Holy Shit. The Implications Of Her Playing A Song About Her Invisible Love (they Just See Right Through

sometimes i think people on the fence should ask themselves, what’s stopping you from seeing how possible kaylor is? if the answer is that it would mean taylor won’t come out in the way you’d hoped or that she’s not dating the way that you’d like or the person that you’d like, or it conflicts with your internet friendships or Take consistency well i dunno about everybody else but i think that’s more of a you problem than a kaylor problem

Lover's second surprise song

Dear 🎃 - can you give us a hint if Karlie is still part of Taylor's story?

I think their messages about two princesses 👸 👸 makes that pretty clear.

@9w1ft alert alert 🚨 👁️ 🚨

picture me fingers deep in your ex wife or whatever it was that taylor swift said

folklore is the pivot point between Taylor Swift the pop star and Taylor Swift the legend. Before folklore her career had been in an objective "decline", much in line with consumption changes in the industry, with her seeing slowly diminishing success with each successive single and album she'd released after 1989, and that trend halted and reversed with folklore. US pop radio was increasingly reluctant to engage with her singles unless they were perfectly suited to the zeitgeist of the time, like Delicate was in 2018. Her streaming numbers were not terrible, but she was consistently getting out-streamed by the top new names in the industry, much of which was due to her catalogue being absent from platforms which put her on the backfoot. If she had been following a normal pop star path, then that would've been fine and it would've the beginning of her fade from the A-list. Instead, she took a hard left turn and put out folklore. It did unexpectedly massive numbers (including setting the record for the most streamed female album in the first 24 hours, which she broke two more times after that), sure, but what made folklore different was the entire narrative surrounding it. Taylor was no longer just a 'pop star', she was an indie rocker, and for the first time in a very long time, she was at the center of the celebrity discussion because of her music, and not just as a very famous person taking swings at Kanye or jet-setting with Tom. The pitchfork-indie rock dad demographic, who are the ones in the position of deciding which music is legitimate art and not just "pop music" fawned over folklore, and shifted the narrative from 'Taylor makes pop songs' to 'Taylor makes good songs' in communities that would've never seen the light otherwise. Folklore gave Taylor a massive career-jolting shock, and it set her on the path she's currently following.

In the years since, Taylor has clawed her way back to the very very top of the music industry, and with each release she widens the gap between her and everyone below her. Yes, evermore and Fearless TV didn't have the most stellar numbers, they did continue to develop her career arc in an incredibly positive way. Evermore proved to everyone with a toe in the industry that folklore wasn't a fluke, that she was capable of making "artful" music that would satisfy both pretentious indie rockers and her own fans at the same time. Fearless TV proved that Scooter had royally fucked up in his calculus when buying Big Machine, and that Scott Borchetta had royally fucked up when he assumed Taylor's career had peaked and he'd made all the money there was. It proved to executives that the re-recording project could be a success and that she could convince people to seek out the new versions, which is something we take for granted now (just look at the daily streams of each original album versus its re-recording), but was not a guarantee back then. Plus, it was Fearless TV that really lit the match and set the fire under her back catalogue, and got tens of thousands of people who probably had never listened to the original Fearless to go back and listen to her other albums from that era. The numbers weren't huge then, but that was when casual fans and locals started to re-evaluate the depths of her back catalogue. Obviously, Red TV was another step in her career progression, where she proved that a re-recording could be more than just new versions of songs for people to stream in place of the originals. She turned Red TV into a full-fledged era with videos and talk shows, and that a re-recording was able to spawn a ten minute #1 hit that wasn't just driven by fan consumption. Red TV did also act as a catalyst for her massive catalogue growth, but it wasn't the start of it. Finally, Midnights and the Eras Tour have been the true peak of Taylor's career. She's outstreaming the next 4 most popular female acts on Spotify combined. She got an album debut so ludicrously large that it exceeded even the most optimistic of predictions by a significant degree. She was even able to repair her relationship with US radio and turned Anti-Hero into her biggest and most successful song on the Hot 100 since Shake It Off. Taylor can play the pop star game and get the pop star hits and have the pop star tour, but Taylor writes lyrics that appeal to indie rock dads, wields significant power on the indie/alt music charts, and is playing stadiums with crowds so big they're more in line the biggest rocker performances ever than they are with any other pop girl stadium tour. Taylor has moved so far beyond the pop star that she was at the start of the Lover era, thanks to the pivot that happened with folklore. She can be the pop star on the micro-scale, which is seen in how well Midnights is holding up as a current pop album, but she can also be the music legend on the macro-scale, as is seen by the 14 million+ people in line for her concert presale or the immense, immense popularity of her back catalogue that complements the demand for her new music. There's a reason people have started calling this SwiftMania 😉

"This is the rainiest rain show that ever rain showed, ever, ever, ever. Oh my god. We have every single person on the stage—is this going to work? It’ll be fine. I hope it works. It’ll be great.—all of my fellow, like, dancers and everybody else on the stage is just sort of like, ‘Oh my god,’ no one ever expects you’re going to basically perform like in a shower. It’s really very exciting. Yeah. Are you having a nice time too? So you know, you’re standing in the pouring rain with people, and you just kind of feel like this romantic sense of camaraderie. I was thinking about what song to play with you tonight and I was thinking, there’s this song from Midnights that I love so much, and I haven’t played it on this tour, or ever, so I figured, that could be fun to play with you. And I just—oh my gosh, this is insane—I kind of just feel like telling you, I don’t know, I have just never been this happy in my life, in all aspects of my life, ever before. And I just want to thank you for being a part of that. Like, you know, I don’t know, it’s not just the tour, it’s like. I don’t know, I just sort of feel like my life finally feels like it makes sense. And so I thought I’d play this song, which brings me a lot of happy memories."

— Taylor before playing Question...? (guitar) in Foxborough, MA on May 20th

so, this is gonna be their thing? 👀

Supporting her wife 😍...

🎃 Imagine this. You’re a selfish asshole. So much of your fear is your own. You wince at your cowardice like it is a gaping wound. You so often find yourself unable to meet your own eyes. You scramble into shadows like a black cat. Scared, even, of being scared. This is a moment where things shift. Your ship is docked too far out to sea. You’d swim to it, but the waters are infested with sharks. Your life raft is long deflated. Your team is cornered on the dock, surrounded by bad guys and bystanders. Each time they step forward, your crew is shuffled back, crashing waves and gnashing jaws behind you. You glare at the enemy protectively, blocking your beloved crew from view. The enemy twists a fluffy dandelion in their fingers, already a few florets taking off in the breeze. You whimper as you watch them go, and with a sneer of amusement the enemy offers you a deal. “If you jump into the water, we won’t lay a finger on anyone else. We won’t even take the rubies.” You step forward without hesitation, accepting the deal. The enemy just laughs. “Not YOU. Her.” Your lover steps out in front of you, ready to face the music. Ready to pay for your crimes. She was always the one who was ready. You were the one who was scared. The one who overstayed your welcome in this coastal town. The one who got everyone into this mess. And now the enemy who has chased you ‘round the seas finally has you cornered. And all they want is one final sacrifice. One final act of courage from the woman who has already displayed more than enough integrity. You kiss her goodbye. And step forward. “TAKE ME INSTEAD.” You assert. Not an offer. A demand. Lightning crackles in the sky, reflecting your emotions exactly. Your lover grabs your hand, yanking you back. Refusing to let you go. Not even to save herself. Not even to save the precious little gemstones nestled deep in her pocket. Just you. You tug against her grasp, mind made up. You are a selfish asshole, except for maybe just this once. To insure the safety of those you love, you would dive off the dock willingly. Ten times over and over. You would relish in the crunch of your bones between great white teeth. You have always craved destruction. Scrawled devil horns on photos of yourself. This is different. It has to be. The enemy accepts your deal, glee filling their eyes as if this is what they wanted all along. Perhaps it is. You are a coward, but you are not a fool. You make mistakes, but never the same one twice. You are not a hero. You never have been, and you never will be. You're a selfish asshole. But there are some people in this world worth breaking character for. And so in one swift motion, you replace the solid boards beneath your feet with rushing deep blue water. 🎃