Learning from the best, Taylor Swift fans are becoming masterminds themselves when it comes to digging up her clues.
Swift, 34, dropped her album The Tortured Poets Department on Friday, April 19, releasing the music video for the lead single, “Fortnight,” that night. While dissecting each frame of the video, which starred Post Malone and Dead Poets Society actors Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles, one eagle-eyed Swiftie picked up on a connection to one of her Midnights songs.
At one point in the video, Swift stands in a gothic black dress with scorched papers floating around her after she flings open the drawers of file cabinets.
“TAYLOR ALISON SWIFT YOU DID NOT. HOLY S—T I AM NOT PREPARED AND I AM SO PSYCHED #TSTTPD,” read one X post, which included a still from the video.
The social media user also included a screenshot of lyrics from “Dear Reader,” in which Swift sings, “Burn all the files / Desert all your past lives.”
TAYLOR ALISON SWIFT YOU DID NOT. HOLY SHIT I AM NOT PREPARED AND I AM SO PSYCHED #TSTTPD pic.twitter.com/Ib1fJl6gZU
— shannon 🪶 (@holygroundsound) April 19, 2024
Swift seemingly approved the theory, dropping a “like” via X.
It appears Swift spent some time scrolling through social media following the release of her 11th album, “liking” everything from praise for her “insane” music video to memes about replacing therapy with TTPD.
Along with engaging with fans, Swift celebrated her successful weekend by reposting a handful of critics’ reviews. She retweeted favorable articles from Rolling Stone, The Independent and more outlets, adding lyrics from her new songs to show her gratitude.
Swift announced TTPD at the 2024 Grammy Awards in February, further surprising fans on Friday by revealing a double album. The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology features a total of 31 songs, adding 15 tracks to the original 16.
“The Tortured Poets Department,” she wrote via social media on Friday. “An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure.”
She continued, “This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it. And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”
With some of her most vulnerable songs to date, it’s no surprise TTPD broke impressive records. Spotify revealed that the album earned 300 million streams in a 24-hour period, breaking Swift’s previous record of 185 million for Midnights. “Fortnight,” the first track on the album, became the most-streamed song in a single day.
