorus is the most important part of any pop song, it’s also where she’s carefully placed her secret love.

The lines, “In the middle of the night, in my dreams/You should see the things we do, baby” speak to a private relationship that, for whatever reason, isn’t possible within her current circumstances.

In footage of the songwriting process, Taylor sings the original lyric, “In the middle of the night, in my dreams/That’s when I get to be with you, it’s so sweet”, which isn’t entirely relevant to analysis about the finished song but, I think, lends credence to the idea that this muse is an unattainable other relationship, different from the one referenced in the verses.

“I know I’m gonna be with you/So I’ll take my time” reads, to me, like Taylor is reminiscing on a past relationship with The Listener that was tumultuous and full of uncertainty. When she fantasizes about being with this person, she fantasizes about stability and asks them at the end, “Are you ready for it?”

Are you ready to commit to this, should I change my plans?

[Verse 2]

Knew I was a robber first time that he saw me Stealing hearts and running off and never saying sorry But if I’m a thief, then he can join the heist And we’ll move to an island, and And he can be my jailer, Burton to this Taylor Every lover known in comparison is a failure I forget their names now, I’m so very tame now Never be the same now, now

This verse, in comparison with verse 1 places Taylor and The Man on equal footing, positions them both as killers and thieves, pulling something over on everyone else. I personally think that this is euphemistic language to describe that there is something fundamental about Taylor that she shares with The Man, she recognizes him as like her and he recognizes the same in her. Possibly, they are both gay, possibly they have some similar experience in the industry or shared feelings about fame.

With all of Taylor’s references in this era to her fame and success being a gilded cage, “And he can be my jailer” raises red flags to me. The Man being someone who keeps her inside the cage aligns very well with the narrative of a fake public relationship that hides her sexuality and keeps the status quo.

“Burton to this Taylor” references the volatile public relationship between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who met on set of the film Cleopatra in 1963. The couple was married and divorced in 1964 before getting back together for just ten months in 1975. The relationship was a messy public spectacle and the reference in this song alludes to all of it: the acting, infidelity, and public drama included. The imagery is incongruent with the tender love song to The Listener of the chorus, but, in my opinion, this line is the most damning evidence of the idea of bearding in this song. Paired with the “jailer” comment, it fits perfectly the narrative of the spectacular public relationship between two actors. The relationship isn’t successful or ideal, it’s a distraction.

I think “I forget their names now, I’m so very tame now” references another frequent theme in Taylor’s work: a rejection of her ‘crazy’, ‘promiscuous’ image. She’s forgotten the names of all of her exes and we should, too. And while the Reputation era is anything but “tame”, she’s going to change the narrative that surrounds her dating life.

[Refrain]

Baby, let the games begin Let the games begin Let the games begin (now) Baby, let the games begin Let the games begin Let the games begin … Are you ready for it?

It’s the opening song of an album that is about her Reputation in the media. She is playing with the media, controlling her own narrative. “Let the games begin” walked so that “Every bait and switch was a work of art” (willow, evermore) could run.

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redlippedandfearless · 2 years

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#taylor swift #taylornation #swifties #taylurking #easter eggs #midnights #midnights era #ts10 #midnight theories #ts10 theories #reputation taylor’s version #speak now taylor’s version #lwymmd music video #karma #fate #may #mastermind

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nowihatemyself · 2 years

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i can’t find that interview where she said lwymmd was about realizing someone you care about isn’t who you thought they were

#if anyone sees this and cares about helping me find it i will love you forever.#no pressure though. i’m just desperate to find the source because i know she said it #it’s just proof of my ‘lwymmd is a breakup song’ theory.#the illicit affairs parallels are sooooo right to me

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sweetqueerinthesummer · 7 months

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Taylor Swift and the closet

The closet is one of the most widely known parts of queer culture, and Taylor has been investing it for so long in her art, so I wanted to draw up a list of the way she has been using it, trying to be as exhaustive as possible, so here is everything I noticed:

I Know Places performance

On the 1989 world tour, for the I Know Places performance, which is probably one of the queerest songs by itself on 1989 and one of the first songs in which Taylor talks about a secret relationship, Taylor decides to perform the song surrounded by closet doors behind which she hides, to avoid the media and protect her relationship.

Look What You Made Me Do (part 1: the music video)

In the Look What You Made Me Do music video, Taylor presents herself as locked up, again. She is in a golden cage that reminds us a lot of the visuals from I Know Places on the 1989 world tour (the cages were swinging in the visuals, and she is even on a swing in the music video). She is dressed in a full orange outfit, which is speculated to be the color of Karma, an album that would’ve been released in 2016 had everything with the West/Kardashian family not happened. It is interesting because it will not be the last time this imagery can also be linked to things that happened in her career against her will, but also because we sometime think of Karma as an album where she could have been more free (gay) than in reputation (this should be taken with a whole spoon of salt, the existence of Karma is, to my knowledge, far from proved, and its content is completely unknown, it’s just a theory).

Ready For It music video

Ready For It, as well as its music video, would deserve a dedicated post seeing how interesting it is in terms of closeting and how it lightens reputation as an album and a lot of what comes after. But I'm just going to say that:

Here, on the left, the robot naked locked up Taylor is her true self and on the right is her closeted public persona.

This is, to my knowledge, the first time Taylor uses the imagery of the glass closet, in the music video of a song about bearding (if you don't know what I mean, go see the difference between the way Taylor describes “he” in the verses and “you” in the chorus). The music video seems to confirm that the song is about the difference between her public persona (and relationship) and her private one, instead of being a love story (no love interest can be seen in the music video), and it ends with the closeted Taylor being free, and the public persona being destroyed...

So It Goes

"Gold cage, hostage to my feelings" She is trapped in a gold cage (like in the LWYMMD music video), because of her feelings that keep her imprisonned... if that doesn't sound like the closet, I don't know what does honestly.

The Lover era

The closet imagery is almost completely absent from the Lover Era, which fits the timeline: it's the era during which she was supposed to come out.

The only appearance I noticed is in the Lover music video, where her closet is full of yellow clothes, which is mainly significant in the fact that yellow seems to be the color Taylor uses to symbolize closeting now.

seven

seven is often interpreted (by gaylors) to be about a young gay love ("your braids like a pattern love you to the Moon and to Saturn"). In that regard, the lyrics "I think you should come live with / Me and we can be pirates / Then you won't have to cry / Or hide in the closet" can be understood as a proposition to run away and go live somewhere they could live their love freely.

willow music video

In the willow music video, this moment is incredibly significant

Child Taylor goes through the door and emerges as an adult in a glass closet. There, she immediately knows that she is supposed to start singing, and then, when she tries to join her lover on the other side of the glass, she can't leave and she is stuck in it… I believe that it speaks for itself.

cowboy like me

"And the skeletons in both our closets / Plotted hard to mess this up"

In a song about feeling connection to someone because you recognize them as a part of your group that break the rules ("bandit"), the mention of the closet as something that keeps you from being with them is interesting, I would say.

Look What You Made Me Do part 2: the Eras Tour Performance

Since the beginning of the Eras Tour, the closet/glass closet/imprisonnement imagery is more present than ever, both in the concerts and in the music videos she put out since then.

In the Look What You Made Me Do performance, the imprisonment of Taylor's old selves (in glass closets) is understood widely to be a metaphor of her stolen masters, and it probably is in part her intention. There could be more than one meaning to that idea, even in Taylor's mind and one does not contradict the other. But here specifically, it seems to be confirmed that Taylor didn’t (only) think of that while imagining these visuals, since every single one of her album is present including the ones she has owned since they were released (Lover, folklore, evermore, Midnights):

(I don't have enough images left but some of the dancers are in Lover and folklore outfits too)

Lavender Haze visuals

Several times, in the visuals of the tour during the performance of Lavender Haze, Taylor is very clearly in a closet:

Lavender Haze can also be interpreted as being about bearding, that much can be analyzed both from the lyrics and the music video. During the performance (you can check in this video) those visuals appear when she says "no deal the 1950 shit they want from me" and disappear with "i just wanna stay in that lavender haze", I wonder if the closet might be the 1950's shit she doesn't want anymore...

Karma music video

In the Karma music video, there is no reference to a closet per se but Taylor is once again kept locked up, in an hourglass and a light bulb, this time. I don't know if it is significant in a particular way, except that the hourglass appears the first time she says "Karma is my boyfriend" which could mean that it's not going to be her boyfriend for long maybe? I noticed this one without any particular interpretation to be honest, but I didn’t want not to put it here, just in case...

As for the bulbs, they end up exploding...

I Can See You music video

Last but not least since there are two references to the closet in the music video for I Can See You, but first, a few things:

The music video is obviously about her taking back her masters, there is no doubt about that, it is very explicit and it would be stupid of me to try and say that it’s not. But as I said in the part about the Look What You Made Me Do performance, some things can have more than one meaning, and just because there is an obvious way to understand this specific piece of art doesn’t mean that it’s the only one.

Second, here we’ll need to point out that before and/or during the Speak Now era, she dated very publicly Taylor Lautner, who features in the video. Gaylors also believe that she dated Liz Huett, her backing vocalist on the Speak Now tour.

Now, in the music video, we see three people rescuing Taylor from the vault in which she is kept. A woman (Presley Cash) stays in a van, while Joey King joins Taylor Lautner to save Taylor. What is interesting is that the only character that is not, at any point, linked to the lyrics is the man (potential beard). Presley Cash’s character is, more than once, either saying or illustrating the lyrics: “I've been watching you for ages” (she’s always looking inside Taylor’s vault even though it’s not really relevant to what’s happening), she even says “I can see you” at the end. As for Joey King, she is the one keeping quiet when Lautner is loud, she throws her jacket on the floor, and she is quite literally “up against the wall” when she opens the vault… She is the only character linked to the muse for the whole video, and she is the one opening the vault (closet?) for her.

Adding to that, Taylor’s old selves (in this situation, her outfits of the era) are kept in… glass closets, that explode at the end. The thing is, if we follow the (Lover era) failed coming out theory, the way her masters were stolen may have been the reason she didn't come out at the time, so, could it be that Taylor feels like her stolen masters are what keep her from being fully out?

#this post is waaay too long #and i didn't even talk about the archer or evermore or dear reader #gaylor #friends of dorothea #lgbetty #taylor swift #i know places #look what you made me do #ready for it #so it goes #lover #seven #willow #cowboy like me #eras tour #karma #i can see you

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indeliblescarspivotalmarks · 9 months

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THE 112 DAYS THEORY FOR RE-RECORDS

This is a theory that states Taylor is releasing her rerecords in a 112 day pattern. This is simply a theory, I have no knowledge from Taylor or her team, I’m just a delulu swiftie trying to figure things out and use Easter eggs to understand the mastermind behind it all🤍 This is a theory from TikTok user NikkiKing23, I’ve added some of my own embellishments in here too🤍

Number Significance

112 songs stolen by Big Machine Records (not including versions of the same song (Bad Blood ft Kendrick Lamar and Thug Story are both official songs that are counted as they were released)

112 days between start of The Eras Tour (3/17) and Speak Now TV release (7/7)

112 days between Speak Now TV release and 1989 TV release (10/27)

1+12= 13!

The Midnight’s vinyls made a clock. Clocks read 1-12! Taylor made a video saying “It’s a clock. It tells time.” Perhaps it is telling the times of the re-records dropping.

Taylor’s eyeshadow in each piece of the vinyl clock is a colour of the remaining stolen albums (in chronological order)

We know Taylor uses her makeup to foreshadow albums - for example the Bejewelled makeup look where she represents each of her albums in a coloured area of eyeshadow

The Eras Tour clock begins at 02:24 (122 x 2 = 224)

2 rerecords have been announced during this leg

There was 224 days between FearlessTV (April 9th 2021) and the ORIGINAL intended date of RedTV (November 19th 2021) - Taylor however moved RedTV forward by a week to Nov12th (my bday lol)

There was 336 days (112 x 3) between RedTV’s OG intended date Nov19th to Midnights release date October 21st 2022

Possible Hinduism reference to Karma (more info in this post!!)

Following the 112 days pattern

Reputation would drop February 16th

Taylor is in Melbourne on this date & it’s a Friday

There have been MULTIPLE strong indicators of reputation coming in February, including the coffee cup nail, the waving devils hand, the consistent use of 2 items in backgrounds of scenes (post coming soon!)

And Debut would drop June 7th

Taylor is in Edinburgh on this date & it’s a Friday

It is also Night One of her UK tour

This agrees with the Karma MV easter eggs as well as timing easter eggs (post coming soon too!)

If Taylor was to reclaim her albums in this way she would technically release one in each continental leg in her tour

Speak Now TV during North American

1989 TV during South American

Reputation during Australasian

Taylor Swift during European

“THE MAN WALL” & KARMA LINK

This theory agrees that the “The Man” wall is being used in an infinity sign. Taylor has worn quite a lot of infinity sign jewellery over the rerecords process. The Coney Island bridge theory also works here too.

This proposes Reputation is next and then Debut.

Karma is in the middle of this wall at the centre of the infinity sign. Karma is an infinite cycle of death and rebirth.

Taylor has used lots of imagery in this idea, with the snake eating itself in the LWYMMD lyric video and in the ME! music video, the snake bursts into butterflies (aka is reborn into butterflies, showing freedom).

In the rerecording process, Taylor has to kill off her old albums, denying them streaming potential, but gives rebirth to them under her own name.

Karma is essential to both Buddhist and Hindu teachings.

In Hinduism there are 112 ways to break out of the cycle of Karma and reach a state of eternal bliss & freedom (this is called Moksha).

Moksha is often represented by a bird breaking free of a cage.

Taylor has used the imagery of being stuck in a birdcage in LWYMMD.

Orange is the colour that means purity in Hinduism.

Taylor often depicts Karma as being orange (“The Man” wall, supposed “lost album colour”)

She wears an orange jumpsuit whilst stuck in the birdcage.

Once Taylor has released all of her albums, and broken free of the cycle of Karma, she’s free to do as she wishes to and there will be nothing holding her back after 5yrs of her masters being held. She’ll have reached the eternal bliss and freedom she wishes for.

OG theory trom Nikki King, added and embellished by myself!

TikTok link:

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tolerateit · 3 months

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lwymmd video dropping on 24th (2*4) and her changing her pfp on 4/02 (4*2) 8 theory you will always be famous

#meg talks

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shealmostdrowned · 1 month

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because i'm grumpy today i'm gonna cause problems on the dash

what annoys the shit out of me with the constant "drop reputation!" "rep is coming!!" "clown clown clown for reputation surprise drop" is that it's taking attention away from literally everything else.

we're about to get extra professionally filmed surprise songs and no one cares. "i hope she announces rep IN THE MOVIE with a graphic or something" shut up

we're about to get a whole brand new album and still the focus is on yelling for reputation

the "debutation" theories and shit as though debut doesn't deserve her own spotlight for one fucking moment

the sheer fact that SO MANY of the people obsessively calling for reputation only view it through the girl-bossified lwymmd lense and don't see the vulnerability underneath and understand that taylor really thought this was it for her

does reputation deserve love? obviously. that's not ever what i'm arguing against. i'm just still still still not over the crowd chanting for a reputation surprise drop during surprise songs after we'd only just been given 1989

am i taking it way too seriously. yes, mist likely. am i going to yell about it anyway? yea.

they act like they're entitled to it right now when they want it immediately instead of seeing the release schedule laid out and being a little patient and appreciative of the insane amount of new art we already have over the last 4 years.

folklore, evermore, fearless tv, red tv, tour, speak now tv, 1989 tv, a tour movie, and ttpd but still there's a constant (and i do meant constant) demand for reputation.

it's about the content flow and not about the art or music or even taylor. it's the content and it makes me want to throw my phone in the ocean

#i just might

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bettyshoweduptotheparty · 11 days

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Reputation to Midnights and Final TPD Predictions

With 4 days until the Tortured Poets Department and two lines of lyrics we have so far, here are my thoughts on how we got here over the last 5 albums and final predictions for what's coming on Friday:

2016 changed the game - reputation era and long-term bearding

Many people might disagree, but I think the year 2016 changed a lot of things for Taylor. Without going into detail about snakegate, a possible failed coming out and scrapped album and the presidential election, her music has had a different tone ever since reputation (and I don't just mean sonically). As someone who writes a lot about love and relationships, the way she was writing about them changed from fairy tale love, pining and heartbreak to forever/long-term love, commitment/endame, 'us against the world' sort of love. And I do think she wanted to put that album out in 2016 but can't really do that when you're newly single and writing about wanting forever with someone... so in came Joe Alwyn who became the free pass for writing songs about long-term relationships, marriage and kids for the next six years. But LWYMMD (the song and the mv) made it pretty clear that this was not her first choice. Whatever happened, she had her agency taken from her, and she was mad about it. She may have made one hell of a comeback, but rep Taylor was on a revenge mission, and she has been ever since. Now, add to that the very same people foiled her coming out (possibly) a second time in 2019, I can well imagine the tortured poet that Taylor became during the pandemic with all that built up anger and misery pouring out into the folklore and evermore albums. And my guess is that with the plan to re-record the first 6 albums came an idea of how she could possibly get her revenge after all, which brings us to Midnights and TPD.

Midnights and Tortured Poets Department - Reflection and melancholia

Midnights had a similar tone to me than what we have seen of TPD so far: introspective, sombre and looking back on happier times and missed opportunities (hence the whole '13 nights throughout my life' concept). There is a lot of wondering about what ifs and regrets and always with a sense of vengeance in the background, which shows how Taylor clearly holds a grudge and has a hard time letting things go that have hurt her. And this continues in the two lines we have seen from TPD so far. The 'full eclipse' gives me love blackout vibes and this line

is so similar to many folkmore and Midnights songs where she talks about not being able to move on from a traumatic event (failed coming out *cough cough*). So, this album clearly continues the theme of reflection, regrets and vengeance, but with an additional touch of reckoning or impending judgment. I've seen some people say it seems like Taylor is putting someone (else or herself) on trial, and both the evidence file esthetics and the legal language she has been using in the hidden words puzzle on Apple Music have been feeding that theory:

She told us back in February she'd be entering all of her defenses and her muses into evidence, so is she the one being trialed and we are the jury? Or is she presenting evidence in her defense and accusing someone else? I initially thought the former, but now I'm thinking it could be either or both.

The songs will tell the story of the most painful times of her life and we will be able to decide if she chose her suffering or if the context/industry is to blame. My favourite swifties pointed out this morning that the ‘un-recall’ lyric is a parallel to CIWYW “I recall late November”. So what is she trying to forget? The 2016 election. The start of the love blackout. Much like the ‘full eclipse’ lyric. They almost had it all but then her plans got foiled and Tr*mp was elected which forced them underground. And where did she run off to? London. And what’s track 5 called? So long, London…

So, a lot of this album so far gives 2016 vibes. And I’ve said in a previous post (here) that the visuals seem very rep-inverted. Black vs white and the half yin-yang ☯️ in the logo. It’s looking likely that this is going to be the reflection on that time where her vendetta originated before she goes for revenge. And I’m not trying to clown but the rep parallels haven’t stopped:

This QR code mural in Chicago is very rep-cover coded and leads to a website that has the same 321 error message as the TS website the night of the Grammys. The message then was red herring. And not to sound too crazy, but I've said from the start that something feels off with this album. The absence of proper promo or merch is still weird. And would an entire album as a red herring be too crazy? Probably. But is she a crazy woman? Definitely! 😉

#tortured poets department #tpd #reputation #midnights #final thoughts and predictions

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treacherous · 9 months

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rep tv suprise drop theory?

a quick clown theory on something happening with rep tv for tonight's show! I'm just having fun with this and was mostly prompted by this TikTok I saw earlier today hfdhsf

for the most part I'm basing it on the 2 episodes of midnights mayhem where she held the phone upside down - Vigilante Shit for track 8 and Anti-Hero for track 3 - both pointing to something happening today 8/3 with the first LA show and maaaaybe a ref to "the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now" from lwymmd

for the rerecording release order it's fun thinking about the end of the I can see you video bc while they're driving towards the 1989 sign, they're Also already in the getaway car (tm)

also the caption she had from the Santa Clara tour post had a word towards the end with 6 o's which could be a hint about rep tv or her just being in a silly goofy mood hfdhsf

and if she did something related to rep tv at tour it wouldn't be too out of the way for it to be a a surprise album drop bc "there will be no explanation, there will just be reputation" 👀

this is all just fun clowning but I saw this info once and now I can't stop thinking about the Possibilities hfdhsfh

#asks #anon

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taintedcigs · 6 months

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wait i don't know about the karma theories oh no do i have to do a deep dive 'cause I WILL

OMFGGGG PLS DOO!! there is a video on youtube and lots of theories online (i hate to link a buzzfeed article but i couldn’t find any other masterpost sighhh)

but basically some swifties (me) believed that there was a lost album between 1989 and reputation, called karma!!! (the easter eggs, bleachella era, and lwymmd MV is our main source for this LMAO) and now my delusional ass thinks taylor will do a double album release with karma and reputation (never happening but shhh i can dream right??😭)

#em’s mail💌

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taylortruther · 5 months

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I learned about the cash falling out the back like a year ago and now I’m seriously subscribed to the idea that she’s “carrying big machine”. Gosh the layers in LWYMMD. It haunts me how much is in there we will never understand.

she said that the motorcycle scene was supposed to represent a "getaway" scene, post-heist in the vault, so it makes sense the cash is there! but i just never noticed it before. i hadn't heard the "carrying big machine" theory before

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chosetherose · 11 months

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So I could be wrong, and I don't know if it's relevant or not. But the golden Taylor with the scales looks to be wearing the dress she wore to the 2018 BBMAs, just with some of the embellishments removed. (And obviously turned gold through visual effects.) The last time she rewore a gown like this was her Met Gala gown in LWYMMD, so I'm wondering if it means something.

The dress was worn May 2018 and in July Karlie announced her engagement. It's just interesting to me that Taylor depicts herself losing her balance here, falling off her pedestal and upsetting the scales of justice, and then it cuts to "the people you burned to get here" and it's Taylor in Karlie's Met Gala dress, wearing a devil mask. (Representing the role Karlie has had to play.) It seems pretty clear what she's saying.

Hmm. They look similar but maybe not identical? Interesting theory all around though.

#CTRask

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taylorswiftstylequestions · 5 months

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Re innocent to rep clowning— going along with the similar subject matter, it’s also because the backing vocals in the bridge of Innocent (the ah! ah! ah! vocals) are very similar to those in the LWYMMD bridge to the point that it’s been reported that LWYMMD samples Innocent, although I’m not sure if that’s ever actually been confirmed or if the similarity is even deliberate

Going to be honest it's somehow the year of our lord 2023 and this is the first time I'm hearing this theory.

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asteracaea · 9 months

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I live this video. Her easter egg game is next level.

https://youtu.be/O3YGh73XQU8

Antis always comes for us, but we literally pay attention to her easter egg flagging.

youtube

oh my thoughts and feelings about her easter eggs!! lol let me organize my words (still fighting this sinus infection and hopped up on decongestants again)

the general fandom seems to perform advanced calculus and astronomy in the search for her easter eggs, and it seems like they're always trying to figure out future release dates or announcements. i just find that tiresome because the theories and predictions are almost always wrong so i've just come to a place of patience, like we'll get what we get when we get it and getting myself all excited only to be disappointed is an unnecessary emotional rollercoaster.

also, the real easter eggs she puts into her work are actually.... really simple and obvious lmao

like the lover title in the ME! mv or the countless speak now references in bejeweled.

as we've seen, there are deeper things that we just cannot know until later when she tells us about them, like the entire lwymmd mv. we had no idea about the masters situation and the sb/contract dramas. we didn't know she was about to leave bmr or have her masters sold to a scum bag. the thief/vault/betrayal motifs went over our heads (or were all applied to other things like the kimye/cancelling debacle) until she told us about that. in that interview, she even told us that a lot of things won't be revealed for decades 😵‍💫

because of this (the just unable to know what it means until she tells us what it means) i don't put too much brain power into trying to decipher the tons and tons of inexplicable details in her music videos.

HOWEVER

what is so astonishing to me about her work, music and visual, is her true easter eggs - the layers and layers and layers of queer flagging.

with every new release, she puts more and more and more references to queer culture and lgbtq+ experiences into her work. and people JUST DONT SEE IT!! they either don't get it or don't want to, but it is truly astonishing how she is able to hide in plain sight and be the loudest woman this town has ever seen and scream so loud but no one hears a thing!! it almost feels like she is just trying to see how much she can get away with at this point without, like, making out with a woman for three minutes in a mv. (and if she did, i bet the antis would find a way to deny even that lol)

and if you hadn't noticed, this is a kaylor blog, and it blows my mind even more how she references karlie is some way almost every time she does anything, and even fewer people see that.

so yes, she is a mastermind, an illusionist, a king of easter eggs, more than most people even realize !

#i wrote so much and tumblr condensed it all!#there's an essay under that View Post button for you anon

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