Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be a celebrity? Maybe you would like to know what it would be like to be a famous author, actor, athlete, or singer. Well, today we’re gonna take a trip inside A Swiftie’s Rabbit Hole! Maybe you’re not a Swiftie. Maybe you are. Maybe you listen to Taylor Swift here and there. But one thing is certain: you know who this mega pop icon is and the way she’s taking the world by storm. Ultimately, you’re all here to learn more about the talented singer and songwriter that is —- arguably —- holding up the music industry on her shoulders. Come on! Come along with me and let’s dive into A Swiftie’s Rabbit Hole!

A Dive into Taylor’s Eras

We’re gonna start with the basics (provided by Wikipedia and my memory),  “12-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor Alison Swift was born to Scott and Andrea Swift on December 13, 1989 in West Reading, Pennsylvania on a Christmas tree farm. Her brother Austin was born 3 years later in Pennsylvania as well.”

What’s the inspiration behind her “eras” or albums?

To make this shorter and sweeter; a list, to give you an idea. 

Self-titled debut album, Taylor Swift: her debut album in a nutshell is a cute, relatable, country-aesthetic teenage girl just trying to find a place in this world. Fearless: a little more mature yet still your relatable country-aesthetic teenage girl – with glitter. Speak Now: Taylor’s transition from girl to woman, Speak Now is full of heartbreak, triumph, and self-discovery. Red: Her first album proving her maturity and personal growth, Red is all about love, passion, and anger. 1989: Her genre-jump to pop and the album about her move to New York when she had an eating disorder. Reputation: “There will be no explanation, there will just be reputation”… Just kidding. Taylor’s groundbreaking comeback to the spotlight, Reputation is about finding love even in the darkest moments. Lover: Taylor’s “political” and love album. She stands up for what she believes in.  Folklore: A folk album that tells many stories, including the infamous folklore love triangle. Evermore: Folklore’s twin album and usually the forgotten album that didn’t even get an era! Midnights: The album inspired by her past and present and how, just like clockwork, everything turned out the way this Mastermind wanted them to. All her eras were significant periods in her life. What era is she in right now? In her Eras era. Though she’s technically in her 1989 (Taylor’s Version) era. What is “Taylor’s Version”? You’ll find that out soon enough. 

Her Exes and the Feuds

Doesn’t everyone wanna know about Taylor’s exes and how many she truly has? It may not be as many as you think. In both her songs, “Tim McGraw” and “Teardrops On My Guitar”, Taylor sings about a boy named Drew. Is it the same one? That was a question that I had been asking myself for a long time. So, you don’t have to “suffer” the same fate as me, I have the answer. These are two different Drews. One she did date, and one she didn’t. So how about we get into it? Without further ado, every one of Taylor’s famous and infamous boyfriends! Drew Dunlap (Drew from “Tim McGraw”): Drew and Taylor broke up due to him starting college, They split amicably. (High school)  Jordan Alford: “Picture To Burn” was written about him. (High school) Sam Armstrong: She wrote “Should’ve Said No” about him. He cheated on her and bragged about it on Twitter. (High school) Joe Jonas: She wrote about him in Fearless, Speak Now, and Red. She later sent his baby a present. (Jul.-Oct 2008) Lucas Till: Her “You Belong With Me” music video co-star. They split because they were better off as friends. (Mar.-Apr. 2009) Taylor Lautner: They split because he loved her more than she loved him but they are now good friends! “Back To December” is about him. (Aug.-Dec. 2009) John Mayer: He dated Taylor when she was 19 and he was 32. During the Eras Tour she said Swfties  should stop cyberbullying “certain people” (meaning John Mayer) when “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” came out. They didn’t listen but at least she’s past it. (Nov. 2009-Feb. 2010) Cory Monteith: “Mine” was written about him. They dated very briefly. He unfortunately passed away in 2013. (Spring 2010) Jake Gyllenhaal: Taylor was 20 when she dated Jake Gynecologist who was 29 at the time. She wrote “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault]“ about Jake. Ten minutes of scathing lyrics just for Jake. And a short film. Yikes! (Oct.-Dec. 2010)  Conor Kennedy: Robert F. Kennedy’s grandson whom “Begin Again” is supposedly about. They broke up due to long-distance issues. (Jul.-Oct. 2012) Harry Styles: They dated briefly and broke up due to an argument they had during a vacation (or maybe his terrible driving). They are friends to this day. (Dec. 2012-Jan. 2013) Calvin Harris: He was a part of the circus mentioned in “Getaway Car” and didn’t seem to care much about her. (Mar. 2015-June 2016) Tom Hiddleston: The one she drove away with in the getaway car. They supposedly split amicably. (June 2016-Sept. 2016) Joe Alwyn: He dated her at her lowest (reputation era) and stayed by her side. They tragically split after 6 years together. For further detail listen to “You’re Losing Me”. Sept. 2016-Mar. 2023 ) Matty Healy (Ratty): The lead singer of The 1975 who has caused much controversy. Gladly just a fling. (May-June 2023) Travis Kelce: Not confirmed but we’ll see! (Sept. 2023-)  

The Kanye Feud

Disclaimer: I may not be able to explain this as thoroughly as I would like to because we are family friendly here. It’s okay, there’s nothing to be afraid of, nobody gets hurt physically. Let’s get started. It all began in 2009 at the VMAs during Taylor’s acceptance speech. Everyone cheered as she came on stage. But, unfortunately, she was interrupted. Interrupted by Kanye West. At first, Taylor was excited. “The Kanye West is onstage!” But that thought was quickly dismissed. “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish. But Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!” Suddenly she wasn’t so excited. The crowd later began to cheer for her but she thought they were boo-ing her so it made her more upset. Then, in 2010 she released her third album, Speak Now. One of the songs from Speak Now was rumored to be about Kanye. The song, titled “Innocent” is Taylor forgiving Kanye. She forgave him! The lyrics, “Every one of us has messed up too, ooh/ Minds change like the weather/ I hope you remember/ Today is never too late to be brand new” and “Who you are is not what you did/ You’re still an innocent” appear to forgive Kanye and tell him it’s never too late to be “brand new” or change and that he is not defined by what he did to her. Fast-forwarding 3 years, Kanye took back his apology in 2013 in an interview with The New York Times, “I don’t have one regret. If anyone’s reading this waiting for some type of full-on, flat apology for anything, they should just stop reading right now.” Now let’s jump to February of 2016. Kanye West debuted “Famous” featuring the infamous lyrics that I won’t quote here because Kanye wasn’t being very family friendly. He claimed to have gotten Taylor’s permission to have those highly offensive lyrics in his song. Taylor went to Twitter/X to tell her side of the story and said she never gave him permission to do that and that he only asked her to promote the song, not for permission. She rejected the offer because she believed that “Famous’ has a really misogynistic and even sexist message. But not long after, Kim Kardashian (Kanye’s wife at the time) released footage of a call between Kanye West and Taylor in July of the same year. Kim  posted the footage on Snapchat. The video was edited because Taylor never actually gave him consent to say what he said about Taylor Swift in “Famous.” Then in the music video, well the music video… Honestly read this article from People that explains the unfiltered story that I cannot explain thoroughly due to my very school appropriate and family friendly filter on the story. So in summary, Kanye and Kim lied, called Taylor a snake, painted her as a liar, and preyed on her downfall. Of course I do not hate Kim or Kanye because I am a (somewhat) peaceful person. I have lost respect for Kanye and Kim greatly because nobody deserves what Taylor went through. 

What is “Taylor’s Version”? and More About Her Discography

What is “Taylor’s Version”?  This is a question you may have been asking throughout our rabbit hole journey. Well, now you finally get the answer to that question. It all started with her masters (the original specific sound recordings of a song) being sold without her consent. She left the record label she was formerly signed to – Big Machine Records – because Scott Borchetta, the founder, sold her masters to a man called Scooter Braun without her permission. He did it for the money obviously. But gladly Taylor is now signed to a reliable label named Republic Records. FYI, every Swiftie dislikes Scott and Scooter and doesn’t mention them by name. They don’t mention John Mayer and Kanye West by name either, but I had to for the sake of your understanding. Anyways, Taylor is now re-recording the masters from her first 6 albums. The re-recorded albums have their original name plus “Taylor’s Version”. Her first re-record was Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and she is now halfway through releasing all her re-records. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is the next re-record, releasing Oct. 27, 2023. Her latest one, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), is one of my personal favorite re-records besides the Red re-record. Along with the album being re-recorded, she adds around 5-9 “[From The Vault]” tracks which are previously unreleased tracks cut from the original album. Also “stolen version” means that it’s the original recordings that Scott and Scooter “stole” a.k.a. the non-Taylor’s Version. Swifties don’t listen to the original/stolen versions because it gives money to Scooter and we don’t want that. Some people listen to a couple of the stolen songs because they like the original versions more than Taylor’s Version. Which is okay as long as you still listen to some of Taylor’s Versions. Now you know what “Taylor’s Version” means! Now let’s talk rankings. I’m gonna be ranking each of her albums (not including Fearless, Speak Now, or Red). Of course, it’ll be difficult because every one of her albums are top-tier (don’t fight with me, you won’t win). One more thing I wanna say before jumping into rankings is that just because an album is ranked low on the list doesn’t mean I don’t like it or that it’s “bad.” I love all her albums, some more than others. So, without further ado, let’s begin.

9. Taylor Swift (2006) 

“Ew! Be different for once! Gosh.” Hear me out, debut is ah-mazing, I love it with a perfectly good heart, just not my fave. You saw this coming.

8. Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (2021 and 2014)

They tied because I couldn’t choose. Maybe this’ll change once 1989 TV comes out, but for now she’s at number 8. They are both magical albums and super fun to dance to. I love them.

7. Reputation (2017)

Reputation is an album full of bangers back-to-back and it’s only under Evermore because 1): Evermore’s writing is tippity-top-tier and 2): evermore is CRIMINALLY underrated and I’m not doing that to Evermore.

6. Evermore (2020)

“You did NOT just do that!” But I did. Folklore will always be my #1 twin folk album. It has a special place in my heart. So there. Evermore is absolutely captivating and magical and has so much variety and I love it.

5. Midnights (2022)

Midnights is a well-constructed and well-conveyed album, and I LOVE the inspiration behind it “13 sleepless nights” like, hello? GENIUS! Or should I say Mastermind?

4. Lover (2019)

This was the hardest one-or-the-other choice I’ve had to deal with ever (okay maybe not but still) because Lover is a no-skip album if you ignore the one miss. No, not “You Need To Calm Down” or “ME!” I mean False God. It’s a miss for many reasons. Lover is so good and it’s overhated so don’t judge me or I’ll forget that you ever existed. 

3. Folklore (2020)

Folklore is purely a masterpiece with deep cuts start to finish. It also helps me do vocab cards in Mr. Hawley’s class easily because all I have to do is look for a word mentioned in folklore and define it. Also, the song that made me a Swiftie, “Cardigan,” is in this album therefore making this album even more amazing. Plus the Long Pond Studio Sessions really give it a boost. 

2. Red (Taylor’s Version) (2021)

Red (Taylor’s Version)  is a MEGA-sized album with a whopping total of 30 songs spanning 2 hours and 10 minutes! It is arguably her best album except that I’m a die-hard Speak Now fan so it’s my second. I’m just biased because Speak Now fits me so well and I’ve never dealt with the kind of heartbreak that Taylor delves into on Red. Or any for that matter..

1. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (2023)

Speak Now is my album. Speak Now is the album. But not just because I’m a biased teenage girl who relates to “Foolish One” a little too much. It’s because that album has it all. It has songs about childhood, about love, family, heartbreak, dealing with criticism, enchantment, awe, her fans, forgiveness, she-stole-my-man type stuff. I mean, what’s not to love? Can you believe a 19-year-old wrote that album? When you listen to it I bet you will not believe it. You’ll be wonderstruck. I know I was. 

Sadly, beautifully, and tragically, that concludes my honest Taylor Swift album ranking! Dear reader, we’ve gone through so much today. “Wait so this is goodbye? That’s it?” No, dear reader, this is just the beginning of your journey. It’s the end of a decade, but the start of an age. In fact, I have a gift for you! Here’s a mini newsletter for you:

1989 (Taylor’s Version) out October 27, 2023!!

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Concert Film out Friday, October 13!!

One year of Midnights  on October 21st!

And one year of ME-HEE-HEE being a Swiftie! 

Dear reader, I’m not just gonna let you go off like that. October is OUR month; embrace it! I’m gonna leave you some song recommendations below, and a link to a game to test YOUR Taylor Swift song knowledge. I’ll also be leaving a link to a TS rabbit hole video on YouTube so you can explore The World (Taylor’s Version) through a different (kind of) unbiased lens. Dear Reader, please remember the following forever and always: You don’t have to answer just ‘cause they asked you. A diamond’s gotta shine. Make the friendship bracelets, take the moments and taste it, you’ve got no reason to be afraid. And… you’re on your own, kid. You always have been. Love you, fellow Swifties and non-Swifties!! Thanks for reading and thank you for listening to an unserious, teenage Swiftie. I appreciate it!! 

One more thing I would like to say is that I hope you learned two valuable lessons conveyed through my detailed storytelling and family-friendly Kanye West feud explanation. One: “There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame. If you just focus on the work, and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going, you’ll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there, and that will be the greatest feeling in the world.” -Taylor Swift. No one has the right to claim that your success and where you are now is because of them. You put yourself where you are with the help of others that you love but without you that never would’ve been possible. You are the one taking the wheel and no one can take who and what you are away from you because you are the one choosing to change or to stay the same. Everything is a choice. Two: “You don’t have to forgive and forget to move on.” -Taylor Alison Swift. Again, everything is a choice and if you choose to move on without forgiving or forgetting, you can. No one said you couldn’t. Thanks for being here! Now off you go, dear reader! If you’re not yet satisfied, look no further! Or do. There are links below to take you further on your never-ending journey of knowledge. Till next time, dear reader!

Click here –> Taylor Swift Song Knowledge Game!

Or here –> The *TAYLOR SWIFT* Rabbit Hole | JasonPaulKim

Recommended Swiftie Youtubers: Swiftologist, Ally Sheehan, and JasonPaulKim

Two (or more) picks from each album – Debut album: Our Song, Should’ve Said No Fearless (Taylor’s Version): Mr. Perfectly Fine, The Way I Loved You Speak Now (Taylor’s Version): Dear John, Long Live Red (Taylor’s Version): Red, I Bet You Think about Me 1989: Wonderland, Out Of The Woods, How You Get The Girl reputation: Dancing With Our Hands Tied, Call It What You Want Lover: The Man, Cornelia Street  folklore: illicit affairs, betty (cardigan and august too)  evermore: gold rush, right where you left me Midnights: You’re On Your Own Kid, Maroon, Dear Reader, Hits Different

Have fun!!