For that outside of Taylor Swift’s fandom, an “easter egg” is a piece of colored plastic they haven’t thought of since childhood. However, for “Swifties”, as they call themselves, it means little clues that lead to the treasure of the next album. For example, in the debut music video for her album Lover, the names of the singles You Need To Calm Down and Lover was hidden in the background. At the moment, her fans looked past these little details, but now keep a keen eye that’s always open for the next hint.
Easter eggs have become a signature part of Swift’s career moves, with foreshadows to her latest drops. On December 10, 2020, Swift posted an Instagram story with the caption “This outfit really screams ‘Tis the damn season”. A few days later, Swift released a surprise album evermore with one of the songs bearing the exact name of “Tis the damn season”. It was the only clue she gave another album was on the way, and her fans didn’t even realize.
Swift sends her fans on a scavenger hunt to find details about her next albums. When Swift re-released Red and Fearless, she released an assortment of scrambled letters that when put together, makes the tracklist. From a fan perspective, it may seem like Swift is making her fans put in too much effort to get the song titles, but it is genius from a PR point of view.
By dropping easter eggs, Swift keeps her fans engaged. They will watch every interview and music video to speculate and see where the next hint lies. Swift keeps her fans guessing and that keeps them listening. However, not every hidden message in a Taylor Swift cover has led to new music. The word “woodvale” was hidden on the Folklore cover. Swift fans thought this had to mean that this would be a third surprise album, after folklore and evermore. When asked about this, Swift admitted there was no third album and it was an editorial mistake, leaving fans disappointed.
Recently, Swift has packaged her records with purple, a possible homage to the violet cover of her 2010 release of Speak Now. Whether this is her latest easter egg to allude, Speak Now as her latest re-release or just a conscience is something Swifties, including myself, are just going to just wait and see.