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Top music artist -

Taylor Swift is one of the biggest artists in the world. She has sold over 200 million records globally, and her concerts are always major cultural moments. 

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Fandom -

Her fans are known in their own right as "Swifties" and the artist has cultivated a unique relationship with them over her career.

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Lyrics -

Speaking to Jimmy Fallon in 2021, Swift explained that she likes to incentivize fans to read the lyrics of her songs, as the lyrics are what she's "most proud of."

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Easter eggs -

Swift explained she had been dropping hints about her life in her songs since she was a teenager. It's a habit that goes back to the beginning of her songwriting.

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Theories -

Swift gets excited about her fans' theories, enjoying their detective work. She says she "trained" her fans to look for the hint-dropping in her songs.

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Early career and albums -

In her early albums, Taylor Swift would drop hints through capitalized and uncapitalized letters in the lyric booklets for her songs.

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Messages -

For the albums 'Fearless,' 'Speak Now,' and 'Red,' capitalized letters throughout the lines in her songs formed a code.

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Keeps people guessing -

Fans speculate and develop theories about who her songs reference based on the details in the lyrics. But Swift does not confirm whether these theories are correct, leaving people guessing.

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'Should've Said No' -

On 'Should've Said No,' capitalized letters spell the name "Sam" repeatedly. It's speculated to refer to an ex-boyfriend who cheated on her.

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'22' -

On the song '22,' capitalized lyrics spell out the names of her then four closest friends: "ASHLEY DIANNA CLAIRE SELENA."

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'Style' -

The song 'Style' recaps a relationship in Swift's early twenties. One theory is the title is a play on words: that the song is referencing her relationship with Harry Styles.

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'1989' -

She switched things up for '1989,' where fans needed to decode messages through uncapitalized letters in the text.

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'1989' -

Decoding the letters in lowercase in the songs of '1989,' a 2012 MTV report found that when taken together the messages contained a story of a relationship that didn't work out.

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'Reputation' -

In 2017, Swift released her 'Reputation' album. This is where she stopped leaving hidden messages in the liner notes of her songs.

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Speculation -

Swift addressed the speculation around the song meanings and who they were attributed to in the album prologue, stating there would be "no further explanation. There will just be reputation."

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Media buzz -

The album created media buzz for its coded lyrics about events in Swift's life ranging from her relationships with Calvin Harris and Tom Hiddleston, to her feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.

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'Look What You Made Me Do' -

Swift deleted all the posts from her Instagram account on releasing the song 'Look What You Made Me Do.' The video contains clues that fans think hint at her run-ins with Kanye West.

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No interviews -

At the time, Swift stopped doing any interviews. She reportedly said the Easter eggs in the video were her way of communicating and staying connected with her fans.

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'Me' -

The single 'Me' from 2019 revealed two Easter eggs: the title of her next single, 'You Need to Calm Down,' and the title of the new album, 'Lover.'

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'Folklore' -

Swift hinted at the release of her album 'Folklore' in an Instagram post shared during the height of the pandemic, captioned: "Not a lot going on at the moment."

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Surprise release -

The surprise release of her eighth album 'Folklore' in the summer of 2022 would later reveal that the post was an Easter egg.

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William Bowery -

One of the songwriters credited on the album 'Folklore' and the following album 'Evermore' was an unknown person named "William Bowery."

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Joe Alwyn -

Swifties sleuthed that William Bowery was a pseudonym for her then-boyfriend Joe Alwyn, as his grandfather's name was William and the pair hung out at the Bowery Hotel on first meeting in 2016.

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Disney+ film -

In her Disney+ film, Swift confirmed the cryptic clue was indeed referring to Alwyn, saying "William Bowery is Joe, as we know."

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Betty -

Fans also speculated about the names of the characters in songs on the album. Fans guessed Betty was a reference to Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds' third daughter. In a radio introduction, Swift confirmed the characters in the story were named after her friends' kids.

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Social media clues -

Swift reused the caption "Not a lot going on at the moment" again in November 2020, sparking speculation that she was about to release another album just months after the release of 'Folklore.'

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Social media clues -

She also posted images from a Entertainment Weekly photoshoot captioned "Tis the damn season," which would later be revealed as a song title on her new album.

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'Evermore' -

One day before the announcement of the release of 'Evermore' (which would be her ninth album), the singer included nine tree emojis in a tweet.

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Lucky 13 -

Swift describes the number 13 as her lucky number. Born on the 13th, she had used the number 13 throughout her music and makes references to it in videos.

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Track 13 -

On 'Folklore,' the 13th track on the album is about her grandfather. Track 13 from 'Evermore' is a tribute to her grandmother, Marjorie.

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'Midnights' -

In 2022, Swift released her 10th album, 'Midnights.' It contained 13 tracks, that Swift said tell the stories of "13 sleepless nights" scattered throughout her life.

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'Would've, Could've, Should've' -

In a later released version of the album, track 19 'Would've, Could've, Should've' refers to a relationship she had aged 19. Fans speculate the track is about John Mayer.

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To be continued... -

Taylor Swift has stated that as long as her fans like it, she'll keep dropping hints. "It feels mischievous and playful," she explains.

Sources: (Glamour) (People) (Parade) (BuzzFeed) (Today) (Yahoo)

See also: Meet Taylor Swift's many enemies

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