Taylor Swift's Folklore Sparks Rumors about Blake Lively, Joni Mitchell, and Many More - Vanity Fair

kuangkunang.blogspot.com

It wouldn't truly be a new Taylor Swift album without thousands of easter eggs carefully scattered throughout her lyrics and music videos for fans to unpack.

The pop star released her eight studio album Folklore at midnight on Friday and listeners already have a few working theories about some of the secrets Swift has hidden within. Although compared to the highly symbolic, coded language and imagery of 2017's Reputation, the focus of this release is decidedly not the gossip.

That fact aside, fans think that Swift may have given away the name of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds' third child born last year on her track “Betty.” Listeners noticed that there are only three names mentioned on the song—Betty, Inez, and James—the latter two being the names of the couple's three and five-year-old daughters. The theory does hold some weight as not only are Blake and Ryan OG Fourth of July squad staples from the days of Tom Hiddleston rocking chair canoodling but the voice of their daughter James also appears on Swift's Reputation song “Gorgeous.”

Another favorite Folklore theory involves Joni Mitchell, whom fans suspect may have co-written some of the songs on the album. When Swift announced the surprise release of the album on Thursday, she thanked songwriters Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, Bon Iver, and William Bowery. Ever the super sleuths, her followers quickly realized that Bowery was the only collaborator she didn't tag and, upon further investigation, that there are no registered songwriters or producers with that name. Given that Swift, or Nils Lorens Sjöberg as she's sometimes known, is a big fan of pseudonyms, fans began speculating about who William Bowery could be. Some believe that this is the pen name for Joni Mitchell, as it was rumored Swift's song “The Lucky One” was about Mitchell. After all, Mitchell is a folk singer, she has a painting named “Bowery Bum,” and her father's name is William Anderson.

But the most popular theory is that Bowery is actually Swift's boyfriend Joe Alwyn, as William is the name of his great-grandfather who was a composer, conductor, and music teacher, and the Bowery Hotel is where the couple first met.

But what if Folklore is actually be full of clues the pair have broken up? That's thanks to moody lyrics like, “Waking up alone. But we were something, don’t you think so?” As with all Swift Easter eggs, however, this has to be taken with a grain of salt as the singer wrote in her Instagram announcement for the album, “In isolation, my imagination has run wild and this album is the result, a collection of songs and stories that flowed like a stream of consciousness. Picking up a pen was my way of escaping into fantasy, history, and memory.”