#it’s so much bigger than Taylor

[bettyshoweduptotheparty]

Whether or not anyone from Taylor’s team actually spoke to CNN about the NYT article, let’s all be reminded that:

* Nobody speculated on Taylor’s sexuality. The author points out various ways in which Taylor flags queerness in her art and that suggests to queer people that she may be one of us. That’s not a speculation, that’s fact.

* The article is also largely about closeting in the entertainment industry. And that’s still very common (also fact) whether you like it or not.

* This beautifully written and heartfelt article makes a point for the kind of world that queer people deserve to live in. If you call that ‘inappropriate’ I think that says a lot…

And maybe most importantly: IF SHE WAS AN ALLY SHE WOULD NOT BE OFFENDED TO BE ASSUMED QUEER! Being gay is not offensive and if you think otherwise, that’s homophobia.

At no point does the author dig into her muses or speculate on who she might be dating. That’s a level of journalistic professionalism that a lot of lesser publications could learn from.

Anna Marks (if that is your name) you are a brilliant writer and journalist, and I hope you do not take any criticism from old white men on CNN!

[koymoa]

Some sketches for adult teens (also experimenting with facial hair YIPPEE!!)

[lonelystarbuckslover13]

Joe Alwyn wore a ceasefire pin to the pre-bafta dinner I don’t care what you guys say you can never make me hate that man

[yellowloid]

Do we know Miles's or any of the AM members' opinions on the genocide in Gaza? Like I love them to death, but the lack of response has reaaally been bothering me. Not to mention the amount of privilege in not carrying about politics *looking at you, Alex*. I've seen Louise being pro-Israel.

OHHHHH anon i've been WAITING to talk about this. thank you for the question.

the answer is no we don't. to my knowledge, none of the members have openly talked about it. there has been no story on their official instagram, nor has matt (the only one with a public profile) posted anything about it on his account. not only that, but i did some research and apparently that benefit concert that him, tyler parkford and josh homme took part in also hosted people like jesse hughes and sarah silverman who are more or less openly pro-israel. which doesn't mean *matt* is, it just means he's not careful who he's associating himself and his image with.

the others have stayed silent. and miles, too - who's so active on social media - has never even reposted anything about it. not a word.

about the girlfriends, louise (and amanda) have spoken about "wanting peace" and louise especially has reposted some stupid ass posts a few months ago basically saying it's not "childish" to just wish peace for everyone - proving that she literally knows nothing about what has been happening for DECADES. both her and amanda have repeatedly proven they're centrists, which is just so. yikes.

the only one among all of them who has openly and almost immediately asked for a ceasefire is katie.

i've seen some people argue that the royal albert hall proceeds have gone to the war child association, but honestly - that's not enough. that was before, and even though knowing that is better than nothing, something they did in the past doesn't justify their lack of a statement on the genocide in the present. the fact that they're not even active on social media - just because they're too lazy to get someone to properly manage their account - isn't an excuse for staying silent.

whether they like it or not, they're celebrities. they have a platform they could use and they repeatedly choose not to use it. i love them but for the past few months i've been beyond disappointed in them.

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

Even since Michael's heavenly ascend, not just the music industry but, quite frankly, the entertainment industry as a whole has been left with a massive void that I don't believe will be fulfilled in the near future or ever again. That man had a star power equivalent to three Galactuses at their most powerful. You will never witness someone like that ever again, not in this lifetime nor the next one. He was and still is one of a kind.

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

I have thoughts about the TTPD speculation/two years/loneliness/sharing feelings through songs train but I'm putting them under a cut because. Yeah.

OK, so I'm giving a warning:

I'm talking about BTTWS, but NOT about the speculation/inspiration behind it. Just about the feelings in it and the Midnights of it all/the idea that sharing the difficult things brings comfort/companionship. So getting that out of the way so we can remove that part of the discourse out of it.

Regardless of whatever the inspiration/event behind BTTWS may be, whether it's about a loved one or personal, I've long felt that its inclusion on Midnights, an album about things that have kept her up at night, is significant in the feelings it portrays.

For instance, we can be fairly certain that Taylor wasn't actually turning in Scooter B. to the FBI and conspiring with his ex-wife to bring him down (or was she?) in Vigilante Shit, just as we can safely guess that she probably did actually pick up that pebble in Wicklow that reminded her of a peaceful time in Sweet Nothing. The line between fiction/reality, personal vs. narrative matters less on Midnights in this case than the feelings she was expressing in the songs, which are very personal and truthful. The revenge fantasy in Vigilante Shit is her working through her anger over having her masters sold and how she's fought hard to have the last laugh over someone who is a sworn enemy. Sweet Nothing is her reflecting on the dichotomy of her (presumed) quiet home life she felt was safe and the noise of the outside world. (Now, we might speculate on why she was ruminating on this, but that's another story.)

So with that preamble out of the way, BTTWS's inclusion in the tracklist I feel is just as important, again regardless of the inspiration behind it or her personal connection to it. Even if it is a song about someone other than herself, including it as the only "not personal/not diaristic" song on an album as ostensibly self-reflective as Midnights would stick out if that were thecase, though obviously it's her album so she can do whatever she wants and could have her own reasons. (Just like she included Ronan on Red and Soon You'll Get Better on Lover about similar themes, it could just be a tribute to a loved one.) But given all the thematic arcs and parallels on Midnights, I do feel like it's there to include a specific set of feelings being processed, even if the origin on the feelings may or may not be her own. (I'm trying to be really sensitive in my word choices here, hope they make sense.)

BTTWS is a song about loss and grief, and specifically the fallout of an event outside of her/the narrator's control. The person in the song has nothing to turn to to deal with their pain: no faith to guide them, no wisdom to tell them everything will be alright. Throughout the song there is a pervasive sense of isolation: everything is over, they're living without something that was once theirs but suddenly was not. It captures the fog and confusion of living through a painful event without having any way to process. She even says from the start that, "no words appear before me in the aftermath," which for someone like Taylor who has stated over and over how writing is literally how she processes her life would be the ultimate reflection of the depths of her hurt.

(To be clear I do not think this is a song about a breakup whatsoever: IMO it clearly is not about a relationship dissolution of any kind. I just think that the feelings of grief and loneliness in the song may have felt relevant to whatever she was going through during the time the album was coalescing in 2021-22.)

Knowing what we know now about at the very least the period between 2021-2023, Taylor was going through a time of significant difficulty in her life behind the scenes, which is how The Tortured Poets Department came to be, right on the heels of her completing Midnights sometime in early 2022. She has said herself that making TTPD was a lifeline, that she had to keep writing to deal with whatever it was that she was experiencing and going through. And as I posted about earlier today, she's also said repeatedly on tour that not only is writing about her feelings how she processes her pain and loneliness, but that then sharing that music with fans brings her great comfort because it makes her feel less lonely to know people understand and relate to what she's going through.

And we know that she has self-edited her albums over the years (including Midnights) to protect herself and perhaps even the subjects of her songs, which we have seen with the inclusion of the vault/bonus tracks in the re-records and on Midnights. Obviously some of these reasons are logistical -- album was too long, cut songs sounded too much like others, maybe she or her producers felt the ones that were originally chosen were stronger, narrative or sonic cohesion, etc. -- but with what we've seen over the last few years, these songs also filled in the lines of the stories being told and reframed the narrative being told.

Nowhere is that clearer than with You're Losing Me, for example. It's pretty obvious why it was held back: presumably she wouldn't want to release a song about a relationship at its breaking point when she was still actively in the relationship. Yet as soon as the relationship ended, she released it, we can only assume because of her realization that sharing the music and having people respond to it validates her feelings and makes her feel embraced, as it were. Then with the announcement of TTPD and how it's been brewing for essentially the intervening period between when YLM was written and now, we can also surmise that these songs will be dealing with feelings she also felt the need to hold back for whatever reason at the time, but has now decided should be out there so she can feel more whole.

So coming back to BTTWS, it being included on Midnights the way that it was strikes me as a form of sharing feelings that may have been too difficult to process. Again, not implying I have any insight into what the origin of the song is about, or imposing my own beliefs onto her, or that she was sending some sort of secret message with its inclusion! But thematically, BTTWS deals with an intense loss and feeling completely unmoored and alone as a result, which is present in her other work. And that the dreams the narrator once held have gone up in smoke, leaving her reeling about what's to come next. She's cut off from the world because of the event, unable to speak about or grasp what has happened. Similar feelings are also explored in You're Losing Me for instance, and even Dear Reader (not to mention on past albums like evermore, this is me trying, arguably hoax, etc.). Just reading context clues from TTPD and her surprise song choices of late, I don't think it's outrageous to presume some of those emotions are going to be present on the new album as well.

So this is just a long-winded way of saying, I feel like the sense of loss, confusion and uncertainty about the future likely resonated with both what she had gone through in the past, and the story as a whole she was trying to tell on Midnights. And while the origin may or may not be personal or relevant to the new story she's going to tell, I also feel like these same kinds of themes are going to be present on TTPD because they're so important for her to share. (I could even mention that the response to BTTWS may even provide evidence that people sharing their experiences in general brings comfort to those going through it, but that may be veering too far into parasocial "why did Taylor do X" speculative territory.) She sings about these kinds of all-consuming losses so eloquently and mindfully that I know the new album is going to be an absolute gut punch.

(not being self-promotional but I delved a little deeper into the Midnights 3am tracks including this one a few months ago so it's why it's top of mind and why the connections and thematic parallels are so resonant to me lately.)

[cerealforkart]

Every day I wake up and I think “maybe I’ll draw something that isn’t Taylor today.” And I never do, but I do consider it

[glitteratti]

like literally actually venues charging so much for water is insane and evil. people at concerts NEED water, especially for high energy acts that people dance to and in any general admission area where people are more packed together. i went to a show last week where i was sitting the whole time and not even dancing and even i got super hot and needed water! like thank god that’s a venue that only charges $1 for a bottle and has free refill stations. at most shows, ESPECIALLY a pop concert like for taylor swift, you’re essentially doing a high energy workout while packed in shoulder to shoulder AND singing the whole time. not letting people bering water and charging $7+ a bottle is fucking criminal

[ilostyou]

i think this is something we should be talking about more

[lucreziaces]

did some force take you because I didn't pray? 😭😭😭

[murdocksdaughter]

do you guys cry listening to bigger than the whole sky cause it reminds you of lucerys? because i do. i do everytime

[senatortedcruz]

two more weeks til my show omfgggggggg 

[drivemysoul]

.

[theamazingannie]

It’s so crazy seeing the absolute RANGE in vibes at the different concert film showings. Some people report everyone sitting still in absolute silence and others are saying people were out of their seats and scream singing. I went last night and had a very middle of the road experience. It was still pretty chill vibes but definitely felt comfortable enough to sing along and dance in my seat even tho most people were still (taking notes from mother). People used their light up batons on the dance songs but not on the slow songs. Some people got up to dance but they went to the aisles on the side of the theater out of the way. I think this is the ideal experience compared to others I’ve seen (would’ve preferred more seat dancing but the movie was loud enough you couldn’t hear anyone singing even tho I knew people were)

[mylifeiskindacrazy]

i am currently (trying) to write a song and when i was making dinner i created the perfect bridge. and i mean PER👏🏻FECT. taylor swift level of poetic mastermind (pun intended) but I DIDN'T HAVE MY PHONE WITH ME SO I IMMEDIATELY FORGOT AND NOW I CAN'T REMEMBER

[sheerioswifties]

Okay also so what is Bigger Than The Whole Sky about bc the lyrics to me tell a story of something very specific and I tried to see if it could fit anything else but it doesn't seem to and when I realized that I literally cried a bit but so I've seen ppl say things that sound like you know what it's about? What am I missing? And if it IS what I think it's alluding to, the fact that she uses the could've, would've, should've phrase in it which is also the title of a song that's intention/meaning is a lot more obvious... this was done intentionally to link those songs and if it all means what I think it means I- cannot put into words at the moment what I want to say to Taylor and what I want to do to the person who did that so uhhhh Swifties please fill me in what do you know what might I have missed? What are other theories? Help??