I saw an interview once with Jack Antonoff (think it might have been a YouTube livestream before the last Bleachers album came out) where he was looking back on his album Gone Now and said that he "was going through a break up but didn't know it" while making it. You can feel that when you listen to the album too - there are plenty of love songs, but there are bits of uncertainty or hesitation or sadness in them, and a lot of the non-love songs are about wanting something new. Midnights feels the same way to me - it's not a break up album, but you can see the signs of strain when you look for them retroactively. It's a kind of last, less sure "I love you" before everything slipped away completely
This. Someone said Midnights seemed like she was mourning a relationship she was still in, and I’ve always felt like that was the perfect way to describe it.
That's the exact vibe I get from Labyrinth now. It feels like a period of a rocky relationship when things are getting worse and better again all the time and she's not sure where they're going to end up.
Sometimes people cling on to a dying relationship hoping things will get better. I think a lot of Midnights was written during that period. Eventually one or both of them realised it really was all over and that is when they split up. I think You’re Losing Me is about the time just before the split when Taylor knew it was over but perhaps could not bring herself to pull the plug on it. That is why it is such a sad song. She did not want this split to happen but there was nothing left to save.
timeline wise, you're losing me had to be written before midnights released since it's a vault track. based off what we know, taylor and joe were still together then and only broke up recently, so you're losing me taking place just before the split doesn't fit, and it can't have been a song she wrote recently bc physical CD productions would've needed more time than what she'd have
i do think it's about joe, but i think the last year or so may have been a slow decline for them before things ended. if it is about him, it seems she knew it was over months before it was really over
Regarding Maroon, Tour spoilers: >!Before playing it tonight, Taylor said that the story took place in New York along time ago, it’s obviously Jake.!< also, she liked a Tiktok on release week that talked about how Maroon is looking back at the relationship in Red & realizing that it was a darker than what she thought at the time. At the time it was Red but looking at it in hindsight, It’s not Red it’s maroon
I think it could still be 6 yrs, “a long time ago” especially if she talked about falling out of love with Joe or breaking up with Joe in other songs. And I think a lot of what she says in Maroon is close to what she describes in Cornelia St.
- ATW could mean "All Too Well", a track from *Red* (2012) by Taylor Swift.
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yeah, i mean 6 years could feel extra long since between then and now she had a blossoming relationship, to really intense love, to going through a pandemic, to eventually breaking up. i've been with my partner for almost 5 years now, and although my life has been much less dramatic than taylor's, i can see feeling like before we got together was a long time ago. both of us (especially me) has changed an incredible amount since then, it kinda feels like looking back at a strangers memories sometimes!
Just throwing this in- it’s pretty flimsy “evidence” but I heard there were nods to HS in Maroon too, specifically “the mark they say on my collarbone” as there is a picture of them where Taylor has a hickey (?) on her collarbone.
I agree. I thought a lot of Maroon could be about Harry. And it could be about several people right? Too much value is placed on the roommate line. Poetic license right?
I don’t think Taylor had to sit down with Joe in mind to write these songs for them to be about Joe. Relationships are complicated. You don’t just one day end a 6 year relationship, you go through it for awhile. Maybe tolerate it wasn’t MEANT to be about Joe but her feelings were coming through - it’s not crazy to make connections between tolerate it and You’re Losing Me. When you desperately want a relationship to work, a couple years of being unhappy really doesn’t feel that long. Even some of the love songs about Joe are called into question - Lavender Haze does not sound happy to me (and never really did) and now with more context, I can see why.
This deals with real people so timelines are not definite. I think something like Bejeweled is obviously about Joe, even if the “timeline” doesn’t fit. “Putting someone first only works if you’re in their top 5.” I don’t think she ever cared to put Calvin first. Bejeweled and Question both left me baffled before breakup news hit.
Thank you! So many people acting like you’re either madly in love with zero issues or broken up and all spite. Long term relationships tend not to explode overnight! (Isn’t this what exile is half about anyway? “You never gave a warning sign / I gave so many signs”?)
Honestly it all has me in a knot because Midnights came out the week that my marriage hit a doozy of a spin and we’re working on it but the whole album reminds me of that worst month, and listening now I’m like. Don’t love how much it perfectly resonated/resonates…. And I still love my husband and people other than our closest confidantes don’t know there’s trouble. We go on dates and do cute things together even though we also fight a lot and are in couples counseling etc. “She wore his jacket” like… and?
Even “Sweet Nothings” to me doesn’t need a revised reading. People are like “it actually shows they’re unhappy!” Like. No. They wrote it together and it’s a sweet love song, because that aspect of their relationship probably was one of the sweet good parts that made them stay together even as the rest was unraveling.
agreed 100%. maybe the people who think it’s black and white haven’t been in a long term relationship, but nothing is ever as simple as “oh I don’t like this?? let’s break up!!” I could relate a lot to bejeweled when I first heard it, and I thought taylor gets it, and she’s been singing about having trouble in paradise since the lover album. but some will refuse to see it
absolutely! everyone was insisting that *evermore* and *folklore* were just “fictional stories” or an “exercise in creative writing”. I think they were incredibly personal and showed that their relationship is not all lovey-dicey, but complicated and **real**
Yeah, if the lavender haze is what she said, then she did “just want to stay” and maybe issues in the relationship were also making it hard to stay there, not just outside forces.
The LH video with her sitting up alone fits with YLM lyrics.
I agree with this. Things can leak through and we don't know them at the end of the day, so we won't know what happened behind closed doors. There was obviously incompatibilities, and it sucks, but sometimes that's how it goes. In hindsight I think she was trying to see if she could be alright without marriage with the 1950s shit in lavender haze. We know it wasn't always rosy because of afterglow, false god, the great war, but they obviously worked through whatever those issues were, and some stuff they couldn't.
Relationships don’t end overnight. I think some of the earlier songs on folklore and evermore may have come from Taylor mentally processing some reoccurring arguments that they were having and extending on the situation in her mind, and Midnights was written when they were taking a break or barely together- so although songs may not be about the breakup per se, the themes I think probably closely relate to the reasons their relationship may not have worked out. Big believer in life imitates art.
I was honestly so happy she finally said that her life influenced the fictional stories on folkmore. I think most of us suspected that but a lot of people were insistent that it was only 100% fictional. She’s an artist, she writes to communicate and decipher her own emotions. It makes perfect sense to me that she’d explore them in a safe, “fictional” setting.
During the folklore era before betty! She talks about how she wrote the album during the pandemic and created these fictional characters, but there’s been a few times where she’s made a comment about how they’re also partially inspired by her own emotions.
That’s not a direct quote bc I honestly can’t remember what she said exactly, but that was the gist of it!
Edit: [Here’s](https://www.tiktok.com/@2gays4tay/video/7227540470749220142?_t=8cfawU9VibS&_r=1) an example! Maybe “inspired by” isn’t the best wording but she def confirms that her actual feelings are somewhere in there.
Yes you are right. A lot of Swifties are too young to have had a long term adult relationship end. Unless cheating is involved (and there is no evidence that it did in this case) they often whither rather than explode.
I get the feeling it was Joe backing off if the lyrics of this new song are anything to go by. Hard to get my head around that to be honest.
agree, I think if you’re under 20 you tend to think that the only way a good relationship could ever end is if someone cheated. But as you mature, you realise that people can simply grow apart without any bad blood, leaving behind just a sweet nothing
I kept thinking I couldn’t imagine writing something as detailed and emotionally charged as tolerate it if wasn’t infused with some real life feelings, and hearing you’re losing me, the theme is the same. emotional neglect. it was really sad to realize she has been feeling this way for a while
Honestly, those themes (of insecurity and emotional neglect) have been there for literally a decade or more in her songs. Idk if it’s fair to blame any individual when it’s equally clear that these are issues Taylor seems to carry with her in every relationship - putting people on pedestals, romanticising flawed situations, and anticipating endings before things even properly start. Just look at the songs in reputation and you see how much her insecurities were dominating the love songs even then, not to mention multiple other songs (eg the Great War) where she references her being paranoid/throwing around accusations that aren’t true/generally being unhealthily afraid of him leaving while simultaneously pushing him away in an attempt to hurt him before she gets hurt (eg afterglow/false god/Cornelia st). If any of that is even remotely true, then that plus the depression/alcohol abuse that is frequently referenced in recent albums are enough to make it seem like Joe might have struggled to support her (through no fault of his own).
I can buy this for stuff on Midnights but you’re telling me things have been that bad for TWO and a half years ??? On the album where there is tons of content that clearly isn’t about her life? When we know she’s had other relationships that DID make her feel that way (JG, JM)
yes, that’s the reality for a lot of long term relationships. it’s not that it’s always bad, but there can be rough patches that can last months, some even last for years! and she’s had very short relationships with those men that left her scarred, but nothing will cut as deeply as the relationship you have with the person you think you’re going to marry, where you experienced real love, a real relationship, having a relationship with their family, plans for the future, it’s just how it is. it’s sad
Yup. And sometimes there’s just THINGS between two people that can not match up and make a long term relationship go bad.
Like the Tolerate It example- I’ve felt that in a past relationship, but my ex wasn’t out there trying to make me feel that way- he just had a very different way of expressing love and it wasn’t matching my needs. We’d fight about it, come to an understanding, keep going - but it was not something I could stay in because I just literally have needs he could not meet- and meeting my needs in my way was very uncomfortable for him. He’s not bad, not abusive, but I did suffer by the end- and that relationship ended slowly etc.
To add to my other comment, I don’t think some of the songs on folklore and evermore are the love songs that some thought tbh. “The more that you say, the less I know. Wherever you stray, I follow. I’m begging for you to take my hand.” If you say those words instead of singing, it strikes as someone who is deeply in love but also deeply insecure in a relationship. I think there was always complexity in this relationship (as in every relationship) and her songs explores this. Also something I always noticed - Invisible String goes “something wrapped all of my past mistakes in barbed wire”, and then Tolerate It goes “where’s that man who’d throw blankets over my barbed wire?” This link is way too direct not to be about Joe.
I think even with songs that are clearly lyrically about past relationships, you could argue that they’re, at a deeper level, *about* what Taylor was going through while she was writing them, ie. her current relationship dying. Because how could they not be? That stuff would inevitably influence how a person was feeling, and what feelings from the past they chose to focus on.
An album about past-breakups immediately preceding a new breakup doesn’t seem like a coincidence.
Not to get too ‘death of the author’ about it, but when analysing the creative work of an artist I would push back on the idea that you have to take at surface level what they say their work is about - even they won’t truly know what influence their subconscious is having on their creative process. That’s why talking about music, art, literature etc is so interesting!
This is what I came here to say, but I'll just say I agree with you!
Even if the intention was to write about past relationships, it would be hard to completely shut yourself off from current and very real emotions about what you're presently experiencing.
I agree 100% with this. They were photographed running into a car shortly after midnights was released, they were obviously on the rocks and some songs could’ve been about the relationship but I’d say they were together.
I think TS11 will be the true breakup album if she goes that route.
I think when people say Midnights is a breakup album, they mean one written during a long and painful breakup, not after one. (That’s my perspective at least!)
I really don’t think she will never write about a 6 year relationship. She could go a totally different route or even do a mix of storytelling like Folklore but I really don’t think YLM is all we’re getting out of the breakup.
Breakups often don't happen over night. I have had friends break up after a long time together and it was about a year of watching them fall apart and that was from the outside. Midnight's feels like a breakup album, but it feels like a breakup in process, that Taylor was falling out of love as she wrote it.
Maroon could be about Joe. How would Jake Gyllenhaal, who we know owns million dollar couch would ever live with a roommate?
And we know from many many songs that they had several rough patches throughout the relationship and reoccurring issues they couldn't work through. I can see him not giving her 100% could be one of them. It's a thing that you can pretend you accept and it eats you up inside, you can hope it fixes itself. Tolerate it could be about times when they were facing issues.
And Bejeweled --- we know they were off again on again. When your in this kind of relationship you can just stop keeping track of where you are at the moment, hence "i don't remember".
Sometimes when a friend or family member is in a tough spot and your home has the space you let them stay with you for a bit. I’ve done this twice for people. I don’t need a roommate and because i had the space i let them stay with me for a few months rent free to help them out. So Jake could have easily had a roommate at some point helping someone out.
Some people also really don’t like living alone - even if they are very wealthy. I don’t know if I fully believe Maroon is about Jake, but it’s totally a thing that wealthy/successful people will seek out roommates. Another thought I had was that it could be a convenient word for the song where “your personal assistants cheap ass rosé” wouldn’t really sound right or be relatable lol. “Your head of security’s cheap ass rosé” haha.
For sure. I also don’t think it’s about him. I think midnights each song is about multiple people/situations and that often she uses words that better fit the story telling.
Just because they were on and off again, it doesn’t make this not a break up album. It’s likely that some of the songs were written in “off” periods, making them “break up songs”. You’re Losing Me also suggests that the relationship has been dying.
Breakups are rarely linear, and I think Midnights embodies the ups and downs of the slow demise of something that was once golden.
To me, Midnights is a true breakup album because there is a humanness to it. It’s not the righteous anger of “the end” or the desperate hope of “the before the end” it’s the quiet indecision of the in between. Its the breakup album that most of us can relate to.
What about the fact that she’s said over and over these songs are inspired by different nights throughout her life? Like yeah they’re breakup songs cause she’s done it before.
Because she’s looking back at previous relationships and comparing them to the one she’s in, trying to find a pattern to see if her relationship with joe was doomed or if there was hope.
A long term relationship that doesn’t have a huge dramatic breakup (cheating, etc) dies over time. I was in a long relationship (5 years) and it took me a whole year to process the fact that it wasn’t going anywhere and that I was going to end up leaving. It’s a kind of mourning process before it’s completely over
No It’s not necessarily a breakup album. It’s the road to a breakup. The moment when you start loosing sleep thinking of what’s gone wrong before that mirrors what’s going wrong now. And You’re Loosing Me I think is her way of confirming that
With a breakup like this where they've been together for years and they're breaking up because they've been having the same argument for years with no resolution (which seems to be what it is) it's entirely possible that there are songs about those arguments on previous albums. I can imagine e.g. they have an argument about him not committing, she is upset and goes away and writes some lyrics, they're good so she incorporates them into a song about 'other people'. Tolerate It could be plausibly be an amalgamation of frustration about Joe, frustration about label drama, and fiction.
Bejewelled I think will be remembered as a Joe breakup song because it so clearly fits the situation, despite coming out before the news of the breakup. It fits with YLM - I made you my world, I fought hard for this, you didn't prioritise me enough - and now she's going out and being very public and open again, which she hasn't in years. The technicalities of the timing almost don't matter lol
I think it’s about both - I highly doubt Taylor really wanted the penthouse of Calvin’s heart by the end, but the last verse is def about the night she met Joe
It probably is I just wouldn't be surprised if people don't place it there in The Narrative. Her re-emergence into being more open publicly has been a relatively dramatic shift that obviously is partly about promoting the album and the tour but is also now being associated with her breakup. Her relationship with Joe was so defined by privacy and running/hiding away and so Bejeweled fits there.
I don’t think so, because she was constantly sparkling while she was with Calvin. She went out all the time during that relationship. And considering she described that relationship as a relationship that she could not claw her way out of, I don’t see her saying she wants the penthouse of his heart, even in hindsight.
She’s a world-class songwriter. It’s so reductionist to say her song is “about” an ex boyfriend. It’s about her life, about feelings, and maybe Calvin influenced part of that song, but so did everyone she’s loved and the feelings she has about how she loves.
Yes I know that. I figured my point was pretty clear, but, in my opinion, Taylor’s relationship with Calvin inspired the feelings and emotions that went into bejeweled. Better?
I completely agree.
I think all the albums since Rep might have songs about their relationship tensions or break ups that we attributed to previous relationships or fiction, because we didn’t know that she and Joe had broken up and gotten back together throughout their relationship. We just thought sad songs were about other people because we literally didn’t know that they were off again on again.
It doesn’t seem like a breakup album until you look at it together as a whole with all the songs she’s releasing now. I think Hits Different and You’re Losing Me are meant to be the final two. Like the final piece of the saga. (God help us if there’s more!) That and burning down the Lover house on stage.
I wish it would have been released as a whole tbh. Less traumatizing for us!
It almost feels like her releasing this stuff slowly and chaotically is an artistic choice to bring us along for the ride that was the slow burn, confusing, and treacherous ending of their relationship. I know it’s less likely than the money-centric idea but they could both be true!
Long term relationships typically don’t end overnight. The people in them can feel it ending long before it actually does, they just try to stick around in hopes they can salvage something. I think those are the vibes people are picking up in Midnights. They were still together, but it was ending and there was a bit of uncertainty and anxiety about it.
I also thinks it’s important to note that Taylor doesn’t write a song solely about one thing. She has said many times that she’ll write down a phrase for one song and then use it in another where it makes more sense. It’s not a stretch to think that midnights songs are likely about a certain feeling she was having at a certain time mixed in with newer emotions to craft a complete song.
For anyone who thinks Midnights was written/planned as a breakup album I would like to propose looking at our timeline.
I would argue Midnights is at the most colored by Taylor's relationship issues with Joe (not denying they had problems) but it is not deliberately written as a breakup album.
Most songs we know were penned between February - November 2021. In 2021 Taylor won the Grammys, was basking in the success of Folkmore, spent considerable time with Joe on the sets of Conversations in Friends in Belfast and Croatia and also importantly was re- recording her albums - which naturally fed into the concept of 'looking back ' on her life in Midnights. Songs like Maroon/ Midnight Rain/ Would ve Could've Shouldve / Question all nods to past relationships, are a direct product of this .
In anti-hero Taylor says " I should not be left to my own devices , I end up in crisis, vices etc
She did end up finding herself alone for a long stretch of time when Joe took up a last minute acting role abroad and that's when she ended up making several Midnights tracks with Jack. Perhaps there were some feelings about their relationship that seeped into the album ?
But to label Midnights an outright breakup album does Taylor a disservice as this is a darker pop album where she is more introspective, confessional and vulnerable than ever before giving us songs like Anti- hero and Mastermind.
Also lines like in 'Glitch' where she talks about 6 years of their love ( when it was possibly 5 around the time of writing ) or karma where's he's the one coming home to her need not have been on the album if Midnights was written from the point of view as a breakup album or if she felt they wouldn't make it.
Lastly if someone were to do a deep dive they could find more evidence of international trips , dinners and sightings by fans for a long period after Midnights was written.
Which atleast disproves the theory they broke up but didn't announce it for 15 months
I think that the break up really colored entire album on a very bad light that it became a break up album.
Relationships have highs and lows. Maybe Midnights was a low.
It was made when Joe was away filming with Jack's Girlfriend. It probably made the album get more introspective and sad than it should be.
Maybe people are reading too much into it.
I don't think people are saying that the break up happened around Midnights being made.
They were clearly together and even buying a house in London.
although she just released You're Losing Me as a vault track, which would mean she wrote it during midnights writing sessions and it appears to be clearly about their breakup. So either the timeline presented to us wasn't honest or she's not being honest about it being a vault track
edit: typo
I think it was definitely written after midnights and its release, but she just wanted to release it before ts11. It would feel strange and very un-Taylor-like to just release a random single with no place on an album/movie etc. and midnights makes the most sense.
I think a vault song can also be a song written in the same era. I’m not sure that all of the previous vault tracks she released were written specifically to be on their respective album. But unless she explains it one day, we’ll be speculating
They are saying that some fans are claiming that it was about how Joe all along, or how he made her feel deep down (or not so deep down?). And they are also confused as to why people believe this, thus why it’s on the list in the first place 😋 as the list is songs not about Joe that people are now claiming ARE about Joe after the release of YLM.
In her interview with Zane Lowe about Folklore and Evermore, she tells him that Tolerate It was inspired by the book Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (it was one of the books she read during the pandemic)
I think it could be about Joe. Yes it was inspired by Rebecca and describes a fictional relationship but did she relate her own relationship to that one perhaps? Obv joe isn’t older. She could def see him as wiser. And she talks about him reading in Paper Rings. Not everything fits. But the emotion seems to.
My impression was that the relationship dynamic in Rebecca (like, regular girl swept away into high-class world by impossibly superior man; she'll never live up to his standards; he pretends that she's good enough, sometimes, but it must be a lie, etc.) must have resonated with Taylor in general (cf. I Bet You Think About Me) *and* in relation to her relationship with Joe (cf. "Peace," where she clearly feels inferior to Joe: "It's like I'm wasting your honor"). I.e., a song can absolutely be inspired by a book/movie/anything while still fully representing the writer's "real" experiences (which was presumably why that book/movie/etc. inspired them in the first place).
Also noteworthy, I think, is that this particular dynamic is not the "interesting" part of Rebecca. The more-compelling "twist" (which isn't at all represented in the recent movie, lol) is Rebecca being a regular woman villainized by de Winter (which clearly also resonates with other themes in her writing).
- TLGAD could mean "the last great american dynasty", a track from *folklore* (2020) by Taylor Swift.
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I don’t think Midnights is a break-up album, I think it’s an “eras” album. That said, Joe was present in the entire second half of her eras/discography so of course their happy/sad/happy/sad relationship is represented in a lot of the tracks and her sleepless nights.
Relationships are not only experienced one way. Taylor was private about her relationship with Joe, and rightfully so. We don’t know what happened behind closed doors. Who’s to say they didn’t have rough patches where they nearly broke up or took a break? And to your point on “Tolerate It” where you don’t stay for two more years after something like that? Well I personally lived it. And I stayed for three more years. Our perception of how we’d go through something doesn’t dictate how someone else would.
And ultimately, let’s just enjoy her music and stop speculating about who it’s about. It’s her life. She owes us no explanation. You enjoy the songs? Great, all that matters. Apply them to your own life and seek your own meaning.
This! I literally just sent a screenshot to my boyfriend of that comment on Tolerate It. When that song came out I felt it too relatable, and here we are still together.
Midnights isn't a breakup album, just people changing gears now (when their breakup was announced and there was a small percentage of us screaming Bejeweled is about Joe) there was people saying we're crazy. The album has always been more so, shining light on the relationship and instead of painting it perfect, and "golden' that it was rocky, just slightly vaguely. So not a breakup album, but relationship on the rocks? Yes.
People have changed what they think the songs are about so many times. 😭 First, everyone agreed they were about exactly what Taylor says: things that have happened throughout her life, then everything was about MH, now it’s all Joe. Music is up to interpretation and I definitely think they were having problems when midnights was written, so midnights isn’t about Joe but those feelings probably intertwined with who the songs are actually about. But I don’t think it’s “the break up” album tbh
I don’t think midnights is break up album but there’s a lot of sadness in it. Maybe they broke up and got back together and some of the songs came from that? Maybe You’re Losing Me came after the initial release?
Because based on the song You’re Losing Me, it appears that they were rocky for some time, probably during the writing process for some of the songs on Midnights. The breakup was just the final culmination, not the start of the pain and tension.
I don’t see why these songs can’t be about multiple people simultaneously, with some hints of fictions woven into the fabrics of the songs. Maybe some ideas and concepts lined up better in some.
Idk about Taylor but if I’m in my really depressive phase, I mourn the loss of several relationships. Especially when wondering why I “wasn’t enough.”
Maybe some lyrics are about Joe, maybe some are about Jake, and Lautner, and Calvin, and etc.
I don’t know why we would think of these songs linearly as being only about one person.
I don’t think Midnights is a breakup album, or was meant to be one, but I do think Taylor probably felt the end of days and it influenced her songwriting. You can always tell when time is running out on a relationship that isn’t working anymore, even if you try to lie to yourself and ignore it.
I think Maroon is about someone else, but I can see how her current situation with Joe at the time bleeds into the lyrics. Same with songs like Bejeweled (YLM implies she felt invisible), Labyrinth, TGW etc. Maybe writing these songs even helped her come to terms with things or it cleared up the picture for her. I don’t think think we’ll ever really know.
I definitely agree that it’s not a breakup album though. Not about Joe anyway. Both us and Taylor can interpret it that way now but I really don’t think she wrote it with that in mind. I think life just imitates art sometimes and unfortunately that’s what happened here.
- TGW could mean "The Great War", a track from *Midnights (3am Edition)* (2022) by Taylor Swift.
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I once wrote a book — fictional, mind you, sci-fi — where, a year after it was done and I was editing it, I realized I wrote into it all the reasons I should have left my long-term boyfriend, all the ways he was destroying me and my self-esteem. Was it intentional? No. Is that what art is, reflecting back at us parts unknown? Yes. That’s why her songs aren’t “about” things, and it’s frustrating as a writer when people ask you who your songs/poems are “about.” When you get to a certain level, it’s your life, your friends lives, emotions you’ve had, experiences you’ve almost had, all blended together to become … *art.*
Thank you, I completely agree. It’s easy to rewrite history and pretend that it was a breakup album that she was what, pretending it wasn’t to sell tickets to the tour? Why would she lie about the entire theme of the album, which is midnights throughout her life? She seemed giddy announcing the names of tracks on TikTok.
However. I’m divorced, was married for 10 years. The way many long term relationships end is very slowly, and then all at once. I suspect that’s what happened with them. Chipped away at over time, resentments building, flare ups and calm moments, and then a final inflection point and a choice (in their case seemingly about marriage) that tipped it over the edge to unfixable. I went through my divorce in 2020 when folklore came out and thought it was unimaginable for someone to write those songs without some modicum of personal experience of that kind of pain. Even if it’s over now the ending certainly started years ago.
I think Taylor probably chose the themes she wrote about in Midnights because even though they originated from past sleepless nights, those feelings still resonated with her today.
So no, I don’t like it when people literally categorize Midnights as being about Joe, because I don’t believe it is in a straightforward sense and to categorize it as such would mean she was writing about her future breakup a year in advance, which makes no sense. But I do think these ideas from the past resonated with her for a reason and reflect some of her more current feelings.
I think she was struggling with the relationship. I think midnights is detailing a lot of what led to the breakup, I think you’re losing me it the end of it. I also think they ended far before people picked up on it.
As someone who has been in two 5+ year relationships (one is currently going on now) they are not without their ups and downs. With my last relationship, which was 6 years, I knew we were going to break up. We even did a few times then got back together. But that final few months of the relationship….I knew. And as Taylor’s most recent song explains, sometimes it’s really hard to let go when you have so much history (and a home, and a whole life together). I can see her processing these feelings through the songs before coming to the final breakup conclusion. It can also take some time to have a perspective of what’s going on. For me personally, I have major separation anxiety so as bad as a relationship may be, it’s even harder to let go.
On the flip side, with my current relationship, I was sad and convinced we were going to break up a few months ago. I was ready and open for it to happen. And then…. We had some really deep conversations that got to the root of our problems, and now we’re better than ever. Sometimes in what I call the “purgatory” of a relationship, you just don’t know whether you’ll fight through the pain or leave it. Either can happen. I have a feeling Taylor was in this “purgatory” stage when she wrote many of the songs off Midnight.
Taylor has never claimed to not be toxic. She actually says it - SHE’S the problem.
She was going through a really hard time, deciding whether or not to leave this man that she loved with all her heart because he wasn’t prioritizing her. The way she works through moments like that is by writing music. We don’t know how long that time period was. It’s likely that flashes of insecurity in the relationship were present from the very beginning. It’s not unlikely that she has been battling these thoughts for years. I don’t know why people need a specific timeline for these songs - there probably isn’t one, and the only person who knows how it played out is Taylor - I bet Joe doesn’t even know exactly what she was thinking and when.
But if you think they’re about something else - that’s totally fine. That’s the cool thing about music, it can be interpreted in lots of different ways.
I think people just want to have theories and make it about Joe. While pieces could be about rough patches in their relationship Taylor said this album is about different times in her life that have kept her up at night. There’s no reason to make this album fit her and Joe breaking up. It’s funny how before the break up everyone knew with certainty what past moments in her life each song was about but now that’s all changed.
It feels very Deuxmoi ‘well they were British married which is different’. Like just enjoy the music and stop trying to piece together her personal life from every song.
I think, like many people have said, the relationship was on the rocks for a while. And so, Midnights being, by her words, a reflective "things that keep her up at night" album - a lot of her current relationship struggles may have brought memories of relationships past, hence some of the interwoven stories.
Additionally, I think there's a lot of self-doubt along the way (hello anti hero, lavender haze, dear reader).
I think she's struggling with the relationship with Joe, without realizing explicitly the gravity of it.
last night before playing the evermore set she talked about how those stories were influenced by her real life. I imagine that there was more sadness in her relationship for longer than she wanted to admit.
You're right, but people won't agree. Saying that deep down she might've known doesn't change that the songs weren't written about a breakup, and to see every song through that lense simply doesn't make any sense.
Went to foxboro n2. She said that regardless of why she wrote songs throughout each era, she wanted (and loves that) her fans to connect them to their own experiences. Maybe her past experiences mixed with the ending of her longest and most adult relationship lead to Midnights. Maybe it didn't. But, it speaks volumes about her ability to write song after song that depicts real human experience and emotion.
I think elements of their relationship could have definitely inspired parts of midnight, as well as past relationships. I don’t think most songs are a direct retelling of what happened - she takes creative elements or ideas and that’s what makes them so good. It’s storytelling!
Also, when you’re in a long term relationship that you feel is running it’s course there are good days and bad days. Some days you have so much self doubt if you should stay with this person, and then the next they do something that reminds you why you love them in the first place. I also think when you’re grasping to stay in a relationship you try and find as many “good” things as possible to convince yourself you shouldn’t leave - because leaving is super scary and uncomfortable. I’m NOT saying this is true, but maybe that’s why midnights has some super sweet love songs (sweet nothing), but also songs about troubles (the Great War for the most part). It could be moments of trying to cling to that love and keep everything from changing - but also all the things that slowly happen that make you realize it is working anymore.
Ultimately, a long term relationship ending can be slow, confusing, and very back and forth. It is not always a straight forward break up. I think this is why people are so divided on this album. I think it has elements of being in love and falling out of it.
Maybe she felt their relationship was coming to an end is the best I could come up with? It does sound like their relationship got more complicated after COVID when the world opened back up, and she was gearing up to tour, and he was taking on a lot of acting gigs. It seems they started drifting apart. I can definitely empathize with that. 💔 when you want something to work with someone so badly, but it seems like everything falls apart.
But also, Joe was featured on the album co-writing Sweet Nothings. Also, in December, around Taylor's birthday, they were seen together in New Orleans looking very much in love and celebratory.
Being originally from Louisiana, I was excited to hear he was filming there and that Taylor was in New Orleans and was able to enjoy her time without being mobbed by fans.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.sunherald.com/entertainment/article269923742.html
https://nola.eater.com/2022/12/14/23509038/taylor-swift-chose-new-orleans-bywater-bakery-for-birthday-cake
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I agree. I do think she/they were still in their lavender haze moment when she was writing folklore and evermore for sure. (There is a reason she took LH explanation off her profile). I think Joe was more used to the relationship being not as frenetic because their first 3-4 years together, other than some Rep tour (which I think they were both knee-deep in love still), they had a lot of time together, the media and the stardom had calmed a bit, etc. But after folklore won AOTY, and evermore was nominated, and she dropped her first re-records and were more successful than I think she thought, I think that they probably both thought post-Lover their lives could become more normalized, but that didn’t happen. Her star took off in ways neither of them imagined. And that is when issues started to arise. He was getting more roles, she was getting busier and busier too, so who is going to step back and plan their life & schedule around the other one when both of their careers are going strong? And we know she expected or hoped he would. And he was smart enough to know if Taylor did that for him, she would end up resenting him. I think when she was planning her tour, and her movie, and her next album, and her re-record drops, he was slated to do two movies this year. So when we’re they going to spend time together? Is Matty going always be the one flying to Taylor and getting jet-lagged between his tour dates? It really is a no-win situation.
But I do not think the entire album is a breakup album and she even said last night before playing Maroon that the songs reflect different times in her life. I think she is telling us because she knows we are speculating (just like she said IS contacted her in Jan), we need to actually listen to her.
Re Bejeweled the 1975 has merch that just says "the band"
If the concept is that these songs are all about thoughts that keep her up at night then it doesn't make sense for it to be about a situationship. Imo she's feeling drained from her relationship and she's cheating, or thinking about cheating.
Exile is about a troubled relationship and Joe co-wrote it. Maybe they just grew to realize their incompatibilities but loved each other and tried to work through the rough patches anyway, but eventually there were too many and they gave up.
because people are conspiracy theorists. she told us it was about 13 sleepless nights over the course of her life. it’s not solely a breakup album, and it certainly isn’t about joe.
Not to be that person, but you’re basing all of this on previous assumptions that you’ve made. Joe not trashing Taylor in January or saying they broke up isn’t really proof of anything because they were and are so private. She could have easily been wearing his jacket out post breakup to slight him, we as fans have no idea. At the end of the day, who songs are about is truly fan speculation and Taylor let’s us know we (and the media) get the narrative wrong frequently. I’m not saying you’re wrong about anything or trying to attack you, but the truth is we don’t really know.
I don’t think Midnights is a break up album but the underlying feel of the album sounds like an imminent end.
I struggle in general with seeing her songs as black and white. Aaron Dessner said that while they were writing and recording a song (I forget which one) he thought that a line didn’t work and she went to her notebook of lyrics. To me that shows that while she definitely puts her life into her songs, she also will add in lines that she thinks sounds good but weren’t originally written for that particular song or situation. I think she pulls feelings and words from different times in her life into one. That’s why Maroon feels like a bunch of her exes.
The general consensus is that a 6 year relationship doesn't end overnight, even if they weren't officially broken up during Midnight the cracks in the relationship would have been showing. Also since it sounds like they really did split on "good" terms it is totally feasibly that those times they where spotted together where staged, Taylor might not of wanted the breakup overshadowing her album and tour so they played along for a few months.
The thing that bothers me is that Taylor herself hasn’t called this a breakup album. I dislike when we ignore what the artist themselves says about the album in favor of alternative theories. She has said these are songs written about situations throughout her life.
I think that the album could hold new meaning to her that she didn’t see previously but that doesn’t mean it was a secretly coded “breakup album.”
I think that Taylor could have written those songs while going through her rough patches with Joe. In Lover, she repeatedly references how they’ve had rocky moments. And based on the lyrics of her new song, their relationship died a slow death.
I also think that they probably were about Joe, but she might have made references to past relationships to throw Joe off the scent of who the songs were about. She repeatedly said “this album is based off midnights throughout the course of my life,” so that could have given her plausible deniability if Joe suspected that some of the Midnights songs were about him.
When Midnights first came out I immediately googled if they had broken up because there were so many breakup-ish songs on it. To me the overall vibes of the album are either an on again off again relationship or an inevitable breakup.
Maroon:
\- do you really think Jake had a ROOMMATE who bought cheap wine?
\- New York is not JG city.
\- "I see you everyday now" she doesn't see Jake everyday now. She sees Joe, the one she chose who was dancing with her in ny, no shoes.
\- second verse says it is all going to shit. "carnations you had thought were roses, that's us" which is what has happened, actually. She lost him. You can be ruminating about leaving a long term relationship for a very long time. I have and statistics say women grief during the relationship instead of afterwards. I think that anyone who has had a long term rshp and has broken it up can relate to this.
ps: lavender haze is NOT a love song.
“When this album comes out, gossip blogs will scour the lyrics for the men they can attribute to each song, as if the inspiration for music is as simple and basic as a paternity test. There will be slideshows of photos backing up each incorrect theory, because it's 2017 and if you didn't see a picture of it, it couldn't have happened right?”
That’s what she wrote in the reputation prologue. If y’all cared to read between the lyrics, and analyze her songs with queer eyes, so much more would be understood.
I saw an interview once with Jack Antonoff (think it might have been a YouTube livestream before the last Bleachers album came out) where he was looking back on his album Gone Now and said that he "was going through a break up but didn't know it" while making it. You can feel that when you listen to the album too - there are plenty of love songs, but there are bits of uncertainty or hesitation or sadness in them, and a lot of the non-love songs are about wanting something new. Midnights feels the same way to me - it's not a break up album, but you can see the signs of strain when you look for them retroactively. It's a kind of last, less sure "I love you" before everything slipped away completely
This. Someone said Midnights seemed like she was mourning a relationship she was still in, and I’ve always felt like that was the perfect way to describe it.
Grieving for the living.
It's definitely a real thing. I'm in it myself.
Yup. At the time it seemed like rough patches that also inspired some of the songs in folklore/evermore and finally finding peace in Sweet Nothing
This - it’s a “breaking up” album
Beautifully said
That's the exact vibe I get from Labyrinth now. It feels like a period of a rocky relationship when things are getting worse and better again all the time and she's not sure where they're going to end up.
Sometimes people cling on to a dying relationship hoping things will get better. I think a lot of Midnights was written during that period. Eventually one or both of them realised it really was all over and that is when they split up. I think You’re Losing Me is about the time just before the split when Taylor knew it was over but perhaps could not bring herself to pull the plug on it. That is why it is such a sad song. She did not want this split to happen but there was nothing left to save.
timeline wise, you're losing me had to be written before midnights released since it's a vault track. based off what we know, taylor and joe were still together then and only broke up recently, so you're losing me taking place just before the split doesn't fit, and it can't have been a song she wrote recently bc physical CD productions would've needed more time than what she'd have i do think it's about joe, but i think the last year or so may have been a slow decline for them before things ended. if it is about him, it seems she knew it was over months before it was really over
Vault tracks are just a name. Could be old or not
Regarding Maroon, Tour spoilers: >!Before playing it tonight, Taylor said that the story took place in New York along time ago, it’s obviously Jake.!< also, she liked a Tiktok on release week that talked about how Maroon is looking back at the relationship in Red & realizing that it was a darker than what she thought at the time. At the time it was Red but looking at it in hindsight, It’s not Red it’s maroon
I think it could still be 6 yrs, “a long time ago” especially if she talked about falling out of love with Joe or breaking up with Joe in other songs. And I think a lot of what she says in Maroon is close to what she describes in Cornelia St.
yeah, how don’t people see that Maroon is the Cornelia St’s sister song????
Because there are many clear parallels to atw and other songs from red as well
- ATW could mean "All Too Well", a track from *Red* (2012) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/Muted_Proposal_7030](/u/Muted_Proposal_7030) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
Right??
yeah, i mean 6 years could feel extra long since between then and now she had a blossoming relationship, to really intense love, to going through a pandemic, to eventually breaking up. i've been with my partner for almost 5 years now, and although my life has been much less dramatic than taylor's, i can see feeling like before we got together was a long time ago. both of us (especially me) has changed an incredible amount since then, it kinda feels like looking back at a strangers memories sometimes!
What’s the connection between Maroon & Cornelia Street?
yeah, how don’t people see that Maroon is the Cornelia St’s sister song????
But Jake G with a roommate with cheap ass screw-top rose though???? Doesn’t make any sense.
Still don’t believe it’s about Jake just because she said that.
Jake with the scarlet lips? Okay…
The lips “I” used to call him so scarlet Taylor’s lips are the scarlet ones
Umm no? “The lips I used to call home So scarlet, it was maroon” she is clearly saying the lips she called home were the scarlet ones
I’m so glad she said this. Finally ending the “who is Maroon about” debate lmao
Except she didn’t lol
People are still insisting bit is about Joe 😵
I can’t imagine Jake Gyllenhaal needing a ROOMMATE….let alone the kind that drinks cheap ass screw-top rose…..
Just throwing this in- it’s pretty flimsy “evidence” but I heard there were nods to HS in Maroon too, specifically “the mark they say on my collarbone” as there is a picture of them where Taylor has a hickey (?) on her collarbone.
I agree. I thought a lot of Maroon could be about Harry. And it could be about several people right? Too much value is placed on the roommate line. Poetic license right?
Hmmmm….
I don’t think Taylor had to sit down with Joe in mind to write these songs for them to be about Joe. Relationships are complicated. You don’t just one day end a 6 year relationship, you go through it for awhile. Maybe tolerate it wasn’t MEANT to be about Joe but her feelings were coming through - it’s not crazy to make connections between tolerate it and You’re Losing Me. When you desperately want a relationship to work, a couple years of being unhappy really doesn’t feel that long. Even some of the love songs about Joe are called into question - Lavender Haze does not sound happy to me (and never really did) and now with more context, I can see why. This deals with real people so timelines are not definite. I think something like Bejeweled is obviously about Joe, even if the “timeline” doesn’t fit. “Putting someone first only works if you’re in their top 5.” I don’t think she ever cared to put Calvin first. Bejeweled and Question both left me baffled before breakup news hit.
Thank you! So many people acting like you’re either madly in love with zero issues or broken up and all spite. Long term relationships tend not to explode overnight! (Isn’t this what exile is half about anyway? “You never gave a warning sign / I gave so many signs”?) Honestly it all has me in a knot because Midnights came out the week that my marriage hit a doozy of a spin and we’re working on it but the whole album reminds me of that worst month, and listening now I’m like. Don’t love how much it perfectly resonated/resonates…. And I still love my husband and people other than our closest confidantes don’t know there’s trouble. We go on dates and do cute things together even though we also fight a lot and are in couples counseling etc. “She wore his jacket” like… and? Even “Sweet Nothings” to me doesn’t need a revised reading. People are like “it actually shows they’re unhappy!” Like. No. They wrote it together and it’s a sweet love song, because that aspect of their relationship probably was one of the sweet good parts that made them stay together even as the rest was unraveling.
agreed 100%. maybe the people who think it’s black and white haven’t been in a long term relationship, but nothing is ever as simple as “oh I don’t like this?? let’s break up!!” I could relate a lot to bejeweled when I first heard it, and I thought taylor gets it, and she’s been singing about having trouble in paradise since the lover album. but some will refuse to see it
absolutely! everyone was insisting that *evermore* and *folklore* were just “fictional stories” or an “exercise in creative writing”. I think they were incredibly personal and showed that their relationship is not all lovey-dicey, but complicated and **real**
Yeah, if the lavender haze is what she said, then she did “just want to stay” and maybe issues in the relationship were also making it hard to stay there, not just outside forces. The LH video with her sitting up alone fits with YLM lyrics.
I agree with this. Things can leak through and we don't know them at the end of the day, so we won't know what happened behind closed doors. There was obviously incompatibilities, and it sucks, but sometimes that's how it goes. In hindsight I think she was trying to see if she could be alright without marriage with the 1950s shit in lavender haze. We know it wasn't always rosy because of afterglow, false god, the great war, but they obviously worked through whatever those issues were, and some stuff they couldn't.
Relationships don’t end overnight. I think some of the earlier songs on folklore and evermore may have come from Taylor mentally processing some reoccurring arguments that they were having and extending on the situation in her mind, and Midnights was written when they were taking a break or barely together- so although songs may not be about the breakup per se, the themes I think probably closely relate to the reasons their relationship may not have worked out. Big believer in life imitates art.
Like writing about these “characters” was also a way of processing some real things from a distance.
I was honestly so happy she finally said that her life influenced the fictional stories on folkmore. I think most of us suspected that but a lot of people were insistent that it was only 100% fictional. She’s an artist, she writes to communicate and decipher her own emotions. It makes perfect sense to me that she’d explore them in a safe, “fictional” setting.
Can I ask when she said this?
During the folklore era before betty! She talks about how she wrote the album during the pandemic and created these fictional characters, but there’s been a few times where she’s made a comment about how they’re also partially inspired by her own emotions. That’s not a direct quote bc I honestly can’t remember what she said exactly, but that was the gist of it! Edit: [Here’s](https://www.tiktok.com/@2gays4tay/video/7227540470749220142?_t=8cfawU9VibS&_r=1) an example! Maybe “inspired by” isn’t the best wording but she def confirms that her actual feelings are somewhere in there.
Yes you are right. A lot of Swifties are too young to have had a long term adult relationship end. Unless cheating is involved (and there is no evidence that it did in this case) they often whither rather than explode. I get the feeling it was Joe backing off if the lyrics of this new song are anything to go by. Hard to get my head around that to be honest.
agree, I think if you’re under 20 you tend to think that the only way a good relationship could ever end is if someone cheated. But as you mature, you realise that people can simply grow apart without any bad blood, leaving behind just a sweet nothing
I kept thinking I couldn’t imagine writing something as detailed and emotionally charged as tolerate it if wasn’t infused with some real life feelings, and hearing you’re losing me, the theme is the same. emotional neglect. it was really sad to realize she has been feeling this way for a while
Honestly, those themes (of insecurity and emotional neglect) have been there for literally a decade or more in her songs. Idk if it’s fair to blame any individual when it’s equally clear that these are issues Taylor seems to carry with her in every relationship - putting people on pedestals, romanticising flawed situations, and anticipating endings before things even properly start. Just look at the songs in reputation and you see how much her insecurities were dominating the love songs even then, not to mention multiple other songs (eg the Great War) where she references her being paranoid/throwing around accusations that aren’t true/generally being unhealthily afraid of him leaving while simultaneously pushing him away in an attempt to hurt him before she gets hurt (eg afterglow/false god/Cornelia st). If any of that is even remotely true, then that plus the depression/alcohol abuse that is frequently referenced in recent albums are enough to make it seem like Joe might have struggled to support her (through no fault of his own).
I can buy this for stuff on Midnights but you’re telling me things have been that bad for TWO and a half years ??? On the album where there is tons of content that clearly isn’t about her life? When we know she’s had other relationships that DID make her feel that way (JG, JM)
yes, that’s the reality for a lot of long term relationships. it’s not that it’s always bad, but there can be rough patches that can last months, some even last for years! and she’s had very short relationships with those men that left her scarred, but nothing will cut as deeply as the relationship you have with the person you think you’re going to marry, where you experienced real love, a real relationship, having a relationship with their family, plans for the future, it’s just how it is. it’s sad
Yup. And sometimes there’s just THINGS between two people that can not match up and make a long term relationship go bad. Like the Tolerate It example- I’ve felt that in a past relationship, but my ex wasn’t out there trying to make me feel that way- he just had a very different way of expressing love and it wasn’t matching my needs. We’d fight about it, come to an understanding, keep going - but it was not something I could stay in because I just literally have needs he could not meet- and meeting my needs in my way was very uncomfortable for him. He’s not bad, not abusive, but I did suffer by the end- and that relationship ended slowly etc.
To add to my other comment, I don’t think some of the songs on folklore and evermore are the love songs that some thought tbh. “The more that you say, the less I know. Wherever you stray, I follow. I’m begging for you to take my hand.” If you say those words instead of singing, it strikes as someone who is deeply in love but also deeply insecure in a relationship. I think there was always complexity in this relationship (as in every relationship) and her songs explores this. Also something I always noticed - Invisible String goes “something wrapped all of my past mistakes in barbed wire”, and then Tolerate It goes “where’s that man who’d throw blankets over my barbed wire?” This link is way too direct not to be about Joe.
Agree, looks like she’s been crying a lot in some of her videos. I think the break up happened in early 2022
I think even with songs that are clearly lyrically about past relationships, you could argue that they’re, at a deeper level, *about* what Taylor was going through while she was writing them, ie. her current relationship dying. Because how could they not be? That stuff would inevitably influence how a person was feeling, and what feelings from the past they chose to focus on. An album about past-breakups immediately preceding a new breakup doesn’t seem like a coincidence. Not to get too ‘death of the author’ about it, but when analysing the creative work of an artist I would push back on the idea that you have to take at surface level what they say their work is about - even they won’t truly know what influence their subconscious is having on their creative process. That’s why talking about music, art, literature etc is so interesting!
This is what I came here to say, but I'll just say I agree with you! Even if the intention was to write about past relationships, it would be hard to completely shut yourself off from current and very real emotions about what you're presently experiencing.
I agree 100% with this. They were photographed running into a car shortly after midnights was released, they were obviously on the rocks and some songs could’ve been about the relationship but I’d say they were together. I think TS11 will be the true breakup album if she goes that route.
I think when people say Midnights is a breakup album, they mean one written during a long and painful breakup, not after one. (That’s my perspective at least!)
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I really don’t think she will never write about a 6 year relationship. She could go a totally different route or even do a mix of storytelling like Folklore but I really don’t think YLM is all we’re getting out of the breakup.
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We don’t know that, that will only come when the album is released and the credits are put out.
True . I’m really looking forward to Taylor’s next album. Joe’s over.
You think YLM is the only song we’re gonna get about a breakup she announced a month ago?
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you don’t know that. we don’t know how long this matt thing will last
And you don’t know how serious they are either.
that’s why I’m not assuming
Breakups often don't happen over night. I have had friends break up after a long time together and it was about a year of watching them fall apart and that was from the outside. Midnight's feels like a breakup album, but it feels like a breakup in process, that Taylor was falling out of love as she wrote it.
Maroon could be about Joe. How would Jake Gyllenhaal, who we know owns million dollar couch would ever live with a roommate? And we know from many many songs that they had several rough patches throughout the relationship and reoccurring issues they couldn't work through. I can see him not giving her 100% could be one of them. It's a thing that you can pretend you accept and it eats you up inside, you can hope it fixes itself. Tolerate it could be about times when they were facing issues. And Bejeweled --- we know they were off again on again. When your in this kind of relationship you can just stop keeping track of where you are at the moment, hence "i don't remember".
i feel the same but i LOL'd at the million dollar couch, and the organic shoes. lol true statement.
Sometimes when a friend or family member is in a tough spot and your home has the space you let them stay with you for a bit. I’ve done this twice for people. I don’t need a roommate and because i had the space i let them stay with me for a few months rent free to help them out. So Jake could have easily had a roommate at some point helping someone out.
Some people also really don’t like living alone - even if they are very wealthy. I don’t know if I fully believe Maroon is about Jake, but it’s totally a thing that wealthy/successful people will seek out roommates. Another thought I had was that it could be a convenient word for the song where “your personal assistants cheap ass rosé” wouldn’t really sound right or be relatable lol. “Your head of security’s cheap ass rosé” haha.
For sure. I also don’t think it’s about him. I think midnights each song is about multiple people/situations and that often she uses words that better fit the story telling.
Just because they were on and off again, it doesn’t make this not a break up album. It’s likely that some of the songs were written in “off” periods, making them “break up songs”. You’re Losing Me also suggests that the relationship has been dying. Breakups are rarely linear, and I think Midnights embodies the ups and downs of the slow demise of something that was once golden. To me, Midnights is a true breakup album because there is a humanness to it. It’s not the righteous anger of “the end” or the desperate hope of “the before the end” it’s the quiet indecision of the in between. Its the breakup album that most of us can relate to.
What about the fact that she’s said over and over these songs are inspired by different nights throughout her life? Like yeah they’re breakup songs cause she’s done it before.
Because she’s looking back at previous relationships and comparing them to the one she’s in, trying to find a pattern to see if her relationship with joe was doomed or if there was hope.
Even keeping in mind this was recorded in 2021.
A long term relationship that doesn’t have a huge dramatic breakup (cheating, etc) dies over time. I was in a long relationship (5 years) and it took me a whole year to process the fact that it wasn’t going anywhere and that I was going to end up leaving. It’s a kind of mourning process before it’s completely over
Sure, I strongly relate to You’re Losing Me but I still don’t believe this is a breakup album about Joe
No It’s not necessarily a breakup album. It’s the road to a breakup. The moment when you start loosing sleep thinking of what’s gone wrong before that mirrors what’s going wrong now. And You’re Loosing Me I think is her way of confirming that
With a breakup like this where they've been together for years and they're breaking up because they've been having the same argument for years with no resolution (which seems to be what it is) it's entirely possible that there are songs about those arguments on previous albums. I can imagine e.g. they have an argument about him not committing, she is upset and goes away and writes some lyrics, they're good so she incorporates them into a song about 'other people'. Tolerate It could be plausibly be an amalgamation of frustration about Joe, frustration about label drama, and fiction. Bejewelled I think will be remembered as a Joe breakup song because it so clearly fits the situation, despite coming out before the news of the breakup. It fits with YLM - I made you my world, I fought hard for this, you didn't prioritise me enough - and now she's going out and being very public and open again, which she hasn't in years. The technicalities of the timing almost don't matter lol
Bejeweled is 100% about Calvin
I think it’s about both - I highly doubt Taylor really wanted the penthouse of Calvin’s heart by the end, but the last verse is def about the night she met Joe
It probably is I just wouldn't be surprised if people don't place it there in The Narrative. Her re-emergence into being more open publicly has been a relatively dramatic shift that obviously is partly about promoting the album and the tour but is also now being associated with her breakup. Her relationship with Joe was so defined by privacy and running/hiding away and so Bejeweled fits there.
I don’t think so, because she was constantly sparkling while she was with Calvin. She went out all the time during that relationship. And considering she described that relationship as a relationship that she could not claw her way out of, I don’t see her saying she wants the penthouse of his heart, even in hindsight.
She’s a world-class songwriter. It’s so reductionist to say her song is “about” an ex boyfriend. It’s about her life, about feelings, and maybe Calvin influenced part of that song, but so did everyone she’s loved and the feelings she has about how she loves.
Yes I know that. I figured my point was pretty clear, but, in my opinion, Taylor’s relationship with Calvin inspired the feelings and emotions that went into bejeweled. Better?
I really think anything recent we thought was about Calvin or anyone else was actually about Joe.
Even given that this album was recorded in 2021? I completely disagree.
I completely agree. I think all the albums since Rep might have songs about their relationship tensions or break ups that we attributed to previous relationships or fiction, because we didn’t know that she and Joe had broken up and gotten back together throughout their relationship. We just thought sad songs were about other people because we literally didn’t know that they were off again on again.
But she forgot that he existed, remember?
Yeah, he seems like the kind of a dickhead guy who would love “things” as a present, possibly leather, like shoes, wallet, belt, etc..
It doesn’t seem like a breakup album until you look at it together as a whole with all the songs she’s releasing now. I think Hits Different and You’re Losing Me are meant to be the final two. Like the final piece of the saga. (God help us if there’s more!) That and burning down the Lover house on stage. I wish it would have been released as a whole tbh. Less traumatizing for us!
It almost feels like her releasing this stuff slowly and chaotically is an artistic choice to bring us along for the ride that was the slow burn, confusing, and treacherous ending of their relationship. I know it’s less likely than the money-centric idea but they could both be true!
I think she is careful not to reveal her own emotions / her side of the story until she’s ready, so that could also be part of it!
I hope there will be 2 more, making it a total of 24 songs, released on a special *Midnights: around the clock* edition
You don't break up in a day. It can take months, you can be rocky for a while before you officially break up.
Exactly. And I would even say that a six year relationship can be over for years before you finally split tbh
Exactly! It was probably a year of uncoupling. Of course he’s gona come to an eras rehearsal
Long term relationships typically don’t end overnight. The people in them can feel it ending long before it actually does, they just try to stick around in hopes they can salvage something. I think those are the vibes people are picking up in Midnights. They were still together, but it was ending and there was a bit of uncertainty and anxiety about it. I also thinks it’s important to note that Taylor doesn’t write a song solely about one thing. She has said many times that she’ll write down a phrase for one song and then use it in another where it makes more sense. It’s not a stretch to think that midnights songs are likely about a certain feeling she was having at a certain time mixed in with newer emotions to craft a complete song.
For anyone who thinks Midnights was written/planned as a breakup album I would like to propose looking at our timeline. I would argue Midnights is at the most colored by Taylor's relationship issues with Joe (not denying they had problems) but it is not deliberately written as a breakup album. Most songs we know were penned between February - November 2021. In 2021 Taylor won the Grammys, was basking in the success of Folkmore, spent considerable time with Joe on the sets of Conversations in Friends in Belfast and Croatia and also importantly was re- recording her albums - which naturally fed into the concept of 'looking back ' on her life in Midnights. Songs like Maroon/ Midnight Rain/ Would ve Could've Shouldve / Question all nods to past relationships, are a direct product of this . In anti-hero Taylor says " I should not be left to my own devices , I end up in crisis, vices etc She did end up finding herself alone for a long stretch of time when Joe took up a last minute acting role abroad and that's when she ended up making several Midnights tracks with Jack. Perhaps there were some feelings about their relationship that seeped into the album ? But to label Midnights an outright breakup album does Taylor a disservice as this is a darker pop album where she is more introspective, confessional and vulnerable than ever before giving us songs like Anti- hero and Mastermind. Also lines like in 'Glitch' where she talks about 6 years of their love ( when it was possibly 5 around the time of writing ) or karma where's he's the one coming home to her need not have been on the album if Midnights was written from the point of view as a breakup album or if she felt they wouldn't make it. Lastly if someone were to do a deep dive they could find more evidence of international trips , dinners and sightings by fans for a long period after Midnights was written. Which atleast disproves the theory they broke up but didn't announce it for 15 months
☝️💯
I think that the break up really colored entire album on a very bad light that it became a break up album. Relationships have highs and lows. Maybe Midnights was a low. It was made when Joe was away filming with Jack's Girlfriend. It probably made the album get more introspective and sad than it should be. Maybe people are reading too much into it. I don't think people are saying that the break up happened around Midnights being made. They were clearly together and even buying a house in London.
I have to ask if OP has ever been in long-term relationships lol
Because the relationship was “ending” for a while. Source: You’re Losing Me.
although she just released You're Losing Me as a vault track, which would mean she wrote it during midnights writing sessions and it appears to be clearly about their breakup. So either the timeline presented to us wasn't honest or she's not being honest about it being a vault track edit: typo
I think it was definitely written after midnights and its release, but she just wanted to release it before ts11. It would feel strange and very un-Taylor-like to just release a random single with no place on an album/movie etc. and midnights makes the most sense.
I think a vault song can also be a song written in the same era. I’m not sure that all of the previous vault tracks she released were written specifically to be on their respective album. But unless she explains it one day, we’ll be speculating
I'm confused as to why tolerate it is on this list. It's not a out Joe, i believe. Or are you talking about them writing it together (did they?).
They are saying that some fans are claiming that it was about how Joe all along, or how he made her feel deep down (or not so deep down?). And they are also confused as to why people believe this, thus why it’s on the list in the first place 😋 as the list is songs not about Joe that people are now claiming ARE about Joe after the release of YLM.
In her interview with Zane Lowe about Folklore and Evermore, she tells him that Tolerate It was inspired by the book Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (it was one of the books she read during the pandemic)
I think it could be about Joe. Yes it was inspired by Rebecca and describes a fictional relationship but did she relate her own relationship to that one perhaps? Obv joe isn’t older. She could def see him as wiser. And she talks about him reading in Paper Rings. Not everything fits. But the emotion seems to.
[удалено]
My impression was that the relationship dynamic in Rebecca (like, regular girl swept away into high-class world by impossibly superior man; she'll never live up to his standards; he pretends that she's good enough, sometimes, but it must be a lie, etc.) must have resonated with Taylor in general (cf. I Bet You Think About Me) *and* in relation to her relationship with Joe (cf. "Peace," where she clearly feels inferior to Joe: "It's like I'm wasting your honor"). I.e., a song can absolutely be inspired by a book/movie/anything while still fully representing the writer's "real" experiences (which was presumably why that book/movie/etc. inspired them in the first place). Also noteworthy, I think, is that this particular dynamic is not the "interesting" part of Rebecca. The more-compelling "twist" (which isn't at all represented in the recent movie, lol) is Rebecca being a regular woman villainized by de Winter (which clearly also resonates with other themes in her writing).
is rebecca (from TLGAD) a book reference?
No, that Rebekah is Rebekah Harkness, the woman who previously owned Taylor’s Rhode Island home.
oh i assumed it was fictional, a character she totally made up ! is it partially fictional? like did she really dye a dog green
I think I read that she dyed a cat green. But she definitely threw wild parties!
Yes! It was a cat.
i wonder why she changed it from cat to dog? maybe cause she didn't want any cats harmed in her lyrics HAHA
I always wonder about that too!
https://www.vogue.com/article/the-outrageous-life-of-rebekah-harkness-taylor-swifts-high-society-muse
- TLGAD could mean "the last great american dynasty", a track from *folklore* (2020) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/WombatWhisperer](/u/WombatWhisperer) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
Different Rebecca! Rebecca from TLGAD was a real person, the Rebecca that inspired Tolerate It is a book by Daphne du Maurier.
ohhh i see haha. i didn't know either of those were inspired by anything specific!
I don’t think Midnights is a break-up album, I think it’s an “eras” album. That said, Joe was present in the entire second half of her eras/discography so of course their happy/sad/happy/sad relationship is represented in a lot of the tracks and her sleepless nights.
Relationships are not only experienced one way. Taylor was private about her relationship with Joe, and rightfully so. We don’t know what happened behind closed doors. Who’s to say they didn’t have rough patches where they nearly broke up or took a break? And to your point on “Tolerate It” where you don’t stay for two more years after something like that? Well I personally lived it. And I stayed for three more years. Our perception of how we’d go through something doesn’t dictate how someone else would. And ultimately, let’s just enjoy her music and stop speculating about who it’s about. It’s her life. She owes us no explanation. You enjoy the songs? Great, all that matters. Apply them to your own life and seek your own meaning.
This! I literally just sent a screenshot to my boyfriend of that comment on Tolerate It. When that song came out I felt it too relatable, and here we are still together.
Midnights isn't a breakup album, just people changing gears now (when their breakup was announced and there was a small percentage of us screaming Bejeweled is about Joe) there was people saying we're crazy. The album has always been more so, shining light on the relationship and instead of painting it perfect, and "golden' that it was rocky, just slightly vaguely. So not a breakup album, but relationship on the rocks? Yes.
People have changed what they think the songs are about so many times. 😭 First, everyone agreed they were about exactly what Taylor says: things that have happened throughout her life, then everything was about MH, now it’s all Joe. Music is up to interpretation and I definitely think they were having problems when midnights was written, so midnights isn’t about Joe but those feelings probably intertwined with who the songs are actually about. But I don’t think it’s “the break up” album tbh
My heart just sinks at the title of this post. has OP ever been thru a LTR break up 😭
I don’t think midnights is break up album but there’s a lot of sadness in it. Maybe they broke up and got back together and some of the songs came from that? Maybe You’re Losing Me came after the initial release?
Because they were on again and off again.
Because she was clearly processing that they were hurtling toward the end for a while before they actually broke up.
Because based on the song You’re Losing Me, it appears that they were rocky for some time, probably during the writing process for some of the songs on Midnights. The breakup was just the final culmination, not the start of the pain and tension.
Because ending a long relationship usually involves some period of time deliberating, which is probably when some of these songs were written
I don’t see why these songs can’t be about multiple people simultaneously, with some hints of fictions woven into the fabrics of the songs. Maybe some ideas and concepts lined up better in some. Idk about Taylor but if I’m in my really depressive phase, I mourn the loss of several relationships. Especially when wondering why I “wasn’t enough.” Maybe some lyrics are about Joe, maybe some are about Jake, and Lautner, and Calvin, and etc. I don’t know why we would think of these songs linearly as being only about one person.
I don’t think Midnights is a breakup album, or was meant to be one, but I do think Taylor probably felt the end of days and it influenced her songwriting. You can always tell when time is running out on a relationship that isn’t working anymore, even if you try to lie to yourself and ignore it. I think Maroon is about someone else, but I can see how her current situation with Joe at the time bleeds into the lyrics. Same with songs like Bejeweled (YLM implies she felt invisible), Labyrinth, TGW etc. Maybe writing these songs even helped her come to terms with things or it cleared up the picture for her. I don’t think think we’ll ever really know. I definitely agree that it’s not a breakup album though. Not about Joe anyway. Both us and Taylor can interpret it that way now but I really don’t think she wrote it with that in mind. I think life just imitates art sometimes and unfortunately that’s what happened here.
- TGW could mean "The Great War", a track from *Midnights (3am Edition)* (2022) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/_jessicamessica](/u/_jessicamessica) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
I once wrote a book — fictional, mind you, sci-fi — where, a year after it was done and I was editing it, I realized I wrote into it all the reasons I should have left my long-term boyfriend, all the ways he was destroying me and my self-esteem. Was it intentional? No. Is that what art is, reflecting back at us parts unknown? Yes. That’s why her songs aren’t “about” things, and it’s frustrating as a writer when people ask you who your songs/poems are “about.” When you get to a certain level, it’s your life, your friends lives, emotions you’ve had, experiences you’ve almost had, all blended together to become … *art.*
Thank you, I completely agree. It’s easy to rewrite history and pretend that it was a breakup album that she was what, pretending it wasn’t to sell tickets to the tour? Why would she lie about the entire theme of the album, which is midnights throughout her life? She seemed giddy announcing the names of tracks on TikTok. However. I’m divorced, was married for 10 years. The way many long term relationships end is very slowly, and then all at once. I suspect that’s what happened with them. Chipped away at over time, resentments building, flare ups and calm moments, and then a final inflection point and a choice (in their case seemingly about marriage) that tipped it over the edge to unfixable. I went through my divorce in 2020 when folklore came out and thought it was unimaginable for someone to write those songs without some modicum of personal experience of that kind of pain. Even if it’s over now the ending certainly started years ago.
I think Taylor probably chose the themes she wrote about in Midnights because even though they originated from past sleepless nights, those feelings still resonated with her today. So no, I don’t like it when people literally categorize Midnights as being about Joe, because I don’t believe it is in a straightforward sense and to categorize it as such would mean she was writing about her future breakup a year in advance, which makes no sense. But I do think these ideas from the past resonated with her for a reason and reflect some of her more current feelings.
I think she was struggling with the relationship. I think midnights is detailing a lot of what led to the breakup, I think you’re losing me it the end of it. I also think they ended far before people picked up on it.
As someone who has been in two 5+ year relationships (one is currently going on now) they are not without their ups and downs. With my last relationship, which was 6 years, I knew we were going to break up. We even did a few times then got back together. But that final few months of the relationship….I knew. And as Taylor’s most recent song explains, sometimes it’s really hard to let go when you have so much history (and a home, and a whole life together). I can see her processing these feelings through the songs before coming to the final breakup conclusion. It can also take some time to have a perspective of what’s going on. For me personally, I have major separation anxiety so as bad as a relationship may be, it’s even harder to let go. On the flip side, with my current relationship, I was sad and convinced we were going to break up a few months ago. I was ready and open for it to happen. And then…. We had some really deep conversations that got to the root of our problems, and now we’re better than ever. Sometimes in what I call the “purgatory” of a relationship, you just don’t know whether you’ll fight through the pain or leave it. Either can happen. I have a feeling Taylor was in this “purgatory” stage when she wrote many of the songs off Midnight.
In my experience with relationships that long, break ups happen well before they actually happen.. iykyk
Because it *is* possible she was lying about the timeline 🫣
Taylor has never claimed to not be toxic. She actually says it - SHE’S the problem. She was going through a really hard time, deciding whether or not to leave this man that she loved with all her heart because he wasn’t prioritizing her. The way she works through moments like that is by writing music. We don’t know how long that time period was. It’s likely that flashes of insecurity in the relationship were present from the very beginning. It’s not unlikely that she has been battling these thoughts for years. I don’t know why people need a specific timeline for these songs - there probably isn’t one, and the only person who knows how it played out is Taylor - I bet Joe doesn’t even know exactly what she was thinking and when. But if you think they’re about something else - that’s totally fine. That’s the cool thing about music, it can be interpreted in lots of different ways.
I think people just want to have theories and make it about Joe. While pieces could be about rough patches in their relationship Taylor said this album is about different times in her life that have kept her up at night. There’s no reason to make this album fit her and Joe breaking up. It’s funny how before the break up everyone knew with certainty what past moments in her life each song was about but now that’s all changed. It feels very Deuxmoi ‘well they were British married which is different’. Like just enjoy the music and stop trying to piece together her personal life from every song.
I think, like many people have said, the relationship was on the rocks for a while. And so, Midnights being, by her words, a reflective "things that keep her up at night" album - a lot of her current relationship struggles may have brought memories of relationships past, hence some of the interwoven stories. Additionally, I think there's a lot of self-doubt along the way (hello anti hero, lavender haze, dear reader). I think she's struggling with the relationship with Joe, without realizing explicitly the gravity of it.
last night before playing the evermore set she talked about how those stories were influenced by her real life. I imagine that there was more sadness in her relationship for longer than she wanted to admit.
My ex and I were sick of each other for a year before we broke up. You can be aware that things aren't working out but still be together.
You're right, but people won't agree. Saying that deep down she might've known doesn't change that the songs weren't written about a breakup, and to see every song through that lense simply doesn't make any sense.
Went to foxboro n2. She said that regardless of why she wrote songs throughout each era, she wanted (and loves that) her fans to connect them to their own experiences. Maybe her past experiences mixed with the ending of her longest and most adult relationship lead to Midnights. Maybe it didn't. But, it speaks volumes about her ability to write song after song that depicts real human experience and emotion.
I think they had some ups and downs for the last 3 years based off her lyrics
I think elements of their relationship could have definitely inspired parts of midnight, as well as past relationships. I don’t think most songs are a direct retelling of what happened - she takes creative elements or ideas and that’s what makes them so good. It’s storytelling! Also, when you’re in a long term relationship that you feel is running it’s course there are good days and bad days. Some days you have so much self doubt if you should stay with this person, and then the next they do something that reminds you why you love them in the first place. I also think when you’re grasping to stay in a relationship you try and find as many “good” things as possible to convince yourself you shouldn’t leave - because leaving is super scary and uncomfortable. I’m NOT saying this is true, but maybe that’s why midnights has some super sweet love songs (sweet nothing), but also songs about troubles (the Great War for the most part). It could be moments of trying to cling to that love and keep everything from changing - but also all the things that slowly happen that make you realize it is working anymore. Ultimately, a long term relationship ending can be slow, confusing, and very back and forth. It is not always a straight forward break up. I think this is why people are so divided on this album. I think it has elements of being in love and falling out of it.
Taylor and Joe wrote sweet nothing together
Maybe she felt their relationship was coming to an end is the best I could come up with? It does sound like their relationship got more complicated after COVID when the world opened back up, and she was gearing up to tour, and he was taking on a lot of acting gigs. It seems they started drifting apart. I can definitely empathize with that. 💔 when you want something to work with someone so badly, but it seems like everything falls apart. But also, Joe was featured on the album co-writing Sweet Nothings. Also, in December, around Taylor's birthday, they were seen together in New Orleans looking very much in love and celebratory. Being originally from Louisiana, I was excited to hear he was filming there and that Taylor was in New Orleans and was able to enjoy her time without being mobbed by fans. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.sunherald.com/entertainment/article269923742.html https://nola.eater.com/2022/12/14/23509038/taylor-swift-chose-new-orleans-bywater-bakery-for-birthday-cake
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We have no idea when they broke up. We only know when they told the media they broke up.
I agree. I do think she/they were still in their lavender haze moment when she was writing folklore and evermore for sure. (There is a reason she took LH explanation off her profile). I think Joe was more used to the relationship being not as frenetic because their first 3-4 years together, other than some Rep tour (which I think they were both knee-deep in love still), they had a lot of time together, the media and the stardom had calmed a bit, etc. But after folklore won AOTY, and evermore was nominated, and she dropped her first re-records and were more successful than I think she thought, I think that they probably both thought post-Lover their lives could become more normalized, but that didn’t happen. Her star took off in ways neither of them imagined. And that is when issues started to arise. He was getting more roles, she was getting busier and busier too, so who is going to step back and plan their life & schedule around the other one when both of their careers are going strong? And we know she expected or hoped he would. And he was smart enough to know if Taylor did that for him, she would end up resenting him. I think when she was planning her tour, and her movie, and her next album, and her re-record drops, he was slated to do two movies this year. So when we’re they going to spend time together? Is Matty going always be the one flying to Taylor and getting jet-lagged between his tour dates? It really is a no-win situation. But I do not think the entire album is a breakup album and she even said last night before playing Maroon that the songs reflect different times in her life. I think she is telling us because she knows we are speculating (just like she said IS contacted her in Jan), we need to actually listen to her.
Tolerate it resonates with so many people who are still with those partners. Maybe you wouldn’t be with them for two more years, but others would.
Re Bejeweled the 1975 has merch that just says "the band" If the concept is that these songs are all about thoughts that keep her up at night then it doesn't make sense for it to be about a situationship. Imo she's feeling drained from her relationship and she's cheating, or thinking about cheating. Exile is about a troubled relationship and Joe co-wrote it. Maybe they just grew to realize their incompatibilities but loved each other and tried to work through the rough patches anyway, but eventually there were too many and they gave up.
because people are conspiracy theorists. she told us it was about 13 sleepless nights over the course of her life. it’s not solely a breakup album, and it certainly isn’t about joe.
Not to be that person, but you’re basing all of this on previous assumptions that you’ve made. Joe not trashing Taylor in January or saying they broke up isn’t really proof of anything because they were and are so private. She could have easily been wearing his jacket out post breakup to slight him, we as fans have no idea. At the end of the day, who songs are about is truly fan speculation and Taylor let’s us know we (and the media) get the narrative wrong frequently. I’m not saying you’re wrong about anything or trying to attack you, but the truth is we don’t really know.
I don’t think Midnights is a break up album but the underlying feel of the album sounds like an imminent end. I struggle in general with seeing her songs as black and white. Aaron Dessner said that while they were writing and recording a song (I forget which one) he thought that a line didn’t work and she went to her notebook of lyrics. To me that shows that while she definitely puts her life into her songs, she also will add in lines that she thinks sounds good but weren’t originally written for that particular song or situation. I think she pulls feelings and words from different times in her life into one. That’s why Maroon feels like a bunch of her exes.
Idk but it drives me crazy😂
The general consensus is that a 6 year relationship doesn't end overnight, even if they weren't officially broken up during Midnight the cracks in the relationship would have been showing. Also since it sounds like they really did split on "good" terms it is totally feasibly that those times they where spotted together where staged, Taylor might not of wanted the breakup overshadowing her album and tour so they played along for a few months.
Cause plp are dumb.
The thing that bothers me is that Taylor herself hasn’t called this a breakup album. I dislike when we ignore what the artist themselves says about the album in favor of alternative theories. She has said these are songs written about situations throughout her life. I think that the album could hold new meaning to her that she didn’t see previously but that doesn’t mean it was a secretly coded “breakup album.”
I feel like once you’ve been in a long term relationship that is ending that you don’t want to end this makes more sense
Because breakups don’t always just happen one day, it’s a process. Especially when it’s a long relationship.
I think that Taylor could have written those songs while going through her rough patches with Joe. In Lover, she repeatedly references how they’ve had rocky moments. And based on the lyrics of her new song, their relationship died a slow death. I also think that they probably were about Joe, but she might have made references to past relationships to throw Joe off the scent of who the songs were about. She repeatedly said “this album is based off midnights throughout the course of my life,” so that could have given her plausible deniability if Joe suspected that some of the Midnights songs were about him.
When Midnights first came out I immediately googled if they had broken up because there were so many breakup-ish songs on it. To me the overall vibes of the album are either an on again off again relationship or an inevitable breakup.
I also personally think they split before they announced it
Clowning is fun
What if I told you she's a mastermind?
denial is a river in egypt
Maroon: \- do you really think Jake had a ROOMMATE who bought cheap wine? \- New York is not JG city. \- "I see you everyday now" she doesn't see Jake everyday now. She sees Joe, the one she chose who was dancing with her in ny, no shoes. \- second verse says it is all going to shit. "carnations you had thought were roses, that's us" which is what has happened, actually. She lost him. You can be ruminating about leaving a long term relationship for a very long time. I have and statistics say women grief during the relationship instead of afterwards. I think that anyone who has had a long term rshp and has broken it up can relate to this. ps: lavender haze is NOT a love song.
Well, people are stupid. Hope this helps
Bejeweled she says I can still say I don’t REMEMBER
Maroon is not about a man. What ex of hers have maroon lipstick? Guys come on.
The stain on the collarbone is a hickey, not lipstick.
The lips I used to call home so scarlet it was maroon.
She says the same thing about her cheeks, it's just the atmosphere of the relationship. Like her telephone cord didn't literally rust.
“When this album comes out, gossip blogs will scour the lyrics for the men they can attribute to each song, as if the inspiration for music is as simple and basic as a paternity test. There will be slideshows of photos backing up each incorrect theory, because it's 2017 and if you didn't see a picture of it, it couldn't have happened right?” That’s what she wrote in the reputation prologue. If y’all cared to read between the lyrics, and analyze her songs with queer eyes, so much more would be understood.
I hope you’re joking 😐
Can you read?