Anais Gutierrez
After an extended hiatus, Taylor Swift took to social media on Wednesday to announce an unnamed lead single and a new album. Swift is dropping her new album, ‘Reputation,’ in November and the single dropped last night.
The Swifties broke the internet after learning the big news on Taylor’s return. In fact, some fans came up with the funniest theories on the new material.
The wait for Swifties is finally over
After much, much speculation, Taylor Swift finally announced her sixth studio album, ‘Reputation,’ on Wednesday. The album will be released on Nov. 10, with its first single ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ was released last night.
The pop star teased fans big time. Last Friday, she deleted every post on her Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts. Coincidentally, it was the third anniversary of the day she announced ‘1989’ and unveiled its debut single ‘Shake it Off.’
Then, starting on Monday, she sent the internet into a frenzy by sharing mysterious videos on her social media accounts. The videos appeared to depict a snake tail. Finally, on Wednesday, the image was revealed and it was a snake.
Also on Wednesday, she announced her sixth studio album release date and its cover art.
The cover art for Reputation shows Swift in a gray sweater and choker necklace superimposed on top of newspaper headlines reading her name. The image was shot by photographers Mert & Marcus.
While it’s unclear what route Swift will take with her sixth album, her last record, ‘1989’ signaled her evolution from country to full-blown pop star.
However, the newly unveiled fashion, cover art, title, and dark snake videos seem to go on an edgier way to what fans are used to. And considering the whole starting from scratch marketing strategy, we might be heading in a whole new T. Swift era.
Swifties theories
Taylor Swift sure is the Queen of well-timed marketing tactics and timing, when it comes to coming with a new sound and style.
So much going on, including the first solar eclipse in close to a century, all seemed to fit into Taylor’s marketing strategy. So naturally, fans came up with some crazy theories when she first started sharing the dark snake videos knowing there was something behind.
First, when the very first video came up, Grammy winner Joseph Kahn, who directed some of Swift’s best music videos from the ‘1989’ album including ‘Blank Space’ was among the first to retweet the video, before adding that Swift had also planned a solar eclipse as part of her new album’s marketing strategy
Which doesn’t come as totally crazy, of course.
Carrying on with the eclipse magic, some fans were eager to clarify that the snake featured in Taylor’s video could be a shadow snake, which is said to appear before and after a total solar eclipse.
Then, moving on to a more realistic subject, some fans were quick to point out to Swift’s previous relationship with the term “snake.”
Kardashian-West Vs Swift
Last July, Kim Kardashian West released a series of videos online that appeared to demonstrate that Swift had signed off on Kanye West’s controversial ‘Famous’ lyrics (“I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous”), despite Swift’s claims to the contrary.
The whole thing went down on National Snake Day. Kardashian West posted a tweet heavily implying that Swift herself was a snake. In response, people flooded Swift’s social media pages with snake emojis.
Also, Taylor technically is a snake. Her birth year, 1989, is the year of the Snake, so there’s that.
And just when you thought you’ve seen it all. Some fans made connections to ‘Game of Thrones.’
Some fans and confused people on the Internet claimed Taylor is now the Mother of Dragons. Sorry, Khaleesi.
Queen of taking the hate and turning it into art. 🐍 https://t.co/e6ZfI5Rcj4
— Alex Goldschmidt (@alexandergold) August 21, 2017
Back on the radar and in charts
Aside from a high-profile trial in Denver against David Mueller, a former radio DJ who was found guilty of assault and battery against Swift for groping her during a meet-and-greet photo session in 2013, Taylor has been largely under the radar.
Following the incident with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West last July, which maybe resulted in this new record, Taylor was sent on sabbatical and seemed to galvanize public opinion against her.
Ever since, she has kept largely quiet, appearing scarcely in public and posting less frequently on social media, showing up only to congratulate her besties on their new records.
However, she hasn’t been a stranger to the charts. Swift most recently collaborated with Zayn Malik on ‘I Don’t Wanna Live Forever‘ for the ‘Fifty Shades Darker’ soundtrack this year.
And the single was a success, it peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, just one spot shy of becoming her fifth No. 1.
‘Reputation’ dropping in November marks the longest break between albums since she debuted in 2006. She typically releases a new album every two years.
Source: Wired
