What We Wanted Versus What We Got: Taylor Swift and The Grammys
On the morning of February 4th, 2024, Swifties worldwide opened their various social media apps only to find something truly life-changing. Taylor Swift had changed her profile picture to a black-and-white filtered image of her Midnights era profile picture. The average person may be wondering, what’s so crazy about that? We’re here to discuss just that. Let’s start with the fact that Swift is known for her easter eggs, the little clues she puts out there that hint at different album releases or, in some cases, re-releases.
Reputation was released in 2017 following a lot of controversy in Swift’s life. Kanye West and Kim Kardashian leaked a phone call recording with Taylor Swift discussing the lyrics to Kanye's well-known song "Famous," in regards to lyrics that sexually reference Swift's name. Swift's naked body was then featured in the “Famous” music video in the form of a wax figure laid next to Kanye. According to her documentary, Miss Americana, Swift left social media almost entirely because of this humiliation and wasn't seen by the public for a year. She was very clearly made to feel ashamed by someone she was only beginning to trust, and she felt broken down and used after that entire ordeal.
And now, six years later, it’s Taylor Swift's biggest era yet. 2023 was the year of The Eras Tour. According to Rolling Stone magazine, this tour is the first ever to gross at least $1 billion. She’s released four albums since Reputation, along with four re-recordings. She recently announced her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. That’s where the new drama begins, and it feels like 2017 all over again.
Taylor Swift took to the Grammys stage to accept her Best Pop Vocal Album award and told the audience that she was going to share a secret with us. If you know anything about Taylor Swift, then you know something big was coming, but I don’t think anyone thought it would be a new album. Swifties thought it would surely be the Reputation (Taylor’s Version) announcement. I mean, all the signs were pointing to it. Reputation’s colorway and aesthetic are entirely black and white. After seeing her new black-and-white profile picture, we all figured it was a given. She had also intentionally taken down her website for the day, leaving only an error message that implied something regarding a “red herring.” Swifties had also noticed that her outfits leading up to that moment featured snakes, a huge symbol during that era. We all thought we knew for sure that Reputation (TV) was coming, but we were completely thrown off by the announcement of a new album coming this April.
The aesthetic of The Tortured Poets Department is simultaneously very similar to Reputation and also extremely different. It has the same sexy and mature vibe that tracks on Rep like “Dress” and “So It Goes…” have, but it also has a more sultry and emotional energy that her 2017 album lacked.
Reputation is a fan favorite amongst the Swiftie community. It came out at such a pivotal point in Swift’s career. She was entering an entirely new era, being in love and no longer scared to be herself in the public eye and not letting magazines and paparazzi hurt her. She was also much more body-positive, no longer suffering from an eating disorder that took over her life during the Red and 1989 eras.
The Tortured Poets Department is her first album since Reputation, not including her re-recordings, that won’t feature any songs written with her recent ex, Joe Alwyn. Alwyn loved Swift at a point in her career when she felt like no one else did, but over time that love fizzled out. The Swiftie community cannot wait to see how that relationship changed her and how she will explore her new relationship with NFL star Travis Kelce in song form.
We have seen throughout her career that Swift does what she wants, not what people expect her to do, and she’s doing just that once again with this release. Even when fans are begging for the re-release of Reputation, she throws us something entirely new. This leaves us with one burning question, will The Tortured Poets Department be like Reputation, sexy, exciting and in love, or will it be something completely new we’ve never heard before? We’ll just have to wait until April 19th, when all of our questions will finally be answered.
Are you excited about The Tortured Poets Department? Tag us @theedgemag with your reactions to this album come April 19th!