Also.. has anyone else noticed the lyrical parallels between Peace and Midnight Rain cause I was kinda shook when I noticed this two days ago. I mean… “I’d give you my sunshine give you my best but the rain is always gonna come if you’re standing with me” and “he was sunshine I was midnight rain”
I don't think he is sunshine at all. SHE is sunshine compared to him. She is a shiny person. He has always come across as bitter. I don't know how people can think this song is about him.
I feel like most of these songs will have been written 'about' events or relationships prior to Joe, but unavoidably her present emotions (at the time) about her and Joe's relationship became intertwined with them. Like Midnight Rain was probably 'written' about someone else from her past, but the fact that these specific emotions were on her mind so strongly seems to suggest that things with her and Joe were no bueno
@@shannonagain6943 yeah exactly! i say this as someone who writes music and poetry too (though not as good as the queen obviously). sometimes you think you’re writing about one thing and you look back after life stuff happens and realise that your subconscious was telling you how you felt about something else entirely ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ just the way it is
I think Midnights has this feel of a relationship falling apart and you start looking to the past and your exes thinking about the commonalities. How do things break down, is there a pattern, am I the problem?
I feel like it's a mix what you said, but also that she moved on. She accepts it, it did hurt and she thought she is the problem, but now she realizes that she never was, the songs represent a short time of her life. She moved on and looks back in a good way (or at least in a modest way)
I really think that when she said “all the things i gave away” she’s actually talking about the “normal life” , not about what she gave away with joe, because she didnt, the whole idea she didnt want to give up her life
EXACTLY! I was just saying this! I think in trying to analyze how her relationship with Joe was starting to fail, she looked to her past and thought "why is it happening again? What am I doing wrong? What did I do back then with that person I could do better now to save what I have?" And with those thoughts came inspiration for the album, both reliving her past while trying to compare her present and finding similarities. She only told us it was inspired by her past, but she didn't need to tell us it was also inspired by the present. A half truth that no one REALLY saw until they broke up. This is kind of the most insane work she's done because of this and it honestly makes Midnights a perfect album imo. This is crazy.
What about dear reader? To me, this song was the warning sign that something was not ok. It was the final track (big significance in the track list) and she literally says: I prefer hiding in plain sight, like she wants to tell us that the message hides in plain sight. Also: coming home to a house not a home all alone cause nobody’s there. I always felt like “you should find another guiding light” is about her not being able to live up to the love story she manifested and everyone believed in.
Thats so true & i wanna add she kinda sang about the breakup in Lover, Reputation, folklore ! Okay not literally but as he said in the video "that deep down she knew they weren't going to last" I think even when she was in love with him & writing reputation lover & folklore she had a subconscious fear that they would break up she knew they weren't gonna last from the moment they started , so i think Cornelia street, new years day, hoax, death by a thousand cuts might be about her imagining the pain & hurt the breakup w joe would cause her like -: ▪︎ I'd be getting over you my whole life ▪︎ i'd never walk Cornelia street again ▪︎Please dont ever become a stranger whose laugh i can recognize anywhere ▪︎ i dont wanna keep secrets just to keep you-cruel summer Like these lyrics show kinda fear & sadness of loosing someone & in all the albums about him there was atleast one song like this
Exactly, she was forced to basically exist less for the sake of Joe. And that's not who she is. She is an artist who lives expressing herself and connecting with people, amd that's what Joe didn't like. I think he acted like she could control that and Taylor became very obsessive about keeping her work life and personal life separate, which is not possible. Because she IS a worldwide superstar, an artist, and that's not just something she 'does', that's who she IS. Joe was better when he could have her more caged at home and not out in the world being the superstar that she is. He wishes she would exist less and the sad thing is she of course tried because she did truly love him. Taylor deserves someone who truly loves her and embraces her for who she is, in all her glory, someone who has no problem just saying that he loves her, no need to give a lot of details, like just a natural thing to say when you live a shared life with someone. He was bitter and he was embittering her it's what I think. I hope Taylor finds a real man for her.
@@laclochard I don't think he is bitter, if Joe decided to have a relationship with her when mass cancellation, he was obviously ready for publicity, I think it was taylor who was fed up of the public and decided to keep the relationship private, then covid came and that obviously helped with the privacy. But now taylor has realized how much she missed sparkling and has mended her relationship with the public and is ready to be on top of the world again
I can't believe people even fans are really trying so hard to defend Joe. Oh please. Taylor loved him so much and that's why you see him in such a great light. But let's be real. He has always come across as BITTER. While Taylor has always publicly supported him. And it's clear he never liked Taylor being a worldwide superstar. He wishes she was caged in her house and not out there shining as bright as she is going to because like you said SHE IS TAYLOR SWIFT. She became obsessed about 'separating her personal and work life' as if that's possible. I mean her work is not something that she 'does' it's what she IS, she is an artist, she likes expressing herself and connecting to the public, that's who she IS. He clearly hated it, he wanted her to shine less, to occupy less space, to exist LESS. I hope people stop making excuses for this dude. Like 'he didn't do anything', yeah that's right, he has played his thing right, in a more passive aggressive way. I can't believe people are buying it. Taylor DESERVES BETTER. She deserves a real man who truly loves her. @@munalawajid1568
@@laclochard even after keeping their relationship so private, we've got people assuming things, how is joe going to show his love for taylor publicly, write a song? also i'm not defending or trying to offend anyone i'm just trying to state my opinion on your text.
Question? Is honestly a masterpiece. My favorite song in the album, to all the girlies who can't forget literally ANYTHING, can't get over the most basic deep connection from years ago. That song is a cry for help lol 😭
Question I believe was written after Harry’s unpublished songs were leaked. Harry did leave her in the middle of the night. I think she was telling Harry you had your chance.
@@piedpiper5886 that along with the Grammy interaction would make so much sense. Omfg i totally forgot that the leaks could’ve contributed to that song. He for sure didn’t know what he had until it was late
“I made you my world, have you heard, I can reclaim the land” ok until this video I did not appreciate how hard this slaps. It’s the sharpest “don’t try me” 👏👏
wow i'm really starting to believe that Midnights is supposed to be a breakup album all along, because she is a mastermind, she was cryptic and machiavellian and dishonest to us fans regarding this because she cares.....at the end of Lover she says "now i see daylight, i only see daylight....not the things that haunt me in the middle of the night"...but she is midnight rain....so the relationship only worked in the daylight....i believe Taylor is still grateful for Joe, because all he ever wanted from her was sweet nothing and he showed her this normal life in the daylight
But they were seen together after midnights released?? Remember the after party where Taylor wore the midnight short blue dress and ran away with joe later hiding from thr paps??
So I haven’t watched this video yet but I’ll say between midnight Rain and Bejeweled it SEEMS to me, she missed the lights, the fans(aka the attention) the praise. I got this feeling as well via her documentary I can’t remember exactly what was said but I got the feeling that she was sorta brought up to try to 1. Be a polite young lady. But also other peoples approval or praise is something she craved. So when she says “I miss sparkling” I’m like “you miss being the center of attention” this is probably an unpopular opinion but bejeweled is overrated lyrically or I guess rhythm ( I don’t know music terms) basically it doesn’t flow, the lyrics and the beat all seem stunted in order to force a story but that story really doesn’t fit into a melody that really just slips off the tongue. The song just sounds really stunted to me. Love midnight rain though. Love!
IMO the biggest red flag for why this relationship wouldn't work was when Taylor began reinventing the wheel. All the Joe songs were about the same period of time, the same message. The "he saved me" "he's normal and I love it" etc. Taylor is a multifaceted songwriter and this was supposed to be the love of her life and yet... we were at Midnights, 6 years deep, and she's singing songs like Snow on the Beach and Lavender Haze. Even Folklore and Evermore which are primarily fictional snuck in that same tired storyline.
I have a psychology background with an expertise in communications. Analysis always fascinates me. I think Lavender Haze reveals Joe as Taylor's rock of stability that's kept her grounded. Taylor has often spoke to a need for grounding in such a surreal life. Going back before Joe, she did interviews speaking to her reviewing the social media posts of everyday people to just touch base with normality. When the world thinks you're a goddess, you kinda need that someone to not pay so much attention and the tone of the song is gratitude that he's been that for her. Joe's 32. Taylor's 33. He might be wanting to start a family and settledown into a more (less jet set) private life. He seems far less career driven and not at all a fan of fame. Undoubtedly, Lavender Haze speaks to the pressure Taylor has felt to settledown... mostly in terms of societal pressure. But I would suspect there's been a lot of private pressure on both Taylor and Joe for marriage and children when it's clear she's not ready to give up her career as their families count their years spent together in-tune to Taylor's biological clock tick-tocking. Perhaps right when he was ready to settledown, she was ready to produce a new album complete with a huge tour? Midnight Rain is especially poignant in this kind of self-reflection as if she's facing the same issue of her youth all over again. Taylor Lautner wanted to settledown. He wanted the peppermint candy kind of life in his fenced yard paradise. That ghost come back to haunt her as she, perhaps, faced the same struggles with Joe. Taylor has always seemed to me like she's stuck between two worlds, and I think many people are with the societal upheaval and role changes that have occurred in the recent scope of human history. There's the baking cookies, southern down-home girl, who wants to settle into the comfort of lifelong love as per her country roots. Then, there's the extremely ambitious and highly competitive star within her that wants to shine brighter than all the others. I imagine she wars with herself a lot, and she knows it. She shows us that war all the time. I think we shouldn't be so hard on John Mayer and his song "Paper Doll" when he wrote that Taylor was like "22 girls all in one". She has shown us that herself in videos like "Look what you made me do" where she shows the many aspects of her, as if unique personalities, battling on the mountain for ultimate supremacy. I think Joe's a good guy. They just stopped being compatible when they hit that pivotal road mark that revealed they didn't share the same relationship goals.
I love the chorus of Maroon. It’s one of my favorite bits in the record in the way the lyrics can sound both positive and negative based on the way she sings it. Was the wine splashed because they were in a careless, happy moment and someone wasn’t watching their wine glass or was the wine thrown in anger? Are her cheeks flushing with happiness and excitement or out of anger or shame? Did the rust grow between telephones because it was in such heavy use or because it was left abandoned? Is the mark on her neck a love bite or was it a bruise from more sinister circumstances? The emotion in her voice when she sings these lines the first time compared to when she sings them towards the end of the song changes so much that it feels like the meaning changes as time goes on. Like she’s describing different points of their relationship using the same lyrics.
She was revisiting impactful moments from her past because her present wasn't fulfilling her and it was bringing back memories of other relationships breaking down. Also she hints all through out the album that she needs a bit of chaos and drama to not be bored with "I just need that love spiral", saying she's the problem in anti-hero or still longing for a relationship that was a "meteor strike". Meanwhile it seems like her relationship with Joe was a lot more mundane and a bit boring like most long term relationships are, that is pretty clear in how she describes it in Sweet Nothing. I think he was ready to lock it down and pop out some babies but she's not in the mood for that "1950's shit" yet and she's still chasing that fame. It's still pretty clear he was still very significant for her and I hope she doesn't regret breaking up with him later...
Honestly you might be right, it’s been proven in toxic relationships people think they’re having more fun. But in reality it’s just Chaos. If this is true maybe she can’t differentiate true love from toxic love.
@@harls3337 Perhaps. The way she describes a "meteor strike" as an incomparable relationship and how everything else is just second best kind of hints at that mindset. Meteor strikes are very impactful, but also very destructive, fiery and burn out quick. In Miss Americana she shares her fears of becoming irrelevant because she hit 30 and how wants to enjoy the success of Lover while she can because it's probably the last time she'll have that type of media presence. The pandemic then hit and it ended up cutting the Lover era short and leaving Taylor and Joe (and all of us) in this bubble, which birthed Folklore and Evermore. But afterwards, with the world coming back to normal, I think Taylor realized she's still that bitch that can make a 10 minute song which isn't even fully new go number 1, you know? I think that shifted her priorities. She seemed ready to slow down on her career and perhaps start a family with Joe, but the success of Red TV may have shown her that she wants to enjoy being at the top for as long as she can, especially after the survived the cancellation. I think they would have broken up sooner and realized their differences if the pandemic hadn't happened, because even if Taylor has become more private, her fame always comes with the package of dating her and Joe clearly HATES the attention. I never thought Taylor would permanently disappear from the media like she did with reputation, she has a bubbly outgoing personality and it was a matter of time before she missed sparkling. Her disappearance wasn't provoked because of an actual organic change in her personality, it was because she thought people hated her and Red TV showed her that's not true. The lockdown just delayed the realization that they wouldn't be compatible in the long run. It's still obvious though that he'll always be special for her since he was with her at her lowest point. It could be one of those things where she'll always look back and wonder "what if" and ponder about the possibilities and the life she gave away, just like she says in Midnight Rain. I guess she'll be getting over him her whole life.
I think she needs to find someone who wants to commit to her, wants her to shine and be herself, and is able to give her a bit of chaos like she craves. I also think Taylor needs to WANT to reciprocate those feelings
I have been in a relationship before where our level of “extroversion” was so so different: he wanted to be home like 99% of the time and I am 50/50 : we had SO many fights about me wanting to go out and him wanting to stay in, and tried so many various strategies to help: I feel this is similar to what she dealt with: he is SO private, so quiet , she is a HUGE pop star who has always lovedddd the spotlight and her fans . I can imagine that would be a huge strain.
Brilliant analysis. I recently watched an interview of Taylor discussing her writing process & she said that sometimes she doesn't know how she feels about something until she writes it down. The writing of songs gives her clarity in working through her worries. I feel that with Midnights her subconscious is rather loud throughout the album. Definitely grappling with the unraveling of a long term relationship & how they grew apart, thinking of her future & what she wants for her life/achievements/goals/legacy & reflection of her values. The theme of agency is huge. These are all the things that have been keeping her up till midnight as she's undergone a seismic transformation like Cinderella when the clock strikes 12.
My theory: they had a break on the relationship and that’s when she wrote maroon and midnight rain, bejewelled, glitch etc . When they got back together she wrote the Great War, and….LABYRINTH “ I’ll be getting over you my whole life/ oh oh I’m falling in love again I thought the plane was going down how DID YOU turn RIGHT AROUND”. The only away Joe could possibly accept songs like question and glitch is if they were broken up at some point. Also People magazine wrote “they had problems before and worked that out so friends thought they would spend some time apart but eventually come back together”. So friends were not taking the break up so seriously because they have broken up before and got back together, until the break up was midia oficial, when they realised this time would be for good. This theory makes all the songs make perfect sense. You are welcome.
@@kpramoz she sings about thinking of an ex boyfriend that now is a “friend” and that lives in the same town she is at “ you don’t live in that part of town but maybe I’ll see you out some weekend, depending on what kind of mood or situationship I’m in “ she is fantasizing like in enchanted “Wishing you were at my door”. . When She sings “2190 days of our love blackout out, the system is breaking down” I interpret she’s talking about a guy she broke up with 6 years ago (broke up = love black out) Love black out cannot be the start of a romance, it doesn’t make sense, it is THE END. It could be Tom or maybe this is an expression for when she started loving Joe, the love that she had for someone else “blacked out” “ a brief interruption a slight malfunction I GO BACK TO WANTING DUDES THAT GIVE NOTHING” something happened, a crisis on her reletionship with Joe or I even a break, that made her want/think of/wonder about other boys. This is an album that any mature person that has gone through long relationships can easily relate. I don’t think 20y.o< Swifties will get it very easily.
@@andressa7405 yes. When I first heard, many songs people said it was about Calvin I pointed out to my boyfriend that they were about Joe. When you're in a relationship for a long time (especially if things change a lot in that specific period) there is always that moment of struggle in which you realize: "Hey, I can live without it; maybe letting it go is the smart decision". Sometimes you're able to fix things together, and sometimes it's just best to move on separately (and most times you take quite a while to realize it)
@@biancavivas4449 exactly ! When I heard Bejewelled I knew it was about Joe immediately. I’m in a 10 years relationship and familiarity does bring contempt. That’s very normal. The lavender haze only lasts from 1 to 3 years maximum. 😅
@@andressa7405 Oh okay, thanks for explaining!! I thought the "glitch" she's was referring to was her relationship with Joe. Especially because she always talked about Joe being like a miracle in her life due to how he came into her life when she was at a low point. Like she doesn't feel like she deserves his love and that this must be a glitch that isn't going to last. But for sure if her and Joe were already over or on the point of being over I can see how different this song can change.
Maybe he's not sunshine in personality - but her sunshine, as in what is perceived as healthy for her to take in - but she's midnight rain. That really aligns with the being drawn to the wasteland - it might not be the best for her, it's dark but it's hers.. I love it
i think Taylor is so grateful for Joe coming into her life. Because at that time she was on her lowest point of her life. Then slowly Taylor was rebuilding her career. After success of Folklore and Midnights, Taylor maybe wanted to do something more beyond that. And then Joe wanted to settle down, probably have kids, etc. But she’s the pop star, She didn’t like the idea of settling down quickly. So that’s maybe why she wanted to end the relationship but in a healthy way. I also think that she might go back to Joe again at some point.
yeah, I was thinking the same, joe loved Taylor when nobody else did, I also think they are gonna get back together after she's done with the tour and joe is done with filming. After all, they do say that it's lonely at the top
I don't think the problem was about marrying and having kids. But doing that with a man who has never embraced her in all her glory and who would only be content with her existing LESS, basically.
@@munalawajid1568 'he loved Taylor when nobody else did'. I keep reading that kind of misogynystic comments like a man deserves a prize or something for being with a woman going through a rough patch, I mean that's just life. And to say that nodoby else would love her as is she is not a wonderful person and freaking Taylor Swift. And the sad thing is that it's probably things like that who would affect her self esteem and have to shrink herself for a man who never liked how much of a superstar she is. He has always come across as bitter, the opposite to Taylor. He has never likes core things about Taylor that make her who she is like expressing herself and being connected to the public. So stop talking like she owes him something.
I hate how people get mad when I say that I’m excited to hear the next record. If you are offended by someone being excited to hear what Taylor has to say about the relationship through the music, you need to get a grip. Just because I am excited for music, doesn’t mean I am “happy that Taylor and Joe broke up”. I feel like a lot of new swifties aren’t really familiar with the way it works around these parts.
In daylight she says "I once believed love would be burning red but it’s golden" She always described Joe as golden but now in maroon she realises Joe was maroon and she hasn’t found her actual golden yet.
I think the biggest clue we have on Maroon being about Joe is that the line “looked at the sky and it was maroon”. The thing is, the people thought that maroon was about Jake believed this because it was a shade of red. It really was. In Daylight, Taylor says “I once belive love would be burning red, but it’s golden like daylight”. And that’s the problem. Taylor now looks at the sky and sees that it was never golden, just a cooler and less vibrating shade of red. She thought because this relationship is calmer, this is the healty true love but it’s actually because it lacks passion and kinda mess that she likes in a relationship.
I think in light of recent happenings Bejeweled is one of the most interesting songs on Midnights because it is a perfect example of what others have pointed out already in the comments - a song about past events where current feelings intertwine. I still think it was written about Calvin Harris because IMO there are a few lines that are unmistakably a reference to him - “I can still say I don’t remember”, “did all the extra credit then got graded on a curve” (reference to TIWYCF), “we dance all night and you can try to change my mind but you might have to wait in line” (reference to Met gala). However, there is something which I can’t quite make sense of now that I think about it, and it is that while she was with Calvin, however unhappy the relationship was, she WAS shining in the public eye until the very last stretch of the relationship. Like sure she could’ve meant “I miss sparkling” as her perceiving that things were crumbling in 2016 but when she left him it was still early stages of the whole canceling process, the line makes much more sense in the context of having withdrawn from the public eye and become much more private and missing being THAT girl which she was in 2015 (when she was with Calvin). So yeah in conclusion, I think she intended to write this song about a past breakup/situation but ended up mixing her own current feelings in the process - how she missed the spotlight.
Honestly it makes a lot of sense for songs on midnights to almost have multiple meanings. Her past relationships that she’s intentionally reflecting on, and her then current relationship with Joe when she was writing this. I know for myself I don’t often realize my present until I’m reflecting on the past, and I wonder if that was the same for Taylor here too
Honestly, I really was speculating to myself what’s happening with Taylor and Joe a few days before the news of their split. Not to dehumanise them or strip them of their personal life at all. I was thinking how Joe and Taylor are in different places in life. Taylor is in the middle of a career metamorphosis. She’s essentially book-ended a significant portion of her career. We know she’s about to embark on newer creative outlets beyond songwriting. Joe seems to be in a comfortable place if his life. A sizeable career, very private life, and probably ready to settle down. And I was thinking what is next for them. She can’t really settle down yet. Joe is in the perfect place to settle down. Also, their personalities are kinda opposite. And yeah opposites may attract at times. But this time, I don’t think so. But that’s the extent of my speculations. I didn’t want to fill in the blanks and make false accusations.
Taylor is in the perfect place to settle down. You’re right about that which makes me thing tht this relationship fell apart for other reasons than Taylor wanting to continue over-working
I think the thing that struck me the most in this video is what you touched on with the opposite personalities. I loved midnights when it came out because some of the “opposites attract” vibes in certain songs really relate to my current relationship. But what differs between mine and theirs is (from what we can tell as people who don’t know either of them) that they don’t see to have very similar goals or desires. I’m the more passionate, high energy and emotions person while my partner is more calm cool and collected. But we are both hard workers and ambitious, with almost entirely the same priorities, we just work towards them in different ways. This allows for my excitement to help get us through drudgery or his level head to keep me from falling apart when we stumble over issues. But if Joe is as unambitious as he comes off, especially since he does have the energy of someone looking to settle down, I agree that it doesn’t really make sense to try to do so with someone having a career renaissance. I can see how he would probably find it frustrating watching her “obsess” over the tour and everything, while she would be equally frustrated at his lack of excitement or potentially even support for the whole situation. And that’s no small decision for a couple, it’s not like she’s doing this tour and then hanging up her guitars. With all that in mind, midnights made the breakup almost inevitable
@@NicholeParker I love this nuance and concise take on the opposites attract aspect. I agree that it would be healthy for the relationship if you have similar or the same long-term goals. Again, I don't want to analyse their very private relationship any more than what we've seen, but maybe Taylor and Joe did hash out their plans they just weren't fitting well. Regardless, I really do wish them both the best. He finds what he needs and she finds what she needs.
@@nishthagupta1357 'he just gave his loyalty and committment' 'just' - isn't that what a relationship is about? Trust, loyalty, love, friendship, lust at first... no one needs saving to go into a relationship - thats not a pre requisite for a 6 year plus relationship. It wouldnt have lasted that long if that was the case.
@@nishthagupta1357 no one can save you - you can only save yourself. 'You're on your own kid' - everyone dies alone - there may be family present, nurses and doctors otr carers present but the 'hard work of dying' (which it generally is from my observations) is that you're on your own. Love and relationships are wonderful and awful and exciting and boring over a long period of time but essentially it is 'your person' (you as an individual) negotiating a relationship, giving and taking, finding a way through the maxims in a relationship of what you will accept and what you wont accept. That's it. No one saves you. You find someone who has similar goals with regards to a partnership/family/whatever interest and you work with that person but ultimately, it is your work - you do it yourself. Therefore, if it finishes - you gave your all - it is sad, hurts like hell probably and then you eventually move on.
I think the entire lover album is “I’m the problem, you saved me, I’m so lucky to have you because you look past my faults and the fame” And bejeweled is “you know what, no fuck that IM THE CATCH, HERE!”
TS definitely IS THE CATCH, and if she knows that now it sounds like she’s in a healthier place… I’m a grandma now and I have come to believe that the journey in this life is to learn to love YOURSELF. ♥️
Yep. I feel Bejewelled is a sequel to Paper Rings- after all in Paper Rings, she's talking about marrying Joe with paper rings suggesting that she was willing to tone down her shine for him. However, nowadays she's grown bored with the familiarity, and so wants to bring shine again.
i would just like to point out that in tampa n2 she said that midnights represented her current life the most. what if saying that midnights was about moments scattered throughout her life was a copout to explain her true feelings on her relationship… (which is what this video is about)
I agree, I think saying they are about midnights scattered throughout her life was a way to release music about all these complicated feelings while protecting her relationship until she was sure she wanted to leave
Labyrinth actually makes me feel uncomfortable the first time I listen to it. I never really understood why it was labeled as a love song in the first place... I feel like Labyrinth is about her anxiety in the relationship. It feels like she was hurt in the relationship at one point ("It only hurts this much right now") and was thinking about breaking up ("Break up, break free, break through, break down"). It feels like she was quite overwhelmed with the thought of the aftermath of not being able to move on ("I'll be getting over you my whole life") or being scared about finding new love ("You know how scared I am of elevators never trust it if it rises fast" and "You know how much I hate that everybody just expects me to bounce back" ). She kept saying " I'm falling in love" which feels more like a way she convinced herself to stay in love. In the song, she almost sounds surprised that she could talk herself out of the breakup ("How'd you turn it right around") when it feels like the relationship was near its end ("I thought the plane was going down"). But with the way the song is fading out, it almost seems like it's a cycle that could only end when the plane crash
it was considered a love song because she's talking about how she's had so many bad relationships that have left her feeling broken down and crumpled up like a piece of paper... that now she associates falling in love with crashing into heartbreak, but he proved otherwise. He turned the plane around, settled her fears.
not related to the breakup, but in mastermind i originally thought she said “i’m only cryptic and machiavellian cuz i CAN” and i was just like “yes you can ms. swift” and didn’t question it
Please do an addendum to this video that includes Hits Different because that song is the biggest hint ever and I can't get over how smart she was to make that the target exclusive so it wouldn't be streaming in everyone's ears constantly.
The breakup news definitely gave Midnights new emotional layers for me. Like I’m sure she was ALSO reflecting on past experiences but that gave her a nice blanket to explore and infuse the way she was feeling in the present! I’ve seen some takes that are very all-or-nothing and oversimplifying in this regard, like people saying “omg midnights was actually a breakup album” OR on the flip side “no way do any of the songs on midnights have new meaning now” and I DON’T GET IT! We are all a patchwork of everything we’ve been through in life. I think the re recording process absolutely informed Midnights, and I think her present circumstances at the time did too! Many things can be true at once and it bugs me when her work gets collapsed into a one dimensional narrative. It never is! Anyways ty Zack for breaking it down and ALWAYS seeing the layers!
Antihero has a huge Easter egg in the pre-chorus. "Someday I'll watch as you're leaving cause you got tired of my scheming." This is one of those primal, raw fears, that her SO would tire of her and leave before she decides she wants to leave him. She said it in so many words in I Did Something Bad: "you gotta leave before you get left."
i really think that if taylor is going to date anyone again, she needs to STOP looking for guys that are "oh my god he is so smart, so cultured, look how he listens to these indie albums that are cooler than mine", like girl you need a ryan reynolds in your life you know, someone minimally funny sometimes is good, and taylor is a funny person, she needs someone VERY similar to her, this business of "opposites attract" is a lie and an invention of the media, she needs someone with a fame similar to her of course too, and i think she had it in her head that you relating to a person completely different from you was the right thing to do and i think now that she realizes that it is not
Is it possible to work out with Harry now, I wonder? Or now that they’re both bigger than ever, it would be worse than when they tried? I don’t know, but he seems chill, and not in a cool, hipstery, “superior” way, likes creating things musically and visually, doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon… his world is also fucking big, so she wouldn’t have to make herself smaller to fit in… I don’t know lol But yeah, maybe no more low profile, indie guys
@@beatrizgomes4094 I feel like she is kinda stuck in that relationship, but she obviously remembers the hate she was getting from 1 direction fans and harry and louis shippers, she wouldn't wanna get into that again
Exactly! Taylor needs someone on her level now or at the very least someone who is willing to shine with her, none of that "indie albums that are cooler than mine" crap that clearly isn't right for her.
Question? is still the most out of pocket , craziest song LMAO . It’s for those who can’t and won’t let things go if things and can’t leave well enough alone. It’s for those who probably should go to therapy. It’s me and it’s one of my fav songs on the album just bc the. Craziness and hieroglyphic of it is phenomenal
@@saratemp790 no she sampled out of the woods for a reason.. also “good girl sad boy big cities wrong choices” gives style. “You painted all my nights a color I’ve searched for since” reminds me of “the rest of the world was b&w but we were screaming color” from ootw. She purposely chose to sample ootw which isn’t a song about joe. “Situations ,circumstances, miscommunications complications” remind me of I wish you Would and All you had to do was stay” question itself gives 1989 energy tbh
@@yuki_tsukumo.. Exactly, and if you listen to a few of Harry's leaked songs that are most definitely about Taylor, sad boy really regretted a bit too late, which we already knew from All You Had To Do Was Stay.
I do feel like you're not giving Joe enough credit as an artist due to his lack of fame prior to Taylor. He's an actor after all (also artistry in itself) and he literally co-wrote and composed some of the songs on folklore with Taylor. So saying he might not intellectually keep up with her does not really add up. Of course, you're also just speculating on potential reasons for them drifting apart but it does seem a little spiteful towards him, which I don't feel is fair and I'm pretty sure it's not something Taylor would want. There doesn't always have to be a "bad guy" for a relationship to end. Sometimes it's just not the right match for the long haul and that's ok.
OH ALSO in Maroon, she notes how, joe, as we suppose, stands 'hollow-eyed in the hallway' symbolising an empty void of boredom and mundanity. It could possibly show how joe was still confused or at a loss as he just stands in the hallway with an indiscernible expression. In You're Losing Me, taylor notes how joe is 'RUNNING down the hallway'. So, now, instead of standing idle in the middle void of their relationship, Joe's running away as quick as possible, trying to get out of this empty point in their relationship. Thats my take on it.
The context of question is Billboard Music Awards 2015, Taylor went with Calvin, the one she forgot, the dickhead, and Harry was there too. In fact, according to "Question", he was under the influence - and you can totally tell by the videos of that day. Taylor was at the front roll with Calvin, hugging and talking. When Harry got on the stage to accept an award, he literally turned his back to the crowd lol. 1989 was at it's peak, and "Style" was everywhere. Haylor was still fresh. Also, if you want to get a little deep, every news article after the fact had "sources close to Taylor" saying that she was oh so happy with Calvin, and happy to share her happiness on the face of Harry Styles lol. There you go, that's the context. I think holding to something that happened 8 years ago is the most Taylor Swift that Taylor Swift can get. I LOVE THE SONG.
I always thought of that night as the bbma awards in 2015.. she was right there.. also the fact that all the 1d boys went to her party she threw that night except for Harry. I mean he realized out of time when she was on his mind with some dick head guy LMAO
This is a delusional Haylor theory. Harry dated Nadine Leopold from Nov 2014 until Feb 2015. Taylor was single during that time, but he chose to date Nadine - not Taylor. Do people not understand this concept?? Harry chose not to date Taylor! Harry didn't necessarily look upset on stage - he usually doesn't smile while standing on stage when one of the other boys are talking. He always looks stoic. He didn't turn his back to the crowd. He was standing facing forward - maybe angled to face whoever was at the microphone. Maybe the angle you saw looked like he was facing away. Haylors choose to create a false narrative of them being "so in love" because that is the only way to keep Haylor alive.
I agree with you almost completely, we believe the same theories and see Taylor in the same light, but I think you're being a bit too harsh on Joe and that can color how you view some of these lyrics to be a bit more negative attributing "bored" and "over it" where "melancholic" or "bittersweet", to me, would have been a bit more in line with Taylor's possible mindset. We can't forget she truly loved this man. And unless we get a new album with Taylor bringing some hot tea, I would really describe Joe as sunshine. Have you seen the video where he is shy watching her singing Gorgeous in Rep tour? Is there something more sunshine than that? I think that was how he was in private but we barely got to see that, and that is fine, it wasn't for our eyes anyways. Edit: After seeing how all her friends and brother unfollowed him, I must stick with girlie. #clownface
I used to call my boyfriend my sunshine until I realized I didn't need someone else to be my sunshine, i have the power to be it for myself and it's actually much more meaningful that way
I agree with you. I also agree a bit with Zack. Both mix of feelings can be true at the same time. I don’t believe he wasn’t her sunshine, but as time went on and she realized they might not be the best together, those feelings could’ve dimmed. Doesn’t mean she didn’t love him or doesn’t love him still, he was after all a saving grace for her, someone she needed at her lowest and stood there with her despite their alluded conflicts.
Yes, you're so right, I'm sure so much about this is bittersweet. Leaving a relationship you've had for a long time is just sad, especially when there hasn't been some dramatic betrayal
What you said about lavender haze is so true and I thought the exact same thing especially re listening to it and the first verse especially like it might seem cute just hearing it& moving on to the chorus but if someone doesn’t read into your sadness one could see that as not a good thing.
I had that uneasy feeling about Lavender Haze and those “staring in the ceiling with you” lines since the beginning. Lack of communication, excitement in bed, just entropy. And desperately trying to hold on to the remnants of what they used to have.
It's so interesting to see how different we all interpret her lyrics because this used to be one of my favorite lines in the song 😂 I thought the line meant that he understands she can't be happy all of the time and by saying "you don't read into my melancholia" she's so comfortable to be herself around him and she doesn't have to fake being happy if she's not.
@@kpramoz same. i still think that. i thought of the rerecords when i heard the lyric- he doesn't read into her reminiscing about her exes or even writing new songs about them. i am rethinking some of the midnights songs being about joe, but i don't think as many are about him as other people are now thinking, i think she is writing about her exes after memories/feelings have come up due to the rerecordings.
@@sexyovenmitt I agree! It makes sense that's she's reminiscing about the past due to her having to record her old songs again. I for sure feel like Maroon is about Joe. I thought that on my first listen but then when I saw everyone connecting it to Red I stopped connecting it to Joe, but now with their breakup up I feel like it could potentially be about him. Especially when she says the legacy Joe has left on her and also on her discography. Like Exile and Champagne Problems are some top songs from Folklore and Evermore and Joe co-wrote them so that line really makes me think about Joe now. Their relationship really changed her life, career, music, etc.
Yesss, I totally agree with your takes! Midnights was so confusing to me until the news about the breakup broke out. Now it makes so much sense and you put it so perfectly!
She said on Jimmy Fallon that she wrote Bejeweled because she was trying to hype herself up to go back to pop music!!! So it's definitely something recent, not about Calvin Harris, like some of us thought. About "Labyrinth", "I'll be getting over you my whole life" sounds a lot like "That's the kind of heartbreak time could never mend", from "Cornelia Street". In hindsight, "Midnights" had a lot of clues indeed
So, listen! My theory is Midnight rain is about the same person she wrote "Breathe" on Fearless about (one of her most overlooked 2ams;). "It's 2 ama feeling like I just lost a friend" She broke his heart cause he was nice (also missing screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain comes to mind ...). Breathe and TWALY must have been about a normal boy she dated back in highschool. Now she looks BACK (deep portal, time travel) and thinks about what her life might have been have she stayed with him and not preoritise her carere (life I gave away). This guy, years gone, has normal life (Picture perfect, shiny family, Holiday, peppermint candy). And thinks of her only when she is on TV. And SHE thinks of him on midnights like this, wondering if she sould preoritise her carere again, now over Joe.
I LOVED the analysis of the first verse of Sweet Nothing, I think that’s insanely smart. I think there’s a couple more lyrics that fit with this re-analysis of Midnights… On Maroon, when she says “carnations you had thought were roses, that’s us,” she could be comparing a cheaper, more commonplace flower (carnations) to the classic love symbol of roses, saying that the love wasn’t as richly realized as it could have been. In Snow on the Beach, she says “my smile is like I won a contest” which harkens back to that concept of being inferior to a partner, as in you’re having to win their affections via a contest rather than that love being given freely. In YOYOK, the second verse talks about essentially realizing that “something different bloomed” in her priorities (being successful, writing music, playing songs in parking lots) after realizing that “he loves me not.” I think this again goes back to the tendency Taylor has to choose her career over love, even though she is such a hopeless romantic and is so inspired by love, she’s also just gotta shine and take over the world like the girlboss she is. Not to mention that Bigger Than The Whole Sky is a really deeply sad song… is she daydreaming about ending her first long-term relationship that was “more than just a short time”? Finally, in Labyrinth she’s talking about “getting over you my whole life” which is pretty much mourning a relationship before it even ends; I suspect that it’s more of her Wildest Dreams-esque fatalism coming in, but it could signify that she saw the end coming even as she was “falling in love again.” I’m sure there’s so much more we haven’t even thought of yet!
I am from the uk near where Joe was brought up and where he and Taylor spent their time together with his family. She made a video in a restaurant in our high street. It is very sad because in the end it was inevitable. They fell in love in a bubble and the bubble burst. I think it is hard to analyse people who are from such completely different worlds. I really admire them for holding on to their love for 6 years. Love to them both 🙏🏻
i truly think that lavender haze is a song she wrote to cope with the initial breakdown of the relationship. convincing herself she WANTS to stay in the state of lovey dovey no commitment. i think she got max when people would ask when they’re getting married because she was upset deep down that joe never wanted the relationship to go further
Love your analysis and the vibe! Now that the breakup has happened, it almost feels like we should have seen it coming. You don’t go from “I like shiny things but I’d marry you with paper rings” to Champagne Problems and Midnight Rain without some switch flipping in Taylor’s head…
I always thought the bridge in Dear Reader was really telling. It literally screams “I’m both alone and lonely and I don’t what I’m doing” idk maybe it’s just me
Yes, I didn’t think much of the whole album when it came out, in the sense that I just thought it was generally about past stuff, but from the first listen, Dear Reader was just such a weird song for me, the sad vibe it gives, the loneliness… I don’t think relationships solve every single problem in your life, of course, but I still thought “girl, where’s your boyfriend” lol
@@beatrizgomes4094 right! Like when she said “To a house not home all alone bc nobody’s there” I was “Joe wya?! Why is Taylor getting drunk w/o u lol. And the ending is essentially the end of the whole album (in terms of deluxe) but it didn’t really end. It just lingers on. Like there’s clear or complete ending
I feel, even if the songs were not about him, or the songs are not about the breaking of the relationship now, a lot of times in our lives, if we don’t get over our past issues and traumas, or even if we have worked on them, they Can and will come back. If we’re truly over it, we can go pass through it, but if we are truly not, if there’s still something there in the past, then they’ll bring us down again, they’ll cause us pain, like seeing ghosts from the pasts, that keep haunting you. So things that could be about other relationships can still apply to the current one. Or even for past conflicts between the same relationship, a lot of times couples fight over the same things. A lot of fights are because of trust issues and past traumas. The question is, did they really triumph over them after the Great War, is there an afterglow this time? “You drew up some good faith treaties I drew curtains closed, drank my poison all alone You said I have to trust more freely But diesel is desire, you were playin' with fire And maybe it's the past that's talkin' Screamin' from the crypt Tellin' me to punish you for things you never did” -the Great War “I blew things out of proportion, now you're blue Put you in jail for something you didn't do” -Afterglow And it makes so much more sense when you listen to “anti-hero” “I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser” What do you need to learn to get wiser, Taylor? Do you want to become wiser tho?
Just re-visiting these videos before TTPD. The fact that you mention 'Autopsy of Joe Alwyn' and the fact that the sentence of the apple music word hunt could be 'We hereby conduct this post mortem' is giving me goosebumps. 😂😂
You’ve given us a lot to think about here, thanks for that. I saw Taylor last night in Tampa-wow- phenomenal! I found myself thinking about Joe & how sad for her to do songs like Lover and Champagne problems. But there was NO sadness vibe from her. She has moved on and is definitely in her prime right now!👏🏻
Love these takes... you pretty much summed it all up for me! This is the kind of content that I love to listen to, it gets me thinking and it's more interesting rather than catty or gossipy like all of those other pop culture channels. Thank you Swiftologist
i actually thought they broke up when i first listened to "hits different" and thought she wrote their breakup song for the future. but now it's a hella different ride with whole midnights. i'm not talking about their relationship specifically, but about her thoughts and feelings on all of this. i usually skip such videos but yours were interesting to watch, i like your perspective and your attitude. ❤
False God is nearly the happier version of Bejeweled. There were lots of red flags in False God to me but she was kind of putting a rose colored glass over it. Also, Afterglow is very alarming. For her to think that she entirely the problem in a fight is bad
Taylor has really brainwashed us into paying attention to the purple pink colors. But the whole run on Lover from Cruel Summer, The Archer, Miss Americana, Cornelia Street, DBATC, False God (!!!), Afterglow (and even the freaking ME) it’s not lovey dovey but very anxiety ridden, problems are brewing everywhere.
Even Paper Rings “I’m with you even if it makes me blue”, “I want your dreary Mondays”, I will settle for a paper ring even though I like shiny things.
Yes it was very obvious that this relationship gave her a lot of anxiety and whether it’s because of him and/or issues she has had in past relationships it didn’t seem necessarily healthy
I don’t agree that her taking accountability for her starting and escalating a fight is bad or alarming. As an adult if you’re accusing your lover of doing something they aren’t doing and refusing to talk to them about it, shutting the out while they try to work it out, which she very well tells us she did in both afterglow and the Great War accusing him of cheating when he didn’t is what you’re supposed to do. You absolutely should take responsibility for your actions, doing so isn’t a red flag. In both those songs which sound like are about the same situation she says he was the one trying to fix things while she made things worse and I’m not one of those fans who think she’s faultless and perfect, and she’s told us through her music for years that she self sabotages and is overly dramatic multiple times. We can’t can’t like she didn’t have any faults when she’s being open and vulnerable telling us she does.
I never said she doesn’t have faults or said she shouldn’t take responsibility for her actions ? But for her to write an entire song about it being completely her fault is not a good thing. We can agree to disagree on that. Everyone has a fault to play in situations for sure. I definitely do not think she’s perfect in relationships by any means. Also, it’s hard to overlook how much anxiety she had during this relationship
I want to talk about the great war and hits different, since this video only covered the standard tracks The great war: The great war as a title already is an extremely visual and complex term. They got their Ups and downs but they still went through everything together. There was even a point where she felt betrayed by him for some reason Proof/lyrics: "It turned into something bigger Somewhere in the haze, got a sense I'd been betrayed" on the other hand she was scared that she actually lost him Proof/lyrics: "That was the night I nearly lost you I really thought I lost you" This song is also very complex because at first glance one could think at the end this is a happy song, because they survived the great war. Personally I don't think that's what this song is intending. She explains that, yes they survived together, but it's not the same as before. Proof/lyrics: "We can plant a memory garden Say a solemn prayer, place a poppy in my hair There's no morning glory, it was war, it wasn't fair And we will never go back" On one hand she says, the damage is caused, it's irreparable. There was a time before "the great war" and there is a time after "the great war", but the time before & after will never be the same. On the other hand I feel like these lines also try to explain a "happy" ending. They fell apart, but not like her other relationships. That's actually astonishing, because I always hear: "the great war is a perfect song for relationships/friendships who went through the Corona virus." And yes I partly agree. But I feel like the great war is as intense as it is because of it's outcome, because of the result and the result is not a happy still existing relationship. The great war is basically a story. The result is a relationship which went through a lot of stuff and therefore fell apart, yet in a "good way" Let's be honest, the great war has a lot of lines but the bridge of this song is what reminds us when we hear about the great war, the bridge captures everything In this song. Hits different: Unlike the great war, hits different is very obvious and direct. She's going through a recent break up and it feels painful and different because this person (=joe) is different from all the others she dated before. She can't move on because it hits different. I feel like this song especially represents what you (so the creator lol) said in the video: she tried to safe this relationship, thinking this is what she needs, but deep inside her she knew this is not going to workout and it hits different (also) because of this (kind of) dilemma. Overall I want to thank you for this video, I really enjoy analyzing songs and you motivated me to do so with these 2 songs
I agree with most of these analyses, except maybe for “Sweet Nothing”. I think Sweet nothing is a simple song about simple love, where both of them don’t really expect much of the other except being together in each other’s presence. It’s comforting for me ☺️
Idk, Maroon seems so connected to Wildest Dreams to me. The bridges are basically saying the same thing, almost from a later perspective or other persons pov. They both mention red lips, rosy cheeks, and looking at the sunset. They’re both based in remembering the relationship and it’s the same imagery. Also, in a C&R breakdown they talked about how the spareness of the song is purposeful because it’s doing what the lyrics are saying and making you feel how she feels.
The breakup makes me think of question: “Everything was second best after that meteor strike” (referencing a past relationship) so idk but that lyric just hits so different now
During Maroon, it always stuck out to me how “your roommates cheap ass screw top rosé” is the same melody as “is this the end of all the endings?” …. hinting at Joe???
The melody/ Chord progression soudns eerily similar to that line in komh which is we were to look at matron through a taylor and joe perspective, it makes perfect sense
When I heard Hits Different I was thinking that something had happened in their relationship Also I think Midnight rain is probably about a few relationships, I think there are clues hinting at a few different guys that this sentiment of choosing the life of a popstar over the more comfortable life she could have had if she'd chosen to really try to settle down. I think it's a reflection on those times in her life when a good guy did want a comfortable life with her, but she didn't want that, and just how that has consistently impacted those relationships(the most recent being joe). Also TV can also mean Taylor's Version(exes not really thinking about her until the music she wrote about them gets re-recorded and they hear it again)
also, "i see you everyday now" aligns with the fact shared with the media about their relationship enliven in the pandemic years. i'm always curious about what you have to say. you're articulated in a way that blows my mind, it's professional. thank you, love and support from brazil 💜
Gotta be honest, if I was a guy dating a girl with a known history of writing very auto-biographical songs about her life experiences and she starts collaborating on a song with me like Champagne Problems... where a guy asks a girl to marry him and she flakes... not gonna lie, it'd rock my confidence in the relationship. Especially considering that was released in 2020, meaning it was written in around 2019. About two years into their relationship - which is about the time any (serious) guy is thinking about popping the question or wondering where this is going. I reckon if the pandemic hadn't hit, they would've been Joe-ver years ago.
I agree with everything you said Zach! Such a big brain energy, thoughtful video, I just wanted to thank you for always giving us a fresh perspective on the messy machinations of our favorite popstar
Joe co-wrote Sweet Nothing so I think your point was a bit of a reach. He also helped to write Champagne Problems and other songs on Folklore, so he does have musicality/creativity which is why they bonded so much during their early years (according to sources I've read).
He wrote the piano part of all those songs. That counts as songwriting taylor could have easily written the lyrics and worked around his piano melody to create the songs they worked on. It’s why aaron gets writing credentials for sending her the instrumentals and she writes the lyrics around those.
A possible problem with Taylor is that she compares herself with younger women. It seemes like she needs to choose between being relevant in her carrer or being married and possible have kids. For exemple, Beyoncé had her daugher at 30 years old and had twins at 36, she has been married for 15 years, does that makes her less relevant? Being a wife and a mother does not make beyoncé shine less in her carrer, it does not matter if she putting an album out or if she is touring, she is beyoncé and everyone knows her and acknowledge that. It seems like Taylor want to stay young in her personal life as well, she wants to feel like she has been dating someone for one week instead of years, but that is not how long term relationships work, the other person does not have to guess what you are thinking bc you are both adults who can comunicate with each other. Joe has a life that he care about, he loves his job but he would not care about pausing the carrer a little bit if he wanted kids, his job does not consume his identity and it shows bc he was dating one of the most popular public figure of the world and he never took advantage to be more popular because of her, he liked her and not the pop star version. I love Taylor but I hate that she express the idea of a woman having kids and becoming less relevant because of that. Taylor is not 20 years old anymore, she is almost 34 and it must be exhausting dating someone that does not act like an adult.
About Midnight Rain I have a completly different interpretation: the song is about a high school boyfriend (with the sunshine energy that always was present in the male protagonists of her old videos e.g. mine) that she only thinks about in bad midnights and also about the fantasy itself of the life that could have been and that she is/was pursuing with Joe. She is talking about how much she changed since the time she had that future as a possibility and chose the fame, realizing that it isnt possible anymore to be the fairy tale bride she always pictured herself being in her first songs. Being with Joe is looking trough the window to that life and unraveling a LOT of love (lover era), only to not be possible because she gave that life away. At the end, she got what she wanted, as she says. The line about the TV is about both of them. The old boyfriend really doesnt think about her, only when she is on TV. Joe soon will be like that too. While she will be still thinking of them in midnights like this. The last 2 verses are almost wishful thinking with a shock of reality.
people thinking that she wrote 6 albums about him and that how could you break up with someone after writing something like I wanna run with you to the lakes, etc is really shocking to me because don't we know her already? her relationships reflect more about her than her muse. It has always been about the bitch! truly She's EVERYTHING , he's just ken.
Have you thought about where matty fits in midnights? I think there’s way more to the story now that matty is involved and that Joe knew they were collaborating!
I think now that she is dating Travis Kelce, we know that she doesn’t necessarily want a private love life. She was doing it for Joe or because of joe. When I was in rocky relationships in my past, I didn’t want to go out with friend groups because I didn’t want my friends to see how bad things were. Joe was such a dud! Bejeweled really says it all! 😘
Love the analysis. One point about maroon- she describes on and off relationships with a lot of past muses (ATW10, WANEGBT, Style). Maroon has so many specific evocative images (carnations you had thought were roses, dancing barefoot in New York, incense on the vinyl shelf) - it reminds me of the Red style of writing. Those on and off relationships really affect her deeply, that’s why the relationships with Jake and Harry still have such a hold on her and the public imagination.
I also think hits different is very much a clue to this breakup because of how many times she has said she’s scared of other people taking joe away or seeing him with other girls. Hits different literally says that in the first verse. Knowing the context of that and kind of piecing the lyrics together with the relationship IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE
I always interpreted that SHE is the meteor for the other person, not the other way around. Basically because she's asking the questions to him, so: does it feel like everything's just like second best after me? (Taylor) 😅
I just had to let you know that my husband walked into the room as I was watching this and said you had very cool striking eyes, and he's right! Wonderful video, fantastic analysis as usual 💙
What I dislike about some of the break up videos is that Taylor is always put in a pedestal as if she can do no wrong. It was ok for Joe to not have his private life being publicized. I don’t know, I think she just can’t decide what she truly wants her life to look like. Either you hate that everyone is in your business or you love it to fulfill that narcissistic side of herself.
I listened to Labyrinth recently and it made me think that maybe the song is simultaneously about her breakup with Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy cause in the song she sings uh oh I'm falling in love again which you wouldn't sing about someone you've been in a 6 year relationship with. I think Taylor and Joe broke up way before she released Midnights and i think she's been dating Matty for a while just my opinion.
Something I've noticed now which makes me think Midnights in retrospect was meant to be a "breakup/chronicle of the end of a relationship album" all along is the one interview with Joe about the things he cannot live without. In it he says he has an extensive lighter collection (and I apologise if this is old news)...well, what's on the cover of Midnights? Sometimes the most pertinent clues are the ones hidden in plain sight. But maybe I'm overthinking. Loved the analysis in the video!
Lavender Haze rubbed me the wrong way the moment I listened to it, because I knew it was about Joe, but to me it sounded like slowly falling out of love with someone, them no longer paying attention to who you are as a person - even being dismissive of your feelings and behaviour, but still wanting to be with them so bad that you're just clinging to the love you felt before. That was the feeling I got but I just didn't want to accept it since I didn't want to speculate about her relationship and it maybe not being so happy after all. Because of this I kind of skipped over this song every time I listened to Midnights. But now it makes so much more sense. When she explained how she heard of what the lavender haze is, she said (and heavily paraphrasing here) something about wanting to cling or stay in that moment of the lavender haze, and that is what the song sounded like exactly to me. Really wanting and trying to stay in the lavender haze, but there is no doubt that it is slipping away, even though she is trying to view the negatives as a good thing (him not paying attention to her melancholia, not giving much thought or even avoiding the subject of her fame and what that means, etc.)
The way that this shifted my entire universe on its axis. Since Midnights dropped, I've felt like there was an incongruency between the idea that these songs were supposed to have all taken place solely in the past and the level of reflection and deconstruction in each song. There were a lot of lyrics that had me going ???? but especially Question...? (which now we know may be relating to Matty?) just did NOT seem like a song that someone would write if they were presently in love and in a happy relationship. This whole video connected the dots for me. "This is about her more than him" - you said this when talking about Mastermind, but I think that is the crux of this era as a whole. One of the red flags for me this era was that she did like what... 2 interviews? And also did no public performances until she played Anti-Hero at the O2 at T1975s gig. It just struck me as strange, but I assumed it was because she is so massive she simply doesn't need to do the whole PR circuit which artists normally slog through out of obligation. Unless she doesn't want to have to be talking about a record that's still actively hitting home... I do think that she probably used past relationships/feelings/themes that were stirred up during rerecording her albums as a starting point, but I think that she didn't want this to be explicitly labelled a 'break up' album. This album is very much about Taylor's thoughts, feelings, and reflection and I think the marketing of this album made sure the narrative would be about HER as she geared up for Eras tour and not her relationship. Personally, I think that she and Joe were on the way down for a while, I'm not sure when the breakup was final, but your analysis really strings together all the thoughts and questions I've had in a coherent way.
I really need people on twitter/tik tok to stop acting like the music isn’t gonna hit anymore now that she and Joe are broken up. Sorry but songs like False God and cruel summer don’t need to be associated with Joe for them to be the absolute bangers that they are🤧
I just discovered your channel. You are very pleasant to listen to. I wasn't feeling the that well and your calm observation is just lovely. Also you look great! And you really changed my thoughts on that quote "I miss you but I miss sparkling"
I’m convinced that Bejeweled is about joe considering how taylor might have to keep a low profile not only because of what happened in 2016 but also because she had to satisfy his “need for privacy” or self esteem i would say… NOBODY can hold our queen our diamond our universal princess from shining!!!!
Yeah, I agree. The line "BTW I'm going out to tonight" had that feeling of lover's spat and is deliciously snarky. It is something one would say to somebody that they have been with for a while, and they are having a relationship fight.
Yeah, I've said it before in this very comment section, but it makes no sense if you think Bejewelled is about say Harry Styles, Taylor Lautner Tom Hiddleston or even Jake Gyllenhaal. All four of those men have stars in their own right. Joe on the other hand? Wants a quiet life, and doesn't like the idea of attention, and Taylor would have to respect that, despite her urge to go out and shine. Famiarlly breeds competent after all makes a lot of sense if it's about someone who you have spent two years in the same place with, and that means you want something new.
God I love this fandom, I'm living for all the analysis and the bits of shade. "Joe clearly doesn't love to work and he hasn't created anything, to my knowledge" made me choke 💀
the rust that grew between telephones is obviously about two people not calling each other as often anymore... a relationship that is gradually dying down, lack of comunication...
i would love to hear your thoughts on Hits Different- i think there’s a lot of tea in the lyrics about how they were kind of doomed from the start, their relationship felt wrong, she was sooo hung up on him and really idealized him and praised him for just wanting to be with her.
your way of speaking is really impressive👍 Also in the song great war, Taylor says " maybe it was egos swinging, maybe it was her" and also "somewhere in the haze, I got a sense I have been betrayed " there are rumors of emma laird and joe alwyn dating, so who knows, just a speculations.
My theory on midnight rain is that each verse is about a different guy but has an underlying question of what the ‘what if’s of a relationship’. I think the boy she broke his ‘heart cause he was nice’ was Tom Hiddleston cause of the iconic beach pics. I think the line ‘he wanted a bride I was manning my own name’ can be interpreted as like an undercurrent in all of her relationships - Taylor lautner and Taylor being an obvsi parallel. And then ‘he never thinks of me except for when I’m in tv’ could be in reference to as you said joe not being that invested in the Taylorverse but also like her past lovers like joe who wanted a more normal life and themselves getting their own ‘peep’ into what she’s doing. Overall my theory is that it’s about her putting her career first and wondering what her life could’ve been like if she hadn’t- but still in the end surrendering to the fact that more times than not her career is more important to her (with all of me came down like midnight rain accepting this and also coming to terms with the fact that she is just too famous to even attempt that life + doesn’t want it) Guys come and go like midnights but her career and her inner circle as you described are what will always be there.
Also.. has anyone else noticed the lyrical parallels between Peace and Midnight Rain cause I was kinda shook when I noticed this two days ago. I mean… “I’d give you my sunshine give you my best but the rain is always gonna come if you’re standing with me” and “he was sunshine I was midnight rain”
omg yes!!!!
Galaxy brain.. that’s so true
HOLY SMOKES
oooooo
I don't think he is sunshine at all. SHE is sunshine compared to him. She is a shiny person. He has always come across as bitter. I don't know how people can think this song is about him.
I feel like most of these songs will have been written 'about' events or relationships prior to Joe, but unavoidably her present emotions (at the time) about her and Joe's relationship became intertwined with them. Like Midnight Rain was probably 'written' about someone else from her past, but the fact that these specific emotions were on her mind so strongly seems to suggest that things with her and Joe were no bueno
I think this is probably the best take. Like her intention wasn’t to write about Joe, but certain things just came through
@@shannonagain6943 yeah exactly! i say this as someone who writes music and poetry too (though not as good as the queen obviously). sometimes you think you’re writing about one thing and you look back after life stuff happens and realise that your subconscious was telling you how you felt about something else entirely ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ just the way it is
Yeah this is how I feel about it also. Everything is filtered through the lens of the present
Very well said!
That makes so much sense, I keep thinking that the album was her processing conflicting emotions even if it wasn't fully intentional
I think Midnights has this feel of a relationship falling apart and you start looking to the past and your exes thinking about the commonalities. How do things break down, is there a pattern, am I the problem?
Maybe because the album is about taylor sleepless midnights where she cant sleep because of the past or about something 😂
I feel like it's a mix what you said, but also that she moved on. She accepts it, it did hurt and she thought she is the problem, but now she realizes that she never was, the songs represent a short time of her life. She moved on and looks back in a good way (or at least in a modest way)
Yesss i agree
I really think that when she said “all the things i gave away” she’s actually talking about the “normal life” , not about what she gave away with joe, because she didnt, the whole idea she didnt want to give up her life
EXACTLY! I was just saying this! I think in trying to analyze how her relationship with Joe was starting to fail, she looked to her past and thought "why is it happening again? What am I doing wrong? What did I do back then with that person I could do better now to save what I have?" And with those thoughts came inspiration for the album, both reliving her past while trying to compare her present and finding similarities. She only told us it was inspired by her past, but she didn't need to tell us it was also inspired by the present. A half truth that no one REALLY saw until they broke up. This is kind of the most insane work she's done because of this and it honestly makes Midnights a perfect album imo. This is crazy.
What about dear reader? To me, this song was the warning sign that something was not ok. It was the final track (big significance in the track list) and she literally says: I prefer hiding in plain sight, like she wants to tell us that the message hides in plain sight. Also: coming home to a house not a home all alone cause nobody’s there. I always felt like “you should find another guiding light” is about her not being able to live up to the love story she manifested and everyone believed in.
That makes so much sense
i think in dear reader she is talking to joe desperat prayers of a cursed man, she adressed his „blues“ before and maybe she couldnt handle it anymore
@I stopped picking up I think it was about a few things at once
Yeah, all alone, nobody's home
Thats so true & i wanna add she kinda sang about the breakup in Lover, Reputation, folklore !
Okay not literally but as he said in the video "that deep down she knew they weren't going to last"
I think even when she was in love with him & writing reputation lover & folklore she had a subconscious fear that they would break up she knew they weren't gonna last from the moment they started , so i think Cornelia street, new years day, hoax, death by a thousand cuts might be about her imagining the pain & hurt the breakup w joe would cause her like -:
▪︎ I'd be getting over you my whole life
▪︎ i'd never walk Cornelia street again
▪︎Please dont ever become a stranger whose laugh i can recognize anywhere
▪︎ i dont wanna keep secrets just to keep you-cruel summer
Like these lyrics show kinda fear & sadness of loosing someone & in all the albums about him there was atleast one song like this
I think Taylor was very unhappy, trying to keep herself and her relationship out of the spotlight as much as possible for Joe, she missed sparkling.
Exactly, she was forced to basically exist less for the sake of Joe. And that's not who she is. She is an artist who lives expressing herself and connecting with people, amd that's what Joe didn't like. I think he acted like she could control that and Taylor became very obsessive about keeping her work life and personal life separate, which is not possible. Because she IS a worldwide superstar, an artist, and that's not just something she 'does', that's who she IS. Joe was better when he could have her more caged at home and not out in the world being the superstar that she is. He wishes she would exist less and the sad thing is she of course tried because she did truly love him. Taylor deserves someone who truly loves her and embraces her for who she is, in all her glory, someone who has no problem just saying that he loves her, no need to give a lot of details, like just a natural thing to say when you live a shared life with someone. He was bitter and he was embittering her it's what I think. I hope Taylor finds a real man for her.
@@laclochard I don't think he is bitter, if Joe decided to have a relationship with her when mass cancellation, he was obviously ready for publicity, I think it was taylor who was fed up of the public and decided to keep the relationship private, then covid came and that obviously helped with the privacy. But now taylor has realized how much she missed sparkling and has mended her relationship with the public and is ready to be on top of the world again
I can't believe people even fans are really trying so hard to defend Joe. Oh please. Taylor loved him so much and that's why you see him in such a great light. But let's be real. He has always come across as BITTER. While Taylor has always publicly supported him. And it's clear he never liked Taylor being a worldwide superstar. He wishes she was caged in her house and not out there shining as bright as she is going to because like you said SHE IS TAYLOR SWIFT. She became obsessed about 'separating her personal and work life' as if that's possible. I mean her work is not something that she 'does' it's what she IS, she is an artist, she likes expressing herself and connecting to the public, that's who she IS. He clearly hated it, he wanted her to shine less, to occupy less space, to exist LESS. I hope people stop making excuses for this dude. Like 'he didn't do anything', yeah that's right, he has played his thing right, in a more passive aggressive way. I can't believe people are buying it. Taylor DESERVES BETTER. She deserves a real man who truly loves her. @@munalawajid1568
@@laclochard even after keeping their relationship so private, we've got people assuming things, how is joe going to show his love for taylor publicly, write a song? also i'm not defending or trying to offend anyone i'm just trying to state my opinion on your text.
@@laclochard Defending him of what ? We barely know anything, at least wait for the next record lmao you're just making things up rn
Question? Is honestly a masterpiece. My favorite song in the album, to all the girlies who can't forget literally ANYTHING, can't get over the most basic deep connection from years ago. That song is a cry for help lol 😭
Exactly!! It’s so good and crazy and I love a good song for the girlies who live in delusion
I feel attacked stop it (question is for the August girlies who are still living for the hope of it all)
it is a bat signal to the other unwell girlies and I am RESPONDINGGGG
Question I believe was written after Harry’s unpublished songs were leaked. Harry did leave her in the middle of the night. I think she was telling Harry you had your chance.
@@piedpiper5886 that along with the Grammy interaction would make so much sense. Omfg i totally forgot that the leaks could’ve contributed to that song. He for sure didn’t know what he had until it was late
“I made you my world, have you heard, I can reclaim the land” ok until this video I did not appreciate how hard this slaps. It’s the sharpest “don’t try me” 👏👏
she really said “i gave you this and i can take it right back just as fast 😍💜”
Exactly
@@emmawalker5859 yuppp
wow i'm really starting to believe that Midnights is supposed to be a breakup album all along, because she is a mastermind, she was cryptic and machiavellian and dishonest to us fans regarding this because she cares.....at the end of Lover she says "now i see daylight, i only see daylight....not the things that haunt me in the middle of the night"...but she is midnight rain....so the relationship only worked in the daylight....i believe Taylor is still grateful for Joe, because all he ever wanted from her was sweet nothing and he showed her this normal life in the daylight
OMG, it makes SO much sense
But they were seen together after midnights released?? Remember the after party where Taylor wore the midnight short blue dress and ran away with joe later hiding from thr paps??
@@monalisadebbarma5275 they went through multiple break ups, march was the straw that broke the camels back basically.
Exactly ikr
So I haven’t watched this video yet but I’ll say between midnight Rain and Bejeweled it SEEMS to me, she missed the lights, the fans(aka the attention) the praise. I got this feeling as well via her documentary I can’t remember exactly what was said but I got the feeling that she was sorta brought up to try to 1. Be a polite young lady. But also other peoples approval or praise is something she craved. So when she says “I miss sparkling” I’m like “you miss being the center of attention” this is probably an unpopular opinion but bejeweled is overrated lyrically or I guess rhythm ( I don’t know music terms) basically it doesn’t flow, the lyrics and the beat all seem stunted in order to force a story but that story really doesn’t fit into a melody that really just slips off the tongue. The song just sounds really stunted to me. Love midnight rain though. Love!
IMO the biggest red flag for why this relationship wouldn't work was when Taylor began reinventing the wheel. All the Joe songs were about the same period of time, the same message. The "he saved me" "he's normal and I love it" etc. Taylor is a multifaceted songwriter and this was supposed to be the love of her life and yet... we were at Midnights, 6 years deep, and she's singing songs like Snow on the Beach and Lavender Haze.
Even Folklore and Evermore which are primarily fictional snuck in that same tired storyline.
I agree. A lot of her Joe songs focus on the beginning on her relationship and falling in love with him and less about being in love with him still.
Very interesting point!!
I have a psychology background with an expertise in communications. Analysis always fascinates me. I think Lavender Haze reveals Joe as Taylor's rock of stability that's kept her grounded. Taylor has often spoke to a need for grounding in such a surreal life. Going back before Joe, she did interviews speaking to her reviewing the social media posts of everyday people to just touch base with normality.
When the world thinks you're a goddess, you kinda need that someone to not pay so much attention and the tone of the song is gratitude that he's been that for her.
Joe's 32. Taylor's 33. He might be wanting to start a family and settledown into a more (less jet set) private life. He seems far less career driven and not at all a fan of fame.
Undoubtedly, Lavender Haze speaks to the pressure Taylor has felt to settledown... mostly in terms of societal pressure. But I would suspect there's been a lot of private pressure on both Taylor and Joe for marriage and children when it's clear she's not ready to give up her career as their families count their years spent together in-tune to Taylor's biological clock tick-tocking.
Perhaps right when he was ready to settledown, she was ready to produce a new album complete with a huge tour?
Midnight Rain is especially poignant in this kind of self-reflection as if she's facing the same issue of her youth all over again. Taylor Lautner wanted to settledown. He wanted the peppermint candy kind of life in his fenced yard paradise.
That ghost come back to haunt her as she, perhaps, faced the same struggles with Joe.
Taylor has always seemed to me like she's stuck between two worlds, and I think many people are with the societal upheaval and role changes that have occurred in the recent scope of human history.
There's the baking cookies, southern down-home girl, who wants to settle into the comfort of lifelong love as per her country roots. Then, there's the extremely ambitious and highly competitive star within her that wants to shine brighter than all the others.
I imagine she wars with herself a lot, and she knows it. She shows us that war all the time. I think we shouldn't be so hard on John Mayer and his song "Paper Doll" when he wrote that Taylor was like "22 girls all in one". She has shown us that herself in videos like "Look what you made me do" where she shows the many aspects of her, as if unique personalities, battling on the mountain for ultimate supremacy.
I think Joe's a good guy. They just stopped being compatible when they hit that pivotal road mark that revealed they didn't share the same relationship goals.
I wanna like this but its at 22 at the moment and that just seems right!
Very interesting to read this and can be applied to mere mortals too. Plus buying a house together is a massive commitment
I will be hard on John Mayer cause he dated her when she was really young.
@@harls3337 Feel free to do you.
Great analysis.
I love the chorus of Maroon. It’s one of my favorite bits in the record in the way the lyrics can sound both positive and negative based on the way she sings it. Was the wine splashed because they were in a careless, happy moment and someone wasn’t watching their wine glass or was the wine thrown in anger? Are her cheeks flushing with happiness and excitement or out of anger or shame? Did the rust grow between telephones because it was in such heavy use or because it was left abandoned? Is the mark on her neck a love bite or was it a bruise from more sinister circumstances? The emotion in her voice when she sings these lines the first time compared to when she sings them towards the end of the song changes so much that it feels like the meaning changes as time goes on. Like she’s describing different points of their relationship using the same lyrics.
Amazing
that is a great interpretation!
I’ve literally never seen this analysis anywhere else this is such a great take oh my god
Same
omg this take. goosebumps
She was revisiting impactful moments from her past because her present wasn't fulfilling her and it was bringing back memories of other relationships breaking down. Also she hints all through out the album that she needs a bit of chaos and drama to not be bored with "I just need that love spiral", saying she's the problem in anti-hero or still longing for a relationship that was a "meteor strike". Meanwhile it seems like her relationship with Joe was a lot more mundane and a bit boring like most long term relationships are, that is pretty clear in how she describes it in Sweet Nothing. I think he was ready to lock it down and pop out some babies but she's not in the mood for that "1950's shit" yet and she's still chasing that fame. It's still pretty clear he was still very significant for her and I hope she doesn't regret breaking up with him later...
Louderrr
Honestly you might be right, it’s been proven in toxic relationships people think they’re having more fun. But in reality it’s just Chaos. If this is true maybe she can’t differentiate true love from toxic love.
@@harls3337 Perhaps. The way she describes a "meteor strike" as an incomparable relationship and how everything else is just second best kind of hints at that mindset. Meteor strikes are very impactful, but also very destructive, fiery and burn out quick.
In Miss Americana she shares her fears of becoming irrelevant because she hit 30 and how wants to enjoy the success of Lover while she can because it's probably the last time she'll have that type of media presence. The pandemic then hit and it ended up cutting the Lover era short and leaving Taylor and Joe (and all of us) in this bubble, which birthed Folklore and Evermore. But afterwards, with the world coming back to normal, I think Taylor realized she's still that bitch that can make a 10 minute song which isn't even fully new go number 1, you know? I think that shifted her priorities. She seemed ready to slow down on her career and perhaps start a family with Joe, but the success of Red TV may have shown her that she wants to enjoy being at the top for as long as she can, especially after the survived the cancellation.
I think they would have broken up sooner and realized their differences if the pandemic hadn't happened, because even if Taylor has become more private, her fame always comes with the package of dating her and Joe clearly HATES the attention. I never thought Taylor would permanently disappear from the media like she did with reputation, she has a bubbly outgoing personality and it was a matter of time before she missed sparkling. Her disappearance wasn't provoked because of an actual organic change in her personality, it was because she thought people hated her and Red TV showed her that's not true.
The lockdown just delayed the realization that they wouldn't be compatible in the long run.
It's still obvious though that he'll always be special for her since he was with her at her lowest point. It could be one of those things where she'll always look back and wonder "what if" and ponder about the possibilities and the life she gave away, just like she says in Midnight Rain. I guess she'll be getting over him her whole life.
I think she needs to find someone who wants to commit to her, wants her to shine and be herself, and is able to give her a bit of chaos like she craves. I also think Taylor needs to WANT to reciprocate those feelings
@@Kikoandk ok but matty is kinda that 👀
I have been in a relationship before where our level of “extroversion” was so so different: he wanted to be home like 99% of the time and I am 50/50 : we had SO many fights about me wanting to go out and him wanting to stay in, and tried so many various strategies to help: I feel this is similar to what she dealt with: he is SO private, so quiet , she is a HUGE pop star who has always lovedddd the spotlight and her fans . I can imagine that would be a huge strain.
Brilliant analysis. I recently watched an interview of Taylor discussing her writing process & she said that sometimes she doesn't know how she feels about something until she writes it down. The writing of songs gives her clarity in working through her worries. I feel that with Midnights her subconscious is rather loud throughout the album. Definitely grappling with the unraveling of a long term relationship & how they grew apart, thinking of her future & what she wants for her life/achievements/goals/legacy & reflection of her values. The theme of agency is huge. These are all the things that have been keeping her up till midnight as she's undergone a seismic transformation like Cinderella when the clock strikes 12.
My theory: they had a break on the relationship and that’s when she wrote maroon and midnight rain, bejewelled, glitch etc . When they got back together she wrote the Great War, and….LABYRINTH “ I’ll be getting over you my whole life/ oh oh I’m falling in love again I thought the plane was going down how DID YOU turn RIGHT AROUND”.
The only away Joe could possibly accept songs like question and glitch is if they were broken up at some point.
Also People magazine wrote “they had problems before and worked that out so friends thought they would spend some time apart but eventually come back together”. So friends were not taking the break up so seriously because they have broken up before and got back together, until the break up was midia oficial, when they realised this time would be for good.
This theory makes all the songs make perfect sense.
You are welcome.
Yes! That makes more sense. Can you explain a little more about glitch? I'm confused on that part. Because I thought that song was about Joe.
@@kpramoz she sings about thinking of an ex boyfriend that now is a “friend” and that lives in the same town she is at “ you don’t live in that part of town but maybe I’ll see you out some weekend, depending on what kind of mood or situationship I’m in “ she is fantasizing like in enchanted “Wishing you were at my door”. .
When She sings “2190 days of our love blackout out, the system is breaking down” I interpret she’s talking about a guy she broke up with 6 years ago (broke up = love black out) Love black out cannot be the start of a romance, it doesn’t make sense, it is THE END. It could be Tom or maybe this is an expression for when she started loving Joe, the love that she had for someone else “blacked out”
“ a brief interruption a slight malfunction I GO BACK TO WANTING DUDES THAT GIVE NOTHING” something happened, a crisis on her reletionship with Joe or I even a break, that made her want/think of/wonder about other boys.
This is an album that any mature person that has gone through long relationships can easily relate. I don’t think 20y.o< Swifties will get it very easily.
@@andressa7405 yes. When I first heard, many songs people said it was about Calvin I pointed out to my boyfriend that they were about Joe. When you're in a relationship for a long time (especially if things change a lot in that specific period) there is always that moment of struggle in which you realize: "Hey, I can live without it; maybe letting it go is the smart decision". Sometimes you're able to fix things together, and sometimes it's just best to move on separately (and most times you take quite a while to realize it)
@@biancavivas4449 exactly ! When I heard Bejewelled I knew it was about Joe immediately. I’m in a 10 years relationship and familiarity does bring contempt. That’s very normal. The lavender haze only lasts from 1 to 3 years maximum. 😅
@@andressa7405 Oh okay, thanks for explaining!! I thought the "glitch" she's was referring to was her relationship with Joe. Especially because she always talked about Joe being like a miracle in her life due to how he came into her life when she was at a low point. Like she doesn't feel like she deserves his love and that this must be a glitch that isn't going to last. But for sure if her and Joe were already over or on the point of being over I can see how different this song can change.
Maybe he's not sunshine in personality - but her sunshine, as in what is perceived as healthy for her to take in - but she's midnight rain. That really aligns with the being drawn to the wasteland - it might not be the best for her, it's dark but it's hers.. I love it
i think Taylor is so grateful for Joe coming into her life. Because at that time she was on her lowest point of her life. Then slowly Taylor was rebuilding her career. After success of Folklore and Midnights, Taylor maybe wanted to do something more beyond that. And then Joe wanted to settle down, probably have kids, etc. But she’s the pop star, She didn’t like the idea of settling down quickly. So that’s maybe why she wanted to end the relationship but in a healthy way. I also think that she might go back to Joe again at some point.
yeah, I was thinking the same, joe loved Taylor when nobody else did, I also think they are gonna get back together after she's done with the tour and joe is done with filming. After all, they do say that it's lonely at the top
I agree with all your points except for the last point. I would be surprised for her to go back with Joe…Taylor Swift moves forward not backward.
people don’t break up 6 year relationships for nothing…she’s not going back
I don't think the problem was about marrying and having kids. But doing that with a man who has never embraced her in all her glory and who would only be content with her existing LESS, basically.
@@munalawajid1568 'he loved Taylor when nobody else did'. I keep reading that kind of misogynystic comments like a man deserves a prize or something for being with a woman going through a rough patch, I mean that's just life. And to say that nodoby else would love her as is she is not a wonderful person and freaking Taylor Swift. And the sad thing is that it's probably things like that who would affect her self esteem and have to shrink herself for a man who never liked how much of a superstar she is. He has always come across as bitter, the opposite to Taylor. He has never likes core things about Taylor that make her who she is like expressing herself and being connected to the public. So stop talking like she owes him something.
I hate how people get mad when I say that I’m excited to hear the next record. If you are offended by someone being excited to hear what Taylor has to say about the relationship through the music, you need to get a grip. Just because I am excited for music, doesn’t mean I am “happy that Taylor and Joe broke up”. I feel like a lot of new swifties aren’t really familiar with the way it works around these parts.
Im a new swiftie and I’m picking up on stuff in the fandom very fast, im ready for a new album already. I wanna hear what she has to say.
In daylight she says
"I once believed love would be burning red but it’s golden"
She always described Joe as golden but now in maroon she realises Joe was maroon and she hasn’t found her actual golden yet.
!!!!!!!! 🤯
I don't think she'll ever because that person would never want to be with Taylor long term
Mind blown 🤯
I really like this interpretation, the maroon looked like golden under her current perspective but she has grown since rhen
I thought the Maroon song is a song for an ex, before Joe, like CH or TH
I think the biggest clue we have on Maroon being about Joe is that the line “looked at the sky and it was maroon”. The thing is, the people thought that maroon was about Jake believed this because it was a shade of red. It really was. In Daylight, Taylor says “I once belive love would be burning red, but it’s golden like daylight”. And that’s the problem. Taylor now looks at the sky and sees that it was never golden, just a cooler and less vibrating shade of red. She thought because this relationship is calmer, this is the healty true love but it’s actually because it lacks passion and kinda mess that she likes in a relationship.
Damn yes
That's a really interesting perspective.
I might be reaching here, but mixing yellow, blue and red make maroon.
I think in light of recent happenings Bejeweled is one of the most interesting songs on Midnights because it is a perfect example of what others have pointed out already in the comments - a song about past events where current feelings intertwine.
I still think it was written about Calvin Harris because IMO there are a few lines that are unmistakably a reference to him - “I can still say I don’t remember”, “did all the extra credit then got graded on a curve” (reference to TIWYCF), “we dance all night and you can try to change my mind but you might have to wait in line” (reference to Met gala).
However, there is something which I can’t quite make sense of now that I think about it, and it is that while she was with Calvin, however unhappy the relationship was, she WAS shining in the public eye until the very last stretch of the relationship. Like sure she could’ve meant “I miss sparkling” as her perceiving that things were crumbling in 2016 but when she left him it was still early stages of the whole canceling process, the line makes much more sense in the context of having withdrawn from the public eye and become much more private and missing being THAT girl which she was in 2015 (when she was with Calvin).
So yeah in conclusion, I think she intended to write this song about a past breakup/situation but ended up mixing her own current feelings in the process - how she missed the spotlight.
Honestly it makes a lot of sense for songs on midnights to almost have multiple meanings. Her past relationships that she’s intentionally reflecting on, and her then current relationship with Joe when she was writing this. I know for myself I don’t often realize my present until I’m reflecting on the past, and I wonder if that was the same for Taylor here too
Honestly, I really was speculating to myself what’s happening with Taylor and Joe a few days before the news of their split. Not to dehumanise them or strip them of their personal life at all. I was thinking how Joe and Taylor are in different places in life. Taylor is in the middle of a career metamorphosis. She’s essentially book-ended a significant portion of her career. We know she’s about to embark on newer creative outlets beyond songwriting. Joe seems to be in a comfortable place if his life. A sizeable career, very private life, and probably ready to settle down. And I was thinking what is next for them. She can’t really settle down yet. Joe is in the perfect place to settle down. Also, their personalities are kinda opposite. And yeah opposites may attract at times. But this time, I don’t think so. But that’s the extent of my speculations. I didn’t want to fill in the blanks and make false accusations.
Taylor is in the perfect place to settle down. You’re right about that which makes me thing tht this relationship fell apart for other reasons than Taylor wanting to continue over-working
@@tjc4085 but does she want to settle down? doesn’t look like it
I think the thing that struck me the most in this video is what you touched on with the opposite personalities.
I loved midnights when it came out because some of the “opposites attract” vibes in certain songs really relate to my current relationship. But what differs between mine and theirs is (from what we can tell as people who don’t know either of them) that they don’t see to have very similar goals or desires.
I’m the more passionate, high energy and emotions person while my partner is more calm cool and collected. But we are both hard workers and ambitious, with almost entirely the same priorities, we just work towards them in different ways. This allows for my excitement to help get us through drudgery or his level head to keep me from falling apart when we stumble over issues.
But if Joe is as unambitious as he comes off, especially since he does have the energy of someone looking to settle down, I agree that it doesn’t really make sense to try to do so with someone having a career renaissance. I can see how he would probably find it frustrating watching her “obsess” over the tour and everything, while she would be equally frustrated at his lack of excitement or potentially even support for the whole situation. And that’s no small decision for a couple, it’s not like she’s doing this tour and then hanging up her guitars. With all that in mind, midnights made the breakup almost inevitable
@@diya-hn2wy well after the eras tour, I imagine she would wind down
@@NicholeParker I love this nuance and concise take on the opposites attract aspect. I agree that it would be healthy for the relationship if you have similar or the same long-term goals. Again, I don't want to analyse their very private relationship any more than what we've seen, but maybe Taylor and Joe did hash out their plans they just weren't fitting well. Regardless, I really do wish them both the best. He finds what he needs and she finds what she needs.
you calling Taylor a "sugar mama" to Joe was the absolute slay of this video
😂😂😂
Cuz she was! She saved herself & him! He didn't save her! He just gave his loyalty & commitment, that's all
@@nishthagupta1357 'he just gave his loyalty and committment' 'just' - isn't that what a relationship is about? Trust, loyalty, love, friendship, lust at first... no one needs saving to go into a relationship - thats not a pre requisite for a 6 year plus relationship. It wouldnt have lasted that long if that was the case.
@@alisonlynch3710 A lot of people need Saving! Change your perspective. Joe wasn't able to save her or to step up to her fame and her career at all.
@@nishthagupta1357 no one can save you - you can only save yourself. 'You're on your own kid' - everyone dies alone - there may be family present, nurses and doctors otr carers present but the 'hard work of dying' (which it generally is from my observations) is that you're on your own. Love and relationships are wonderful and awful and exciting and boring over a long period of time but essentially it is 'your person' (you as an individual) negotiating a relationship, giving and taking, finding a way through the maxims in a relationship of what you will accept and what you wont accept. That's it. No one saves you. You find someone who has similar goals with regards to a partnership/family/whatever interest and you work with that person but ultimately, it is your work - you do it yourself. Therefore, if it finishes - you gave your all - it is sad, hurts like hell probably and then you eventually move on.
I think the entire lover album is “I’m the problem, you saved me, I’m so lucky to have you because you look past my faults and the fame”
And bejeweled is “you know what, no fuck that IM THE CATCH, HERE!”
TS definitely IS THE CATCH, and if she knows that now it sounds like she’s in a healthier place… I’m a grandma now and I have come to believe that the journey in this life is to learn to love YOURSELF. ♥️
Yep.
That's it!
Yes that loser sign for lover confirmed this
Yep. I feel Bejewelled is a sequel to Paper Rings- after all in Paper Rings, she's talking about marrying Joe with paper rings suggesting that she was willing to tone down her shine for him. However, nowadays she's grown bored with the familiarity, and so wants to bring shine again.
i would just like to point out that in tampa n2 she said that midnights represented her current life the most. what if saying that midnights was about moments scattered throughout her life was a copout to explain her true feelings on her relationship…
(which is what this video is about)
Wow not like midnight is about taylor sleepless midnight scattered throughout her life🤔
I agree, I think saying they are about midnights scattered throughout her life was a way to release music about all these complicated feelings while protecting her relationship until she was sure she wanted to leave
I think she also said something along those lines in the fallon interview when midnights came out, how she felt fragile releasing these songs
Labyrinth actually makes me feel uncomfortable the first time I listen to it. I never really understood why it was labeled as a love song in the first place...
I feel like Labyrinth is about her anxiety in the relationship. It feels like she was hurt in the relationship at one point ("It only hurts this much right now") and was thinking about breaking up ("Break up, break free, break through, break down"). It feels like she was quite overwhelmed with the thought of the aftermath of not being able to move on ("I'll be getting over you my whole life") or being scared about finding new love ("You know how scared I am of elevators never trust it if it rises fast" and "You know how much I hate that everybody just expects me to bounce back" ). She kept saying " I'm falling in love" which feels more like a way she convinced herself to stay in love. In the song, she almost sounds surprised that she could talk herself out of the breakup ("How'd you turn it right around") when it feels like the relationship was near its end ("I thought the plane was going down"). But with the way the song is fading out, it almost seems like it's a cycle that could only end when the plane crash
it was considered a love song because she's talking about how she's had so many bad relationships that have left her feeling broken down and crumpled up like a piece of paper... that now she associates falling in love with crashing into heartbreak, but he proved otherwise. He turned the plane around, settled her fears.
yes this is one of the reasons why i always skip it. it's a great song but fills me up with so much anxiety.
not related to the breakup, but in mastermind i originally thought she said “i’m only cryptic and machiavellian cuz i CAN” and i was just like “yes you can ms. swift” and didn’t question it
ME TOO AGAHAH
Please do an addendum to this video that includes Hits Different because that song is the biggest hint ever and I can't get over how smart she was to make that the target exclusive so it wouldn't be streaming in everyone's ears constantly.
The breakup news definitely gave Midnights new emotional layers for me. Like I’m sure she was ALSO reflecting on past experiences but that gave her a nice blanket to explore and infuse the way she was feeling in the present!
I’ve seen some takes that are very all-or-nothing and oversimplifying in this regard, like people saying “omg midnights was actually a breakup album” OR on the flip side “no way do any of the songs on midnights have new meaning now” and I DON’T GET IT! We are all a patchwork of everything we’ve been through in life. I think the re recording process absolutely informed Midnights, and I think her present circumstances at the time did too! Many things can be true at once and it bugs me when her work gets collapsed into a one dimensional narrative. It never is!
Anyways ty Zack for breaking it down and ALWAYS seeing the layers!
omg yes how she HAD too tell us that she found herself writing this album because she was alone with jack while joe and margareth were filming
Antihero has a huge Easter egg in the pre-chorus. "Someday I'll watch as you're leaving cause you got tired of my scheming."
This is one of those primal, raw fears, that her SO would tire of her and leave before she decides she wants to leave him. She said it in so many words in I Did Something Bad: "you gotta leave before you get left."
The way she ended the 3am edition with dear reader, going home all alone. It was there the whole time cant believe i missed that.
i really think that if taylor is going to date anyone again, she needs to STOP looking for guys that are "oh my god he is so smart, so cultured, look how he listens to these indie albums that are cooler than mine", like girl you need a ryan reynolds in your life you know, someone minimally funny sometimes is good, and taylor is a funny person, she needs someone VERY similar to her, this business of "opposites attract" is a lie and an invention of the media, she needs someone with a fame similar to her of course too, and i think she had it in her head that you relating to a person completely different from you was the right thing to do and i think now that she realizes that it is not
Is it possible to work out with Harry now, I wonder? Or now that they’re both bigger than ever, it would be worse than when they tried? I don’t know, but he seems chill, and not in a cool, hipstery, “superior” way, likes creating things musically and visually, doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon… his world is also fucking big, so she wouldn’t have to make herself smaller to fit in… I don’t know lol
But yeah, maybe no more low profile, indie guys
I want to like your comment but it’s on #13. 😂🤷🏼♀️
@@beatrizgomes4094 I feel like she is kinda stuck in that relationship, but she obviously remembers the hate she was getting from 1 direction fans and harry and louis shippers, she wouldn't wanna get into that again
Exactly! Taylor needs someone on her level now or at the very least someone who is willing to shine with her, none of that "indie albums that are cooler than mine" crap that clearly isn't right for her.
@@beatrizgomes4094 nah he’s definitely a indie guy listen to maroon, that relationship was a fleeting thing.
the fact that joe was perceived as ‘daylight’ and then she drops ‘midnight’ 🥲
Question? is still the most out of pocket , craziest song LMAO . It’s for those who can’t and won’t let things go if things and can’t leave well enough alone. It’s for those who probably should go to therapy. It’s me and it’s one of my fav songs on the album just bc the. Craziness and hieroglyphic of it is phenomenal
@@saratemp790 if it is about Joe what's the point of sampling OOTW?
@@saratemp790 no she sampled out of the woods for a reason.. also “good girl sad boy big cities wrong choices” gives style. “You painted all my nights a color I’ve searched for since” reminds me of “the rest of the world was b&w but we were screaming color” from ootw. She purposely chose to sample ootw which isn’t a song about joe. “Situations ,circumstances, miscommunications complications” remind me of I wish you Would and All you had to do was stay” question itself gives 1989 energy tbh
@@yuki_tsukumo.. Exactly, and if you listen to a few of Harry's leaked songs that are most definitely about Taylor, sad boy really regretted a bit too late, which we already knew from All You Had To Do Was Stay.
@@stillfangirlingtoday1468 exactly.
It's for us, "right where you left me" girlies who will be 23 forever
I do feel like you're not giving Joe enough credit as an artist due to his lack of fame prior to Taylor. He's an actor after all (also artistry in itself) and he literally co-wrote and composed some of the songs on folklore with Taylor. So saying he might not intellectually keep up with her does not really add up. Of course, you're also just speculating on potential reasons for them drifting apart but it does seem a little spiteful towards him, which I don't feel is fair and I'm pretty sure it's not something Taylor would want. There doesn't always have to be a "bad guy" for a relationship to end. Sometimes it's just not the right match for the long haul and that's ok.
OH ALSO in Maroon, she notes how, joe, as we suppose, stands 'hollow-eyed in the hallway' symbolising an empty void of boredom and mundanity. It could possibly show how joe was still confused or at a loss as he just stands in the hallway with an indiscernible expression. In You're Losing Me, taylor notes how joe is 'RUNNING down the hallway'. So, now, instead of standing idle in the middle void of their relationship, Joe's running away as quick as possible, trying to get out of this empty point in their relationship. Thats my take on it.
The context of question is Billboard Music Awards 2015, Taylor went with Calvin, the one she forgot, the dickhead, and Harry was there too. In fact, according to "Question", he was under the influence - and you can totally tell by the videos of that day. Taylor was at the front roll with Calvin, hugging and talking. When Harry got on the stage to accept an award, he literally turned his back to the crowd lol. 1989 was at it's peak, and "Style" was everywhere. Haylor was still fresh. Also, if you want to get a little deep, every news article after the fact had "sources close to Taylor" saying that she was oh so happy with Calvin, and happy to share her happiness on the face of Harry Styles lol. There you go, that's the context. I think holding to something that happened 8 years ago is the most Taylor Swift that Taylor Swift can get. I LOVE THE SONG.
I always thought of that night as the bbma awards in 2015.. she was right there.. also the fact that all the 1d boys went to her party she threw that night except for Harry. I mean he realized out of time when she was on his mind with some dick head guy LMAO
@@yuki_tsukumo.. omg yeeeees
This is a delusional Haylor theory. Harry dated Nadine Leopold from Nov 2014 until Feb 2015. Taylor was single during that time, but he chose to date Nadine - not Taylor. Do people not understand this concept?? Harry chose not to date Taylor! Harry didn't necessarily look upset on stage - he usually doesn't smile while standing on stage when one of the other boys are talking. He always looks stoic. He didn't turn his back to the crowd. He was standing facing forward - maybe angled to face whoever was at the microphone. Maybe the angle you saw looked like he was facing away. Haylors choose to create a false narrative of them being "so in love" because that is the only way to keep Haylor alive.
I agree with you almost completely, we believe the same theories and see Taylor in the same light, but I think you're being a bit too harsh on Joe and that can color how you view some of these lyrics to be a bit more negative attributing "bored" and "over it" where "melancholic" or "bittersweet", to me, would have been a bit more in line with Taylor's possible mindset.
We can't forget she truly loved this man. And unless we get a new album with Taylor bringing some hot tea, I would really describe Joe as sunshine. Have you seen the video where he is shy watching her singing Gorgeous in Rep tour? Is there something more sunshine than that? I think that was how he was in private but we barely got to see that, and that is fine, it wasn't for our eyes anyways.
Edit: After seeing how all her friends and brother unfollowed him, I must stick with girlie. #clownface
I used to call my boyfriend my sunshine until I realized I didn't need someone else to be my sunshine, i have the power to be it for myself and it's actually much more meaningful that way
I agree with you. I also agree a bit with Zack. Both mix of feelings can be true at the same time. I don’t believe he wasn’t her sunshine, but as time went on and she realized they might not be the best together, those feelings could’ve dimmed. Doesn’t mean she didn’t love him or doesn’t love him still, he was after all a saving grace for her, someone she needed at her lowest and stood there with her despite their alluded conflicts.
Yes, you're so right, I'm sure so much about this is bittersweet. Leaving a relationship you've had for a long time is just sad, especially when there hasn't been some dramatic betrayal
Exactly
What you said about lavender haze is so true and I thought the exact same thing especially re listening to it and the first verse especially like it might seem cute just hearing it& moving on to the chorus but if someone doesn’t read into your sadness one could see that as not a good thing.
I had that uneasy feeling about Lavender Haze and those “staring in the ceiling with you” lines since the beginning. Lack of communication, excitement in bed, just entropy. And desperately trying to hold on to the remnants of what they used to have.
@@TheGrandOFF exactly. “You don’t even say too much” like to me as someone who thrives on communication and connection i didn’t see that as romantic.
It's so interesting to see how different we all interpret her lyrics because this used to be one of my favorite lines in the song 😂 I thought the line meant that he understands she can't be happy all of the time and by saying "you don't read into my melancholia" she's so comfortable to be herself around him and she doesn't have to fake being happy if she's not.
@@kpramoz same. i still think that. i thought of the rerecords when i heard the lyric- he doesn't read into her reminiscing about her exes or even writing new songs about them. i am rethinking some of the midnights songs being about joe, but i don't think as many are about him as other people are now thinking, i think she is writing about her exes after memories/feelings have come up due to the rerecordings.
@@sexyovenmitt I agree! It makes sense that's she's reminiscing about the past due to her having to record her old songs again. I for sure feel like Maroon is about Joe. I thought that on my first listen but then when I saw everyone connecting it to Red I stopped connecting it to Joe, but now with their breakup up I feel like it could potentially be about him. Especially when she says the legacy Joe has left on her and also on her discography. Like Exile and Champagne Problems are some top songs from Folklore and Evermore and Joe co-wrote them so that line really makes me think about Joe now. Their relationship really changed her life, career, music, etc.
Yesss, I totally agree with your takes! Midnights was so confusing to me until the news about the breakup broke out. Now it makes so much sense and you put it so perfectly!
She said on Jimmy Fallon that she wrote Bejeweled because she was trying to hype herself up to go back to pop music!!! So it's definitely something recent, not about Calvin Harris, like some of us thought.
About "Labyrinth", "I'll be getting over you my whole life" sounds a lot like "That's the kind of heartbreak time could never mend", from "Cornelia Street". In hindsight, "Midnights" had a lot of clues indeed
So, listen! My theory is Midnight rain is about the same person she wrote "Breathe" on Fearless about (one of her most overlooked 2ams;). "It's 2 ama feeling like I just lost a friend" She broke his heart cause he was nice (also missing screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain comes to mind ...). Breathe and TWALY must have been about a normal boy she dated back in highschool. Now she looks BACK (deep portal, time travel) and thinks about what her life might have been have she stayed with him and not preoritise her carere (life I gave away). This guy, years gone, has normal life (Picture perfect, shiny family, Holiday, peppermint candy). And thinks of her only when she is on TV. And SHE thinks of him on midnights like this, wondering if she sould preoritise her carere again, now over Joe.
Wow love this
I LOVED the analysis of the first verse of Sweet Nothing, I think that’s insanely smart. I think there’s a couple more lyrics that fit with this re-analysis of Midnights…
On Maroon, when she says “carnations you had thought were roses, that’s us,” she could be comparing a cheaper, more commonplace flower (carnations) to the classic love symbol of roses, saying that the love wasn’t as richly realized as it could have been.
In Snow on the Beach, she says “my smile is like I won a contest” which harkens back to that concept of being inferior to a partner, as in you’re having to win their affections via a contest rather than that love being given freely.
In YOYOK, the second verse talks about essentially realizing that “something different bloomed” in her priorities (being successful, writing music, playing songs in parking lots) after realizing that “he loves me not.” I think this again goes back to the tendency Taylor has to choose her career over love, even though she is such a hopeless romantic and is so inspired by love, she’s also just gotta shine and take over the world like the girlboss she is.
Not to mention that Bigger Than The Whole Sky is a really deeply sad song… is she daydreaming about ending her first long-term relationship that was “more than just a short time”?
Finally, in Labyrinth she’s talking about “getting over you my whole life” which is pretty much mourning a relationship before it even ends; I suspect that it’s more of her Wildest Dreams-esque fatalism coming in, but it could signify that she saw the end coming even as she was “falling in love again.”
I’m sure there’s so much more we haven’t even thought of yet!
i read that carnations are used in funerals (for decorations i guess ?) so it makes total sense
I am from the uk near where Joe was brought up and where he and Taylor spent their time together with his family. She made a video in a restaurant in our high street. It is very sad because in the end it was inevitable. They fell in love in a bubble and the bubble burst. I think it is hard to analyse people who are from such completely different worlds. I really admire them for holding on to their love for 6 years. Love to them both 🙏🏻
Interesting, what do you mean she made a video in a restaurant in your high street?
@@lfior it was in a kebab shop
i truly think that lavender haze is a song she wrote to cope with the initial breakdown of the relationship. convincing herself she WANTS to stay in the state of lovey dovey no commitment. i think she got max when people would ask when they’re getting married because she was upset deep down that joe never wanted the relationship to go further
Can I just say I love how you speak. You’re very confident and eloquent. I just wanted to give you props on it. It is refreshing.
Thank you so much!!
Love your analysis and the vibe! Now that the breakup has happened, it almost feels like we should have seen it coming. You don’t go from “I like shiny things but I’d marry you with paper rings” to Champagne Problems and Midnight Rain without some switch flipping in Taylor’s head…
“I wake up screaming from dreaming one day I’ll watch as you’re leaving and life will lose all its meaning”
I always thought the bridge in Dear Reader was really telling. It literally screams “I’m both alone and lonely and I don’t what I’m doing” idk maybe it’s just me
Yes, I didn’t think much of the whole album when it came out, in the sense that I just thought it was generally about past stuff, but from the first listen, Dear Reader was just such a weird song for me, the sad vibe it gives, the loneliness…
I don’t think relationships solve every single problem in your life, of course, but I still thought “girl, where’s your boyfriend” lol
@@beatrizgomes4094 right! Like when she said “To a house not home all alone bc nobody’s there” I was “Joe wya?! Why is Taylor getting drunk w/o u lol. And the ending is essentially the end of the whole album (in terms of deluxe) but it didn’t really end. It just lingers on. Like there’s clear or complete ending
I feel, even if the songs were not about him, or the songs are not about the breaking of the relationship now, a lot of times in our lives, if we don’t get over our past issues and traumas, or even if we have worked on them, they Can and will come back. If we’re truly over it, we can go pass through it, but if we are truly not, if there’s still something there in the past, then they’ll bring us down again, they’ll cause us pain, like seeing ghosts from the pasts, that keep haunting you. So things that could be about other relationships can still apply to the current one. Or even for past conflicts between the same relationship, a lot of times couples fight over the same things. A lot of fights are because of trust issues and past traumas. The question is, did they really triumph over them after the Great War, is there an afterglow this time?
“You drew up some good faith treaties
I drew curtains closed, drank my poison all alone
You said I have to trust more freely
But diesel is desire, you were playin' with fire
And maybe it's the past that's talkin'
Screamin' from the crypt
Tellin' me to punish you for things you never did” -the Great War
“I blew things out of proportion, now you're blue
Put you in jail for something you didn't do” -Afterglow
And it makes so much more sense when you listen to “anti-hero”
“I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser”
What do you need to learn to get wiser, Taylor? Do you want to become wiser tho?
Just re-visiting these videos before TTPD. The fact that you mention 'Autopsy of Joe Alwyn' and the fact that the sentence of the apple music word hunt could be 'We hereby conduct this post mortem' is giving me goosebumps. 😂😂
You’ve given us a lot to think about here, thanks for that. I saw Taylor last night in Tampa-wow- phenomenal! I found myself thinking about Joe & how sad for her to do songs like Lover and Champagne problems. But there was NO sadness vibe from her. She has moved on and is definitely in her prime right now!👏🏻
Love these takes... you pretty much summed it all up for me! This is the kind of content that I love to listen to, it gets me thinking and it's more interesting rather than catty or gossipy like all of those other pop culture channels. Thank you Swiftologist
Agreed
exactly what i’m saying
i actually thought they broke up when i first listened to "hits different" and thought she wrote their breakup song for the future. but now it's a hella different ride with whole midnights. i'm not talking about their relationship specifically, but about her thoughts and feelings on all of this.
i usually skip such videos but yours were interesting to watch, i like your perspective and your attitude. ❤
False God is nearly the happier version of Bejeweled.
There were lots of red flags in False God to me but she was kind of putting a rose colored glass over it.
Also, Afterglow is very alarming. For her to think that she entirely the problem in a fight is bad
Taylor has really brainwashed us into paying attention to the purple pink colors. But the whole run on Lover from Cruel Summer, The Archer, Miss Americana, Cornelia Street, DBATC, False God (!!!), Afterglow (and even the freaking ME) it’s not lovey dovey but very anxiety ridden, problems are brewing everywhere.
Even Paper Rings “I’m with you even if it makes me blue”, “I want your dreary Mondays”, I will settle for a paper ring even though I like shiny things.
Yes it was very obvious that this relationship gave her a lot of anxiety and whether it’s because of him and/or issues she has had in past relationships it didn’t seem necessarily healthy
I don’t agree that her taking accountability for her starting and escalating a fight is bad or alarming. As an adult if you’re accusing your lover of doing something they aren’t doing and refusing to talk to them about it, shutting the out while they try to work it out, which she very well tells us she did in both afterglow and the Great War accusing him of cheating when he didn’t is what you’re supposed to do. You absolutely should take responsibility for your actions, doing so isn’t a red flag. In both those songs which sound like are about the same situation she says he was the one trying to fix things while she made things worse and I’m not one of those fans who think she’s faultless and perfect, and she’s told us through her music for years that she self sabotages and is overly dramatic multiple times. We can’t can’t like she didn’t have any faults when she’s being open and vulnerable telling us she does.
I never said she doesn’t have faults or said she shouldn’t take responsibility for her actions ?
But for her to write an entire song about it being completely her fault is not a good thing. We can agree to disagree on that. Everyone has a fault to play in situations for sure. I definitely do not think she’s perfect in relationships by any means. Also, it’s hard to overlook how much anxiety she had during this relationship
I want to talk about the great war and hits different, since this video only covered the standard tracks
The great war:
The great war as a title already is an extremely visual and complex term.
They got their Ups and downs but they still went through everything together.
There was even a point where she felt betrayed by him for some reason
Proof/lyrics:
"It turned into something bigger
Somewhere in the haze, got a sense I'd been betrayed" on the other hand she was scared that she actually lost him
Proof/lyrics: "That was the night I nearly lost you
I really thought I lost you"
This song is also very complex because at first glance one could think at the end this is a happy song, because they survived the great war. Personally I don't think that's what this song is intending. She explains that, yes they survived together, but it's not the same as before.
Proof/lyrics: "We can plant a memory garden
Say a solemn prayer, place a poppy in my hair
There's no morning glory, it was war, it wasn't fair
And we will never go back"
On one hand she says, the damage is caused, it's irreparable. There was a time before "the great war" and there is a time after "the great war", but the time before & after will never be the same.
On the other hand I feel like these lines also try to explain a "happy" ending. They fell apart, but not like her other relationships. That's actually astonishing, because I always hear: "the great war is a perfect song for relationships/friendships who went through the Corona virus."
And yes I partly agree. But I feel like the great war is as intense as it is because of it's outcome, because of the result and the result is not a happy still existing relationship. The great war is basically a story.
The result is a relationship which went through a lot of stuff and therefore fell apart, yet in a "good way"
Let's be honest, the great war has a lot of lines but the bridge of this song is what reminds us when we hear about the great war, the bridge captures everything In this song.
Hits different:
Unlike the great war, hits different is very obvious and direct. She's going through a recent break up and it feels painful and different because this person (=joe) is different from all the others she dated before. She can't move on because it hits different. I feel like this song especially represents what you (so the creator lol) said in the video: she tried to safe this relationship, thinking this is what she needs, but deep inside her she knew this is not going to workout and it hits different (also) because of this (kind of) dilemma.
Overall I want to thank you for this video, I really enjoy analyzing songs and you motivated me to do so with these 2 songs
I agree with most of these analyses, except maybe for “Sweet Nothing”. I think Sweet nothing is a simple song about simple love, where both of them don’t really expect much of the other except being together in each other’s presence. It’s comforting for me ☺️
Idk, Maroon seems so connected to Wildest Dreams to me. The bridges are basically saying the same thing, almost from a later perspective or other persons pov. They both mention red lips, rosy cheeks, and looking at the sunset. They’re both based in remembering the relationship and it’s the same imagery. Also, in a C&R breakdown they talked about how the spareness of the song is purposeful because it’s doing what the lyrics are saying and making you feel how she feels.
Yeah that song could only be about Harry imo
The breakup makes me think of question:
“Everything was second best after that meteor strike” (referencing a past relationship) so idk but that lyric just hits so different now
Have I known you 20 seconds or 20 years
During Maroon, it always stuck out to me how “your roommates cheap ass screw top rosé” is the same melody as “is this the end of all the endings?” …. hinting at Joe???
So true it always struck me as weird because the first time I heard this song it sounds weirdly similar, production wise to kind of my heart
The melody/ Chord progression soudns eerily similar to that line in komh which is we were to look at matron through a taylor and joe perspective, it makes perfect sense
@@urja_pandya i never really thought about the production overall between the two songs but you’re so right!
When I heard Hits Different I was thinking that something had happened in their relationship
Also I think Midnight rain is probably about a few relationships, I think there are clues hinting at a few different guys that this sentiment of choosing the life of a popstar over the more comfortable life she could have had if she'd chosen to really try to settle down. I think it's a reflection on those times in her life when a good guy did want a comfortable life with her, but she didn't want that, and just how that has consistently impacted those relationships(the most recent being joe). Also TV can also mean Taylor's Version(exes not really thinking about her until the music she wrote about them gets re-recorded and they hear it again)
Smart theory with TV
also, "i see you everyday now" aligns with the fact shared with the media about their relationship enliven in the pandemic years. i'm always curious about what you have to say. you're articulated in a way that blows my mind, it's professional. thank you, love and support from brazil 💜
Gotta be honest, if I was a guy dating a girl with a known history of writing very auto-biographical songs about her life experiences and she starts collaborating on a song with me like Champagne Problems... where a guy asks a girl to marry him and she flakes... not gonna lie, it'd rock my confidence in the relationship. Especially considering that was released in 2020, meaning it was written in around 2019. About two years into their relationship - which is about the time any (serious) guy is thinking about popping the question or wondering where this is going. I reckon if the pandemic hadn't hit, they would've been Joe-ver years ago.
I agree with everything you said Zach! Such a big brain energy, thoughtful video, I just wanted to thank you for always giving us a fresh perspective on the messy machinations of our favorite popstar
Joe co-wrote Sweet Nothing so I think your point was a bit of a reach. He also helped to write Champagne Problems and other songs on Folklore, so he does have musicality/creativity which is why they bonded so much during their early years (according to sources I've read).
He wrote the piano part of all those songs. That counts as songwriting taylor could have easily written the lyrics and worked around his piano melody to create the songs they worked on. It’s why aaron gets writing credentials for sending her the instrumentals and she writes the lyrics around those.
the fact that taylor and joe's breakup was more interesting than their relationship...
A possible problem with Taylor is that she compares herself with younger women. It seemes like she needs to choose between being relevant in her carrer or being married and possible have kids. For exemple, Beyoncé had her daugher at 30 years old and had twins at 36, she has been married for 15 years, does that makes her less relevant? Being a wife and a mother does not make beyoncé shine less in her carrer, it does not matter if she putting an album out or if she is touring, she is beyoncé and everyone knows her and acknowledge that. It seems like Taylor want to stay young in her personal life as well, she wants to feel like she has been dating someone for one week instead of years, but that is not how long term relationships work, the other person does not have to guess what you are thinking bc you are both adults who can comunicate with each other. Joe has a life that he care about, he loves his job but he would not care about pausing the carrer a little bit if he wanted kids, his job does not consume his identity and it shows bc he was dating one of the most popular public figure of the world and he never took advantage to be more popular because of her, he liked her and not the pop star version. I love Taylor but I hate that she express the idea of a woman having kids and becoming less relevant because of that. Taylor is not 20 years old anymore, she is almost 34 and it must be exhausting dating someone that does not act like an adult.
About Midnight Rain I have a completly different interpretation: the song is about a high school boyfriend (with the sunshine energy that always was present in the male protagonists of her old videos e.g. mine) that she only thinks about in bad midnights and also about the fantasy itself of the life that could have been and that she is/was pursuing with Joe. She is talking about how much she changed since the time she had that future as a possibility and chose the fame, realizing that it isnt possible anymore to be the fairy tale bride she always pictured herself being in her first songs.
Being with Joe is looking trough the window to that life and unraveling a LOT of love (lover era), only to not be possible because she gave that life away. At the end, she got what she wanted, as she says. The line about the TV is about both of them. The old boyfriend really doesnt think about her, only when she is on TV. Joe soon will be like that too.
While she will be still thinking of them in midnights like this. The last 2 verses are almost wishful thinking with a shock of reality.
Revisiting your old videos to understand the 180 degrees that was TTPD and Matty Healy
people thinking that she wrote 6 albums about him and that how could you break up with someone after writing something like I wanna run with you to the lakes, etc is really shocking to me because don't we know her already? her relationships reflect more about her than her muse. It has always been about the bitch! truly
She's EVERYTHING , he's just ken.
Have you thought about where matty fits in midnights? I think there’s way more to the story now that matty is involved and that Joe knew they were collaborating!
I think now that she is dating Travis Kelce, we know that she doesn’t necessarily want a private love life. She was doing it for Joe or because of joe. When I was in rocky relationships in my past, I didn’t want to go out with friend groups because I didn’t want my friends to see how bad things were. Joe was such a dud! Bejeweled really says it all! 😘
Love the analysis. One point about maroon- she describes on and off relationships with a lot of past muses (ATW10, WANEGBT, Style). Maroon has so many specific evocative images (carnations you had thought were roses, dancing barefoot in New York, incense on the vinyl shelf) - it reminds me of the Red style of writing. Those on and off relationships really affect her deeply, that’s why the relationships with Jake and Harry still have such a hold on her and the public imagination.
I also think hits different is very much a clue to this breakup because of how many times she has said she’s scared of other people taking joe away or seeing him with other girls. Hits different literally says that in the first verse. Knowing the context of that and kind of piecing the lyrics together with the relationship IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE
I think we all underestimate the effect Jake Gyllenhaal's hipster neg had on Taylor and the appeal it gave to Joe Alwyn as a partner for her.
I always interpreted that SHE is the meteor for the other person, not the other way around. Basically because she's asking the questions to him, so: does it feel like everything's just like second best after me? (Taylor) 😅
I just had to let you know that my husband walked into the room as I was watching this and said you had very cool striking eyes, and he's right! Wonderful video, fantastic analysis as usual 💙
Also the line in anti-hero "One day I'll watch as you're leaving 'Cause you got tired of my scheming (For the last time)" she predicted it.
ur literally the most interesting youtuber i have come across i literally could listen to u talk all day
What I dislike about some of the break up videos is that Taylor is always put in a pedestal as if she can do no wrong. It was ok for Joe to not have his private life being publicized. I don’t know, I think she just can’t decide what she truly wants her life to look like. Either you hate that everyone is in your business or you love it to fulfill that narcissistic side of herself.
I listened to Labyrinth recently and it made me think that maybe the song is simultaneously about her breakup with Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy cause in the song she sings uh oh I'm falling in love again which you wouldn't sing about someone you've been in a 6 year relationship with. I think Taylor and Joe broke up way before she released Midnights and i think she's been dating Matty for a while just my opinion.
Something I've noticed now which makes me think Midnights in retrospect was meant to be a "breakup/chronicle of the end of a relationship album" all along is the one interview with Joe about the things he cannot live without.
In it he says he has an extensive lighter collection (and I apologise if this is old news)...well, what's on the cover of Midnights?
Sometimes the most pertinent clues are the ones hidden in plain sight. But maybe I'm overthinking.
Loved the analysis in the video!
back after ttpd and when I heard you say "relationship autopsy" i GASPED
Lavender Haze rubbed me the wrong way the moment I listened to it, because I knew it was about Joe, but to me it sounded like slowly falling out of love with someone, them no longer paying attention to who you are as a person - even being dismissive of your feelings and behaviour, but still wanting to be with them so bad that you're just clinging to the love you felt before. That was the feeling I got but I just didn't want to accept it since I didn't want to speculate about her relationship and it maybe not being so happy after all. Because of this I kind of skipped over this song every time I listened to Midnights.
But now it makes so much more sense. When she explained how she heard of what the lavender haze is, she said (and heavily paraphrasing here) something about wanting to cling or stay in that moment of the lavender haze, and that is what the song sounded like exactly to me. Really wanting and trying to stay in the lavender haze, but there is no doubt that it is slipping away, even though she is trying to view the negatives as a good thing (him not paying attention to her melancholia, not giving much thought or even avoiding the subject of her fame and what that means, etc.)
also the connection between “the rubies that i gave up” and all of bejeweled. i think the rubies are what she gave up to be with joe
The way that this shifted my entire universe on its axis. Since Midnights dropped, I've felt like there was an incongruency between the idea that these songs were supposed to have all taken place solely in the past and the level of reflection and deconstruction in each song. There were a lot of lyrics that had me going ???? but especially Question...? (which now we know may be relating to Matty?) just did NOT seem like a song that someone would write if they were presently in love and in a happy relationship. This whole video connected the dots for me.
"This is about her more than him" - you said this when talking about Mastermind, but I think that is the crux of this era as a whole. One of the red flags for me this era was that she did like what... 2 interviews? And also did no public performances until she played Anti-Hero at the O2 at T1975s gig. It just struck me as strange, but I assumed it was because she is so massive she simply doesn't need to do the whole PR circuit which artists normally slog through out of obligation. Unless she doesn't want to have to be talking about a record that's still actively hitting home...
I do think that she probably used past relationships/feelings/themes that were stirred up during rerecording her albums as a starting point, but I think that she didn't want this to be explicitly labelled a 'break up' album. This album is very much about Taylor's thoughts, feelings, and reflection and I think the marketing of this album made sure the narrative would be about HER as she geared up for Eras tour and not her relationship.
Personally, I think that she and Joe were on the way down for a while, I'm not sure when the breakup was final, but your analysis really strings together all the thoughts and questions I've had in a coherent way.
I literally always admire the thought and effort that goes into these videos, its the best to listen to them while I'm working or painting 🤞
I really need people on twitter/tik tok to stop acting like the music isn’t gonna hit anymore now that she and Joe are broken up. Sorry but songs like False God and cruel summer don’t need to be associated with Joe for them to be the absolute bangers that they are🤧
I just discovered your channel. You are very pleasant to listen to. I wasn't feeling the that well and your calm observation is just lovely. Also you look great! And you really changed my thoughts on that quote "I miss you but I miss sparkling"
Your analysis of Lavendar Haze has me RIP ☠ I never realized all that!
"Question" has such an effect on him, his voice goes up a pitch whenever it comes to this song 😆
I’m convinced that Bejeweled is about joe considering how taylor might have to keep a low profile not only because of what happened in 2016 but also because she had to satisfy his “need for privacy” or self esteem i would say… NOBODY can hold our queen our diamond our universal princess from shining!!!!
Yeah, I agree. The line "BTW I'm going out to tonight" had that feeling of lover's spat and is deliciously snarky. It is something one would say to somebody that they have been with for a while, and they are having a relationship fight.
Ofc it is “I made you my world have you heard I can reclaim the land I miss you but I miss sparking” 100% about Joe
Yeah, I've said it before in this very comment section, but it makes no sense if you think Bejewelled is about say Harry Styles, Taylor Lautner Tom Hiddleston or even Jake Gyllenhaal. All four of those men have stars in their own right. Joe on the other hand? Wants a quiet life, and doesn't like the idea of attention, and Taylor would have to respect that, despite her urge to go out and shine. Famiarlly breeds competent after all makes a lot of sense if it's about someone who you have spent two years in the same place with, and that means you want something new.
Yes! This! - “I miss you, but I miss sparkling”. It’s like they’re drifting apart and she misses him, but she misses being her true self.
God I love this fandom, I'm living for all the analysis and the bits of shade. "Joe clearly doesn't love to work and he hasn't created anything, to my knowledge" made me choke 💀
the rust that grew between telephones is obviously about two people not calling each other as often anymore... a relationship that is gradually dying down, lack of comunication...
i would love to hear your thoughts on Hits Different- i think there’s a lot of tea in the lyrics about how they were kind of doomed from the start, their relationship felt wrong, she was sooo hung up on him and really idealized him and praised him for just wanting to be with her.
Ok so I love this video, but I genuinely think I need your skincare/makeup routine because you are GLOWING ❤
your way of speaking is really impressive👍
Also in the song great war, Taylor says " maybe it was egos swinging, maybe it was her" and also "somewhere in the haze, I got a sense I have been betrayed " there are rumors of emma laird and joe alwyn dating, so who knows, just a speculations.
My theory on midnight rain is that each verse is about a different guy but has an underlying question of what the ‘what if’s of a relationship’. I think the boy she broke his ‘heart cause he was nice’ was Tom Hiddleston cause of the iconic beach pics. I think the line ‘he wanted a bride I was manning my own name’ can be interpreted as like an undercurrent in all of her relationships - Taylor lautner and Taylor being an obvsi parallel. And then ‘he never thinks of me except for when I’m in tv’ could be in reference to as you said joe not being that invested in the Taylorverse but also like her past lovers like joe who wanted a more normal life and themselves getting their own ‘peep’ into what she’s doing. Overall my theory is that it’s about her putting her career first and wondering what her life could’ve been like if she hadn’t- but still in the end surrendering to the fact that more times than not her career is more important to her (with all of me came down like midnight rain accepting this and also coming to terms with the fact that she is just too famous to even attempt that life + doesn’t want it) Guys come and go like midnights but her career and her inner circle as you described are what will always be there.