Just when you thought you had Taylor Swift’s music agenda figured out, she drops a surprise bomb on all of us yet again. One thing is certain as a Taylor Swift fan: you can never be too sure of her timeline for releasing her re-recorded albums…but we’re here for it!
For us Swifties out there, it was to our knowledge that Taylor was going to release her re-recorded album of Red on November 19, 2021. However, in a Swift-like fashion on Friday, September 17th, Taylor posted a TikTok that was quick to gain attention from fans. The short video showed her casually painting her nails (red, of course, staying on the theme for her next album release) with the text “When you set a date in November with Red but then someone mentions 1989.” The clip then “glitches” over to her in a “nice dress” looking out at the sunset (which goes along to the lyrics of her song on the 1989 album, “Wildest Dreams”) followed by a slow-motion zoom in of her winking that definitely entailed “I know something you guys don’t.” This rightfully had fans spiraling out of control.
This quickly led to people trying to find any underlying messages or hidden release date information regarding her 1989 album. The comment section was flooded with fans trying to decode the “glitch” in her TikTok video:
“This glitch better not be an easter egg I’m not smart enough for that.”
“ARE WE IN 1989 AND RED ERA AT THE SAME TIME??”
“At this point we know the glitch was on purpose.”
All we know, for now, is that the glitch was simply just a glitch…oh wait, but then there’s more.
Taylor went ahead and released her re-recorded version of “Wildest Dreams” from the original 1989 album. Along with her release, she tweeted “Hi! Saw you guys got ‘Wildest Dreams’ trending on TikTok, thought you should have my version.” With the single being just as amazing to listen to as the first time around, fans are now speculating if she will be surprise dropping 1989 (Taylor’s Version) before the release of Red (Taylor’s Version) in November. Fans have left questioning the sequence of her album release after she went from releasing Fearless (Taylor’s Version), then jumping straight to Red (Taylor’s Version), but mixing in a single release of a song of a later album such as 1989. It is clear that she is not releasing these in any specific order, but one that makes sense to her, and may have significant meaning behind it..or maybe not one at all, and she just likes to keep us on our toes.
Taylor has taken a positive and unique approach to what could have been a difficult situation of trying to re-release all the albums she lost the rights to. Her secretive social media posts and hidden messages have been an exciting way for fans to support her through this transitional period as an artist and eagerly await her releases. You can never be too certain of what exactly she has in the works, or when she’ll surprise us with another great single…or maybe even an entire album.