Taylor Swift is an American singer-songwriter who is known to control the music industry. Swift’s fans are regarded as the largest and most influential fan base, but what happens when they start playing detective?
Swift’s fans, known as Swifties, constantly follow her every step and search for ‘easter eggs’ in her works. With Swift re-releasing her albums and labeling them “(Taylor’s Version),” clowning has been at an all-time high. Clowning, in Swiftie terms, is when they are certain a new album will be coming out a certain day with flimsy evidence to prove it. While most of these hunches come out to be false, one has turned out to be true.
The “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” re-recording was announced on Aug. 9, 2023, and was released to the public on Oct. 27, 2023. Many Swifties had predicted this from the date itself. The date, 8/9, was the last concert date for the first leg of the US tour and was also the number “89.” During this concert, all of Swift’s outfits were light blue, hinting at the announcement. Hello Magazine states, “The most notable, viral theory was the fact that the last concert date was slated for August 9, aka 8/9.” Swifts fans are known to jump to outrageous conclusions, such as adding up random numbers to get a solution. “Plus, not only did the date represent “89,” it also marked eight years, nine months and 13 days, Taylor’s favorite number of course, since the original 1989 release date.”
In 2024, Swift arrived at the Grammy’s for her album titled “Midnights.” The morning of the Grammy’s, she altered her profile picture from the album cover of “Midnights” to a black and white version with no explanation. Swifties immediately jumped to conclusions and started preparing for the release date of “Reputation (Taylor’s Version).” However, this only came out to be false. While the hope for getting any Taylor’s Version was lost, a new album titled “The Tortured Poets Department” was announced.
Theories often require detailed searches in order to formulate them, but Swifties have taken this to a new level. Reputation has 15 tracks including, “Look What You Made Me Do,” “Delicate” and “…Ready For It?.” Among these tracks, the last one is titled “New Year’s Day” and is about spending New Year’s Day with a lover, cleaning up after a New Year’s party. Many Swifties theorized that Swift would release “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” on Jan. 1st, 2024 to get back at Kanye West. On Dec. 31, 2023, West’s album with Ty Dolla $ign was supposed to be released, but ended up being pushed to a further date. Swifties thought this would be a perfect chance to get back at West for everything he had done to Swift during the Reputation era. This did not end up happening, and Swifties are currently eagerly waiting for the re-release to be announced.
