5 Things We Learned About Taylor Swift From Her ‘Entertainment Weekly’ Cover Story
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MAY 01: Taylor Swift attends the 2019 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 01, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Taylor Swift continues to surprise her fans, revealing more about herself in recent interviews than she has in the past.
On Thursday, Swift’s cover with Entertainment Weekly dropped, where she talked about everything from Game of Thrones to her famous use of Easter eggs in every move she makes. It was her first sit-down in three years and the revelations didn’t disappoint.
We’ve compiled some of the most interesting things we learned about Taylor in the interview. Check them out below.
Her album Reputation was inspired by Game of Thrones:
Swift’s 2017 release Reputation had a decidedly darker tone in terms of its sound and look, and that was no accident. Swift says she was deeply inspired by Game of Thrones.
“These songs were half based on what I was going through, but seeing them through a Game of Thrones filter.” Single release “Look What You Made Me Do” is “literally Arya Stark’s kill list,” EW quotes Swift as saying, and “King of My Heart’ isn’t a sly nod to George R. R. Martin’s Night King, but a tip of the hat to Khal Drogo and Daenerys. “It’s even got this post-hook of drums — I wanted them to sound like Dothraki drums,” she said.
She loves how much the Swifties love to dissect her every move:
Taylor’s fans are notorious for their intense detective work when it comes to hints about any move she makes. And the singer definitely likes it that way.
“I’ve trained them to be that way,” she tells EW. “I love that they like the cryptic hint-dropping. Because as long as they like it, I’ll keep doing it. It’s fun. It feels mischievous and playful.”
“So often with our takedown culture, talking s— about a celebrity is basically the same as talking s— about the new iPhone,” she said of feeling attacked during those years. “So when I go and I meet fans, I see that they actually see me as a flesh-and-blood human being. That — as contrived as it may sound — changed [me] completely, assigning humanity to my life.”
Fans can expect a range of emotions beyond the bright and happy tone of “Me” on the album:
“There’s a lot of a lot on this album,” she says. “I’m trying to convey an emotional spectrum. I definitely don’t wanna have too much of one thing…. You get some joyful songs and you get the bops, as they say.” There’s also, she adds, some “really, really, really, really sad songs,” but “not enough to where you need to worry about me.”
Social media intimidates her, in spite of her fame:
Swift mentioned that she is still trying to figure out the balance between living her life authentically and presenting the fantasy of her life via social media.
“Social media has given people a way to express their art. I use it to connect with fans. But on the downside you feel like there are 3 trillion new invisible hoops that you have to jump through, and you feel like you’ll never be able to jump through them all correctly,” she admitted. “I — along with a lot of my friends and fans — am trying to figure out how to navigate living my life and not just curating what I want people to think living my life is. I’m not always able to maintain a balance, and I think that’s important for everyone to know about. We’re always learning, and that’s something that I also had to learn — that I’ve got to be brave enough to learn.”
