Taylor Swift’s music for the upcoming film “Where the Crawdads Sing” has stirred up rumors among Swifties. PHOTO CREDIT: Rolling Stone
As any Swiftie may know, the silence from Taylor Swift and her team has been broken for 2022.
Swift announced on March 22 that she has worked on music for the movie “Where the Crawdads Sing,” along with another recent announcement that she is receiving an honorary doctorate degree in fine arts from New York University.
Swifties are now more than ever conspiring about what will come next from Swift. If you are new to her fanbase and didn’t already know, Swift leaves easter eggs for her fans to figure out puzzles of projects she is working on or ones that we can expect.
When her “Red (Taylor’s Version)” dropped, Swift said in an interview with Jimmy Fallon that she wonders if she can start hinting at things three years in advance. This naturally made Swifties wonder what the next three years will look like and some have connected hints from the past three years.
Some common conspiracies we are seeing from the Swift universe are debates on what “(Taylor’s Version)” is coming next or if the album “Karma” is real.
(Taylor’s Version): if you are living under a rock and are not aware, Swift is re-recording all her old albums. This is because a man named Scooter Braun bought out the label she was signed with and refused to sell the rights to her music back to her.
So far, we have gotten “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version).” With the release dates being about six months out from each other, fans are dying to know which re-recording is coming next.
With the recent announcement of Harry Styles’s third solo album “Harry’s House” and his single “As It Was” out on April 1, Swifties are hoping for an announcement of the re-recording of “1989.”
If “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” were to come out, it would fit well with the sound of Styles’ new album, which, like “1989,” gains inspiration from synth 80’s pop.
There have already been easter eggs pointing to “1989” as the next re-recording to come out. For example, Swift used the words “fall down a rabbit hole” and “we’re all mad here” in an interview with Fallon seeming to hint at her song “Wonderland” off of “1989.”
Similarly, her book from the “All Too Well” short film looks similar to the cover of the original “Alice in Wonderland” book.
However, a lot of other Swifties believe “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” is coming next. This is because her albums “Speak Now” and “Red” are closely related.
In Swift’s “The Man” music video off of her “Lover” album, there’s a wall with graffiti of all her album names in a circle. If you follow the circle it almost seems like it was hinting at the re-recording all along. First was “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” then came “Red (Taylor’s Version).” What makes people believe “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” is coming next is that it is right below “Red” on the graffiti wall.
While I’m personally more convinced that “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” is next, I see a correlation to thinking “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” is next, and that “Karma” is real.
“Karma” is an album that Swifties have discussed for a long time. No, Swift doesn’t have an album named “Karma,” however, many people believe that when she disappeared for a year after the Kim and Kanye incident in 2016, her sixth studio album was scrapped.
In 2016, Swifties didn’t get an album. This was unusual because Swift had released an album every two years like clockwork since her debut in 2006. Many in the fanbase believe that there was an album that was planned to be released in 2016 that was scrapped. Instead, “Reputation” was written and released in 2017.
Swift since then has teased here and there that fans are right. And we hope to hear it emerge one day.
If anyone remembers when Swift cut her hair into a blunt bob, went platinum blonde and started dressing in more 90’s grunge attire all around the time in 2016. Some people think this was hinting at the edgy sound of “Reputation,” and others think it was the original aesthetic to her lost album we named “Karma.”
Swift has been known to change her sound and aesthetic with the eras of her albums, so a lot of people think that her lost album was paying homage to the 90s rock grunge sound.
This was also hinted at through some of her last performances on the “1989” world tour with the rock version of “I Knew You Were Trouble” and “We Are Never Getting Back Together.”
We also get a hint that this album was real in the “71 Questions with Vogue” video that she appeared in. Near the end of the video, she looks into the camera and says “Karma is real” in response to the question “what is one thing you wish people knew.”
The final glaring piece of evidence people have about the lost album is back in “The Man” music video.
On the graffiti wall, we see all the names of her albums. Then we see “Karma” written in orange. This really makes people believe that this album exists.
Overall, Swift loves to play games with her fans, and it’s a fun thing to get into if you like her music. Everything in this article is just a theory, and not necessarily true.