Side note: when you mentioned her changing to wearing black it made me think of the line “I was a functioning alcoholic til no one noticed my new aesthetic”
That doesn't mean it's stupid to think it's about a different tour, especially if she was working on this album before Eras, which we all know she was and is a key reason people think it's going to be added to the setlist.
I'm willing to believe it's Eras she's referring to, but it would be basic to not explore other possibilities.
"The crowd was screaming 'MORE' - very true to the eras tour people were begging for rereleases (SNTV, and then quickly claiming 1989TV). Then right away demanding RepTV (think back to Brazil and the crowd chanting).
I'm not sure of any other tour of hers that this holds more truth to. All of her previous eras had their two years (give or take until Folklore). Now people are demanding Rep TV again (which I look forward to, but IMO Taylor's going to let TTPD have it's time in the spotlight in 2024 and rerelease Rep in 2025 -IMO).
Regardless of what it's referencing, I think it's bold to release this song in the middle of a tour when everyone will think it's about the tour. I've already seen people say things like it kinda takes some of the joy out of their eras tour experience, knowing she was faking it. It does put a dark cloud over something that was joyful for millions of people, and she's too smart to not know that would happen. It's very interesting to me.
I think she doesn’t realize her anthem is kinda a weird vibe of making fans feel uncomfortable. I do believe she wrote it as a power tribute to her strength but certainly makes us feel weird lol. Personally, I like when Taylor shares glimpses of what it’s like to be a mega star and essentially: Taylor Swift. I think it also makes fans uncomfortable because they realize how much of a product she is at this point to us, and she relies on it at this point. It’s very give and take, but jarring to remember she’s a billionaire and we are not lol. It’s cute to relate to Taylor until we can’t.
It’s also not about the fans at all and kinda silly we are making it that way. It’s her perspective about performing during a time you are supposed to be “on.” It’s tough and difficult, she wants us shouting more/ - she says in every acceptance speech “I want to keep doing this and I want you to keep wanting it” - it’s just tough to do when you don’t plan on delivering during heartbreak.
You make some good points about the song not being about the fans. But I also have a hard time believing that she would be naive to the fact that it would have an effect on her fans. For me it has made me wonder if she was being honest when she has said many times on stage that she's having the most fun in her life, etc, wondering if it was just a performance. It might be part of the deconstruction of her image, making us question the things that she says publicly.
Keep in mind we’re (in our contemporary time) also sloowwllyy shifting what we expect of celebrities regarding authenticity - or rather how believable their portrayed authenticity is. Taylor, having been in the game for so long, will probably eventually age out of where the zeitgeist is wra authenticity.
TLDR Stars have always been tricking us, it’s how they need to trick us to believe we’re seeing their true self, that changes.
I definitely think it’s jarring to an extent and I like how you mention a little of the deconstruction. And know we think she’s pretty aware, but I mean, looking at the healy situation and the fact she made what appears to be a lot of an album about him even if not, all of it, is a little out of touch. Her ability to pick singles that aren’t the best on her albums. Also, tell us sometimes she’s just not always as into as we would like her to be. But Who knows? She says never trust someone falling apart 😅😭
I get where people are coming from but honestly my take away is that she loves her fans so much that she still gives 110% even when she was miserable because she wants her fans to have the best experience.
I saw Brittany Spears at her residency in Vegas years ago, and it was a very lack luster performance. Like, she did the whole show, but you could tell she just didn't want to be there that night. I don't think anyone's ever said Taylor's given less than her all for her shows.
i think if you take it that literally/personally, it's on you. (you as in the fans, not YOU specifically.) she's a performer and you're paying for a performance. if you want to get a deeper meaning out of it that's fine, but it's ultimately not the service being paid for. and if taylor is miserable doing eras with all the success coming from it, that's ultimately the part that's on her.
****i am NOT one of the people who thinks the album is tone deaf btw. she's allowed to be sad like anyone else. but if she's going to be sad and touring... her call and her job to still perform.
Especially for someone whose brand is quite tied up with performing and fans, it's certainly interesting. I wonder if it's a deliberate deconstruction of the Taylor Swift (tm) narrative? Or she just really liked the song and knew it'd be well received (one of my friends texted me out of the blue just to say it was her whole 20s lol)? Or we'll get an ironic music video? Idk you're so right though.
Yeah it seems like there's a lot of deconstruction going on with the entirety of TTPD, such as bringing up Matty again when a lot of people were willing to forget. It's almost like she wants us in a chaotic space where we don't think we know her anymore and we don't know what to expect. Something big has to be coming.
I wonder if it's the opposite, she's popped the balloon and is trying to gradually let the air out of her stardom after a big 'greatest hits' tour. It can't be good to live like this, and the devil's bargain that is stardom usually doesn't last this long. The longer she's on top, the more likely it is something horrendous will happen, so if she can become mid-tier in her 30s (I'm imaging a career like Paul Simon's or Bruce Springsteen's, where she's still respected and gets to make whatever music she wants and do massive tours without being watched every waking moment) it's much less likely she'll have a painful moment, and she can just have a more normal life like she's never had.
That said, it seems complicated if that is the idea - breaking endless records, being number 1, being stratospheric and above it all is such a heady cocktail I'm not surprised she's encouraging it. She made a really difficult album - a 'fan's album' or a 'highbrow album' or whatever - and it's beyond number 1, that has to feel good if your intentions were to slowly fall.
I don't clown for big things anymore, though, so I'm not saying you're wrong at all I'm just saying I try and refrain from clowning myself. Much of the clowning this era has been correct...
it’s bold but i kind of like it when i think of all the fans who jumped on the Swift bandwagon who probably never cared before, or the entitled fans with parasocial relationships to her
She released a YouTube short recently of her rehearsal for tour again. There was a set piece that had the TTPD logo on it. It's definitely going to be on the tour list. So far, the theories have been, "But Daddy I love him" (pretty sure it's this song, a fellow Gaylor put out a post in the past few days making a *very thorough* break down of guitar finger positions and everything, was very impressive), "Who's afraid of little old me?" (Again, based off of the YouTube short, people are dancing and wearing top hats, the song mentions a circus, top hats kinda give circus vibes)
I think it’s about a specific time during Eras. Particularly March/April/May 2023. She was well on her way being launched into the stratosphere, hadn’t announced her long term relationship had ended, was moving on and exploring a relationship with a guy who probably kept checking in all during that long term relationship and messing with her feelings only for him to do and say some truely asinine things which made her entire fanbase furious. There actually was quite a lot going on at that moment!
Yes and probably wrote it around the Chicago shows last summer and some of last spring. She was visibly crying and devastated during some of those shows. Also the timeline of how she cranked out this album lol.
I thought so too and also my mind automatically connected to Katy Perry’s song Birthday, which was also released in 2014. (Make it like your birthday every day). I don’t know enough taylor lore to know the timelines and details but I know there was beef between the two of them at one point? But that’s as far as I got, it’s just one of the thousand little connections I’ve heard in the album that my brain doesn’t know what to do with 😜
Riiiight right I forgot that I knew that lol ….but they’ve seemingly made up now? So I’m not convinced that it’s an intentional tie to her/that song but it IS what my brain first connected 🤷🏻♀️
It's hard to keep up with all the taylore. They made up somewhere around the Lover era, when Katy was in the YNTCD video. There were rumors they would kiss in it, which iirc Taylor refuted on Tumblr. There totally could be a tie to it - tbh I don't think their feud was 100% genuine in hindsight.
What if it's not about any specific tour, but about being a celebrity in general? ICDIWABH makes me think about Britney Spears. Justin dumped her via text while she was filming a music video, and she was back on set and performing 40 minutes later. The Onyx Hotel Tour, her Vegas residencies, basically every public performance she's done for at least 15 years is the epitome of ICDIWABH. We don't know quite as much about Taylor's personal life (or at least it seems like we've known so much more about Britney's), but I feel like the song is about having to put on a happy public face every day.
I also feel like it's not JUST about performing. It was immediately one of my favorite songs on the album because I found it so relatable. I have depression and I'm neurodivergent, and I feel like I have to say "lights, camera, bitch smile" all the time. I think that the performance is not a specific tour, but having to perform as a human when you're suffering mentally.
Yessss! Other people have also mentioned Katy Perry's documentary, where she gets served with divorce papers and then goes on smiling.
I do think it's definitely empowering - partially in the 'even a bad bitch have bad days' way, like, if Taylor mfing Swift has to put on a smile then so can you, and partially in a 'fake it til you make it so I did' way, like, fake it for now then come out on top. The boppitude helps with that for sure.
Yessssss. I have never really thought about Andrea's cancer, but now that you mention it that makes a lot of sense. My mom has a heart defect and her mom died of the same defect when my mom was 8. I've been worried about losing her pretty much my whole life (it turns out to be a huge source of trauma for me, yay therapy!).
I know a lot of ppl think this song is a dark cloud over the eras tour and that it means she is faking everything but let’s think bout it…. The eras tour has gone on for over a year now. Humans have all sorts of emotions through out a year. This song could be about a month, a week, a day. Or just referring to the hard days. No matter what your job is we can all relate to having to fake it. And I agree it could be about a different tour. Maybe all the tours. If you go out on stage everynight there are certainly going to be nights you don’t feel 100%. I think this song isn’t suppose to make us feel bad but just remind us that she’s human. I think alot of this era is reminding us we don’t know everything about her. I really doubt she’s been heart broken every day of the eras tour.
yeah i think it's about her career in general. idk what happened in the last couple years that everyone thinks every song is so hyper focused. like she's allowed to write about general concepts...?
Or like, fleeting thoughts - not everything has to be the biggest thing ever. Definitely sometimes, and I love reading people's speculations! But not everything is a groundbreaking revelation.
yes! the analysis of this album has been really frustrating. she's a writer who draws inspiration from her experiences and then embellishes them and crafts them into stories. not everything is a one to one correlation. and she's literally said that so idk why everyone is determined. like you said the speculation can be fun, but it's gone too far and probably the reason people don't like this album when it's actually so good! if it was anyone else singing the songs there wouldn't be an issue.
Side note: when you mentioned her changing to wearing black it made me think of the line “I was a functioning alcoholic til no one noticed my new aesthetic”
I had thought of that aesthetic change during lover while listening to that lyric!!!
the official lyric video is basically a montage of the eras tour…
That doesn't mean it's stupid to think it's about a different tour, especially if she was working on this album before Eras, which we all know she was and is a key reason people think it's going to be added to the setlist. I'm willing to believe it's Eras she's referring to, but it would be basic to not explore other possibilities.
"The crowd was screaming 'MORE' - very true to the eras tour people were begging for rereleases (SNTV, and then quickly claiming 1989TV). Then right away demanding RepTV (think back to Brazil and the crowd chanting). I'm not sure of any other tour of hers that this holds more truth to. All of her previous eras had their two years (give or take until Folklore). Now people are demanding Rep TV again (which I look forward to, but IMO Taylor's going to let TTPD have it's time in the spotlight in 2024 and rerelease Rep in 2025 -IMO).
Regardless of what it's referencing, I think it's bold to release this song in the middle of a tour when everyone will think it's about the tour. I've already seen people say things like it kinda takes some of the joy out of their eras tour experience, knowing she was faking it. It does put a dark cloud over something that was joyful for millions of people, and she's too smart to not know that would happen. It's very interesting to me.
I think she doesn’t realize her anthem is kinda a weird vibe of making fans feel uncomfortable. I do believe she wrote it as a power tribute to her strength but certainly makes us feel weird lol. Personally, I like when Taylor shares glimpses of what it’s like to be a mega star and essentially: Taylor Swift. I think it also makes fans uncomfortable because they realize how much of a product she is at this point to us, and she relies on it at this point. It’s very give and take, but jarring to remember she’s a billionaire and we are not lol. It’s cute to relate to Taylor until we can’t. It’s also not about the fans at all and kinda silly we are making it that way. It’s her perspective about performing during a time you are supposed to be “on.” It’s tough and difficult, she wants us shouting more/ - she says in every acceptance speech “I want to keep doing this and I want you to keep wanting it” - it’s just tough to do when you don’t plan on delivering during heartbreak.
You make some good points about the song not being about the fans. But I also have a hard time believing that she would be naive to the fact that it would have an effect on her fans. For me it has made me wonder if she was being honest when she has said many times on stage that she's having the most fun in her life, etc, wondering if it was just a performance. It might be part of the deconstruction of her image, making us question the things that she says publicly.
Keep in mind we’re (in our contemporary time) also sloowwllyy shifting what we expect of celebrities regarding authenticity - or rather how believable their portrayed authenticity is. Taylor, having been in the game for so long, will probably eventually age out of where the zeitgeist is wra authenticity. TLDR Stars have always been tricking us, it’s how they need to trick us to believe we’re seeing their true self, that changes.
I definitely think it’s jarring to an extent and I like how you mention a little of the deconstruction. And know we think she’s pretty aware, but I mean, looking at the healy situation and the fact she made what appears to be a lot of an album about him even if not, all of it, is a little out of touch. Her ability to pick singles that aren’t the best on her albums. Also, tell us sometimes she’s just not always as into as we would like her to be. But Who knows? She says never trust someone falling apart 😅😭
I get where people are coming from but honestly my take away is that she loves her fans so much that she still gives 110% even when she was miserable because she wants her fans to have the best experience. I saw Brittany Spears at her residency in Vegas years ago, and it was a very lack luster performance. Like, she did the whole show, but you could tell she just didn't want to be there that night. I don't think anyone's ever said Taylor's given less than her all for her shows.
i think if you take it that literally/personally, it's on you. (you as in the fans, not YOU specifically.) she's a performer and you're paying for a performance. if you want to get a deeper meaning out of it that's fine, but it's ultimately not the service being paid for. and if taylor is miserable doing eras with all the success coming from it, that's ultimately the part that's on her. ****i am NOT one of the people who thinks the album is tone deaf btw. she's allowed to be sad like anyone else. but if she's going to be sad and touring... her call and her job to still perform.
Especially for someone whose brand is quite tied up with performing and fans, it's certainly interesting. I wonder if it's a deliberate deconstruction of the Taylor Swift (tm) narrative? Or she just really liked the song and knew it'd be well received (one of my friends texted me out of the blue just to say it was her whole 20s lol)? Or we'll get an ironic music video? Idk you're so right though.
Yeah it seems like there's a lot of deconstruction going on with the entirety of TTPD, such as bringing up Matty again when a lot of people were willing to forget. It's almost like she wants us in a chaotic space where we don't think we know her anymore and we don't know what to expect. Something big has to be coming.
I wonder if it's the opposite, she's popped the balloon and is trying to gradually let the air out of her stardom after a big 'greatest hits' tour. It can't be good to live like this, and the devil's bargain that is stardom usually doesn't last this long. The longer she's on top, the more likely it is something horrendous will happen, so if she can become mid-tier in her 30s (I'm imaging a career like Paul Simon's or Bruce Springsteen's, where she's still respected and gets to make whatever music she wants and do massive tours without being watched every waking moment) it's much less likely she'll have a painful moment, and she can just have a more normal life like she's never had. That said, it seems complicated if that is the idea - breaking endless records, being number 1, being stratospheric and above it all is such a heady cocktail I'm not surprised she's encouraging it. She made a really difficult album - a 'fan's album' or a 'highbrow album' or whatever - and it's beyond number 1, that has to feel good if your intentions were to slowly fall. I don't clown for big things anymore, though, so I'm not saying you're wrong at all I'm just saying I try and refrain from clowning myself. Much of the clowning this era has been correct...
it’s bold but i kind of like it when i think of all the fans who jumped on the Swift bandwagon who probably never cared before, or the entitled fans with parasocial relationships to her
Yeah, I feel that.
I will be very interested to see the crowd reaction/vibe if she performs this song on eras. I imagine it would be very uncomfortable for the crowd.
Yeah, I honestly hope she doesn't.
She released a YouTube short recently of her rehearsal for tour again. There was a set piece that had the TTPD logo on it. It's definitely going to be on the tour list. So far, the theories have been, "But Daddy I love him" (pretty sure it's this song, a fellow Gaylor put out a post in the past few days making a *very thorough* break down of guitar finger positions and everything, was very impressive), "Who's afraid of little old me?" (Again, based off of the YouTube short, people are dancing and wearing top hats, the song mentions a circus, top hats kinda give circus vibes)
I think it’s about a specific time during Eras. Particularly March/April/May 2023. She was well on her way being launched into the stratosphere, hadn’t announced her long term relationship had ended, was moving on and exploring a relationship with a guy who probably kept checking in all during that long term relationship and messing with her feelings only for him to do and say some truely asinine things which made her entire fanbase furious. There actually was quite a lot going on at that moment!
Yes and probably wrote it around the Chicago shows last summer and some of last spring. She was visibly crying and devastated during some of those shows. Also the timeline of how she cranked out this album lol.
“The pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting more” reminds me of when 1989 tv came out and the fans were chanting for REP tv
God that was so brutal, like I want rep tv as much as the next person but let the woman REST
“So depressed I act like it’s my birthday every day” gives me 1989 vibes.
lol very red being left on your 21st bday
I thought so too and also my mind automatically connected to Katy Perry’s song Birthday, which was also released in 2014. (Make it like your birthday every day). I don’t know enough taylor lore to know the timelines and details but I know there was beef between the two of them at one point? But that’s as far as I got, it’s just one of the thousand little connections I’ve heard in the album that my brain doesn’t know what to do with 😜
They were beefing in the 1989 era. Bad Blood is ostensibly about Katy
Riiiight right I forgot that I knew that lol ….but they’ve seemingly made up now? So I’m not convinced that it’s an intentional tie to her/that song but it IS what my brain first connected 🤷🏻♀️
It's hard to keep up with all the taylore. They made up somewhere around the Lover era, when Katy was in the YNTCD video. There were rumors they would kiss in it, which iirc Taylor refuted on Tumblr. There totally could be a tie to it - tbh I don't think their feud was 100% genuine in hindsight.
What if it's not about any specific tour, but about being a celebrity in general? ICDIWABH makes me think about Britney Spears. Justin dumped her via text while she was filming a music video, and she was back on set and performing 40 minutes later. The Onyx Hotel Tour, her Vegas residencies, basically every public performance she's done for at least 15 years is the epitome of ICDIWABH. We don't know quite as much about Taylor's personal life (or at least it seems like we've known so much more about Britney's), but I feel like the song is about having to put on a happy public face every day. I also feel like it's not JUST about performing. It was immediately one of my favorite songs on the album because I found it so relatable. I have depression and I'm neurodivergent, and I feel like I have to say "lights, camera, bitch smile" all the time. I think that the performance is not a specific tour, but having to perform as a human when you're suffering mentally.
Yessss! Other people have also mentioned Katy Perry's documentary, where she gets served with divorce papers and then goes on smiling. I do think it's definitely empowering - partially in the 'even a bad bitch have bad days' way, like, if Taylor mfing Swift has to put on a smile then so can you, and partially in a 'fake it til you make it so I did' way, like, fake it for now then come out on top. The boppitude helps with that for sure.
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Yessssss. I have never really thought about Andrea's cancer, but now that you mention it that makes a lot of sense. My mom has a heart defect and her mom died of the same defect when my mom was 8. I've been worried about losing her pretty much my whole life (it turns out to be a huge source of trauma for me, yay therapy!).
[удалено]
You too! Luckily I seem to have avoided the heart problems on both sides of my family, so far at least.
Isn't the opening notes of the song the opening notes of the eras film?
I know a lot of ppl think this song is a dark cloud over the eras tour and that it means she is faking everything but let’s think bout it…. The eras tour has gone on for over a year now. Humans have all sorts of emotions through out a year. This song could be about a month, a week, a day. Or just referring to the hard days. No matter what your job is we can all relate to having to fake it. And I agree it could be about a different tour. Maybe all the tours. If you go out on stage everynight there are certainly going to be nights you don’t feel 100%. I think this song isn’t suppose to make us feel bad but just remind us that she’s human. I think alot of this era is reminding us we don’t know everything about her. I really doubt she’s been heart broken every day of the eras tour.
yeah i think it's about her career in general. idk what happened in the last couple years that everyone thinks every song is so hyper focused. like she's allowed to write about general concepts...?
Or like, fleeting thoughts - not everything has to be the biggest thing ever. Definitely sometimes, and I love reading people's speculations! But not everything is a groundbreaking revelation.
yes! the analysis of this album has been really frustrating. she's a writer who draws inspiration from her experiences and then embellishes them and crafts them into stories. not everything is a one to one correlation. and she's literally said that so idk why everyone is determined. like you said the speculation can be fun, but it's gone too far and probably the reason people don't like this album when it's actually so good! if it was anyone else singing the songs there wouldn't be an issue.
I have a [theory](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gaylor_Swift/s/PPBBAA5i7E) that this song is also talking about Ana Benevides.
Yes I saw that!!! I like that too, Ana deserves to be honoured
Yes I do think it’s about eras or a culmination of her life as a performer