The Best of Taylor Swift’s Easter Eggs
There are increasing levels of investigative work that one can do. There are us regular people who piece together crime movies, there are detectives that actually solve crimes, and then there are Swifties.
In recent years, Taylor Swift has taken her fans on a sort of treasure hunt of riddles, hints and secret messages that either reflect on her past work or nod towards future projects. These “Easter Eggs” have formed the backbone of Swift’s connection with fans and Swifties sure have stepped up to the challenge.
So, in light of the success of the “Eras Tour”, the re-records and a brand new album on its way, let’s take a look back on some of the best Easter eggs so far in Taylor’s career.
Early easter eggs – the Liner notes….
Even before Easter Eggs grew into the phenomenon that they are today, Swift left little hints for her fans in the liner notes of her CD booklets. In a 2021 interview with Jimmy Fallon, Taylor explained that because the “lyrics are what I am most proud of out of everything that I do”, she wanted to incentivise people to read them.
She did this by placing capital letters throughout the lyrics of a song that when circled would reveal a secret message. Some of these messages revealed who a song was about while others gave fans an insight to her feelings when recording. For example; In “Back to December”, the message revealed “Tay”, an ode to her ex-boyfriend Taylor Lautner. While, in “All too Well” the message was “Maple Latte”, a drink she was papped drinking with Jake Gyllenhaal.
Meanwhile, in songs such as “Love Story”, the message was that “Someday I’ll find this”, alluding to her desires for real romance and in “Place in this World”, the message cited that “I found this”, referencing her life in the music industry. The secret messages gave fans a deeper connection to Swift and also encouraged them to buy hard copies of the album.
Look what you made me do..
Possibly the Magnum Opus of Taylor Swift Easter eggs. It was the shot heard around the world. Swift herself has said that it will be years until all the easter eggs from this video are found.
Right from the beginning it became clear that this was going to be a different video to her others with Taylor burying her old self (wearing her 2014 Met Gala dress) in a grave beside that of Nils Sjoberg, the pseudonym for which she co wrote ex Calvin Harris’s hit song “This is what you Came for” under. As the video continues, Swift lies in a bathtub of jewels containing a single dollar to represent her triumph in her sexual assault trial, Swift in a factory manufacturing models for her infamous girl squad and Swift standing in the middle of eight men wearing “I heart Taylor Swift tops” a nod to her eight public relationships.
As the video closes, a line of Taylors dressed from her different eras line up, accusing one another of the various complaints that the media made about her throughout her career, from her surprised face at award shows and the ‘fakeness of her personality’.
Lover Easter Eggs
After famously proclaiming that there was to be “No explanation, just reputation”, for her sixth album roll out, Taylor finally began to open up on the meaning of the easter eggs during her Lover promotion. From the massive literal Lover sign in the ‘ME!’ music video, hinting at the album title to lyrics to song titles spontaneously revealed on scrabble boards or photo frames in the ‘You Need to Calm Down’ and ‘Lover’ videos.
In May, she was pictured for the cover of Entertainment Weekly, wearing a selection of badges, referencing various aspects of the new record; a pride badge, referencing You Need to Calm Down, a Dixie Chicks badge as a nod to their feature on Soon You’ll get Better and Drake, referring to his lyrical mention in I Forgot that you Existed.
Folklore and Evermore Eastereggs
Obviously Folklore and Evermore took the world by surprise when she randomly announced their release a mere day before they were available to the public. However, that is not to say that she didn’t include an easter egg or two. The beautiful teenage love story that emerged from ‘Cardigan’, ‘Betty’ and ‘August’, fascinated fans and showcased Swift’s undeniable storytelling and lyricism. Another Easter Egg emerged in Taylor’s Instagram captions. In April, Taylor captioned an Instagram post “Not a lot going on at the moment”.
It was later discovered that she posted this photo when she began writing songs for Folklore. In November, Swift captioned another post, of her lounging in a wooden cabin, with the same caption. This led to fans speculating an announcement and sure enough, several days later, Swift revealed that her concert film for the Folklore album was on its way…
Midnights Eastereggs
The Midnights era took a lot of people by surprise when she announced it last August at the VMA’s as many fans believed that she would continue working on her re-recorded albums before releasing a new body of work. But as always, we should never expect anything with Taylor and we were given this eclectic album in October. However, that doesn’t mean that there were no clues prior to their release because there certainly was.
In 2019, Swift revealed that she sometimes plots easter eggs three years in advance, and around that time, she took part in a photo shoot, styled in very 70s themed looks. Flash forward to 2022 and the Midnights era featured a heavily 70s inspired aesthetic. Furthermore, in May 2022, at her NYU commencement speech, Swift coyly revealed some song lyrics, from “your on your own kid” and “breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out”, from her song Labyrinth.
Taylor’s Re-recordings Eastereggs
Now, I feel that it’s with the re-recordings that Swift has truly shown her talent at planting easter eggs. From releasing Fearless (Taylor’s Version) on the ninth of April (9 +4=13, her lucky number), to a lyric reveal from her highly anticipated All Too Well (ten minute version), in an Instagram reel celebrating Autumn, Swift knows how to tease her fans.
Her ‘Bejewelled’ music video from last October, essentially spelled out to us that Speak Now (Taylor’s Version would be next), with snippets of the songs Enchanted and Long Live featuring in the video. Three of the music videos from the Midnights era also featured koi fishes, and sure enough she released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) on nationally koi fish day- the seventh of July. She later affirmed that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) would be next, by flashing fans bracelets blue during the intervals at her Eras Tour shows and by including lyrical references from the album in her instagram captions.
Have we missed out on any Taylor Swift Easter Eggs – Leave them below!