After a quiet spell, the Taylor Swift newsometer has been flickering again this week. Cancel all operations, return to base and regroup accordingly.
First, the singer’s rep described as “tabloid clickbait” a move by lawyers for the film director Justin Baldoni to subpoena Swift in his legal battle with Blake Lively, his costar in It Ends with Us. It turns out it doesn’t end with them.
Swift was then spotted with Travis Kelce, her boyfriend, for the first time in two months. This involved fan snaps of a US Mother’s Day visit to a Philadelphia restaurant, an outing widely characterised in the media as the couple “breaking cover”.
But the real intrigue took place on taylorswift.com, where four tiles on the home page have been reordered as Apparel, Music, Accessories and Sale. It’s not 100 per cent clear what this new order signifies, but it definitely signifies something. A desire to sell clothing, albums, merchandise and discounted items? Not just that, obviously. As a TikToker with the account name @bridgetmendoza13 pointed out, the tiles now echo the initialism for the American Music Awards, which take place on May 26th. Store this date somewhere in your mind palace. It might be important later.
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Soon other Swifties, followed by the Swiftie-tracking press corps of which I count myself a part-time member, were theorising that an announcement of sorts has been pencilled in for the Las Vegas ceremony.
Chatter shifted to “Rep TV”, which is fan shorthand for Reputation (Taylor’s Version), one of two albums from the singer’s rerecording project that have yet to be released. The other is “Debut TV”, aka the rerecorded version of her eponymous first record, released when she was 16.
Swifties have been predicting the advent of Rep TV for some time. There was even a theory that she would announce it at one of her three Eras Tour gigs in Dublin last June. This piece of Swiftology sprang from the observation that the TTPD logo for The Tortured Poets Department, her 2024 album, had a typeface that meant it resembled CAIL when viewed upside down. As “cáil” can mean reputation in Irish, it was all but certain that the big Rep TV reveal would take place at the Aviva Stadium.
Almost 11 months’ worth of false alarms later, Swifties are not only willing but also remarkably keen to laugh at themselves. Their anticipation comes wrapped in self-deprecation, with mentions of Rep TV often accompanied by clown emojis and admissions that they are once again in their “clown era”, putting their clown make-up on or just generally “ready to clown”.
The speculation, which is half the pleasure of the exercise, is supported by evidence that Reputation was rerecorded an aeon ago. Two of its tracks surfaced as Taylor’s versions on separate television soundtracks in 2023, while Swift also told Time magazine that year that the extra “from the vault” tracks set to accompany the release were “fire”.
The cleverness of the rerecording project, of course, is that it has long evolved beyond its original rationale – to thwart the industry nemesis who purchased the masters to her first six albums – into an elaborate catalogue-marketing wheeze.
In the case of Rep TV it’s an opportunity to reappraise songs with perennially relevant lyrics such as “they’re burning all the witches, even if you aren’t one” (I Did Something Bad) and “I bury hatchets, but I keep maps of where I put ‘em” (End Game). The latter approach, given that Donald Trump, the US president, is now one of her “big enemies”, seems wise.
Musically, there was a lot going on with Reputation. During my single foray to date into Swiftogeddon, the touring club night that plays only Swift music, the dancing began with its first track, …Ready for It? This was always quite the opener. But the more understated sound of her recent albums now only emphasises the muscularity of this Swedish-produced salvo, from the insistent bass beats that kick off the song to its climactic rap-singing, where Swift rattles out, “Let the games begin, let the games begin.”
The games have begun. For as useful as her vault tracks have been at sending old albums – in their often-inferior rerecorded forms – back to the top of the streaming charts, Rep TV and Debut TV are still just breadcrumbs. It makes more sense for Swift to move forward before looking back again.
Luckily, this week’s internet sleuthing didn’t end with the potential AMAs clue. There was also the discovery that 12 items in Swift’s online shop have been discounted by 26 per cent. This means there are bargains to be had on hoodies. But it might also mean that she plans to unveil her 12th album – a brand new one, code-named TS12 by fans – on May 26th. The good news is that Swedish involvement is suspected.
So, yes, let’s clown again like we clowned last summer.
