The Overwhelming Realm of Taylor Swift

By Lindsey Babcock

I don't know how many fellow Swifties roam this campus, but as one, my life is never boring. Taylor Swift has recently decided to bombard the world with new updates on her projects much more frequently than is usual for herself or other artists. This frequent release of cryptic messaging leads fans to become master riddle solvers.

I opened my phone at lunch today to see an Instagram post from Taylor Nation. It was a picture of Swift on stage wearing the pink version of her 1989 costume from the Eras Tour. The caption read, “Screaming, crying, perfect storms” with a pink heart emoji next to it. These are lyrics from Swift’s song “Blank Space” off of her 2014 album titled after her birth year, 1989. 

This post is significant because on August 9th, exactly 9 years, 8 months, and 13 days after the initial release of “1989,” Swift announced she would be re-recording and re-releasing the entire album on October 27th, 2023 accompanied by 5 songs “from the vault.” So, any reference to the album could involve cryptic messaging about the re-recording.

When I saw the post I audibly gasped and, to the amusement of my friends eating lunch with me, immediately began to stalk the internet for clues. 

Over the past few weeks Taylor has released three vinyl versions of “1989 Taylor’s Version” for pre-order. Each, conveniently matching three of the four color variants of the 1989 costume for The Eras Tour that she has been wearing at shows since March. An easter egg so obvious we didn’t even realize they would be easter eggs. To be clear though, any piece of clothing Taylor Swift wears should be considered an easter egg, as she makes clear in her feature on Entertainment Weekly during the “Lover” era. 

The last outfit color that had been yet to be given a vinyl counterpart was pink. And suddenly we get a picture over her wearing pink, accompanied by a coy caption? Mother is brewing.

And right on cue, later in my lunch period Taylor Nation posted the advertisement for the “Rose Garden Pink Vinyl” which is only available for pre-order for 48 hours. The limited edition cover depicts a very “boyfriend Taylor” looking sulky on the beach. 

As a fan who has emails for her merch site turned on, I am intrigued to see when I get an update email for this vinyl variant. The “Sunset Boulevard” yellow variant prompted an email in my inbox titled “8 hours left to shop” and the “Aquamarine Green” green variant’s reminder email was titled “5 hours left to shop.” It can be assumed that the pink vinyl will elicit another email with another strange choice in hour number. I anticipate the numbers will combine to be some sort of code or to give further information on the album’s vault tracks. My gut reaction, however, was that the “8” was referring to the eighth month which is when she made the announcement, and the “5” was referencing that “1989” is her fifth album. Or, that eight and five add up to thirteen, her ubiquitous lucky number.

Whatever she's doing, she’s scheming harder than ever. And the amount of lore that informed this one small announcement is extreme.