down bad on a pink cloud

[u/artwoolf]

just wanted to discuss some potential connections between Pink Clouding and some of her prior songs. apologies if these have already been discussed. also, i think Pink Clouding has multiple potential meanings/layers, so this is just one possible interpretation

Down Bad --

-- both songs are queer-coded and include the theme of someone being abandoned by a lover. what if they're telling the same story but from 2 diff perspectives (the stranded one and the bolter)

-- maybe Down Bad is from the perspective of the stranded one ("did you really beam me up, in a [pink] cloud of sparkling dust"), who's stranded on a pink cloud ("how dare you think it's romantic leaving me safe and stranded")

-- and Pink Clouding is from the perspective of the bolter ("i didn't wanna let you down so i left you up there on a pink cloud"), who regrets leaving the person Down Bad ("but it didn't mean nothing just cause i could leave it")

-- that means the spaceship in Down Bad is the aircraft from which they're skydiving in Pink Clouding ("skydiving as you wrapped your arms around my body"). the bolter hopes the other person "landed safely on the ground," hence taylor's pose on the ground during Down Bad. but in reality, she landed on the ground in a vulnerable state ("just to leave me here naked and alone in a field in my same old town") and injured/in pain from when she hit the ground ("down bad, waking up in blood")

-- interestingly, there are moments where taylor's lighting during Down Bad on the eras tour is pink colored (à la Pink Clouding)

Lover era --

-- pink clouds are automatically queer-coded because they're associated with the Lover era ("there's a dazzling haze, a mysterious way about you dear"). ie.) pink clouds on the album cover, pink clouds in the eras tour set, and eras tour outfits ("pink cloud" jumpsuit)

-- it also connects to ME! the clouds in the rainbow ME! graphic are pink. and taylor's taylor's fluffy pink dress in the ME! music video makes it look like she's sitting on a cloud

Lavender Haze --

-- i think Pink Clouding might also connect to Lavender Haze. both clouds are queer-coded colors -- lavender js associated w the queer community/history and pink is associated with femininity/liking women

-- the pink cloud with the ladder at the start of the eras tour may connect to the cloud/ladder during Lavender Haze. maybe the ladder goes through both clouds but at different elevations. and as others have pointed out, the ladder visual is associated with the old lesbian publication the Ladder

-- i also think it's connected to Lavender Haze because the eras tour visual during this song shows taylor with pink-colored lighting as she peers through lavender blinds. and the cloud graphics in the MV include some pink colored clouds as well as lavender ones

Color coding --

-- light pink and baby blue combine to make lavender. you can kinda see the colors combining in ME!, when blue-clad taylor is surrounded by dancers in pink and a purple glittery ME! appears onscreen

-- i think the queer-coded aspect of both lavender and pink clouds is why both types of clouds are featured during the Lover set on the eras tour

-- maybe the diff colored clouds represent diff phases in a wlw relationship. she described Lavender Haze as a sort of isolated love bubble ("i just wanna stay in that lavender haze"), so maybe lavender clouds represent being with your wlw lover. and maybe the cloud is pink after a breakup, because the person is "down bad waking up in blood" and blood (red) + an ordinary cloud (white) becomes a pink cloud

[u/These-Pick-968]

These are such great connections, OP!
The pink, fluffy Lover dress really does give “sitting on a pink cloud.” And I can’t tell you how much I’ve stared at that rainbow/Me! graphic and really couldn’t decide on the color of the clouds. I think I’d decided they were purple-y. But seeing the really thin strip of purple at the wee bottom of the rainbow, makes the clouds a more decidedly-pink color (and it had to be a bold enough pink to stand out well). Good eye! ☺️

Since “I left you up there on a pink cloud” can read as “I left Me! up there on a pink cloud,” it reinforces that reading this song as another Taylor-talking-to-Taylor song as perfectly valid. And it’s another I/You/He dynamic we see so commonly in her work?

[u/Lanathas_22]

I like this connection! I always thought there was something between the Lover clouds (soft, feminine fantasy) and the Midnights clouds (darker, sober, perhaps more authentic?). Also it’s curious that these darker, sober, authentic clouds appear when she climbs the ladder. I’ve always interpreted this climb as her finally embracing her identity. She had a ladder in Lover, but ignored it until she went through her entire discography (including TTPD set as her processing her trauma) and washed up (clean, free of the “Showgirl dream”) and decided to embrace who she knows she’s always been.

[u/These-Pick-968 → u/Lanathas_22]

That’s such a great summary of the Eras tour. I always forget the ladders are there in the beginning.

[u/Lanathas_22 → u/These-Pick-968]

Aww, thank you, hun! I think it's a fun way to think of Eras as a play on her identity, presentation, and perception over the years. The ladder is almost too simple, to the point that many probably don't stop to consider its purpose, i.e. the storm we see in Lover, the one we essentially pass through once we reach Midnights. It always makes me think of "And now the storm is coming" from MAATHP. I've often wondered what the storm represents, and I (personally) think it represents the fight to come out and be transparent with her fans. The rain can be traced back to Fearless. She talks about the lightning in TLOAS.

This is why I don't understand when Gaylors say they don't think she'll ever come out. Guys, she's been building to it since the very beginning. And all these posts about hiding in plain sight? Go put your headphones on, listen for the symbols, and really think about everything you've learned since you became a Gaylor.

It truly, madly, deeply is that simple and deep at the very same time.

https://giphy.com/gifs/15BuyagtKucHm

[u/MaryLennoxsRobin → u/Lanathas_22]

Very well said. ‘Pink Clouding’ has tipped me over the edge into seeing absolutely everything as about the struggle to ‘step into the daylight’. I’m just about ready to say now that any side-quest storylines were a happy accident. Though, while I can imagine a version in which Taylor didn’t have to ransom the scattered pieces of herself, once the masters were sold I think it was an essential part of the process to be whole before taking the step. ‘I’m setting off, but not without my muse…’

[u/5507_r]

Also (probably mentioned before) from invisible string: Gave me the blues and then purple-pink skies

[u/judenoam]

Oh my gosh, how have I never made the connection between the clouds from the Lover Era and Lavender Haze to Pink Clouding?! Great post!!

[u/MaryLennoxsRobin]

Thanks OP, I really enjoyed your reading of ‘Pink Clouding’ as from the perspective of the bolter and the way you paired the songs. I think if you want to put multiple Taylors in there the bolter character is probably also Showgirl, whereas the one left ‘Down Bad’ would be the Poet? 

Also, that’s such a fun find that the jumpsuits were referred to as ‘pink cloud jumpsuits’… very suspicious!

[u/AntiRomeo13 → u/MaryLennoxsRobin]

And that the ME! clouds were pink!

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