For as long as Taylor Swift‘s been releasing albums, fans have been poring over her lyrics, artwork, social media feeds and every utterance, trying to determine if she’s dropping Easter eggs and hidden messages about her life and future plans…or just trolling them. Now, Taylor explains how it all started.
Longtime Swifties know that Taylor started this with her debut album: She randomly capitalized letters in the lyrics printed in the CD booklet, spelling out messages revealing the songs’ meanings. She continued to do this through the release of 1989. In an email to The Washington Post, Taylor reveals the inspiration behind the “secret messages” idea.
“I remember saving up to buy a CD when I was a kid, tearing it open, and laying on the floor reading every word of the lyric booklet. Reading lyrics and seeing which photos defined the album were two of my favorite parts of experiencing a record release,” Taylor wrote to The Post. “I felt like some artists really leaned into their album packaging in a creative way. The Chicks’ Fly album was my favorite because their photos depicted all the meanings of the word ‘fly’ in very theatrical ways.”
Taylor goes on to say that when she released her self-titled debut, “I wanted to recreate the experience I used to have for my fans in a reimagined approach. I decided to encode the lyrics with hidden messages using capital letters.”
“My fans and I have since descended into color coding, numerology, word searches, elaborate hints, and Easter eggs,” she notes. “It’s really about turning new music into an event for my fans and trying to entertain them in playful, mischievous, clever ways.”
And Taylor promises, “As long as they still find it fun and exciting, I’ll keep doing it.”
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