Kayla Wong

My favorite theory (it's my favorite partially because I want it to be true more than anything) is that we'll get an Eras Tour documentary. I don't think it would come out on release day, but I could see an announcement happening. I think it's the most realistic of the theories; to me, a lot of theories don't have legs, but they were clearly filming something in Vancouver. Obviously this album is very related to what was going on with the Eras Tour, so I could see that being the case, and I really hope that it is true.

There are other theories out there, like that we might get more songs at 1 AM. However, I believe her when she says there are no other songs and that it just has 12. But I've seen a ton of people thinking that it may have additional tracks.

Another theory that's out there that I think has really taken off, especially in the last few days, with the fact that Taylor Nation is using Reputation songs for a lot of these posts, is that the Reputation vault tracks may be coming alongside The Life of a Showgirl? I don't know how I feel about that one, because I don't think it's that realistic. I think she would want The Life of a Showgirl to have the best shot at breaking streaming records, and having everybody be laser-focused on that. If she dropped the Reputation vault at the same time, you'd split attention and streaming in a way. So, I don't necessarily think that that's what's happening, but I've seen that a ton online.

I believe that everybody who's at the highest level of the fandom, who feels really attached to her, and who puts her at the center of their lives (to some degree), is an emotion-driven person. I think we (Swifties) are all really feelings-based people, and that's what makes us so attached to her music.

Her music and her writing is a lot of autobiographical content of things that are really universally felt, and we as humans just want to feel seen, we want to feel like things are not just our unique experience. So I think it's that we see ourselves in her. She writes in a way that makes you feel like what you're feeling is not a solo experience. And because she carries that through everything that she does and all the genres that she's jumped to, she's actually been able to jump genres and come out with things that are really different, and still keep the fan base intact and not have to change fan bases, but just kind of build on what already exists.

The All Too Well (10-minute version) is lyrically one of the best she's done. It has such vulnerable songwriting. It has a very articulate way of getting super detailed and really visual, you can picture all the scenes. And it's so specific, and yet really universally relatable, which is interesting to me.

Clean on 1989 is a top three song for me. It's the closing track on 1989 standard edition, it's track 13. There's a ton of imagery in it. The metaphor essentially is that there's a storm outside, and instead of barricading yourself in and avoiding it, you punch a hole in the roof, you let the water come in, and it washes away whatever it is that's plaguing you and you're clean. That song is really well articulated, and I love it so much.

I love loml on The Tortured Poets Department. It's a ballad, and the way that she uses the phrase “loml” is, at the end of the song, you discover that it's being used as “loss of my life”, not “love of my life” from her perspective. And I feel like that's another one where it's like, it is so specific, but it's somehow still really broadly universally applicable. It’s an example of how somebody who you don't speak to, who you may never speak to again, who is not an active part of your life, could still have an everlasting place in it. And that's probably not the case for everyone, but for me, and for seemingly her, and for a lot of emotional profiles in the fandom, I think that that is the case. And so there's something really powerful about that song to me from that perspective.

Cardigan on Folklore is one that I want to call out because the metaphor of Peter losing Wendy has stuck with me. We all know the story of Peter Pan from the Disney movie, but it's only when she uses them in songs like this that I look into the story a little bit more. And in this example, the metaphor is so strong; Peter was the kid who never could grow up. Wendy loves him, etcetera, but is growing up and has to leave. And what was interesting about that one is, if you listen to the voice memo for Cardigan, her original line was “Peter leaving Wendy”, because I mean, that's a line that makes sense. But she changed it to “Peter losing Wendy” because the loss is actually Peter's in that situation. Knowing things like that has made the album even better to me. And now, with that line, I always think about her changing it and the meaning behind that. I love Cardigan.

I personally love that she sort of referenced us (the fandom) in the caption, when she said, “your gym teacher” and “your English teacher," because I just love how much she involves us. And I feel like she wants to share it. She's excited, and she interacts with us in a way that I don't think a lot of celebrities (especially not at her level) are able to do authentically. So I loved the caption.

I love her because of her music and what that's added to my life. And so much of her music has showcased her wanting a happily ever after, her wanting romance, and that being something that, despite all the jumps that her career has made and all the things that she's achieved, was something that she clearly hadn't really nailed until seemingly now. And so in that way, I was so happy for her that after she's added so much to everybody else's lives, and the impact she's had on millions, she has been able to get the one thing at the top of her list that she has really wanted.