Taylor Swift Says Swifties Can Take Things To “An Extreme Place”

On Tuesday, New York Times Magazine published a confessional-style interview with Taylor Swift in which she gave us a peek behind the curtain bang at her songwriting process—from getting a publishing deal at 14, to writing 13 studio albums, and grappling with the Swiftie community, which has, in a way, become an extension of her life’s work that might outlive all of us. During the interview, she suggested that sometimes Swifties can take things to “an extreme place.” Whaaat? The Swifties? That doesn’t sound like them…

“There are certain things we have as tradition between me and my fans,” she explained. “They love for an emotional song to be track 5. There are special things like that, but at the same time, there are so many of them now, which is great.” But the way she says, “which is great,” kind of makes you wonder if it’s not really great…

“There are corners of my fan base who are going to take things to a really extreme place,” Taylor said. “There’s nothing I can do about that. There are people who are going to try and do…detective work.” Hm…Could the “extreme place” be the dissecting of Easter eggs, the PowerPoints, the AP-style essays predicting her next move? Or it could be the #Gaylors—fans who believe Taylor Swift is gay and had a relationship with Karlie Kloss sometime around 1989 (the album, not the year). For more on that, consult Reddit.

“When it gets a little bit weird to me when people act like it’s sort of a paternity test. Like, this song’s about that person. Because I’m like, ‘That dude didn’t write the song, I did!’ You hear that, Swifties? “Tim McGraw” is not about Tim McGraw!

“But, that’s part of it. You have to hold tight to your perception of your art, and your relationship with it,” she added.

Last week, the leviathan of “the Swifties” made headlines after Josh Hutcherson gave an interview to GQ, where he claimed the Swifties ALLEGEDLY attacked him online for saying he wasn’t a huge fan. “All of a sudden, it garnered this, ‘Fuck him! He’s a monster! Destroy him! He’s short! He hates her because he’s short,” He told GQ.

When discussing the writing of the song “Mirrorball”, Taylor explained. “Being a person in the public eye, I’ve really begun to realize that you are a mirror. You are a mirror for your fans, for the media, for people on the internet, for people who don’t really care about your music, but they know who you are. However, they feel about themselves and their life will be projected onto how they perceive you.” Ya hearing that, Josh?

Other juicy songwriting tidbits from Swift’s interview include that she uses criticism as a writing prompt—“Blank Space” wouldn’t exist without people on the internet making “a slideshow of all her boyfriends,” and “Love Story” came to her at 17, after she was mad that her parents wouldn’t let her go on a date with an older guy. She also shared that the hook for “Elizabeth Taylor” came to her after explaining to her fiancé, Travis Kelce, who Elizabeth Taylor was. 

She’s also revealed that she is a huge fan of Sombr’s confessional songwriting. “Having a male artist say stuff like that is really good for the cause of women to be able to say stuff. The more male artists that are messy, or emotionally complex, or confessional, or upset, the happier I am.”

OK, but hear me out, the way she paused between “or” and “confessional” could be a clue…Confessional has 12 letters, and or has 2. 12 divided by 2 is 6, and Taylor Swift’s 6th album was Reputation, which is the only album she hasn’t rereleased, so this basically confirms that we are getting Reputation (Taylor’s Version) before the end of the fiscal year.