10/03/2020
Released on 24th July, The album Folklore took us all by surprise not only for the timing of the release but also the genre of music that Taylor decided to deliver through this album, an Alternative rock, Indie folk with a twist of pop music. To me, a consistent music listener who spends time during the day to go rampant through each favourite artists’ discography one by one just to have the soundtrack for my day, I really did not expect Taylor put out an album like this especially after her “Me!” era. Folklore is a perfect sweater-weather album filled with excellent storytelling.
Taylor wrote this album during the period of quarantine at home due to the coronavirus and according to her words, Taylor let her mind went wild in creativity land when writing this album so not all the songs in the album is essentially her own life story but there is also a love-triangle story that she pictured exclusively for the album (cardigan, august and betty). Unfortunately, Those three songs are not the main reason why I am in love with the album but it is because of the self-reflection of Taylor throughout the album.
Starting off with “the 1”, in Taylor Swift Lover’s Lounge in 2019, she gave out a sneak peek of her diary entries where she mentioned the term “the 1” for the first time that she wrote at the age of 19, at that age, she felt like it is her destiny to roll eyes at happy couples and resent Valentine’s days, ultimately she felt like she is the girl before “the 1”, someone might think she is the one for them and when it doesn’t work out with her they meet the next girl then realize that girl would be “the 1” who they are gonna stay with. What she has had with this person could be the greatest film of all time and she thought she saw him at the last bus stop of her life but she didn’t though “But we were something, don’t you think so? Roaring twenties, tossing pennies in the pool, And if my wishes came true, It would’ve been you”. For all that, the song is Taylor singing metaphorically and sincerely her diary to you.
I am so impressed by Taylor’s ability to depict her own life story by telling another great women’s history “a misfit widow getting gleeful revenge on the town that cast her out” – Rebekah Harness. Iconic enough for these two extraordinary women to have not one but many similarities on others perceived them in their lifetime. Rebekah is the previous owner of the house Taylor Swift bought back in 2013 on the Rhode Island.
Rebekah Harkness is a St. Louis heiress and divorcée who had four husbands including married to the heir to the Standard Oil fortune, “They picked out a home and called it Holiday House, their parties were tasteful if a little loud, The doctor had told him to settle down, it must have been her fault his heart gave out.”. After Her husband died in 1954 of a heart attack, she lived a life lavishly by renovated the Rhode Island home she shared with Bill up to eight additional kitchens and 21 bathrooms, Rebekah was also a notorious socialite, on any given day J.D. Salinger or Andy Warhol and big names might stop by and party at Rebekah’s house. In the song, Swift mentions that Rebekah “filled the pool with champagne, hanging out with the big names” just to be so similar with Taylor’s Bitch Pack friends from the city period when she flew them over to her Rhode Island home and have that stars-studded fourth of July party. The reputation of these two women is unattainable by the vast of people and also the way they have been perceived by the population is so cruel to the point that unbearable, they were painted by many as loud women living outrageous lifestyle surrounding by money and fame. The Taylor Swift’s fall from grace period in 2016 #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty was the result of many factors but mainly from gossip or judgemental peers, where the people of the internet decided that they are so fed up with everything that she is: young, white, wealthy, beautiful and people still get irritating at how she dated “too many guys”, Taylor just got what everybody wants to be but still oh so unsympathetic. Nearly 3 years have passed since then, and perhaps Taylor has acknowledged well enough to shift from the third-person perspective in which Taylor tells Rebekah’s story into her own perspective “There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen, I had a marvellous time ruining everything” repeatedly sung at the end of the song.
Who is right – who is wrong, I can’t be the judge of this because the whole point of this blog is not to conduct any declaration but to write down what is in my mind, and after listening to this album I just want to admire how Taylor is reflecting and becoming a grown woman in her own right.
Q.
Square Homie 
OMGGGG i like it
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