I feel like the line in Bejeweled "Didn't notice you walking all over my peace of mind" is a unique parallel to the song "Peace." In "Peace," I felt like she was being apologetic about her baggage in the relationship, but then in Bejeweled, she's reclaiming it. Also, another Swiftie brought up the point that like Folklore and Evermore may have been more autobiographical than we were lead to believe, but that she wanted to keep her relationship private so she masked them as being merely fictional. Again, this is speculation, and we will never know.
I personally listened to Folklore and Evermore from the start as if there's still some parallels to her own life, but with the breakup and YLM coming out, even I haven completely changed my perspective on most of the songs 😭
I've been seeing _Bejeweled_ as a Jake-song, because of the shoes (like in _I bet u think about me_ , which is also a Jake-song, about their childhood times social classes being so far apart, the organic shoes, etc...), in which she depictions her original intent to shine bright like a diamond for her 4th album (hence also choosing it to foreshadow Speak Now TV) and he (Jake) ruined the mood for her and she came up with _Red_ instead.... But it totally could be a case of her break-ING ship sipping into the past analysis 💭
@@singingwithbeccaalso the Bleachers version of anti-hero. Joe seemed to struggle with the attention and it manifested in him being ‘too cool to hang out, and talking sh’t about his famous baby’. I can imagine lockdown was difficult… she was creating music and he wasn’t able to do any work as an actor. The flip side is they had quality time together, without other people making demands on her time.
@@philjan23was Jake uber-rich? She def grew up in a mansion by normal standards, but not a mega-mansion. The organic shoes are more about him being an elitist jerk (I thought), one of those insufferable guys who take themselves so seriously.
She said in an interview about folklore and evermore that she put her own personal feelings into the love triangle in folklore, and it’s a way to express herself without the public saying anything. She also said it again last year on the eras tour. She mentioned in that same interview how she’s felt like “tolerate it” “at some point in my life” so we’ve got good confirmation
I completely agree. During these Midnights in her life, she's contemplating her relationship. She's not sure if this is really going to last. It's her thinking about something that was good and right, but now it's changed. She's sharing her thoughts with us while still figuring it out, which is why we got You're Losing Me after their breakup. Midnights is truly an evolving album, still one year after its release
I think a lot of the connections you make are spot on… I’ve had mostly the same revelations. I definitely think Midnights is a break-ING up album… where she is reflecting on all of her past relationships and how they fell apart and studying why they didn’t work out and making parallels to rough spots she’s experienced in her current relationship. She’s desperately trying to figure out: is it her? Does she just need to mature and learn from past mistakes she made in relating to her partner? Does she need to change, to compromise? Or, is it him? Has he actually done some wrong against her, or is he just not who she thought he was? Or is it both of them… are they just not compatible? Is the love/affection/appreciation they have for one another not enough to overcome the fact that they don’t fit as well as they thought they did? What you said about Lover is so interesting… when I re-listened to it in the aftermath of their breakup, I realized there were cracks then that were being covered up by the hearts and flowers aesthetic of the era. I think a younger Taylor would have broken the relationship off a lot sooner had surrounding circumstances been different… but I think she was really trying to put the work in this time and NOT run at the first sign of adversity. If she had been able to do Lover-fest and return to being in the spotlight back in 2019, I think the relationship would have ended around then. Instead, the pandemic happened and it extended the out-of-the-spotlight existence that the relationship thrived in before Rep (i.e. suited Joe’s preference for privacy and just chilling at home). It should have been a 2 year relationship, max. But it was able to drag on because it wasn’t tested by the true reality of “Taylor Swift, Pop Star”. And as we - her fans - know, she doesn’t just tolerate the spotlight like so many other entertainers (like Joe)… she actually loves the spotlight… she NEEDS the spotlight. She’s not a homebody… she wants to go to the parties and walk the red carpets and be where the people are, even at the cost of being followed by paparazzi and screaming fans. Joe is an actor for acting’s sake… he likes the craft of it, but not the celebrity. He likes to disappear into a role and do his job, but he’s not a fan of the business surrounding it - the promotion, the interviews, the marketing. Taylor has always wanted to be center stage… yes, she’s also a creative artist as a songwriter and musician, but she’s also got that entrepreneurial spark - she likes the marketing aspect of it all and being the HBIC. Joe is a paycheck player… Taylor writes the checks.
I think this is a really good point! Just from the very little that we know, I don't necessarily think Joe is a bad person or did anything wrong. I think they just wanted different things in their lives and in the relationship that ultimately weren't compatible
You make some great points that I've thought of as well. I think the pandemic in combination with her wanting to escape media slander was really harmful in that it kept her trapped with him and had that not been the case, he would have realized sooner that he wants a different life from her, and it could have saved them years of pain and wasted time. I think her being in that bubble and not being surrounded by friends and family was clearly a mistake, and that kept her from seeing things clearly about how bad it was and from being able to see that there are better things out there.
I didn’t really get midnights until they announced the breakup. Bejeweled suddenly makes so much sense, like she had to stay out of the spotlight but that’s just not her life.
I saw someone on pinterest who said "midnights was a puzzle and youre losing me was the missing piece" and yes, midnights has always been a breakup album but many people wasnt ready for the conversation
wow, i always thought The Great War was about Taylor's trust issues and her thinking Joe was being unfaithful when he wasn't, and the "truth" he told with honor was that he didn't cheat and she finally believed him because he was so torn up about the accusation. i never thought about him actually confessing to cheating and her choosing to forgive him. damn 🤯 i wonder if this will get explored more on Tortured Poets... 👀😵💫
I also think the line "I washed my hands of us at the club" from Hits Different is super interesting in light of all this. To me, that sounds like what you were saying: she knew this relationship was going down for a long time, and maybe "I washed my hands of us" is her finally accepting that they weren't going to make it. You could even look at the metaphor of Pilate washing his hands of Jesus in the Bible to show that he was handing him over and couldn't be held accountable for what happened to him after that. Maybe Taylor was also saying that she had finally chosen not to take the blame for what happened because she tried her best to save it.
If Jack would have never (intentionally of course lol) posted the date that they wrote “you’re losing me”, there would not be anywhere near as big of a rabbit hole as there is now for us Swifties. Lol Thanks Jack 🫠🥴🤪
Nena, can you do a vinyl collection tour and show us how you store them? I just got a record player and want to start my collection but don’t really know how to store them. ty!!!!!❤❤❤
i think the reason for their breakup was because he couldn't handle her success. he met her and helped her during the era where everyone hated her (the 2016-2017 kanye scandal) and when people started loving her again he couldn't handle it. i think he's a good person but wasn't a good boyfriend because he NEVER seemed ecstatic when asked about her. In my opinion that's not normal, you're literally dating one of, if not the BIGGEST pop stars ever and you're always hiding her and rarely showing up to her events? I really don't hate him, but he made a lot of mistakes.
Since Rep, honestly. A lot of the songs had vibes she didn’t feel secure. “Wonder how many girls he had loved and left haunted” “do the girls back home touch you like I do” “stay here honey I don’t wanna share” that could all well and be because maybe it was before they were official. But then you get the same vibes in Lover. Nothing ever really secure. “I’m highly suspicious that everyone who sees you wants you” Death By a Thousand Cuts. Cornelia Street. Just this girl so desperately pouring her heart out, and feeling nothing but love, but the guy she loves definitely isn’t in the same boat
I think aaron told that the great war was written during the 2021 grammy night. That's interesting because she also thanked joe during her speech. I always thought that she was so happy that she quarantined with joe because it was once again like what they had in 2016, alone together and nothing to bother joe about taylor's success. But as soon as Red TV became bigger with a short film and a "bigger" success, things started to go down
Midnights was the album that turned me into a swiftie, and I remember hearing Bejeweled and being kind of suspicious? also the clip where she sings "and I miss you" and she makes like a "not really lol" face is so funny to me and I think it could tie to that relationship. the lyrics to labyrinth as well confused me, because she's talking about constantly falling in and out of love with him, which isn't healthy. also the line in Dear Reader where she says "If you knew where I was walking, to a house, not a home, all alone 'cause nobody's there", very much stuck out to me, and I feel like she was trying to hint at the end of the relationship all throughout Midnights. (sorry I literally have so much to say about this) I've always thought that The Great War and Afterglow sound very gaslight-y, and a lot of the lover songs, like the archer, cornelia street, even lover are based on the premise that she's terrified of him leaving. ever since you're losing me, I've thought that many of the songs on both folklore and evermore were at least loosely related to the end of their relationship, and she may have played it off as fiction because they were together during the release of both albums. you're losing me has so many parallels to exile, tolerate it, champagne problems, happiness etc. also I 100% agree with the whole marriage thing - I think we should have realised that when Taylor went from "I'd marry you with paper rings" to "all they keep asking me is if I'm gonna be your bride", that Joe either changed his mind about marriage or never wanted it in the first place. I've never thought of the Great War as Joe admitting to doing something bad, but that makes so much sense! I don't want to aimlessly label him as a cheater, but could Taylor be betty? also if you think about the line "your faithless love's the only hoax I believe in". it could mean something, but I'm not sure. he was definitely was jealous of her fame and tried to diminish it - he did NOT let her bejeweled. his complete and total adversity to even MENTION the woman he'd been with for 6 years is just strange and almost a slap in the face to Taylor. anyway, I hope Taylor's doing okay, Tayvis forever lmao. also this video was epic, your lyric analysis is so in-depth and awesome!
Thank you for doing another long form deep dive. I love when you do these essays so much, it's like sitting around with friends and just talking music. 😊
I feel like Midnights BECAME a breakup album. When the album originally released she posted about her relationship positively but some songs like you mentioned was about breakup, especially the bonus tracks.
Yesss bringing up the marriage parallel between Lavender Haze and You’re Losing Me!!! Since You’re Losing Me, I feel like the lyrics in Lavender Haze were either from Joe’s perspective or they were just her lying to herself that she ALSO didn’t want to get married. I’m glad you brought that up!
Now that TTPS album is out it’s clear that midnights was a break up album. She hardly even addresses Joe because she didn’t have to because she had already did it in midnights.
That Invisible String/Tolerate It parallel BLEW my mind. How did I never realize before? Tolerate It was never fictional😓 Now that I think about it, in Tolerate It, she sings "If it's all in my head, tell me now", which might be a callback to "Hey, it's all me, in my head" from Afterglow, which we assumed was about her relationship with Joe...😞
In an interview she did about folklore and evermore (the one where she said Joe and I just really love to write sad songs) she mentions she’s related to “tolerate it” at a point in her life. That could be a confirmation
There is another parallel between Maroon and Cornelia St, in CS she sings 'barefoot in the kitchen' and in Maroon she sings 'the one i was dancing with in New York, no shoes'. I love your videos and this one was really interesting, especially the barbed wire connection between Invisible String and Tolerate It. X
Tbh for me it’s hard to listen to You’re loosing me. I don’t know why but I’ve never felt feelings so deeply to other artist’s songs. It kinda hurts 🥺 And I’m just amazed how the music in Taylor’s songs matches the lyrics. And in you’re losing me it’s again 100% hit!
Obviously, Joe was the daylight for Taylor through a lot of hard things, and he helped her in times when no one else did. However, some people have like this weird obsession with him. Taylor and him are broken up, and we need to accept that. Taylor is in a new, healthy relationship. She has clearly stated that if someone wants to date her, they need to be accepting of how public she is. During her relationship with Joe, she probably learned that a private relationship doesn’t work with her lifestyle. I completely agree with what you said about Joe seeming like he was intimidated by Taylor’s success, and I DEFINITELY think there were some breaks and hard times scattered all throughout the six years. Considering how much Taylor tried to convince us this songs were telling stories throughout her life, I do think these parallels aren’t just coincidences.
Yes I absolutely agree. Taylor thrives more in public relationships. Obviously there's some parts of it she'll want to keep private as well and that's completely ok. But I think she truly needed someone who wasn't intimidated by her success and who loved all parts of her, including the fame and people-pleasing and all that. She seems so happy with Travis and I'm so happy for both of them!! Their support towards each other is THE CUTEST!!
I think midnights kinda written between their breakup. But i am totally sure about Your losing me and hits diffrent being a joe and taylor breakup song beacz were realsed way after their breakup . The lyric in hits diffrent "oh my love is a lie,s*ht my friends say to get me by" kinda sounds about joe and about how here friends are trying to comfort her after a 6 year relationship.. And your losing me the lyric"my heart wont start anymore for you" you know the girl is broken...ofcourse. By the way love you.❤
I love this, and i agree with a lot! I think the midnights album is a concept album like she said, but also i'd call it a crossroads album. Like how you mentioned it's like when you're deciding if things will work out or not, that concept can apply to other relationship types besides romantic ones as well so i think that's the case. Since this is the case, I feel like songs like lavender haze sweet nothing hits different the great war etc (all the love songs) still are loving and meaningful in those emotional aspects, but at the same time you can feel multiple emotions at once about any kind of relationship. So like i think there's songs that are like 2 sides of the same coin kind of thing, and i think midnights metaphorically helped her through a lot as she rerecorded, she writes these sleepless night songs about different themes but all of them have a shared underlying theme which is what you pointed out in discussing the do i stay or do i leave feelings... and in releasing You're Losing Me, I think taylor was just trying to tell us how it ended for her... however on tour she's emphasized something she always wants us to do as fans which is being able to relate to this in our own ways. And if we all do that, Midnights becomes an album that is truly a little different for everyone, because no one has the exact same two forks in the road so to speak but a lot of us go the same directions throughout life. This is probably my favorite thing about Midnights💙💙🖤🖤 if you read my lil novel of a comment thanks :) love your videos Nena!
I read someone say they felt like he put the date (which was probably ok’d by Taylor to put out there) because so many people are giving her crap about Travis saying she’s moving on already, so by putting that date out there it kind of lets people know that she’s not moving on too quickly and her and Joe are over and done.
I had not thought about how You’re Losing Me was written before the release of the evermore album?! It definitely fits on the Midnights album. I like the duality of the songs on Midnights I feel like I’ve listened to the album in two different ways since it was first released which is cool
Honestly now that we know what we know it sounds like their relationship wasn’t that great for a very long time. It sounds very up and down like walking on egg shells with someone. I feel like she fell hard for him and they both stayed longer than they should have. Regardless I think Travis is the one and I’m happy that she’s found this. What a meet cute they have too
My jaw just dropped when you drew out the lyric parallel between invisible string and tolerate it How come I never noticed that when those are one of my fav songs from both the albums 🥲
another thing about the great war is that the great war was what wwi was called before wwii happened, so even though it seems to have a happy ending there’s still more/forever is the sweetest con taking effect.
1) QUESTION?!? I kept waiting for you the entire video. 2) Are you sure you should be doing guitar lessons? How about lyrics breakdowns? Put your degree to good use, girl! I’d pay money to discuss Taylor’s lyrics like I was in a book club.
Nena, thank you for this detail song analysis. It was very interesting to hear your thoughts. I completely agree with you and I like how you find the most meaningful lines in the song✨
I think what may have caused Taylor not to finish the relationship even though she already had problems from the beginning is that he loved her at the worst moment, he believed in her while the whole world blamed her for things she hadn't done and several times she seems to describe him as someone much more honorable than her and much wiser, she admired him and I think she felt inferior and as if she had an obligation to put up with bad things because he had chosen to date her even though she was "the problem". (sorry for the bad english, it’s not my first language)
i love this, it's definitly an important point about their relationship (cause even though we don't know much we know that stuff from her songs) i think your english is great! learning more than 1 language is hard i'm impressed :)
Wow it's really nice that I'm early at a video you did!!! I question whether if I like Joe or not. He was the only one there for Taylor when her reputation got ruined. And also the longest relationship too. And now that she's loved and famous again he didn't know how to deal with her fame, causing him to deal with it in a wrong way. There's both a good side and a bad side to Joe. I hope you have an amazing Christmas Nena!!! 🕛🎄💝
LISTEN TO HAPPINESS: it has all the secrets of their on and off relationship. Really. Give Happiness another go and listen to her saying they have fallen apart.
I think Travis is a breath of fresh air for her. He doesn’t try to hide her, he gushes about how great she is but doesn’t say too much, and he doesn’t run from the press (he handles them perfectly!). She seems so happy and we just want that for her!
I hate to be that swiftie…. But I am not a Joe Alwyn fan lol. I know that’s not completely fair since most of the stuff that’s been said about them is speculation, but I’ve never had a great vibe coming from him.
I feel like they could be midnight rain, champagne problems, and you are losing me. At first, Joe wanted to get married but she wasn't ready for marriage and his heart was broken. By the time she was ready for marriage, he was ready to leave
Another point to be noted : in the Great War she mention a HER , a third person , so what if coming back to the folklore era the love triangle is actually her trying to reciprocate the feelings that she is feeling through characters . Like Betty , James ,August what if she actually insinuated her actual emotions ans instances in it . Like the original lyrics of cardigan” I knew to love would be to lose my mind “ idk it feels like there were many bumps in the whole dynamic. I don’t know but something to think about if there was an actual third person involved .
That lyric in hoax reminds me, when in ‘’slut!’’ She says if they call me a s**t it might be worth it for once, and if I’m all dressed up they might as well be looking at us it’s like she’s just so in love that she’ll be with him, even though that everyone’s calling her that for it, she would rather be in that relationship and be shamed for it, then not be in the relationship at all
Sweet nothing to me could also have their own feelings permeating through as in many songs. And even then, I feel like the way she sings “all that you ever wanted from me was nothing” is kind of sad. Like she has soooo much to give and he does not appreciate her for what she is. I see some parallels there with you’re losing me as well.
1:46 fr, I really don’t like when people talk about her dating life. I just feel like that disrespectful because people just know her for being the exes of --.
Thank you for this video! I also think that "How long can we be a sad song" reflects back on what everyone was asking about around evermore release time. Everybody was like: "You guys are such a happy couple, but you really like writing sad songs together it seems. That's funny". And she is telling us with this song that they actually weren't that happy at the time, she just couldn't speak about it.
I feel like there was some stuff going on during folklore timeframe too. It’s just another lyric parallel but in King of my heart she wrote “ king of my heart, body, and soul.” But then in hoax she wrote “my only one, my KINGDOM come undone”. Crazy right!! Also love u nena please make more videos like this💗
7am tracks, 3am tracks, til the dawn tracks, late night tracks, early morning tracks, the twilight edition its really keeping up with all the midnight releases hahaha
I will forever nurture the hope that, one day, we’ll get an older Taylor going through all these fan theories and just being pleasantly surprised that so many people enjoyed diving into her poetry. Please, somebody pitch this idea to her in 2064! 😂
i love your lyrics breakdowns so much arghhhh honestly i don't even know what songs i would like you to breakdown, i'd just happily listen to all of your thoughts about any of them
i think most of the songs on midnights are about a lot of her breakups not just with joe so maybe she compèring the breakups and seeing if joe and her relationship was really bad or going down hill, not sure if that makes much sense but yk 😭
personally i dont think its breakup album either, imo its more a "culmination of a process" like her processing, making sense of, this relationship breaking down for good, and healing herself and moving on, before continuing my comment i'd like to say i appreciate that you doesnt straigh up jumping on his neck for their breakup with taylor and how awful person is he for doing this even tho they fall apart he was there for her at the darkest times helping her get through that (evermore song) which could have ended in a more tragical way (TIMT) thankfully it didnt,, and now looking back at it, rep is actually their honeymoon phase their most blinded by love era, yeah lover era is still in love, but also the frist cracks on the glass started to appear but they were able to mend it coz they wanted to make it work (cornelia street) and she was ready to live the rest of her life with him (paper rings, daylight) and maybe taylor wanted to be more social/out and about, than hiding away like in rep era, but he maybe wanted to keep things hidden like in rep era (you kept me like a secret, but I kept you like an oath) like she kept things private but always praised him when she could, while he was barely willing to talk about her at all, at this point i think if the pandemic lockdowns doesnt happen they might have breakup sooner than they actually did, there is good reason why folklore/evermore was written in a different way, even tho folklore is promoted as "fictional" stories which partially true, but there is too much irl references deep down... like how she headcanon'd betty and james happy ending, folklore!taylor was pretty much living for the hope of it all, that they can workout anything, evermore!taylor is different she can see the potential that this relationship is doomed to end but cant face it (happiness or coney island) so she stay with the memories (long story short, evermore), and i think he might have his own issues (ivy: she is the stone cobbles of the house and he is the ivy, also the war and fire, reminds me for tgw like diesel is desire you are playing with fire, or all the bloodshed and crimson clover or we are burned for the better) i think he was already kinda disconnected of her which is why he didnt see the sings she was giving (exile) and imo writing songs together was her way to try to reconnect with him, and her singing champagne problems in that white wedding dress... and than 2.5 weeks later writing YLM, signals all hope and living with memories got exhausted at that point and whe she disappeared in early 2022 i think that was the time when she and jack was making midnights, to me it seems joe became kinda neglectful at the end of their relationship (tolerate it) and imo sweet nothing and mastemind still can be about them despite some ppl saying its not, why? you may ask the answer is told by her in the "evermore song writing process" vid by apple music where she mentions how she wrote the song "tolerate it", and if you have read all this may i wish a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you
Great video. I love all the breakdowns and analysis. Also, since you brought up champagne problems, I think this section relates to some of the points you made: "Sometimes you just don't know the answer / 'Til someone's on their knees and asks you / "She would've made such a lovely bride / What a shame she's fucked in the head," they said / But you'll find the real thing instead / She'll patch up your tapestry that I shred" It could be that he didn't want to marry her or maybe he did ask but she wasn't ready at the time and felt differently later on. We will never know, but it's definitely interesting to see all the parallels.
Midnights is one year old and we still are getting new things about it. I love it. Like Aaron said, that WCS was written during 2021 Grammys time (insane how long ago it is) I think, that she (maybe) wants to get married, but not in a way society wants women to do it. Like “I want to get married, but not because it’s a woman’s purpose, but because I’m in love”
No I’m sorry but I just can’t get on board the train that says sweet and nothing is about Paul and Linda. I think her being who she is obviously knows quite a great deal about the Beatles and Paul McCartney, but that song is so coded with tons of Easter eggs referring to the pandemic. “They say the end is coming.” If midnights is about 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout HER life then why the heck would she include a song about a totally random couple. Chances are she knew the story and used the line “what a mind” because it rhymes with “all the time“. Also what she describes happening in the song (writing a poem on the way home) perfectly sums up exactly what she does in our song. “I grabbed a pen and an old napkin and wrote down our song”
question is more looking back at an old relationship and wondering if it could've worked out but now that person is with someone else. i think the song could've been born out of one of their "breaks" as you tend to revisit past relationships only when you're not happy in your present one
I love your lyric breakdown videos. English is not my first language so sometimes I get confused by the words. Your insightful interpretations are always really helpful 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤
Nena, I would happily watch you break down the lyrics of every single Taylor Swift song. 🙈 but midnights especially cause I have big feelings about it and would just love hearing your thoughts and opinions. Love love loved this video!!
I believe it’s a breakup album. I dont think we will see Taylor explore that relationship on TS11. The crazy part with Midnights is it’s her first time releasing a breakup album before the breakup lol.
I don't want to speculate too much, but in hoax 'your faithless love' could very well be a reference to infidelity. Which could be why Taylor says 'what you did was just as dark.' He cheated on her.
