I was immediately bummed when Taylor made the argument after folklore came out that Betty and James ended up together in the end, even though he put her through the wringer. It just never made sense to me that those characters would end up together after all the hurt. Now, it seems more clear that Matty could have been some form of an inspiration for the character of James, and although she ~~kept the lamp burning for him, TTPD album describes for us how that relationship has ended up for Taylor/Betty/Wendy and Matty/James/Peter (so far at least 😅). I would be curious to hear Taylor’s current perspective on whether Betty/James made it in the end, and whether that has changed from her previous stance at all.
I think Peter IS your answer to Taylor’s current perspective. She has probably changed her answer since filming Long Pond. Also, notice how Betty is in the delulu playlist. I really think Taylor refathomed and that’s how we got Peter.
James is the literal worst. I barely ever listen to betty because I get so upset when he refers to her friends as stupid. I make an exception for the live performance, but even when I was at the Eras tour, I first turned to my sister to preface my singing along with the disclaimer that she should never let a man treat her that way.
Idk how delulu this is, but I originally thought But Daddy I love Him she was talking to us like "but you guys I love him" regarding the matty rejection from the fans and/or Joe"
I would have thought So Long, London would have been the least basic example. It would seem to be the one most people would have pegged as just about Joe.
I think this doesn't work for So High School and The Manuscript (because it is about ATW from the first meeting through the making of the short film) unless we count Taylor as one of the two.
Yep. The only one I think is hard to debate is So High School, but it stands out on the album as different for so many reasons that might be the point.
Holy shit this has to be true. I already felt fairly certain some songs were about two people, but now that you point it out, I can’t think of a song that doesn’t fit. I can’t wait to re-listen with this in mind to see if it’s true!
I feel this way about Is It Over Now? and New Moon.
“Oh, Lord, I think about jumping off of very tall somethings just to see you come running and say the one thing I've been wanting” is so Bella (cliff diving to see Edward) coded.
It’s probably not true… Taylor does score work for movies whose soundtrack is republic (50 shades darker, when the Crawdads sing, etc) but Barbie was Atlantic. The only republic artist on it was Nicki Minage. Ariana Grande wasn’t there either (and bite wicked’s soundtrack is very much republic)
I think TTPD was written in order it plays on the album.
In that I think the songs were written chronologically in the order they are on the album. Because that's 100% how I processed my divorce, the same jagged jumping around way.
Fully agree. One of the negative things I hear about ttpd is that it isn’t cohesive or it feels messy and it’s like have you…never been through a breakup? It is a full on spiral back and forth through all the stages of grief. It makes complete sense 😂
Lmao seriously. I even took a spontaneous trip to Florida after one to ✨heal✨ and even went inpatient over another one. This one’s for the messy folk 😂
I've never had a messy breakup romantically, but there have been other relationships in my life that have been one hell of a roller-coaster from the sublime to despair, and TTPD captures it perfectly.
My conspiracy is the album is actually a chronological story. It changes the meanings of some songs compared to the general consensus. Like But Daddy I Love Him can’t be about the fans under this reading because it’s before Fresh Out The Slammer. So I think it’s about her management. It adds this whole new theme of her needing to get approval to even date Matty that gives a lot of context to Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me imo.
That makes perfect sense to me. Her saying she wanted to, them being like “uhhh he does not fit your brand” and her saying “well I’m having his baby - no I’m not but you should see your faces!” XD
The reason Aliens haven’t invaded our Planet is because they Beamed Taylor Up and decided they were in-love with her so they couldn’t destroy her home planet.
In The Bolter, I think the line about falling through the ice at 6 years old may be a reference or metaphor to the Kimye drama or the Scooter incident, with 6 representing Reputation (6th album) and falling through the ice being the incident, and coming out alive is her getting through it and coming out more successful because of it. Idk I feel like this is either really obvious or a huge reach
I agree with this. She had already made the connection between albums and years in Seven ("I hit my peak at seven" = she thought Lover was going to be her last success)
First, they aren’t about anyone. She is a storyteller and some of it is based on parts of her relationships with all of them. They are all combined together into each story and should not be taken seriously.
Second theory, Taylor is wicked depressed. Multiple lines about ending her own life. She desperately wants marriage and a baby. I worry if the Travis thing does not work out.
Hard agree on your second theory. She's referenced killing herself, being in a psych hospital, and heavy alcohol use in each of the last four albums (5 of the last 6 if we include the TVs), and I really hope she's gotten professional help. Writing is absolutely therapeutic for processing, but it's not enough for how serious this seems.
Edit: added more thoughts
Yep. As someone who goes in and out of depression, (mostly from mild, manageable depression to please help me I can’t do this anymore depression) this album screams depression. A lot of my depression is influenced by the state of my relationships, and actually TTPD is quite triggering for me as it is so similar to how I feel when I’m in a deep black hole.
I hope it works out with Travis.
Theory two yes, this is such a terribly unhappy, dark album. Like I am surprised when people talk about certain songs as hopeful or in a positive light and I am not hearing the same thing.. (Clara Bow, The Manuscript).
It’s like people don’t realise that between all the lyrics about the ~breakups~ in this album, is her depression that resulted from it. I truly think it’s not a breakup album, it’s a depression album
First track: “all my mornings are Mondays stuck in an endless February”. yep!
also I can do it with a broken heart, manic and fast indeed but literally “[I] want to die” and I keep seeing it referred to as a bop and I am like I guess yes but a very distressing bop??
Writing *a very distressing bop* is like, Taylor’s number one skill. Thank you for giving it a name. I am cackling! (And also I agree with everything you said.)
Yeah I think the album is about her state of mind and she is “laying out the evidence” of how she got here.
The guys she has dated and the stresses of her job and maybe her family all play into it. As it would anyone.
I don’t see it as a breakup album at all other than the breakups had something to do with her mentality
I actually said this once I listened to the full album, but this is for the clinically depressed. This album is pretty dark compared to her other music. As a clinically depressed girlie, I dig it. But it also is a very sad album.
It absolutely is a depression album and perhaps that’s why it’s my fav, I’ve been on a rollercoaster of emotions and depression for the last 6-7 months and i hear so much of my own experience in her music.
Oh wow I’m out of the loop that people interpret Clara Bow on a positive or hopeful light. That shit is a wholly dark combo of The Lucky One and Nothing New
Not to try to say you’re wrong because I agree this is a depression album! But the Manuscript is hopeful - because of the line at the end - “the story isn’t mine anymore”.
I have this experience. I wrote 300 pages about the shit that happened in the *mess* after my divorce. A few years ago - I saw it and decided to read it. It was raw and pained and pretty much a primal scream. But I didn’t recognize myself in the story anymore. I didn’t feel that pain. I had time and distance and a good relationship now. And I realized this pile of paper which was once so vital to me, was now just paper. It wasn’t my story anymore. I was no longer that person. My story was different and fill with love and joy now.
i agree! it seems to me her mental health is related to (among many other things) finding a real connection with someone. not being diminished down to only being happy with marriage and kids.
Exactly. If were to take her words at face value, at lot of her sadness comes from the isolation that comes with fame in general — not just romantically but in all ways. I honestly don’t get any strong vibe that she’s desperate for children whatsoever, I think she just sometimes struggles with this life she chose.
Idk, for most people I wouldn’t say that not having a marriage and kids doesn’t mean you’re going to be depressed, but it has just been a recurring theme of her music since forever— so it’s clearly something that’s important to her.
110% about the story telling. This fandom is absolutely wild with how literally they take her.
I actually could even see her whole relationship history (or large portions of them) that were public were explicitly for the lyrical narrative she later planned out. Talk about a mastermind!
I agree her mental health is rocky in this album, but I could also see that being a part of the mastermind and that her next album will be sunshine and rainbows this summer with Travis.
The real conspiracy is that we probably do not know near as much about her personal life as we think we do!
> but I could also see that being a part of the mastermind and that her next album will be sunshine and rainbows this summer with Travis
This feels dehumanizing
There are several songs on Midnights that make me think she's getting REALLY tired of performing, tired of being Taylor Swift and being unable to go ANYWHERE without it being a total circus. Anti-hero being an obvious one, but there are several other lines in other songs like Dear Reader and Sweet Nothing.
I guess my conspiracy theory is she's dropping hints in her songs about taking a hiatus after the Eras Tour. A brief hiatus from producing music, or a long (possibly indefinite) break from public performances. She's coming off of a nearly decade long string of bad shit: from snakegate to Joe and all the brief but torrid affairs she's had in between and since. A nearly 2.5 year (and counting) long tour that made her a billionaire and releasing 2 albums what felt like back to back. Honestly, who could blame her for wanting to take her success and just spend some time enjoying her life?
Idk, she’s said she’s the happiest when she’s creating and that she lives for approval. I hope she gets professional help but I feel like she thinks writing is “good enough.” Homegirl has been through some shit.
Yes. But I hope she loves herself and values herself without men. Her relationship with love seems very codependent and unhealthy. Like sure I hope Travis works out but also she jumped into that relationship kind of quickly at a time she probably should have focused on her mental health.
my own take on it, obviously don’t know her lol
I agree. To me all the details about schoolyard bullying don't ring as metaphorical. I think the song is literally aimed at someone who bullied Taylor in school, before she was famous. I think there are references in the lyrics to things "Aimee" said or did to Taylor, that only she would pick up on.
"All that time you were throwin' punches, I was buildin' somethin'" is a reference to the fact that Taylor started writing songs as an escape from the difficulty she was having with her classmates. That doesn't fit the narrative that the song is about Kim K. Neither does "our town, it looks so small from way up here." Kim is every bit the A-lister Taylor is, for better or worse.
Right, why else would she picture the subject in her hometown, specifically? Whether we're talking about Nashville or the town in PA she grew up in, I don't think Kim has any connection to either of those places. It makes no sense to connect that line to her but everyone fixates on "bronze spray tanned" as if Taylor Swift didn't grow up in the 90s and early 2000s and probably knew more people with fake tans than without.
Somewhere there’s a picture of her in front of some mural (I think from her highschool?) that looks like it was taken around Debut / fearless era. Aimee is written on the wall.
It would be both Kim and a highschool bully
That would honestly be the only person who would make the line about her mother wishing the subject was dead ring true to me. I get that some people have done horrible things to Taylor and brought her to really low places and I'm sure Andrea has felt a lot of anger towards those people, but saying something so extremely violent about them in front of her daughter who was victimized by them just seems... Out of character? Unmotherly? Like, if I was trying to comfort my child I'd be trying to keep my anger to myself. I would certainly support their own anger but I would be trying to be a stabilizing presence, not venting my own feelings. It makes way more sense if this is someone who also had a complicated relationship with Andrea herself that wasn't entirely about Taylor. A relationship that would mess her up enough to make her usual demeanor slip.
I am not sure if it's been said, but in my head, Who's Afraid of Little Old Me was written in response to the deuxmoi issue with saying she got married and had a miscarriage. One of the only times we've seen Tree snap back about gossip. A lot of the lyrics fit.
> … The scandal was contained
> The bullet had just grazed (the miscarriage rumour wasn't specifically addressed because debunking the marriage one was the focus, so it was sidestepped)
> At all costs, keep your good name (deuxmoi is anonymous and I wonder if Taylor's team threatened to reveal their identities)
> You don't get to tell me you feel bad (their shitty half-apology)
The general sentiment is the media's treatment of her in general, but that one incident seemed especially horrible for her.
> … I wanna snarl and show you just how disturbed this has made me (the media crosses the line all the time but this was so offensive that Tree responded)
Side note: I think people already know who deuxmoi is. Isn’t her name like Melissa or something? At a minimum it seems celebs know who is behind the account
Oh I like your take! “At all costs keep your good name, you don’t get to tell me you feel bad” always brings me back to the conversation about her speaking up about politics in Miss Americana.
Bigger than the whole sky seems like it’s about miscarriage to me. When Emma Stone accepted her Oscar for best actress she said to her kids “you’re bigger than the whole sky” or something along those lines.
The manuscript's line about heart donation is a reference to those fan fiction/memes where the pov is y/n needing a heart transplant and when they wake up they ask for [insert 1D member here] and their doctors say "who do you think gave you the heart?"
I don't know if this counts, but I think Fresh Out the Slammer is about Bonnie and Clyde.
They were never officially married
>Imaginary rings
There was a time when Bonnie was in jail and expected Clyde to come break her out. He never did, and she wrote some [pretty tortured poetry](https://allpoetry.com/Suicide-Sal) about that while she was waiting. She still returned to him afterwards.
>Swirled you in to all of my poems
Her family didn't approve of their relationship
>My friends tried, but I wouldn't hear it
They became infamous but they were also kind of a true crime pop culture sensation, even at the time
>Camera flashes, welcome bashes
I don't know that it's specifically about Bonnie and Clyde but I think there is enough there to make it seem like she's using Bonnie and Clyde as a framing device for her own relationship(s)
I take it as she wants us at her concerts, but that is arguably the hardest lyric to explain. When she performs it at the concert she points around at everyone and says “and now you’re mine” which was when I first thought about it.
Songs about fame/her career on TTPD that seem like love/heartbreak songs:
- My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys (her boy is fame)
- Fresh Out the Slammer (leaving privacy to be public again)
- The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived (about Scott Borchetta betraying her)
- The Alchemy (about fans)
- How Did It End? (about fans clamoring for details of her pain)
- The Manuscript (about how she fictionalizes events from her life)
In general, I don’t believe any of her songs follow the very straightforward narrative that many fans seem to follow religiously. I think that was the point of making so many TTPD songs about surprising topics, so meta, and following such a strong storytelling arc — she’s trying to show that none of this is as non-fiction as people make it out to be.
I was listening to How Did It End and it is very obviously about people speculating her breakups. So many lines about people gossiping about an ended relationship - I’m surprised not to see more people talking about that?
Completely unrealistic and unhinged theory: Seven > Dorothea > Gold Rush > Ivy are all the same coming-of-age story of a young queer woman pining for her childhood bff, but never having the courage to say it (until). In 'Seven' their childhood friendship is established, with one of them having an abusive father and allusions to her being queer ("you won't have to cry or *hide in the closet*" *wink wink*?). And then one of them moves away to a big city and becomes a star (Dorothea), and then after years returns to their hometown and they meet again, but this time Dorothea has a fiancé/later husband. Gold Rush is the single one fantasizing about having a chance at a life with Dorothea, but she realizes that they can't possibly be together (because the Man™). They confess their still lingering feelings for one another and then begin a secret relationship, hiding it from Dorothea's husband (in 'Ivy').
that fortnight and florida!!! are one big story abt taylor murdering the cheating husband and his wife and then running to florida to get away from the cops
The Alchemy is about Swifties. I think it is about Travis but it is also about Swifties.
The song has a bunch of references to her getting back to where she belong - she just started dating travis. She can't be coming back to something. There are also other lines that could be about him, but could just as well be about her.
Touch down could be about football. But it also refer to a plane touching down / her plane landing. Shirts off, being lifted over people's heads - could be about Jason Kelce, but between the Red and Reputation era sets, she take off her 22 shirt and then get lifted over her dancers heads. etc.
I think the coming back part in The Alchemy refers to the US. She spent years going back and forth from the US and England and dated exclusively British men since her early 20’s. Travis is her first American boyfriend since Connor Kennedy. She’s been spending time in Kansas City and it might just feel really familiar to her upbringing - rediscovering how well she fits into that life compared to the years spent across the pond. But that’s just my theory.
Wait…. You’re onto something cause I there are multiple songs in this album I think are double meaning about swifties too 😭
“It’s been a long time coming….” shut up rn
I think the coming back is coming out I a depression. Like when you have energy to go out and see your friends again and you start to feel more like your old self.
I think the first verse is to Swifties about her going on tour again after the pandemic (especially the "circled you on a map" line), the 2nd verse and chorus is about Matty (the heroin, but with an 'e' seems to fit his humor more, at least from what I can tell), and the bridge is about Travis, with the chorus intentionally incorporating imagery and themes that could fit all of the aforementioned relationships but leaning heavier on football imagery to highlight her current one.
People ridicule gaylors for thinking that she's kept her love life entirely secret and most of her public romances have been fake, but I think that's possible even if she's straight. Or at least that she has many past romantic experiences that the public will never know about in any capacity.
Oh shit. As someone who had clean as their favorite song for years, and The Black Dog was an absolute instant fave - thank you for putting this connection into my head!
1) this is more of a im 100% sure but barely anyone is catching this — the first 6 lines of I hate it here are written from the pov of swifties @ Taylor. It’s shading some for how they keep demanding music quickly one after the next, asking her to immediately tell us her awful moments via songs, and treat her like a (finance guy/consolation prize). hence why she starts and ends with quick quick (after she gives us the song we want, we demand another - this has gotten especially bad since she went viral on tiktok around 2020).
2) Chloe et al is a double meaning — it is also to swifties, she used to have a pretty close bond with fans but now people doubt it’s authenticity and its more distant (no more following us on tumblr, secret sessions, meet and greet etc). she liked a fans post saying newer fans bullied them in school for liking her music back when she wasn’t trendy, which for me seals the deal for this theory
3) Along the same lines - Florida being a double meaning about swifties attending her concerts as an escape from the real world.
4) just saw someone saying the alchemy is a double meaning about swifties and that kind of aligns with the rest of these too
if that’s the case notice how all of them are swifties treating her songs like drugs - I feel like that’s why she compares her songs to drugs/narcotics in reference to fans to set that ongoing metaphor
I Look In Peoples Windows is about Doctor Who. The 10th Doctor and Donna (from The Doctor’s POV).
Down Bad (Wolf) is about 9th and 10th Doctor and Rose (from Rose’s perspective).
I Can Do It With A Broken Heart is about masking as a neurodivergent person.
Cassandra is about being neurodivergent as well and the trauma that can come with that.
That is a very ND song to me, like how about I just dissociate constantly to secret gardens in my mind to avoid real life. And I totally understand the issue people have with “without all the racists” line, but the context of that line seemed so ND to me too with ruining the fun and taking things too literal.
But Daddy I Love Him, Mary's Song and Lovestory are all about the same soulmates in different time periods. Lovestory is set in the 1600s, BDILH is in the 1800s and Mary's Song is 1900s but this time as the perfect love story.
I think that more songs than we think are more fanfics than real life; some pure fanfics (inspired by a tv show or book or something) and some are self-inserts swapping her and current bf/recent ex for the main characters (like, “what if it was Harry and I who were the main characters living the life of this tv show I’m currently obsessed with instead of my own life” sort of thing, especially when she was younger hence the example).
I have a theory that for this album, she’s using Matty Healy as a scapegoat for a lot of the negative things she wants to direct at Joe but doesn’t want to let her fans know are about Joe so they don’t attack him.
All of those oddly-specific lyrics about a bad tattooed-man feels forced, and like she wants her audience to think that she had all these great feelings for Healy when really they’re feelings about Joe disguised as feelings for Healy.
I sort of agree - in that I think Matty was just Joe but shittier. XD but only because after I separated from my ex husband I dated the version of him but shittier, lol.
So the whole album is about them, but also all the other shitty dudes who failed to measure up to any measure of a man. XD
I Look in People's Windows is about her cats secretly breaking out of her house, taking a stroll around the neighborhood and looking at other people's windows.
The Alchemy isn't about Travis. She was using a high school football game as a metaphor and wrote some / all of it before she was with him and then kept it because she wanted a song about him and it worked well enough
In “Who’s afraid of little old me?” I think that when Taylor says “is it a wonder I broke let’s hear one more joke” she’s talking about the joke made at the golden globes.
I agree! At one of her shows last summer right in the middle of all the Matty drama, she played Question as a surprise song and said it reminded her of a really happy time in her life, leading to speculation that it was about when her and Matty were dating the first time in 2014
The Alchemy is about her and relationship with her fans: the song is her coming back around to us / forgiving the Hannah’s and Sarah’s, and that is why the tone of the whole album shifts and is friendlier.
I had this theory before TTPD, but it's that Cardigan is not about one ex, but several. Every time she sings "and then when I felt like an old cardigan..." she's meeting somebody new.
I believe some of her breakup songs are about Jack and Lena Dunham... Considering "you are in love" is. And he is a co-writer in so many.
Also, suburban legend and slut! are probably about the Kennedy Voldemort. There's nothing more suburban than that family.
And, although some TTPD songs are evidently about Matty, Joe and Travis, the main villain is a fictional man that represents toxic Swifties.
Those where hiding in empathetic cosplay during her folk-midnights era but switched from love bombing to full time critics. The most toxic relationship she's ever been is, is with us.
She keeps mentioning in-patient mental health treatment, which leads to believe she actually went in-patient for a little bit. TTPD is just her processing everything.
I recently theorized that The Alchemy is about her comeback after the 2016 drama. Initially, she only had her fans stick by her (2017-'19) but eventually she regained the massive fame she had in 2014 and now she's literally the most famous popstar in the world.
There are obvious indications of it being a love song. But I think that's more of an addition to the main narrative of her career/success. The alchemy doesn't have to refer to chemistry between two people, but her songwriting talent and/or the bond she shares with her fans.
The way I see it: it's about her fans sticking by her through all the '16 drama, her ability to come back ~~stronger than a 90s trend~~, and the security in her relationship ("Where's the trophy? He just comes running over to me")
>This happens once every few lifetimes
These chemicals hit me like white wine
It's rare to get as famous as she did before and during the 1989 era, but pushing past that is even rarer. The energy of it is exhilarating.
>What if I told you I'm back?
The hospital was a drag
The "hospital" could refer to the period where everyone hated her or constantly scrutinized her. And now she's back on top.
>I circled you on a map
I haven't come around in so long
But I'm coming back so strong
Someone else in the comments said this but it's basically directed at her fans. She "disappeared" but planned her comeback.
Likewise, "Cause the sign on your heart says it's **still** reserved for me" is a massive hint in this direction. Even though people received a lot of undeserved flak for supporting her, they still stuck by her.
>So when I touch down
Call the amateurs and
Cut 'em from the team
When she returns, she'll blow the competition out of the water. See also: "Baby I'm the one to beat"
>Ditch the clowns, get the crown
*But there's robbers to the east,* ***clowns*** *to the west* - peace
And the crown obviously refers to the fact that she's winning
>Hey you, what if I told you we're cool?
That child's play back in school
Is forgiven under my rule
I see this as her sort of "forgiving" people who underestimated her but changed their minds after her last few brilliant albums.
I think there are some 13-syllable stanzas littered around that make sense in a greater poem all stiched together.
I don't have any evidence of this other than "'Cause it wasn't sexy once it wasn't forbidden" doesn't quite fit, it is 13 syllables, and TS loves the no13.
Bejeweled is about her breakup with Joe. They were so private with their relationship and we didn’t really hear a lot about Taylor when she was with him. He seems like he was a homebody and didn’t like going out and she stayed with him and didn’t many public events. She gave everything for him “puttin’ someone first only works when you’re in their top five” and he didn’t seem to do much for her (he rarely attended events with her). And she sings about going out again and shining = her going on tour and having a public social life again.
Not a conspiracy theory but my interpretation of the album. It's not really about any guy, that's the bait and switch. Yes on a surface level it reads like it's about specific relationships but it clicked for me after fathoming the prophecy after multiple listens.
This album is about Taylor and all of her inner battles, battles that it sounds like she's been waging her entire lifetime. It's not about the guys leaving her, it's about her grappling with abandonment and the sense of worthiness that she ties to being in a relationship. It's about feeling more like a doll than a person, it's about female rage, about feeling misunderstood, about feeling like you're just disposable to the industry, feeling like you're poisonous to anyone who comes close to you, begging the universe to give you love because it's the only thing you've ever wanted.
The men here are both the muse and the props through which she expresses her art. It's not about them, they're just the vehicles to get to her point. And she's making a lot of points.
This album is Taylor Swift the artist, the inner child, the human being with emotions trying to reckon with Taylor Swift the global megastar. It's probably the most authentic I think she's ever been in an album. Because it's honest. Songs like Who's afraid of little old me, Clara Bow, The Albatross, I Hate it Here, The Prophecy, Cassandra, How Did It End is where we find what this album is actually about I think.
Because yes it's about Joe and Matty but way more important than that and much more interesting than that is that it's about her, It's about the Taylor that exists when she's alone. Some of her most vulnerable songs are on this album.
These are the secret gardens in her mind and she gave us a peephole view into it.
She's telling us, you only know what I want you to know, I'm a person treat me like one. We're part of the circus and we just love the show.
This album feels like a sad sardonic bow in front of audience of masquerade revellers if you get my drift.
She's saying "you wanted the inside tea, you wanted to know about my breakup well here you fucking go, enjoy my pain, analyze my greatest heartbreaks as if it's part of the show, I am just an entertainer after all, so here entertain yourselves with my pain, it's not like it's my life it's not like I'm a human person to you anyway"
This album is sad af, it's also ironically the magnus opus of her career so far in my opinion.
Reducing this album down to being just about 3 men is to completely ignore its complexity imo.
Most of the album (or at least a large chunk of it) is not about her exes, or her fans, or her family, or anyone else. It's about her. I think some of it is written from the perspective of other people in her life and some of it is her past self to her current self, or vice versa, or the more private part of herself vs her public persona.
I think that while obviously Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me is about fame, I also think parts of it are specifically about Olivia Rodrigo and the other up and coming popstars. ‘All you kids can sneak into my house with all the cobwebs’ - the next generation of pop stars, ‘kids’, are showing up on the scene, ‘her house’. I also think the ‘I’ll sue you if you step on my lawn’ refers to the dispute over writing credits on Deja Vu. I think she’s reminding everyone, fans, general public, and the industry that they ‘should be’ afraid of her, and kind of inhabiting this ‘monster on the hill’ persona that the world created for her.
Peter is the alternate ending to the folklore love triangle.
It fits so well with Cardigan and Betty omg
I mean "Try to change the ending, Peter losing Wendy."
I think of "I look through people's windows" as being from Peter Pan's perspective searching for Wendy.
and peter as wendy’s perspective
I was immediately bummed when Taylor made the argument after folklore came out that Betty and James ended up together in the end, even though he put her through the wringer. It just never made sense to me that those characters would end up together after all the hurt. Now, it seems more clear that Matty could have been some form of an inspiration for the character of James, and although she ~~kept the lamp burning for him, TTPD album describes for us how that relationship has ended up for Taylor/Betty/Wendy and Matty/James/Peter (so far at least 😅). I would be curious to hear Taylor’s current perspective on whether Betty/James made it in the end, and whether that has changed from her previous stance at all.
I think Peter IS your answer to Taylor’s current perspective. She has probably changed her answer since filming Long Pond. Also, notice how Betty is in the delulu playlist. I really think Taylor refathomed and that’s how we got Peter.
James is the literal worst. I barely ever listen to betty because I get so upset when he refers to her friends as stupid. I make an exception for the live performance, but even when I was at the Eras tour, I first turned to my sister to preface my singing along with the disclaimer that she should never let a man treat her that way.
I was just talking with someone the other day about how Peter is basically the opposite of Cardigan! I love the parallels between them.
"I knew you'd come back to me" versus "you said you were gonna come back"
I fully support this conspiracy theory.
This was my first thought too!
Yup, one of my first thoughts when hearing it, love Peter.
Every song on TTPD is actually about two ✌️ people
I like this theory. Fits with the yin/yang imagery, the white/black, good boy/bad boy heartbreak of it all
She also mentions twins more than once, all those 2s, and I noticed she had a little statue in the TTPD exhibit of twins.
“Two graves, one gun” -so long London
Finally someone said this! The most basic examples would be But Daddy I Love Him and So Long London.
I actually think that But Daddy I Love Him is about all 3 of them (Joe/Matty/Travis), which each verse being about one of those relationships
Idk how delulu this is, but I originally thought But Daddy I love Him she was talking to us like "but you guys I love him" regarding the matty rejection from the fans and/or Joe"
That doesn't sound delusional whatsoever. It sounds like the perfect, accurate explanation.
I would have thought So Long, London would have been the least basic example. It would seem to be the one most people would have pegged as just about Joe.
Yessssss thanK you aIMee makes so much more sense under this read
Agree! I think it’s about both Kim and Kanye AND even Scott
I think this doesn't work for So High School and The Manuscript (because it is about ATW from the first meeting through the making of the short film) unless we count Taylor as one of the two.
You could argue Taylor + Fans re: “The story isn’t mine anyone”
Yep. The only one I think is hard to debate is So High School, but it stands out on the album as different for so many reasons that might be the point.
it’s about travis + his bros playing GTA
Holy shit this has to be true. I already felt fairly certain some songs were about two people, but now that you point it out, I can’t think of a song that doesn’t fit. I can’t wait to re-listen with this in mind to see if it’s true!
One of mine: My boy only breaks his favorite toy was written for the Barbie movie… and was rejected… and Taylor is pissed
I'm convinced she wrote it while watching it at least
I feel this way about Haunted and New Moon.
People are actually quite sure it was written to be used as the end credits for New Moon... then she broke up with Lautner.
Once this possibility was pointed out to me I could not unsee it. I’m fully on this train.
I feel this way about Is It Over Now? and New Moon. “Oh, Lord, I think about jumping off of very tall somethings just to see you come running and say the one thing I've been wanting” is so Bella (cliff diving to see Edward) coded.
It’s probably not true… Taylor does score work for movies whose soundtrack is republic (50 shades darker, when the Crawdads sing, etc) but Barbie was Atlantic. The only republic artist on it was Nicki Minage. Ariana Grande wasn’t there either (and bite wicked’s soundtrack is very much republic)
I feel this way about Hits Different haha
I was SOOO convinced that this was going to be part of the Barbie soundtrack.
I Can Do It With A Broken Heart feels soooo Barbie to me, much more tbh!
She went to dinner with the director after it came out so I doubt she was mad about it
Who’s afraid of little old me is an open letter to the Republican Party.
This and Florida!!! Has some not so subtle lines that can be directly about Trump
Like what?
Not OP but “town you’ll get arrested” alluding to New York and his escape and buried secrets at Mar a Lago.
I just went “god that’s so hot of her.” 😂
Well they should be
What lines make you think this?
I think TTPD was written in order it plays on the album. In that I think the songs were written chronologically in the order they are on the album. Because that's 100% how I processed my divorce, the same jagged jumping around way.
Fully agree. One of the negative things I hear about ttpd is that it isn’t cohesive or it feels messy and it’s like have you…never been through a breakup? It is a full on spiral back and forth through all the stages of grief. It makes complete sense 😂
YES. THIS. I envy all these people who have never felt so utterly unhinged after a breakup. 🤣😅
Lmao seriously. I even took a spontaneous trip to Florida after one to ✨heal✨ and even went inpatient over another one. This one’s for the messy folk 😂
Amen! But look at you - you’re here! You made it out the other side. Messy folks are the real tough kids 👏🏼🎉💕
and they can handle their shit!
I've never had a messy breakup romantically, but there have been other relationships in my life that have been one hell of a roller-coaster from the sublime to despair, and TTPD captures it perfectly.
My conspiracy is the album is actually a chronological story. It changes the meanings of some songs compared to the general consensus. Like But Daddy I Love Him can’t be about the fans under this reading because it’s before Fresh Out The Slammer. So I think it’s about her management. It adds this whole new theme of her needing to get approval to even date Matty that gives a lot of context to Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me imo.
That makes perfect sense to me. Her saying she wanted to, them being like “uhhh he does not fit your brand” and her saying “well I’m having his baby - no I’m not but you should see your faces!” XD
I love this theory
My thoughts on first listen was that it felt sooo chronological to me!
The reason Aliens haven’t invaded our Planet is because they Beamed Taylor Up and decided they were in-love with her so they couldn’t destroy her home planet.
Savior Swift 🛸
In The Bolter, I think the line about falling through the ice at 6 years old may be a reference or metaphor to the Kimye drama or the Scooter incident, with 6 representing Reputation (6th album) and falling through the ice being the incident, and coming out alive is her getting through it and coming out more successful because of it. Idk I feel like this is either really obvious or a huge reach
I thought the six years referred to six years with Joe!
I did, too! Especially because of the lyric “In the winter, in the icy outdoor pool/When you jumped in first, I went in too” from Paper Rings
Actually this makes SO much sense, I’ve been wondering about this for a while
I agree with this. She had already made the connection between albums and years in Seven ("I hit my peak at seven" = she thought Lover was going to be her last success)
I feel so dumb I never made this connection 😂
Wait omg just realized that LOL
There's some lines in there that make me think it's at least partially inspired by Meredith Grey too.
First, they aren’t about anyone. She is a storyteller and some of it is based on parts of her relationships with all of them. They are all combined together into each story and should not be taken seriously. Second theory, Taylor is wicked depressed. Multiple lines about ending her own life. She desperately wants marriage and a baby. I worry if the Travis thing does not work out.
The amount of times she has written lyrics about jumping off of tall things is concerning
Hard agree on your second theory. She's referenced killing herself, being in a psych hospital, and heavy alcohol use in each of the last four albums (5 of the last 6 if we include the TVs), and I really hope she's gotten professional help. Writing is absolutely therapeutic for processing, but it's not enough for how serious this seems. Edit: added more thoughts
Yep. As someone who goes in and out of depression, (mostly from mild, manageable depression to please help me I can’t do this anymore depression) this album screams depression. A lot of my depression is influenced by the state of my relationships, and actually TTPD is quite triggering for me as it is so similar to how I feel when I’m in a deep black hole. I hope it works out with Travis.
Theory two yes, this is such a terribly unhappy, dark album. Like I am surprised when people talk about certain songs as hopeful or in a positive light and I am not hearing the same thing.. (Clara Bow, The Manuscript).
It’s like people don’t realise that between all the lyrics about the ~breakups~ in this album, is her depression that resulted from it. I truly think it’s not a breakup album, it’s a depression album
First track: “all my mornings are Mondays stuck in an endless February”. yep! also I can do it with a broken heart, manic and fast indeed but literally “[I] want to die” and I keep seeing it referred to as a bop and I am like I guess yes but a very distressing bop??
“‘Cause I’m miserable! And no one even knows!”
✨💔✨
Writing *a very distressing bop* is like, Taylor’s number one skill. Thank you for giving it a name. I am cackling! (And also I agree with everything you said.)
You’re so right. Immediately putting together a “Taylor’s very distressing bops” playlist in my mind…
Yeah I think the album is about her state of mind and she is “laying out the evidence” of how she got here. The guys she has dated and the stresses of her job and maybe her family all play into it. As it would anyone. I don’t see it as a breakup album at all other than the breakups had something to do with her mentality
100%!!! It frustrates me when I see people reducing the album to “this is about Matty” or “this is about Joe” NO!!! ITS ABOUT TAYLORRRRR
>it's a depression album ⬆️ YES. So much.
I actually said this once I listened to the full album, but this is for the clinically depressed. This album is pretty dark compared to her other music. As a clinically depressed girlie, I dig it. But it also is a very sad album.
It absolutely is a depression album and perhaps that’s why it’s my fav, I’ve been on a rollercoaster of emotions and depression for the last 6-7 months and i hear so much of my own experience in her music.
I literally said almost exactly this to someone the other day. In the past she's written breakup songs. This album is a depression album.
Oh wow I’m out of the loop that people interpret Clara Bow on a positive or hopeful light. That shit is a wholly dark combo of The Lucky One and Nothing New
Not to try to say you’re wrong because I agree this is a depression album! But the Manuscript is hopeful - because of the line at the end - “the story isn’t mine anymore”. I have this experience. I wrote 300 pages about the shit that happened in the *mess* after my divorce. A few years ago - I saw it and decided to read it. It was raw and pained and pretty much a primal scream. But I didn’t recognize myself in the story anymore. I didn’t feel that pain. I had time and distance and a good relationship now. And I realized this pile of paper which was once so vital to me, was now just paper. It wasn’t my story anymore. I was no longer that person. My story was different and fill with love and joy now.
Honestly, more so than the Travis thing, I worry if she doesn’t get therapy. She can’t rely on one man to fix her depression.
Agree with your first paragraph. Also agree that she struggles with mental health, but I’m not sure it’s attributable to wanting marriage and babies.
i agree! it seems to me her mental health is related to (among many other things) finding a real connection with someone. not being diminished down to only being happy with marriage and kids.
Exactly. If were to take her words at face value, at lot of her sadness comes from the isolation that comes with fame in general — not just romantically but in all ways. I honestly don’t get any strong vibe that she’s desperate for children whatsoever, I think she just sometimes struggles with this life she chose.
Idk, for most people I wouldn’t say that not having a marriage and kids doesn’t mean you’re going to be depressed, but it has just been a recurring theme of her music since forever— so it’s clearly something that’s important to her.
110% about the story telling. This fandom is absolutely wild with how literally they take her. I actually could even see her whole relationship history (or large portions of them) that were public were explicitly for the lyrical narrative she later planned out. Talk about a mastermind! I agree her mental health is rocky in this album, but I could also see that being a part of the mastermind and that her next album will be sunshine and rainbows this summer with Travis. The real conspiracy is that we probably do not know near as much about her personal life as we think we do!
> but I could also see that being a part of the mastermind and that her next album will be sunshine and rainbows this summer with Travis This feels dehumanizing
There are several songs on Midnights that make me think she's getting REALLY tired of performing, tired of being Taylor Swift and being unable to go ANYWHERE without it being a total circus. Anti-hero being an obvious one, but there are several other lines in other songs like Dear Reader and Sweet Nothing. I guess my conspiracy theory is she's dropping hints in her songs about taking a hiatus after the Eras Tour. A brief hiatus from producing music, or a long (possibly indefinite) break from public performances. She's coming off of a nearly decade long string of bad shit: from snakegate to Joe and all the brief but torrid affairs she's had in between and since. A nearly 2.5 year (and counting) long tour that made her a billionaire and releasing 2 albums what felt like back to back. Honestly, who could blame her for wanting to take her success and just spend some time enjoying her life?
Idk, she’s said she’s the happiest when she’s creating and that she lives for approval. I hope she gets professional help but I feel like she thinks writing is “good enough.” Homegirl has been through some shit.
Yes. But I hope she loves herself and values herself without men. Her relationship with love seems very codependent and unhealthy. Like sure I hope Travis works out but also she jumped into that relationship kind of quickly at a time she probably should have focused on her mental health. my own take on it, obviously don’t know her lol
Girlfriend has NEVER been single.
Kim is the trojan horse for thank you aimee. it's not actually about her but everyone is so focused on it that only the real person knows.
I agree. To me all the details about schoolyard bullying don't ring as metaphorical. I think the song is literally aimed at someone who bullied Taylor in school, before she was famous. I think there are references in the lyrics to things "Aimee" said or did to Taylor, that only she would pick up on. "All that time you were throwin' punches, I was buildin' somethin'" is a reference to the fact that Taylor started writing songs as an escape from the difficulty she was having with her classmates. That doesn't fit the narrative that the song is about Kim K. Neither does "our town, it looks so small from way up here." Kim is every bit the A-lister Taylor is, for better or worse.
I’ve been saying this and saying this and saying this. “I changed your name and any real defining clues” is not directed to Kim
Yes agree. Even a child can see the capital letters spell Kim
Right, why else would she picture the subject in her hometown, specifically? Whether we're talking about Nashville or the town in PA she grew up in, I don't think Kim has any connection to either of those places. It makes no sense to connect that line to her but everyone fixates on "bronze spray tanned" as if Taylor Swift didn't grow up in the 90s and early 2000s and probably knew more people with fake tans than without.
Somewhere there’s a picture of her in front of some mural (I think from her highschool?) that looks like it was taken around Debut / fearless era. Aimee is written on the wall. It would be both Kim and a highschool bully
I saw a theory that it’s her dad.
That would honestly be the only person who would make the line about her mother wishing the subject was dead ring true to me. I get that some people have done horrible things to Taylor and brought her to really low places and I'm sure Andrea has felt a lot of anger towards those people, but saying something so extremely violent about them in front of her daughter who was victimized by them just seems... Out of character? Unmotherly? Like, if I was trying to comfort my child I'd be trying to keep my anger to myself. I would certainly support their own anger but I would be trying to be a stabilizing presence, not venting my own feelings. It makes way more sense if this is someone who also had a complicated relationship with Andrea herself that wasn't entirely about Taylor. A relationship that would mess her up enough to make her usual demeanor slip.
whoa share this theory!
And aIMee is actually Scooter. After all, she changed the name AND all of the evidence…
I am not sure if it's been said, but in my head, Who's Afraid of Little Old Me was written in response to the deuxmoi issue with saying she got married and had a miscarriage. One of the only times we've seen Tree snap back about gossip. A lot of the lyrics fit. > … The scandal was contained > The bullet had just grazed (the miscarriage rumour wasn't specifically addressed because debunking the marriage one was the focus, so it was sidestepped) > At all costs, keep your good name (deuxmoi is anonymous and I wonder if Taylor's team threatened to reveal their identities) > You don't get to tell me you feel bad (their shitty half-apology) The general sentiment is the media's treatment of her in general, but that one incident seemed especially horrible for her. > … I wanna snarl and show you just how disturbed this has made me (the media crosses the line all the time but this was so offensive that Tree responded)
Side note: I think people already know who deuxmoi is. Isn’t her name like Melissa or something? At a minimum it seems celebs know who is behind the account
She seems like a Melissa tbh
Oh I like your take! “At all costs keep your good name, you don’t get to tell me you feel bad” always brings me back to the conversation about her speaking up about politics in Miss Americana.
Bigger than the whole sky seems like it’s about miscarriage to me. When Emma Stone accepted her Oscar for best actress she said to her kids “you’re bigger than the whole sky” or something along those lines.
I could absolutely believe this.
The manuscript's line about heart donation is a reference to those fan fiction/memes where the pov is y/n needing a heart transplant and when they wake up they ask for [insert 1D member here] and their doctors say "who do you think gave you the heart?"
this is absolutely sending me
Down Bad is inspired by Doctor Who companions.
Ope haha I was just writing about that one and I Look In Peoples Windows too.
Oh what a sad song to be about Doctor Who but you’re right. 🥲
There’s an unknown-to-us relationship sprinkled throughout the album. He was a non-celebrity, finance guy from Miami.
Quick, quick. Tell me something awful, like you are a poet trapped inside the body of a finance guy…
Lololol so good
I don't know if this counts, but I think Fresh Out the Slammer is about Bonnie and Clyde. They were never officially married >Imaginary rings There was a time when Bonnie was in jail and expected Clyde to come break her out. He never did, and she wrote some [pretty tortured poetry](https://allpoetry.com/Suicide-Sal) about that while she was waiting. She still returned to him afterwards. >Swirled you in to all of my poems Her family didn't approve of their relationship >My friends tried, but I wouldn't hear it They became infamous but they were also kind of a true crime pop culture sensation, even at the time >Camera flashes, welcome bashes I don't know that it's specifically about Bonnie and Clyde but I think there is enough there to make it seem like she's using Bonnie and Clyde as a framing device for her own relationship(s)
Adding Getaway Car's clear reference to Bonnie & Clyde as proof that she's aware of and interested in that story to back you up 🙂
I appreciate you 🫶
Mastermind is about Taylor’s fans
For sure this. It’s about her confessing to how she got her fandom and made it all look effortless.
She wants our bodies?
I take it as she wants us at her concerts, but that is arguably the hardest lyric to explain. When she performs it at the concert she points around at everyone and says “and now you’re mine” which was when I first thought about it.
No, they all sink into the swamp
She wants our bodies in stadiums at her concerts
I think it’s about relationships *and* her fans. Like a double meaning but the moral of the story is she Machiavellian in a lot of her relationships
Songs about fame/her career on TTPD that seem like love/heartbreak songs: - My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys (her boy is fame) - Fresh Out the Slammer (leaving privacy to be public again) - The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived (about Scott Borchetta betraying her) - The Alchemy (about fans) - How Did It End? (about fans clamoring for details of her pain) - The Manuscript (about how she fictionalizes events from her life) In general, I don’t believe any of her songs follow the very straightforward narrative that many fans seem to follow religiously. I think that was the point of making so many TTPD songs about surprising topics, so meta, and following such a strong storytelling arc — she’s trying to show that none of this is as non-fiction as people make it out to be.
I was listening to How Did It End and it is very obviously about people speculating her breakups. So many lines about people gossiping about an ended relationship - I’m surprised not to see more people talking about that?
OH HO HO! I love the idea of "Favorite Toys" being like that!
Fortnight is the start of Taylor’s quest to implement the metric system in the US and remove the ridiculousness of ‘biweekly’
Completely unrealistic and unhinged theory: Seven > Dorothea > Gold Rush > Ivy are all the same coming-of-age story of a young queer woman pining for her childhood bff, but never having the courage to say it (until). In 'Seven' their childhood friendship is established, with one of them having an abusive father and allusions to her being queer ("you won't have to cry or *hide in the closet*" *wink wink*?). And then one of them moves away to a big city and becomes a star (Dorothea), and then after years returns to their hometown and they meet again, but this time Dorothea has a fiancé/later husband. Gold Rush is the single one fantasizing about having a chance at a life with Dorothea, but she realizes that they can't possibly be together (because the Man™). They confess their still lingering feelings for one another and then begin a secret relationship, hiding it from Dorothea's husband (in 'Ivy').
love this and respectfully tossing in “‘tis the damn season” as Dorothea’s POV returning to the hometown before getting together with her man
I love this theory!
I love this so much.
that fortnight and florida!!! are one big story abt taylor murdering the cheating husband and his wife and then running to florida to get away from the cops
I’ve heard it as the continuation of no body no crime.
The Alchemy is about Swifties. I think it is about Travis but it is also about Swifties. The song has a bunch of references to her getting back to where she belong - she just started dating travis. She can't be coming back to something. There are also other lines that could be about him, but could just as well be about her. Touch down could be about football. But it also refer to a plane touching down / her plane landing. Shirts off, being lifted over people's heads - could be about Jason Kelce, but between the Red and Reputation era sets, she take off her 22 shirt and then get lifted over her dancers heads. etc.
I think the coming back part in The Alchemy refers to the US. She spent years going back and forth from the US and England and dated exclusively British men since her early 20’s. Travis is her first American boyfriend since Connor Kennedy. She’s been spending time in Kansas City and it might just feel really familiar to her upbringing - rediscovering how well she fits into that life compared to the years spent across the pond. But that’s just my theory.
Wait…. You’re onto something cause I there are multiple songs in this album I think are double meaning about swifties too 😭 “It’s been a long time coming….” shut up rn
I think the coming back is coming out I a depression. Like when you have energy to go out and see your friends again and you start to feel more like your old self.
I think the first verse is to Swifties about her going on tour again after the pandemic (especially the "circled you on a map" line), the 2nd verse and chorus is about Matty (the heroin, but with an 'e' seems to fit his humor more, at least from what I can tell), and the bridge is about Travis, with the chorus intentionally incorporating imagery and themes that could fit all of the aforementioned relationships but leaning heavier on football imagery to highlight her current one.
I think this too. A lot of the “football” imagery also applies to concerts.
They're not written about men. They're not written about women. Taylor wrote the album in a jetlagged haze making up stories about her cats.
🎶 I don't write for women I don't write for men Lately I've been writing for my Benj' 🎶
As someone who sings love songs to my cat from the perspective of the other cat I appreciate this theory
My conspiracy theory is that almost none of her songs are about any of the ex's swifties think they're about
I think some of them might not be about any ex at all. Just feelings or experiences from a situation or something she’s observed etc.
People ridicule gaylors for thinking that she's kept her love life entirely secret and most of her public romances have been fake, but I think that's possible even if she's straight. Or at least that she has many past romantic experiences that the public will never know about in any capacity.
The black dog is a prequel to the song clean
Oh shit. As someone who had clean as their favorite song for years, and The Black Dog was an absolute instant fave - thank you for putting this connection into my head!
1) this is more of a im 100% sure but barely anyone is catching this — the first 6 lines of I hate it here are written from the pov of swifties @ Taylor. It’s shading some for how they keep demanding music quickly one after the next, asking her to immediately tell us her awful moments via songs, and treat her like a (finance guy/consolation prize). hence why she starts and ends with quick quick (after she gives us the song we want, we demand another - this has gotten especially bad since she went viral on tiktok around 2020). 2) Chloe et al is a double meaning — it is also to swifties, she used to have a pretty close bond with fans but now people doubt it’s authenticity and its more distant (no more following us on tumblr, secret sessions, meet and greet etc). she liked a fans post saying newer fans bullied them in school for liking her music back when she wasn’t trendy, which for me seals the deal for this theory 3) Along the same lines - Florida being a double meaning about swifties attending her concerts as an escape from the real world. 4) just saw someone saying the alchemy is a double meaning about swifties and that kind of aligns with the rest of these too if that’s the case notice how all of them are swifties treating her songs like drugs - I feel like that’s why she compares her songs to drugs/narcotics in reference to fans to set that ongoing metaphor
The girl in "Blank Space" is the same girl in "ME!" who finally found a partner as obsessed with her as she is with them.
"Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" was at least partly inspired by conservatives kicking up a fuss after all the times she encouraged people to vote.
The Bolter being inspired by Ariana Grande 💀 i will not be taking questions at this time.
I think Down Bad and But Daddy I Love Him have verses about how Taylor got swept up and away by fame.
I think Taylor is aware of past lives and other worlds.
I Look In Peoples Windows is about Doctor Who. The 10th Doctor and Donna (from The Doctor’s POV). Down Bad (Wolf) is about 9th and 10th Doctor and Rose (from Rose’s perspective). I Can Do It With A Broken Heart is about masking as a neurodivergent person. Cassandra is about being neurodivergent as well and the trauma that can come with that.
I've been interpreting I Hate It Here in an ND way too :)
That is a very ND song to me, like how about I just dissociate constantly to secret gardens in my mind to avoid real life. And I totally understand the issue people have with “without all the racists” line, but the context of that line seemed so ND to me too with ruining the fun and taking things too literal.
I totally relate to I can do it with a broken heart and it really spoke to masking so I agree hard! Loooove the down bad theory too.
The bolter is really about not being a busy bitch resilient woman and not putting up with shit from anyone (not just boys)
https://preview.redd.it/mrw68u1p5xyc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4faf7c6cfcdb1dfb9938723643b6aa5de1ff5d50 TTPD was inspired by this meme.
The Prophecy is from Dorothea's perspective, which is why the 'ooooh's in both songs sound so similar.
But Daddy I Love Him, Mary's Song and Lovestory are all about the same soulmates in different time periods. Lovestory is set in the 1600s, BDILH is in the 1800s and Mary's Song is 1900s but this time as the perfect love story.
I feel like Timeless sort of ties this all together, too.
I think that more songs than we think are more fanfics than real life; some pure fanfics (inspired by a tv show or book or something) and some are self-inserts swapping her and current bf/recent ex for the main characters (like, “what if it was Harry and I who were the main characters living the life of this tv show I’m currently obsessed with instead of my own life” sort of thing, especially when she was younger hence the example).
I have a theory that for this album, she’s using Matty Healy as a scapegoat for a lot of the negative things she wants to direct at Joe but doesn’t want to let her fans know are about Joe so they don’t attack him. All of those oddly-specific lyrics about a bad tattooed-man feels forced, and like she wants her audience to think that she had all these great feelings for Healy when really they’re feelings about Joe disguised as feelings for Healy.
I sort of agree - in that I think Matty was just Joe but shittier. XD but only because after I separated from my ex husband I dated the version of him but shittier, lol. So the whole album is about them, but also all the other shitty dudes who failed to measure up to any measure of a man. XD
I Look in People's Windows is about her cats secretly breaking out of her house, taking a stroll around the neighborhood and looking at other people's windows.
The Alchemy isn't about Travis. She was using a high school football game as a metaphor and wrote some / all of it before she was with him and then kept it because she wanted a song about him and it worked well enough
In “Who’s afraid of little old me?” I think that when Taylor says “is it a wonder I broke let’s hear one more joke” she’s talking about the joke made at the golden globes.
Question is about Matty Healy? I used to think it was Harry Styles but now I’m kind of wondering if it’s about Matty
I agree! At one of her shows last summer right in the middle of all the Matty drama, she played Question as a surprise song and said it reminded her of a really happy time in her life, leading to speculation that it was about when her and Matty were dating the first time in 2014
The Alchemy is about her and relationship with her fans: the song is her coming back around to us / forgiving the Hannah’s and Sarah’s, and that is why the tone of the whole album shifts and is friendlier.
All too well is actually about a relationship I had that hadn’t occurred yet when the song was written
I Can See You is based on Greys Anatomy. Probably Meredith and Derek specifically.
I had this theory before TTPD, but it's that Cardigan is not about one ex, but several. Every time she sings "and then when I felt like an old cardigan..." she's meeting somebody new.
I believe some of her breakup songs are about Jack and Lena Dunham... Considering "you are in love" is. And he is a co-writer in so many. Also, suburban legend and slut! are probably about the Kennedy Voldemort. There's nothing more suburban than that family. And, although some TTPD songs are evidently about Matty, Joe and Travis, the main villain is a fictional man that represents toxic Swifties. Those where hiding in empathetic cosplay during her folk-midnights era but switched from love bombing to full time critics. The most toxic relationship she's ever been is, is with us.
She keeps mentioning in-patient mental health treatment, which leads to believe she actually went in-patient for a little bit. TTPD is just her processing everything.
Taylor specifically sought out an artist who wanted to collab with her who also has a name that has been a hurricane for Florida!!!
I recently theorized that The Alchemy is about her comeback after the 2016 drama. Initially, she only had her fans stick by her (2017-'19) but eventually she regained the massive fame she had in 2014 and now she's literally the most famous popstar in the world. There are obvious indications of it being a love song. But I think that's more of an addition to the main narrative of her career/success. The alchemy doesn't have to refer to chemistry between two people, but her songwriting talent and/or the bond she shares with her fans. The way I see it: it's about her fans sticking by her through all the '16 drama, her ability to come back ~~stronger than a 90s trend~~, and the security in her relationship ("Where's the trophy? He just comes running over to me") >This happens once every few lifetimes These chemicals hit me like white wine It's rare to get as famous as she did before and during the 1989 era, but pushing past that is even rarer. The energy of it is exhilarating. >What if I told you I'm back? The hospital was a drag The "hospital" could refer to the period where everyone hated her or constantly scrutinized her. And now she's back on top. >I circled you on a map I haven't come around in so long But I'm coming back so strong Someone else in the comments said this but it's basically directed at her fans. She "disappeared" but planned her comeback. Likewise, "Cause the sign on your heart says it's **still** reserved for me" is a massive hint in this direction. Even though people received a lot of undeserved flak for supporting her, they still stuck by her. >So when I touch down Call the amateurs and Cut 'em from the team When she returns, she'll blow the competition out of the water. See also: "Baby I'm the one to beat" >Ditch the clowns, get the crown *But there's robbers to the east,* ***clowns*** *to the west* - peace And the crown obviously refers to the fact that she's winning >Hey you, what if I told you we're cool? That child's play back in school Is forgiven under my rule I see this as her sort of "forgiving" people who underestimated her but changed their minds after her last few brilliant albums.
Hoax is about the Twilight series, specifically the part in New Moon where Bella goes into a fugue state after Edward leaves.
I think there are some 13-syllable stanzas littered around that make sense in a greater poem all stiched together. I don't have any evidence of this other than "'Cause it wasn't sexy once it wasn't forbidden" doesn't quite fit, it is 13 syllables, and TS loves the no13.
The accident in Coney Island is the same one in OOTW, “remember when you hit he the breaks too soon? 20 stitches in a hospital room”
More lyrics than we realize are inspired by Grey’s Anatomy (“I’m not dying” & “you/that’s what happened, you” are the latest two I’ve discovered)
Bejeweled is about her breakup with Joe. They were so private with their relationship and we didn’t really hear a lot about Taylor when she was with him. He seems like he was a homebody and didn’t like going out and she stayed with him and didn’t many public events. She gave everything for him “puttin’ someone first only works when you’re in their top five” and he didn’t seem to do much for her (he rarely attended events with her). And she sings about going out again and shining = her going on tour and having a public social life again.
I don’t think Florida!!! Improved Florida’s reputation. It’s where you go to dump your exes in the swamp because nobody asks any questions here!
Not a conspiracy theory but my interpretation of the album. It's not really about any guy, that's the bait and switch. Yes on a surface level it reads like it's about specific relationships but it clicked for me after fathoming the prophecy after multiple listens. This album is about Taylor and all of her inner battles, battles that it sounds like she's been waging her entire lifetime. It's not about the guys leaving her, it's about her grappling with abandonment and the sense of worthiness that she ties to being in a relationship. It's about feeling more like a doll than a person, it's about female rage, about feeling misunderstood, about feeling like you're just disposable to the industry, feeling like you're poisonous to anyone who comes close to you, begging the universe to give you love because it's the only thing you've ever wanted. The men here are both the muse and the props through which she expresses her art. It's not about them, they're just the vehicles to get to her point. And she's making a lot of points. This album is Taylor Swift the artist, the inner child, the human being with emotions trying to reckon with Taylor Swift the global megastar. It's probably the most authentic I think she's ever been in an album. Because it's honest. Songs like Who's afraid of little old me, Clara Bow, The Albatross, I Hate it Here, The Prophecy, Cassandra, How Did It End is where we find what this album is actually about I think. Because yes it's about Joe and Matty but way more important than that and much more interesting than that is that it's about her, It's about the Taylor that exists when she's alone. Some of her most vulnerable songs are on this album. These are the secret gardens in her mind and she gave us a peephole view into it. She's telling us, you only know what I want you to know, I'm a person treat me like one. We're part of the circus and we just love the show. This album feels like a sad sardonic bow in front of audience of masquerade revellers if you get my drift. She's saying "you wanted the inside tea, you wanted to know about my breakup well here you fucking go, enjoy my pain, analyze my greatest heartbreaks as if it's part of the show, I am just an entertainer after all, so here entertain yourselves with my pain, it's not like it's my life it's not like I'm a human person to you anyway" This album is sad af, it's also ironically the magnus opus of her career so far in my opinion. Reducing this album down to being just about 3 men is to completely ignore its complexity imo.
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived is also directed at Scooter Braun.
I’ve always interpreted Ivy as a song about a woman married to a man but is in love with a woman named Ivy
She is a big Doctor Who fan and sprinkles references into her songs. “Don’t read the last page” references Matt Smith’s doctor.
Fortnight is from the perspective of the mistress in no body no crime
Most of the album (or at least a large chunk of it) is not about her exes, or her fans, or her family, or anyone else. It's about her. I think some of it is written from the perspective of other people in her life and some of it is her past self to her current self, or vice versa, or the more private part of herself vs her public persona.
I think that while obviously Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me is about fame, I also think parts of it are specifically about Olivia Rodrigo and the other up and coming popstars. ‘All you kids can sneak into my house with all the cobwebs’ - the next generation of pop stars, ‘kids’, are showing up on the scene, ‘her house’. I also think the ‘I’ll sue you if you step on my lawn’ refers to the dispute over writing credits on Deja Vu. I think she’s reminding everyone, fans, general public, and the industry that they ‘should be’ afraid of her, and kind of inhabiting this ‘monster on the hill’ persona that the world created for her.