It’s that time of year again: Taylor Swift has released a new album. As all veteran Swifties know, with every new release comes a new crop of theories, building on the already established lore of the Taylor Swift Cinematic Universe. Midnights draws inspiration from many of the sleepless nights Taylor Swift’s endured throughout the years, welcoming her back into the pop music sphere once again, under not only public scrutiny but that of her fans. Each album drop brings out the best and the worst of Swiftie sleuths, from theorizing about secret sapphic relationships with Glee stars to business betrayals or that Swift’s boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, is a beard, you can count on Swifties to try to put the pieces together. So with that, we can dive into seven of the most intriguing theories surrounding Midnights.
“Labyrinth” & “invisible string”
Conspiracy Theory Ranking: Obvious
Many fans have connected the songs “Labyrinth” from Swift’s newest album Midnights to “invisible string” from her 2020 album folklore due to their ties to mythology. The song, “invisible string,” denotes Swift’s romance with Joe Alwyn based on the Chinese folktale of “The Red String of Fate,” an invisible string tethering soulmates together. “Labyrinth” tells quite a different story about being stuck in a maze of never-ending heartache. Classicists and Percy Jackson fans would immediately pick up on the connection between the two songs, as in the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur in Greek mythology, the hero Theseus is given a ball of string by the Princess Ariadne to help him find his way out the labyrinth after slaying the Minotaur. It seems like the invisible string Swift sings about reappeared as an Easter egg on Midnights.
Is Midnights the long lost sister album of Lover?
Conspiracy Theory Ranking: Plausible
Taylor Swift revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that her seventh studio album Lover was originally going to be called Daylight, the same name of the album’s closer. This theory goes even deeper when you bring in the scrapped album theory– the theory that Swift scrapped the album she’d intended to release following the backlash of her feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in 2016. Swift’s followed a two year album cycle all throughout her career from her debut album up until 1989, as her next album reputation wasn’t released until 2017, a year later than expected. Ever since, fans have pondered the existence of the scrapped album. After Swift dropped the music video for her song “The Man” where there’s a mural depicted of all of Taylor’s albums prior to Lover, there was an extra name: Karma. From then on, Karma became the unofficial name of the scrapped album but now that “Karma” is also a song on the Midnights album, perhaps Midnights is the lost album. It would make sense as a majority of the content on the album– excluding some of the 3am bonus tracks– is set before reputation.
Is “Question…?” about Harry Styles?
Conspiracy Theory Ranking: Maybe?
Most people would think that after nearly a decade, Swifties would put the Haylor theories to rest, but with every album there’s always one or two tracks fans believe are devoted to Swift and the British heartthrob. This time, “Question..?” gets the Haylor treatment. The lyrics “Did you ever have someone kiss you in a crowded room?” have triggered the theorizing due to the infamous photo of the two kissing in a crowd in Times Square back in 2012 on New Year’s Eve. With Midnights being a retelling of some of Swift’s wilder nights, anything goes. The track could be attributed to many of her exes, but because Swift rarely confirms these types of questions, it’s up to interpretation.
“Dear Reader”
Conspiracy Theory Ranking: ???
“Dear Reader” slips under the radar of many listeners purely for being a bonus track and a quiet one at that, but the lyrics imply that there’s much more than meets the eye with this song.
“Dear reader, get out your map
Pick somewhere and just run
Dear reader, burn all the files
Desert all your past lives
And if you don’t recognize yourself
That means you did it right”
These lyrics are glaring and come off more as advice given on Breaking Bad than advice given by Taylor Swift to her fans. Many of the tracks on Midnights somewhat segue into others and build upon each other; “Dear Reader” is one of them. Why would Taylor Swift need to be burning files? Tax fraud? Plans to take down her enemies? No one is really sure what blondie’s talking about in this song but it’s something wild, and most likely has to do with the downfall of Scooter Braun, the man who bought her music masters behind her back. If there’s one thing Taylor’s good at it, it’s playing the long game, so I wouldn’t put it past her.
Taylor Swift is Queer
Conspiracy Theory Ranking: *shrugs*
After the track list for Midnights was leaked and later confirmed by Swift herself, “Lavender Haze” stuck out to many due to its strong association with lesbians, as the term “Lavender Menace” was used by queer activists following the Stonewall Riots. For years, it’s been a debate over whether Swift is queer or not despite the singer never confirming or denying any details about her sexuality. The closest the internet has seen to Swift making a statement on the matter is a tweet following her twenty-fifth birthday when she asked the world to stop shipping her with her friends, which doesn’t answer the question as she could’ve been referring to a number of people from Karlie Kloss to Drake, who Taylor’s been rumored to be dating.
Either way, fans immediately thought of the song as queer once they heard the title contained the word “lavender,” some going as far to accuse the star of queerbaiting. This isn’t the first time Swift’s sexuality has been speculated on or the first time she’s been accused of queerbaiting, unfortunately. For years, there has been a belief in “Kaylor,” a speculative relationship between Taylor Swift and her ex-friend and model Karlie Kloss. The two were extremely close and even lived together for a period of time, leading fans to interpret the more queer-sounding songs as about Kloss, even attributing the song “The Great War” to her due to the feminine pronouns used in the song. The song touches on betrayal, and Kloss is believed to have betrayed Swift by leaking information to her manager Scooter Braun in order for him to purchase Swift’s masters– a reason why many Swifties avoid discussing the possibility of Kaylor.
Various elements of Midnights could be seen as queer, but once again, until Swift herself speaks on her sexuality, it’s not fair to attribute songs to speculative relationships. It’s fun to theorize, but not everything on an album which the artist claims is full of fantasies should be treated as fact.
“Bigger Than The Whole Sky” is About Miscarriage
Conspiracy Theory Ranking: Up to Interpretation
One of the heavy hitters on Midnights, “Bigger Than The Whole Sky” is a tearjerker no matter how it’s interpreted. Many people– not just fans, but those who’ve experienced pregnancy loss, immediately interpreted the song as pertaining to miscarriage. Various lyrics such as “You were bigger than the whole sky, you were more than just a short time” and “Did some force take you because I didn’t pray?” seem to point to pregnancy loss. While Swift has never mentioned miscarriage in any shape or form, she does often write about those close to her and things they’ve gone through, so it’s very possible that someone close to her has experienced this and “Bigger Than The Whole Sky” is their story.
Taylor Swift is Responsible for Scooter Braun’s Divorce & Legal Troubles
Conspiracy Theory Ranking: Unhinged…but if the cat eye is sharp enough…
For the final and most unhinged theory yet– Scooter Braun’s divorce was caused by Taylor Swift. To once again reiterate: Taylor Swift is amazing at playing the long game. Doing so has shown how her enemies seem to evaporate without her needing to lift a finger, the most notorious being Kanye West. However, it seems like Swift knew about the rift between Yael Cohen and her husband Scooter Braun, even alluding to Braun’s infidelity in the folklore track “mad woman.” In “Vigilante Sh*t,” Swift implies that it was her who gave proof to an ex-wife in order for her husband to be investigated by the FBI. While Swift gives no names, it’s doubtful that the song could be about Kim Kardashian and Kanye West as their feud runs too deep for Swift to be colluding with Kardashian. The same cannot be said for Scooter Braun as he’s currently facing a $200 million lawsuit for breach of contract, and there’s a possibility that he could be indicted in the future for “white collar crimes” as mentioned in the Midnights track, due to his shady and corrupt business dealings that are well known in the entertainment industry. We’ll just have to see what happens.