Taylor Swift has become the queen of hidden messages. On the occasion of her new album Midnights, we decode the secret of her career.

Being a Taylor Swift fan is hard work, and Taylor doesn't make it easy. Since the beginning of her music career, the singer has constantly left pop culture Easter Eggs in her work to keep fans guessing. Whether it's hidden messages in lyric booklets or announcing a new album in advance.
"It's kind of a tradition we started a very long time ago," Swift told Jimmy Fallon of her own scavenger hunt. "I think the first time I started leaving cryptic clues in my music was when I was 14 or 15 - when I was putting together my first album."
Speaking about her debut album, the singer continued, "I wanted to make something that would encourage fans to read the lyrics, because my lyrics are what I'm most proud of, out of everything I do ... When I was a kid, I would read through CD booklets and obsess over reading the lyrics."

And Swift maintains a whole relationship of her own with her fans along the way: "I taught them to be like this," she told Entertainment Weekly in 2019 about Swifties' detective work. "I love that they like the cryptic hints. Because as long as they like it, I'll keep doing it. It feels fun. It feels mischievous and playful."
After Red (Taylor's version) broke two Spotify streaming records, the joy of deciphering her hidden clues has gone mainstream as more and more people speculate on what Swift might do next.

Fearless until 1989: Liner Messages in Lyric Booklets

While Swift ended this tradition during the Reputation era, she had a habit of hiding messages in her old work. In particular, she would hide liner notes in the lyrics of each of her songs in her CD booklets. From Fearless to Red, all her lyrics were written in lower case and the message could only be deciphered through the printed capital letters. For 1989, she did the opposite.
During these eras, Taylor Swift's dating life was often much more publicised than it is today. The singer even used her music to process her romances - and she did: from hidden messages to pointed lyrics. Some of her references were more obvious, as the liner message for "Should've Said No" just repeatedly said the name "Sam" and addressed a former boyfriend who had allegedly cheated on her.
Others were more subtle, like the liner note for "Last Kiss", which was "Forever and Always", a reference to a song title from her earlier album that was supposedly about Joe Jonas.

Music Video Messages

Swift stopped her hidden messages during the Reputation era, declaring in the album's prologue that she was sick of the gossip sites and "the men they can attribute to every song, as if inspiring music was as simple and basic as a paternity test".
When marketing for the Reputation album was in full swing, the music video for her lead single "Look What You Made Me Do" was full of Easter Eggs. Not giving interviews during this time, Swift said it was her way of communicating with fans and staying connected. "Literally the whole video is just an Easter Egg," she told Entertainment Weekly. There are thousands of Easter eggs. There are some that people haven't found yet. It's going to take decades for people to find them all." So this woman is trying to style herself a living mystery.

Folklore

One of Swift's biggest Easter Eggs came in the form of an Instagram post in April 2020, when she shared a photo of herself with the caption "Not much going on right now". As this was at the height of the pandemic, fans didn't consider it an Easter Egg at the time. Of course, when the singer announced that she would be releasing her eighth studio album, Folklore, everything was set.
 When the release of Folklore made fans figure out all their Easter Eggs, a big one was "William Bowery", who was named on two Folklore tracks and later on three for Evermore. Swifties quickly found out that "William Bowery" was a pseudonym for Swift's boyfriend Joe Alwyn, as his great-grandfather's name was William Alwyn, and was the Bowery Hotel where Swift and Alwyn had first dated in 2016. Swift confirmed William Bowery's identity in her Disney+ feature, mischievously saying that "William Bowery is Joe, as we know". Case solved!

Swift's song "Betty" serves as an Easter egg on its own, as it contains the names of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynold's daughters as characters for the love story she is writing about. As James and Inez were already known to the public as their names, Swifties assumed Betty was the name of their third daughter as the couple had not yet announced the name of their third child. Fans proved correct when Swift introduced the song to country radio in August 2020, saying, "I named all the characters in this story after my friends' kids."
Of course, all the folk Easter Eggs weren't enough for Miss Swift when she surprisingly released her ninth studio album, Evermore, just four months later. And it definitely came with its share of mysteries.
In November 2020, Swift recycled her old caption "Not much going on right now" in a new Instagram post. She also posted photos from an Entertainment Weekly photoshoot and captioned it "tis the damn season," which is now known to be the title on the album. The day before Swift announced the album, the singer added nine tree emojis to a tweet in honour of her ninth album.

Fearless, Red and .... Speak Now (Taylors Version)?

Wenn wir dachten, 2020 sei das Jahr von Taylor Swift, haben wir uns definitiv geirrt. Der Superstar hat 2021 mit dem Beginn ihrer <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/why-is-taylor-swift-re-recording-old-albums" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Neuver&ouml;ffentlichungen</a> im Sturm erobert. Beginnend mit der Ank&uuml;ndigung von Fearless (Taylor&rsquo;s Version) ver&ouml;ffentlichte die S&auml;ngerin ein mit Anagrammen gef&uuml;lltes Video aus &bdquo;The Vault&ldquo;, das sich auf alle ihre unver&ouml;ffentlichten Songs des Albums bezog.&nbsp; 
Wenn der Teufel hart arbeitet, arbeiten Swifties h&auml;rter und schneller, da es den Fans gelang, die Titel der sechs neuen Vault-Tracks und den Namen eines ihrer Mitarbeiter, Keith Urban, zu entschl&uuml;sseln, der in einem Song vorkommt.

Shortly after the re-release of Fearless came her announcement for Red (Taylor's version), which took the whole world by storm. And, like all her albums, it came with a whirlwind of Easter Eggs and secret messages. As 2022 approaches the horizon, fans have been constantly speculating on what album she will release next, and social media is convinced that Speak Now (Taylor's Version) will make an appearance soon due to the Easter Eggs delivered with Red.
When Swift released a music video for her Vault track "I Bet You Think About Me," fans noted that the marriage-focused storyline resembles Speak Now's title track, in which Swift crashes a wedding. Another huge mystery came on the release day of Red (Taylor's Version), where she thanked fans for continuing to support her.

Nevertheless, Swift seems to have smuggled a message into her post when she said: "Red will be mine again soon, but it's always been ours." This really caught the eye of fans, as "Mine" and "Ours" are both song titles from the 2010 album.
The singer's love of Easter eggs makes every detail seem like a clue, and that's where Swiftie's thoughts went when going through her merch shop. There was one item she cleverly set at $20.10, which fans speculate points to the year Speak Now came out. Not only that, but the font matches the purple colour scheme of the album's original cover.
As both 2020 and 2021 were years full of cryptic messages and beautiful love songs from Swift herself, we can only hope that 2022 continues to bring us more.

Midnights

With the new album, the pop megastar becomes unpredictable. While fans speculated about the re-release of her past albums, no one seemed to waste a thought on hearing new music soon. Instead of announcing the re-release of "1989" or "Reputation (Taylor's Version)", the singer unceremoniously revealed the release of her tenth studio album "Midnights" at the MTV VMAs 2022 after taking home a VMA in the category for "best direction".&nbsp;
Swift has seemed to leave Easter Eggs in her wake over the past few months. A few times she had referenced the time MItternight, but fans were sure she was referring to her hit song "Style" from the 1989 album - how wrong they were.
In early May, in an Instagram post promoting "This Love (Taylor's Version)" for the series " The Summer I Turned Pretty", Swift used an interesting stylistic choice to highlight the song's midnight release.

A few days ago, her new album Midnights was released, which has 13 tracks. The lucky number of the singer with a cat fancy. Of course, it immediately shot up all the charts. Especially the video of the first single "Bejeweled" sounds like Swift as we know her. Anti-Hero" is in the same vein.
Like any other music video, Swift left some cryptic messages that viewers quickly noticed. At the beginning of the video, she reaches for a phone, representing the album, which is a journey into her past. Swifties immediately linked the scene as a reference to the lyrics "I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now" from her Reputation era.
The search then went further: when she was seen playing a guitar that looked suspiciously similar to the one from her Fearless tour. The funeral scene caused even more questions when the names Meredith, Olivia and Benjamin were discovered in the will - which happen to be the names of her cats.

Taylor Swift's Musical Easter Egg Hunt: A Timeline

Recommended posts for you

Business & Tech

Magazines: Navigating the Digital Era with Timeless Influence

Fashion

Feature Interview: VV Hanwei Su - The Architect of Fashion Empowerment

Lifestyle

How to Navigate Secrets 'in Love'

Business & Tech

Tezman Holding turns 76 & launches Nutrafine Health! Pioneering a new path in wellness

Fashion

Fashion Editorial: Eclectic Elegance

Beauty

Unlock the Secret to Silky Skin: 7 Tips for Your Skin Glow-Up

Health

SCULPT, SWEAT & STRETCH: Vienna's 8 Best Workout Studios

Astrology

April Horoscope: Heart vs Brain - Which Will Guide Your Path?