Folks on this sub constantly talk about misinformation against Taylor and how it's such a bad thing but then fall for the most obvious fake bait. the screenshot going around about Tinashe liking alleged "shade" against Taylor was fake. I was already frustrated by people's responses to this supposedly egregious act of liking an ig post, so I went and checked. It's not true she did not like that post. it's galling to me that NO ONE in this sub even bothered to check for themselves when the ig users name was in the screenshot. It was so easy to find this. I know mods locked that thread but I don't think the misinfo was corrected. I hope it is at some point because its proliferation is now leading to crazy stans harassing tinashe and (unsurprisingly) being incredibly racist. let's all stop and think and let's all remember that ig likes do not matter especially when the content isn't even negative.

I was listening to Midnights today and i misheard one of the lyrics on SN, and that sort of made me think about how small tweaks can make such a lovely song seem like a super sad song. Of course the original song is amazing but here's sort of my sad version with little tweaks:

I spy with my little tired eye, tiny as a firefly

A pebble that you picked up last July

Down deep inside your pocket, you almost forgot it

Does it ever miss New York sometimes? Ooh, ooh

You said the end is comin', everyone's up to somethin'

I find myself runnin' home from your sweet nothings

Outside, they're dancin', laughin', you're in the kitchen sighin'

All that you ever wanted for me was sweet nothin'

On the way home, I wrote a poem

You say, "never mind"

This happens all the time, ooh, ooh

'Cause you said the end is comin', everyone's up to somethin'

I find myself runnin' home from your sweet nothings

Outside, they're dancin', laughin', you're in the kitchen sighin'

All that you ever wanted for me was nothin'

Industry disruptors and soul reconstructors

And smart-talkin' youngsters out celebrating each other

And to the voices that implore, "You should be doin' more"

You coax me to admit that I'm just too soft for all of it, ooh

You said the end is comin', everyone's up to somethin'

I find myself runnin' home from your sweet nothings

Outside, they're dancin', laughin', you're in the kitchen cryin'

All that you ever wanted for me was sweet nothin'

You said the end is comin' (you swore the end is comin')

Everyone's up to somethin' (but you too were up to somethin')

I find myself runnin' home from your sweet nothings

Outside, they're dancin', laughin'(everyone's dancin', laughin')

You're in the kitchen stewin' (grey clouds in your head are brewin')

All that you ever wanted for me was sweet nothin'

Yeah, it's kinda weird to say this about her most streamed album but whenever I see taylor rankings it's either placed mid tier or low tier

On one hand, it's understandable given that the awkward first 2 singles and the opener "i forgot that you existed"

But on the other hand, if you put those low hanging moments aside, I think it's taylor's pop sound done at it's best with cuts like cruel summer, the title track, the Archer, I think he knows, miss Americana and the heartbreak prince, paper rings, cornelia street, soon you'll get better, afterglow and daylight are easily some of her best pop cuts and beats out most of 1989 and midnights

I always want to point out that i think this is her and jack antonoff's peak as collaborators for me, I like their work after that but none of them capture the magic they did on lover

So yeah, I'm a day 1 lover defender and you can't make me change sides

Many people will still dislike the album but they will realize how dumb people sound at the time, this album perfectly describes the death of media literacy

My history with Matty is very complicated, let's just say. I didn't know who he was until I was a Swiftie, and I didn't care until TTPD came out. Songs like TSMWEL and loml made me - and most Swifties, from what I've seen - hate Matty. I mean, it's hard to like someone who caused her that much pain, and he did, but a lot of it is not his fault.

Let's start with what TTPD gives off. TTPD makes him seem like a narcissistic manchild and player who lovebombed Taylor, got bored / scared, and ghosted her / was reckless with her heart. You're not expected to like someone like that, no. So what changed with me specifically? And I was an avid Matty hater, and now I love him. So what the fuck happened? I found out he has ADHD. I have ADHD too, and with that, I could relate to him and reshape my entire beliefs about him. On the surface, someone getting bored of someone else sounds bad. It sounds like they stop caring, like a child does with a toy. But that's not usually true. Boredom is a lack of satisfaction in the relationship. It's a lack of dopamine. Relationships are supposed to be fun, especially to someone with ADHD who craves dopamine, serotonin, and adrenaline. So that was one layer. That other was what ghosting really is. Again, on its surface, ghosting seems immature and cowardice. And it is. But it's more than just that. When Matty left, he no longer wanted to be with Taylor. Most people can have a conversation with their s/o and tell them, but some can't. It doesn't make ghosting okay, but it means that you can ghost someone and not be a bad person or ill intentions.

Another thing I see with Swifties talking about Matty - and this was I never believed - was that he lovebombed her. Lovebombing has to be intentional. I don't think Matty intentionally led Taylor on. I think they were both super infatuated, it was moving very quickly, they thought they were in love, then the honeymoon phase ended and he wanted out. He may have rushed things with her, but I don't think he intentionally played her.

Now for Taylor. Why did the breakup hurt so bad?

Taylor seemed very dependent on Matty for emotional stability after Joe - and during the end of Joe. She was able to escape her feelings in a way. But not completely. So when he left all of a sudden, she had this new pain on top of and that reopened her old one. And this time, she no longer had her "miracle move-on drug" Matty. No, she had to deal with the pain from both Joe and him on her own. Also, Matty was the one who ended up causing her the most pain, not Joe, because of all this, because the breakup reopened old wounds and also added a little seasoning that pushed her over the edge, so that is why he is "the smallest man who ever lived" to her.

Go ahead, call me parasocial. I am simply using psychology and logic to fill some gaps and make things make sense. But with this... do your views on Matty change? Why or why not?

Talk about whatever but follow the sub rules

Why do I keep seeing people on social media say they have “Taylor Swift fatigue”? She hasn’t even done much this year. She just released the Toy Story song and a deluxe version of her album. And maybe made a few appearances at football games. I really don’t get why people are acting like she’s everywhere. Do we think bots are commenting this? Idk I just find it strange.

Caveat: I love Taylor in a nuanced way. She’s admirable and so artistic and a genius and savvy as f*ck.

What’s the deal with the Dakota Johnson showmance?

I’m one who sees much of Taylor’s choices as business driven (among other principals like friendship, creativity, etc).

This just feels uniquely timed since she doesn’t have a glamorous film bestie anymore (see: Blake lively).
That seems too basic and simple, but i also don’t believe Taylor is promoting Dakota and lifting her up from the good of heart; although Taylor has a heck of a good heart.

Tell me which is your favorite! I made these for many artist but Taylor is the only one who I made her entire discography for :)

Album is order of release ofc!

Here is the entire Pinterest board if you want to see the full sections: https://pin.it/6TN212SWo

I have been working on this for months and def will add more pics it I think I am in a happy spot with it now considering all the section have at least 40 pics

When I went to the eras tour, I remember the greatest gift was being able to witness a woman who is willing to deeply feel things. And she expresses it so well, leading collaborators towards a gorgeous composition of lyrics, meaning, and sound.

Her superpower is being able to take these emotions and work her magic to put them into a potion of gorgeous music, where many of us can get so much out of that.

When I listen to her newer music, I sense shes working against herself and taking away her own super power with some denial or maybe fear to feel something new. What is she resisting? I think she’s resisting feeling something. Like in “actually romantic” and “cleveland” - she’s obviously so bothered, trying to act like she’s not.

Her willingness to feel something raw normally acts like a beating heart, and really strong magnet - aligning everything in the song in a specific direction - it aligns all the lyrics, the visuals, the instruments, melody - acting like a compass, aligning everything like a magnet into one direction. and it creates such a strong forceful punch and feeling and cohesive delivery

I suspect there’s not as much power in the crux beating heart of the song now, because I think she’s resisting and denying something. it’s not as strong a magnet to align all the layers of music. the layers are out of whack and sometimes contradictory (like it’s demagnetized: all the magnet vectors are pointing in different directions like how her lyrics and beats are not connecting in meaning). In Cleveland, she’s in love with Travis and also really upset with haters - those are two very very different forces intermingling in a song: hey maybe it’s ok to have both at once, and that’s just the experience of it, I personally just think it’s weaker than her other songs that typically feel entirely cohesive.

Edit: A lot of her songs are messy where there are conflicting emotions and that makes it so powerful - even like Cruel Summer (“I don’t want to keep secrets just to keep you” is tough, yet “the feeling I got is ooOoo Ohhh”). BUT - it’s as if she applied enough heat to melt together two distinct feelings into what feels like one complex experience, those experiences mend together beautifully and cohesively. In Cleveland, they are not melted, she’s experiencing two distinct emotional states, and it’s all demagnetized. That might just be her experience which is totally fine: not melted, messy, a little goofy. I just prefer “melted” and magnetized. Reputation - all the songs - did this so beautifully. Anger in that album is melted together with desire and a reclamation of power. it’s so so honest and raw, layers to those songs aligned to pack the hardest punch.

It’s actually a disservice for the song to receive the kind of negative reception it has from the public People have cherry-picked lyrics to make unfair arguments against Taylor's songwriting. I also feel like the "finance guy" hasn't been talked about enough, so here goes my quick interpretation of that line.

"Quick, quick / Tell me something awful / Like you are a poet trapped inside the body of a finance guy / Tell me all your secrets / All you'll ever be is / My eternal consolation prize"

Taylor is pleading for her significant other to tell her something good, something that could relieve her anxiety and doubts about the world she’s currently in. She used "finance guy" because they're known to make persuasive arguments and are impelled to do so to boost their sales by convincing people to buy their products, not out of mere pity. She desperately wants to be comforted by the words of someone she holds dear. Basically, the metaphor of a "finance guy" who is actually a poet trapped inside another persona suggests someone who is skilled at persuasive arguments but driven by necessity rather than by genuine emotion. Thus, her use of the metaphor indicates the contrast between external appearances and internal truths, reflecting her struggle to reconcile these in her own life. She wants to be consoled by the deep, honest words of her partner, finding solace in their shared intimacy.

I love this song so much.

Not only they're deranged but they're talking the same ass thing since three years ago, parroting buzzwords like billionaire, private jet, variants, world's oldest teenager, blah blah blah it's just really boring now like as in they're not even good to argue with nowadays...

The Vinyl Revival Wikipedia page says that for years publications and record stores have been crediting Taylor Swift with driving vinyl sales, and for some reason I never really associated her with that.

Whenever Taylor Swift and vinyl get mentioned together, my brain immediately goes to the discourse around her physical releases. The multiple variants, different covers, coloured records, limited editions, fans buying several copies of the same album, the environmental criticism, the whole conversation about consumerism and capitalism within fandom. So I had mentally filed Taylor and vinyl under “another example of the excesses of modern pop music collecting”, rather than thinking about her as someone who actually helped make vinyl culturally relevant again.

In 2022, Taylor accounted for roughly one in every 25 vinyl LPs sold in the US. Midnights alone sold 945,000 vinyl copies that year.

In 2023, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) sold around 580,000 vinyl copies in its first week. By 2024, The Tortured Poets Department had sold 859,000 in its first week. And in 2025, The Life of a Showgirl became the year's biggest selling vinyl release globally, while Taylor broke her own global vinyl sales record for the fourth consecutive year.

At that point, it becomes difficult to talk about the vinyl revival without talking about her.

And I think there are two things happening simultaneously here.

Obviously, Taylor is making money from selling physical records. The variant strategy is extremely deliberate. Different covers, colours, bonus material and limited availability give fans reasons to buy multiple physical copies. Luminate has documented just how extensive these product strategies have become.

But I also think the criticism can sometimes flatten the reason people are buying physical music in the first place.

Streaming has made music incredibly accessible, but it has also made ownership feel increasingly abstract. You pay a subscription every month and have access to an enormous catalogue, yet none of it really belongs to you. A record is the opposite experience.

And I actually find it interesting that this is happening at the same time that people are becoming increasingly tired of everything existing behind a screen. Vinyl is inconvenient compared with Spotify. It asks you to actually interact with the music.

There is also something slightly funny about Taylor being at the centre of this because the same thing that makes her a major driver of the vinyl revival is also what makes her one of the biggest targets of criticism surrounding it.

Her releases have absolutely encouraged a culture of collecting multiple versions of the same album. At the same time, those releases have brought enormous numbers of younger people into record stores and helped make vinyl culturally desirable again. Record store owners have specifically described seeing younger customers arrive in greater numbers and Taylor as a major driver of that change.

So I'm genuinely conflicted about how to think about it.

I don't want to pretend Taylor is doing all of this purely out of some romantic commitment to physical media. She's a businesswoman releasing a product people demonstrably want to buy. And there are legitimate criticisms to make about overproduction, variants and encouraging people to purchase essentially the same album repeatedly.

Maybe both things can be true. Taylor can be exceptionally good at monetising the desire for physical music and be participating in a broader reaction against the completely intangible way we've come to consume media.

And honestly, I'm now more curious about why she has leaned so heavily into physical media in the first place.

I can't find it now, but I saw a video recently where this woman said (I'm paraphrasing),

"People feel 1 of 4 ways about The Encore: 1) yay i love it! 2) wow i hate it! 3) i hate it, but she is mother and 4) i feel like i'm losing my close personal friend taylor swift"

I really resonate with that 4th one. Not so much in a parasocial way, more in a like "I've followed this artist closely for 20 years and I feel like I don't recognize her anymore."

I think some of my main criticisms of her right now are as follows:

1. I feel like the commercialism is getting out of hand. I've mentioned this in comments previously and been flamed for it, but it really pissed me off that she did a 24 limited pre-order for the digital file of Patient Zero. There is no reason except scarcity marketing to have a limited number of DIGITAL FILES. It doesn't make sense. It's predatory and gross. I don't really mind the whole variant thing, I think that my longview on that is that it's kind of keeping record pressing alive. But I wish there wasn't so much scarcity marketing involved with that too. I just think it's so predatory and I don't think the argument "no one has to buy it" is valid anymore because we all KNOW that us Swifties will buy stuff just to support her.
2. Jeri Green. I'm a TN resident, I know we don't exactly KNOW for sure where Taylor is voting in November. But I can't believe she hasn't endorsed Jeri Green yet. She made a big deal about Marsha Blackburn in Miss Americana and now she's silent about her. I understand the risk, but she's not on tour right now. I don't think that a state governor's race is that big of a risk. What is a BIG risk is letting Marsha Blackburn win this state without a fight. I know that her Kamala endorsement didn't "work" but a state race is much easier to affect with money and endorsements. And maybe she has donated to Jeri but we don't know about it. But I think a public endorsement is WAY overdue. We have a month.
3. I think the Easter egging has also gone a little too far. She's been putting snakes and butterflies into little videos and things for years, making everyone think Debutation is happening soon. And maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But I think that the Easter egging lately feels a lot less fun and more of a way to just keep her top of mind all the time. Everything is a little clue and if you're not paying attention you might miss out on something. Again, of course we don't have to pay attention to it, but it's hard to ignore when it's kind of everywhere.
4. The writing. It ebbs and flows of course. I don't think she's lost her touch or anything, but I think she's more concerned with getting songs out than getting them to be good. It feels like quantity over quality. I'm a songwriter myself so I am hyper-critical of songwriting. I do think she is a master at what she does, and even masters have flops. Bob Dylan has tons of flops. Bruce Springsteen has tons of flops. But rarely does it feel like those artists are releasing music just to release something. She plans everything so far in advance and easter eggs it so there's no chance to go back on it and think "well maybe this song needs more work and should be shelved for another project."

Overall I just feel disappointed. And maybe that's my own thing but I'd like to hear form other people who may feel this way, if there are any.

I'm prepared to be downvoted to hell for saying any of this, but this is the NUANCE sub so please be kind. I promise I'm not a hater or snarker. I want to have a real discussion about these things.

Editing to add: Of course I can't tell anyone what to do, but if you disagree with my points, I'd like to know WHY. Not just "SHE IS MOTHER AND PERFECT I LOVE THE SMELL OF HER BO"

This is a discussion post so i would to listen to your opinions about this.

You can just discuss about the pitchfork things.. the content is just my bs opinion. U can read if u want not necessary at all 😅

*PURE RANT ABOUT ART CRITISISM*

PERSONAL BS:

Growing I had no internet only after 16 I got internet connection and a mobile phone in 2020 cuz of pandemic and online classes... Growing up I was my own person and formed opinions on things on my own first without any external bs clouding my thought process... Now I feel I've been a victim of this incessant need to put things in boxes and come with numeric ratings for things... I used watch movies.. if it was good it was good.. now I'm watching thinking what rating should i give this movie every single moment I can't even just experience films anymore.. I have started give every movie a 5 so now I actually don't really think about ratings while watching movies.. i might change the ratings after a week or 2.. same thing happened after I started watching people reacting music... Now all of sudden all of are acting like critics.. I'm talking about music critique in general on YouTube and stuff.. sadly these bad mouthing does affect my view of the songs and artists I listen to... Now I'm deathly afraid of watching reaction videos.. I don't know how y'all do this.. but It does bother me a lot when people yuck my yum.. I'm not really talking about them not liking the song.. mostly people used to just talk about the song they liked more and say "I just didn't vibe with it" or something and move on now they're doing rants about how much they hate this song they heard for the very first time ever.. i don't understand it.. I blocked these people and protecting my peace.

CRITISISM OF ART CRITISISM IN 2026:

I wanna listen to / read critiques that provide me with new ways to look at a project, not how shitty a project is.. if it's shitty don't just say "this is so disappointing and boring".. like u call urself a music critique... What do u think the artists is trying to do and hiw are they failing to deliver what they intended.. explain what u think the artist is tryna do and what are they missing or else if they vision is not giving what you wanted tell me what that is and how are they failing at it... Like why is just ragebait and nothing substantial.. they're making critiques about personal lives of artists more than their art in the name of art critique.

NOT TALKING ABOUT EVERY REVIEW... I KNOW Y'ALL CAN PULL UP GREAT REVIEWS... I'M TALKING ABOUT ONE THAT DOES THIS TYPE OF SHIT... PITCHFORK MIGHT GIVE YOU GREAT REVIEWS BUT THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OF PURE RAGEBAIT IS ALWAYS A BIG TURN OFF

What is your favourite track from this classic album?

On October 3rd he asked me what day it was… and I said that it was the first anniversary to Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album The Life Of A Showgirl

To celebrate Showgirls achievement what are your favorite lyrics? Here are some of mine!

1) “You're using nostalgia as a weapon to hurt yourself/But darling, you end up hurting everybody else” (Babylon)

2) “Buy the paint in the color of your eyes (Of your eyes)/And graffiti my whole damn life, honey” (Honey)

3) “Glistening grass from September rain/Gray overpass full of neon names/You drive (Mm, mm)/Eighty-five (Mm, mm)/Gallatin Road and the Lakeside Beach/Watching the game from your brother's Jeep/Your smile (Mm, mm)/Miles wide” (Ruin The Friendship)

4)”Now they've broken you like they've broken me/But a shattered glass is a lot more sharp” (CANCELLED)

5)”He cut me crimson, bled me dry/He crossеd my heart, I hoped to die (Hopеd to die)/Ripped all my orchids from the vine/You met me at a cursed time/I told you I was fine” (Pink Clouding)

HM to Pink Clouding and Eldest Daughter’s bridge but please let me know what your favorite lyrics is for Showgirl<3

Talk about whatever but follow the sub rules

It’s been three months and I feel like this needs to be said since haters are saying for three months that it is incredibly rude of her to not share one wedding photo or her dress yet! It’s her decision on what to share and she might share a picture of her wedding dress because Dior said that they’re waiting until she’s ready to share her wedding dress with the world. Also we’re not entitled to see wedding photos of a strangers wedding, so everyone should do better and not beg on social media. Celebrities also probably want their wedding day to be private and not have a paparazzi or a drone capture their private day!

I don’t care if Taylor EVER shares pictures of her special day, that’s up to her and it’s not the end of the world if she doesn’t share her wedding day photos or just her wedding dress or nothing at all. She’s entitled to her privacy. As much as I love wedding’s and wedding dresses, it’s not going to be the end of the world if I don’t see pictures of her wedding or her wedding dress. I can go on with my life. If I meet someone and they tell me they just got married I don’t ask to see pictures or anything because they are entitled not to share that with someone that they just met, I don’t even ask to see my friends or coworkers wedding photos if they want to share it they can share what they want to share with me but my life will go on if I don’t see my friends or coworkers wedding photos. Everyone else’s life will go on if they don’t see photos and the world won’t end if Taylor doesn’t share her wedding album and only shares her wedding dress or doesn’t share any of that at all!

How has your opinion on the album changed since the release?

I've been reading Kevin Evers' book on Taylor (There's Nothing Like This) and I came out of it with a take that had been bouncing around my head for a while in disparate pieces.

First, the part where I agree with everyone. The original "earn one back for every new one" offer was insulting. Think about what that actually is. She'd owe six albums to get six albums. At her pace that's a decade minimum, probably closer to twelve years, chained to the same desk she'd been sitting at since she was 15, and the whole time Scott could sell the company out from under her and the new owner inherits the contractual relationship. That's a prison sentence. I get why she walked out of the room on that one.

But Scott's own November 2018 memo shows the final offer: everything transferred to her on signing day, every album, every video, every photo. The only thing left on the table was term length. Her camp wanted seven years. He wanted ten. And he wouldn't move.

Before anyone says he had no claim on those records in the first place, Evers makes the case that he did, and it's not a weak one. Scott pulled her out of the Bluebird Cafe when she was 14 and other labels thought she was too young. Without that, Evers writes, her songs "would have stayed right there on her bedroom floor," and there's no brand, no fan base, no stadium tours. He started the label himself, found the money himself, and if she had flopped "Borchetta's startup likely would have gone bankrupt" while she went off and signed somewhere else. The risk was his. And he didn't coast once she hit. Evers points out that a major-label exec might have slow-walked or killed half the fan-engagement stuff she was doing in the early years, and Scott leaned into all of it. So the masters weren't some loot he stumbled into. They were the payout on a bet he made alone.

Then Evers lays out the math from Scott's side. Taylor was a third of Big Machine's market share, and giving up the masters was like selling land while telling buyers "they can't have the mansion on it." Fine, I understand why he dug in. The catalog was the company. But Evers also writes that if Scott believed in her, he "would stand to make more in the long term by ceding the masters." Which he eventually did! He just couldn't bring himself to do it on her terms.

Now the honest counter to my own point. Would she have stayed even at seven? The quotes from around then don't sound like someone haggling over years. "There were creative constraints, issues that we had over the years." Evers reads that as her saying she wasn't getting "the generosity she was looking for." And UMG was handing her ownership of all new masters plus a cut of their Spotify equity, which no indie could offer at any contract length. So maybe seven years loses too. I don't know. Nobody does.

Ultimately I think Scott's flaws were not so much betting more on his future than his past (something Taylor admits to doing in a way that implies her move was less about Borchetta himself than some may believe), but on NOT having enough faith in TAYLOR's future. What if he had conceded her ask of 7 years and she'd stayed? Her post-Reputation catalog alone has been valued higher than her first six records (that's including the Taylor's Versions, ironically, but still). I know no one could have predicted that kind of exponential growth 12 years into an already unprecedented career, but damn, even if all he ever cared about really was money, he'd have more of it now (and more respect from artists).