#aoty 2016

[music-moon]

My most played albums released in the year 2016:

Frank Ocean - Blonde

Beyoncé - Lemonade

Rihanna - ANTI

Solange - A Seat at the Table

Ariana Grande - Dangerous Woman

The Weeknd - Starboy

Drake - Views

Sia - This Is Acting

Kanye West - The Life of Pablo

Childish Gambino - “Awaken, My Love!”

Data from last.fm + pythfm.

2000 / 2001 / 2002 / 2003 / 2004 / 2005 / 2006 / 2007 / 2008 / 2009 / 2010 / 2011 / 2012 / 2013 / 2014 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2018 / 2019 / 2020 / 2021 / 2022 / 2023 / 2024

[nightangelreviews]

The first AOTY list where my original #1 has been dethroned and it isn't even on this list anymore. Instead, my favorite EDM album of all time jumps to the top spot. It's a shame Gemini never put out any more music after this album, but they left off by literally giving the world a perfect album, so I am not upset. I did not have Gemini in my original top list, but this was one album that easily gets better with each consecutive listen, 'tis why it reigns on this list.

2016 is kind of a coasting year, only enhancing it by furthering my music palette by adding an extra amount of new bands and albums I thought I would never get into, with my original #1 spot cementing my point.

[thenighttrain]

i can’t get over taylor saying in 2019 that “I want to work really hard while society is still tolerating me being successful” and now 5 years letter she’s the first person to win AOTY 4 times, is in the middle of the biggest tour in history, the world’s most streamed artist and THE moment not only in pop culture but also wider societal discussions. like who’s gonna tell her??!!! and it hits hard as a long time fan because in 2016-17 we didn’t know if she’d ever come back and it felt like things would never be great again. but instead they’ve gotten better and she keeps rising & rising and there’s no limit 👑👑

[diamondseaside]

i’m not saying anything new but this aoty win feels so special to me?? no part of her was expecting it and it was simply an icing on the cake on top of getting to do what she loves and connect with so many people in doing so. in 2016 she wanted it more than anything else and in 2021 she was long overdue after being shut out of the grammys for 5 years but this year felt so calm and low stakes to me. like she knows she doesn’t need an award to solidify everything she’s built and i’m so happy she’s gotten to this place

[lila-rae]

I’m not even being a hater but she should not have 4 AOTYs

2016 should have gone to To Pimp a Butterfly. Like it shouldn’t have even been a question. Kendrick demolished the competition.

And Fearless winning over Beyoncé in 2010 will never not be an absolute travesty, we all know it but her fans won’t admit it.

I actually might give her 2021 because I liked none of the albums

But then Midnight over SOS… be so fucking for real.

To be a pretty white woman must be so nice.

[adoringdo]

EXO Theory Pt. 16 - I Need All 'Ya ~ Cream Soda

What a bop, SOTY, AOTY, I love EXO. The music video has too many fast cuts that it's kinda annoying to analyse, but the fast cuts really reminded me of Love Me Right and Love Shot and some other MVs that have strong dreamlike vibes - so that's fun! Anyway...

<<- First part | <- Previous part | * Masterpost

The first thing to note with this MV is that we have two sets of EXO in the MV. The colourfully dressed EXO:

And the EXO wearing black suits:

In this MV, I actually think the suited members are representing X-EXO and the colourful ones are normal EXO, so I will refer to the suited EXO members as X-EXO from here-on.

I think it's quite obvious that the brightly dressed EXO members in this MV are trapped in a dream state that they are trying to escape, as we have seen in many EXO MVs before.

We get a few different clips of the Bright!EXO members laying like this on the floor, asleep. Very reminiscent of Love Me Right.

In Love Me Right, we watch as the members take on the roles of Alice in Wonderland characters and try to escape the dream that the Red Force has put them into. In Cream Soda, we see the EXO members asleep, but not taking on characters. Instead, they are wondering around in this space that seems to me to be very cube-like.

However, we do also see EXO outside of this space. At the beginning of the MV they arrive at this fancy dinner hall where they immediately wreak havoc and destroy the layout with a skateboard.

Straight after this we see an image of X-EXO partying and a drink falling over, seemingly out of nowhere.

This is signifying to us that these two scenarios must be connected with each other; EXO cause drinks and plates to smash and fall in their scene and a drink also falls in the other X-EXO scene. So bearing that in mind, we move on.

Next, we get this scene of EXO Chen falling onto a bed and it kind of transitions to this image of some jugs and bottles under water.

From here on I think Chen sort of wakes up from the dream and takes the place of X-EXO Chen. This is sort of in keeping with this idea I've had in my theories where Chen was the spy for the Red Force, but since Let Me In, we have seen him repent and come back to the EXO's side. I think in this MV we get some more of this theory.

Once Chen falls into the X-EXO space, we watch a scene of X-EXO Chanyeol and Kyungsoo playing chess, and we see a clip of 'X-EXO' Chen playing cards.

The chess game gets interrupted by somebody putting their drink on the table. I cannot tell who it is, but the significance of chess is still quite interesting. We've seen chess in a few different places, most notably in the Tempo MV where we see Xiumin and Kyungsoo play and their chess game creates the cube which the EXO members reenter to try and solve the puzzle to escape. The cube is a tool of the Red Force, even if the members do need it in the Tempo MV. We also see chess in Obsession where we watch EXO and X-EXO Chen play against each other.

Chess is clearly used as a symbol of the Red Force, we even see chess pieces in one opening VCR to the MAMA 2016 performance which was heavily lore based.

The card game that Chen is playing is significant in the overall storyline for Cream Soda because we get the reveal later in the MV that Chen actually played the Joker card. Just before this, we get a clip of Xiumin dropping a drop of his glass and it shows us the members aimlessly wandering in the cube like space again.

Chen then sets the Joker card on fire and we see the EXO members from just seconds before begin to celebrate.

Right after this we then see this image of a wine glass smashing to the ground - which again, is signifying this idea that as the EXO members win this round, the X-EXO members lose (as the wine glass is definitely from the X-EXO member scenes).

Not long after this we also see time go backwards; at the beginning of the MV we get a close up of someone's watch which ticks forward a second. At the end of the MV, it ticks back a second again, resetting time.

We then also see Baekhyun and Kyungsoo leave the setting looking very pleased with themselves.

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo are shown in another few clips together as well, so clearly the two of them were up to something in this MV.

This duo actually really reminded me of the two of them in The War comics - as the two of them are the ones monitoring the other members and giving them instructions in that comic. I wonder if they were the ones that told Jongdae to go over to the X-EXO side and be the spy for them in this MV. As Chen seems to be the reason that they have got free and escaped from this scenario at least. We don't actually see any of the other members escape though, so maybe only Kyungsoo and Baekhyun did in this one. Hmm..

It could also be that the two were responsible for telling Suho to talk to the girl we see in the MV as well. Before I have been over how I think girls are significant in the EXO MVs - they are almost always a representative of the Red Force.

I wonder if Suho is distracting the Red Force from noticing that Chen has replaced X-EXO Chen in the other universe. We do see cream running down the car and blocking all the windows, blocking her sight, so that could make sense.

As I said before, we end the MV with the watch ticking backwards, in line with the Let Me In and Hear Me Out MVs where time was a pivotal theme of the MVs. I think it's less so here, but I do think it's still important that time was reversed back to the beginning of the MV, but now with Kyungsoo and Baekhyun freed. It could be that we will now get a continuation of that damn The War comic as it's driving me mad we still have nothing??? It's been 6 years SM c'mon!

Anyway we mustn't ignore the most important part of the MV:

These amazing outfits and the amazing dance. Not at all lore significant, but it did need to be noted.

Tbh this video really isn't lore heavy - it's mostly aesthetics and dancing. Not complaining, but not much to really read into imo. Hope it was somewhat interesting anyway! See you in 3 years when EXO has another comeback lmao 😭😭😭😭😭😭

[prod-svt]

woozi's daesang aoty speech

him mentioning how people have pointed fingers at them saying they won't make it bc they have too many members while winning AOTY.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR. album. a solid proof of their handworks which they made with their own. them winning AOTY just hits different bc they won that category with their own songs they wrote, composed, arranged, produced.

and woozi. that man who have said "i feel like i'm the one who'll determine all 13 members' future...it's so hard" in 2015, the man who used to be so shy when praised as svt's "genius producer", the man who started being proud of being called SVT's Producer because of carats, the man who won best producer award in 2016, the man who introduced himself on natl television as SVT's Producer, the man who produced FML this 2023 and won album of the year.

i know this award means so much more to woozi.

[lesbiansloveseokjin]

day 316/548 of seokjin’s military service

this selca was posted on 161119, the day of the 2016 Melon Music Awards, when they won their first Daesang ever (Album of the Year), with the caption:

teamwork makes the dream work.

ARMYs~ We’ve received a daesang!!!!!!! I love you

(trans cr: Mary @ bts-trans)

this bangtan bomb was filmed that day (includes BS&T and FIRE performances + receiving AOTY daesang):

[evermoredeluxe]

i’m seriously so nervous about this ceremony i had my expectations so high about a folklore sweep back in 2021 and looked how it turned out to be (probably one of the most stressing nights in my swiftie career) but with midnights it feels different i think this time a sweep is way more deserved you know adele, bruno and billie had a sweep after a massive year and i think she deserves to have one for the first time with midnights, but here’s the problem the treatment she receives from the recording academy isn’t nearly even the same as those artists and they’re too afraid to receive a 2016 type of backlash again, anyways i have a my crystals and many prayers ready i’m rooting for 3 awards including aoty.

she’s had a sweep (albeit not full sweep) before! but yes i agree. she has dominated 2023 like legends do and she deserves to be recognized for it!

and as for the backlash, she has received only two grammys since 2016, and everyone knows she was snubbed with a couple of folklore noms and with the atw10 nom (!!!!!), so the academy will be more okay with her sweeping this year imo.

[bisluthq]

Twitter Gaylors have lost the plot. They are out here screaming, crying, throwing up and congratulating Taylor for coming out as a lesbian because she wore an orange/pink dress. Someone gave Andrea a gaylor friendship bracelet. They also said she came out as Bi the first night of Miami.

Now our girl might be a little fruity but orange and pink is the same color combo she’s repeated over and over. A particularly notable time is the orange and pink dress from the 2016 Grammys when she won AOTY. Which was before the orange/pink lesbian flag even existed. It was created in 2018. Which is after all the pink and orange combos in the rep era. I’m afraid they will be in for some disappointment if things with Travis are going as well as everyone seems to think.

”Now our girl might be a little fruity” - except she literally told fucking CNN she’s not. Taylor feels uncomfortable when people discuss this and considers herself straight. End of story. She told us this. There is, unless she ever corrects that statement and she’s allowed to because she’s a real person and sexuality is confusing so fuck alone knows right, absolutely fuck all else to say on the matter. As is, she considers herself straight and feels VERY uncomfortable when people say otherwise. End of discussion.

[tomsmusictaste]

Tom’s Top Ten | ALBUMS OF 2023

It's (belatedly) that time of year again, let's get into it.

10. Hotel Bleu - Broadside

I’ve made peace with the fact that Broadside record is likely to top Old Bones for me but Hotel Bleu is choc full of plenty of upbeat catchy tunes, a refreshing dose of positivity after their more sombre previous record Into The Raging Sea.

Favourite song: Dazed & Confused

9. Past // Present // Future - Meet Me @ The Altar

MM@TA have delivered a very solid debut record. One downside is the lack of easycore-style riffs and breakdowns (one of the main things that drew me to this band’s previous EPs) in favour of a more generic pop-punk sound - that said, all songs are plenty catchy and do a great job of showing off Edith’s vocal range, which is front and centre of this record.

Favourite song/s: Say It (To My Face) / It’s Over For Me

8. Childhood Eyes - Yellowcard

A big year for Yellowcard putting out their first new music since breaking up in 2016, and it delivers. It may just an EP but it's earned it's spot on the list and made me incredibly excited to see what else is on the way from this new era of Yellowcard. Also a collab with Dashboard Confessional? A Spider-Man 2 soundtrack reunion, you love to see it.

Favourite song: Childhood Eyes

7. Slow Burn - Conquer Divide

One of the later albums from the year but I'm glad that I didn't miss this one - Conquer Divide have been something of a 'background band' for me up until now, but this is a record I found myself listening to front to back over and over.

Favourite song: N E W H E A V E N

6. One More Time - Blink-182

I have to confess I have mixed feelings on Blink-182's big comeback album - great to see Tom back in the band and the band back to their classic lineup, lots of great emotion on the title track. Maybe contro but I do think some of the non-single tracks feel a bit pale or watered down compared to the singles, but the singles themselves do have a lot of what I love from that classic Blink sound.

Favourite song: Dance With Me

5. Postcard From A Living Hell - RedHook

RedHook were a new discovery for me this year, and a welcome one at that. This is one of those albums that soon as it came out I had on constant repeat, just banger after banger, not to mention a collab with Mik from Yours Truly; that gets a hell yeah from me.

Favourite song: Inarticulate ft. THE FAIM

4. Join The Club - As December Falls

One of my hottest anticipated releases of the year, As December Falls have come soaring this year, with this their third album and constantly selling out their tours (before i can get a ticket >:( ). Every single song on the tracklist is single worthy and the record makes no shortage of showing off Bethany's vocals, in particular on the emotionally driven 'Home.'

Favourite song: Mayday

3. A Call To The Void - Hot Milk

After knocking out of the park time after time with their EPs, Hot Milk finally released their debut full-length and brought everything that's good about them to the table. From the very first listen I knew this was gonna be a strong contender for AOTY, and indeed was only beaten out by two others.

Favourite song: Alice Cooper's Pool House

2. The Surface - Beartooth

It should be no surprise to my followers seeing Toof pop up on the list, there truly never has been a Beartooth album that hasn't made my top ten and The Surface is no exception. Going against the grain of their MO up until now and releasing an entire metalcore album full of love and positivity was an incredible move, and wonderful to see Caleb find himself in a place where he can write this kind of lyrical content and celebrate his own journey overcoming mental health struggles. The Surface is a welcome addition to the Beartooth catalogue.

Favourite song: I Was Alive

Before we get to the Number One, I'd like to shoutout some honourable mentions that didn't quite make the cut - those being 'Til The Wheels Fall Off - WSTR, Tear Me To Pieces - Story Of The Year, Power To Play - McFly, Untitled Mixtape - Carousel Kings and Linkin Park's 20th Anniverary Edition of Meteora

Also a special shoutout to Sum 41, Neck Deep and Green Day, for their singles off albums that will be released in '24. Good stuff.

With that all out of the way, let's get into my NUMBER ONE ALBUM OF 2023...

1. So Much (For) Stardust - Fall Out Boy

It was tough to crack down on the order of the top three here, but ultimately the number one album couldn't be anything else. I've made no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of the three FOB records prior to this, but here the boys return with a bang combining all that's good about both their pre-hiatus and post-hiatus sounds, resulting in an incredible record that has been definitive for my 2023. What more can I say? Fold Out Bed bloody did it.

Favourite song: Love From The Other Side

And there you have it! Those are my top albums of 2023. We're already a fair way into '24 at the time I'm posting this and this year too is shaping up to have some strong contenders... bring it on.

[screaminlonglive]

Karma is an Album

In defense of evidence of Taylor Swift’s lost album 

Alright, Swifties. It is time for a master post. There is too much evidence to support the theory of the lost album Karma, and it is time to put it all together in one place. I have done everything in my power to include any small indication of the existence of Karma, but please feel free to dm / comment with evidence not included in this post, and I will update as needed. I am going to create this document in as close to a chronological timeline as humanly possible. Strap in. 

If you can watch the Miss Americana documentary, I highly recommend that you do so and listen very carefully to Taylor Swift when she addresses the timeline surrounding this possible experience. I also will reference and recommend that you watch the long pond studio sessions. Understanding the timeline from Taylor’s perspective and hearing the way she addresses the timeline really helps put you into her shoes and understand what she could have been experiencing and what she may have gone through that may have caused her to scratch an entire album. What is Karma? For many years, Taylor Swift fans have speculated that Karma is the name (or even code name of - consider that she revealed she uses code names like with the woodvale chaos) the album that Taylor Swift was set to release in 2016. Fans theorize that Karma was shelved following the Kanye drama and Taylor Swift disappeared from the public eye for nearly a year  in November of 2016 instead of releasing her sixth studio album. Taylor “rose up from the dead” in August of 2017 to release the lead single from her album, “Look What You Made Me Do.” As much as it pains me to detail this drama, let’s recap 2016, as this is truly where the foundation of where our story begins. First, let’s talk about the Kimye drama. Unfortunately this is critical to how the Karma story plays out, so let’s take a quick review. During the VMA awards in 2009, a 19 year old Taylor Swift was accepting her moon man for Best Video of the Year. 32-year old Kanye West infamously got up on stage, took the microphone from Taylor, and said “I am really happy for you and I’m gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.” They are seen together in 2015 at the Grammys, but we won’t go too deep into the Kanye/Taylor timeline. Let’s flash-forward to February of 2016, where Taylor Swift and Kanye have seemingly mended fences to a certain extent. Kanye debuts his song “Famous,” which has the lyric “I still feel like me and Taylor might have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous (goddamn).” Facing backlash from twitter,Kanye reveals that he got permission from Taylor.  (we later learn in a statement that Taylor’s publicist Tree Paine put out that they spoke in January of 2016.) Although Taylor herself does not explicitly address the lyric, her friends come to her defense. Her younger brother Auston posts his “spring cleaning” video, trashing Kanye merch. Taylor makes history as the first woman to win AOTY twice at the grammys for 1989, and seemingly addresses how she feels about the Kanye drama in her speech. She says “"[A]s the first woman to win album of the year at the Grammys twice," Swift said, "I want to say to all the young women out there, 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." She continued, "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. Thank you for this moment." Although we do not see much public drama, we can assume there was some going on behind closed doors over the next few months. Things get messy again publicly in June/July 2016. Kim Kardashin interviews with GQ and support’s Kanye's claim that he called and got Taylor’s approval for the song. Tree Paine releases a statement denying the claims, and Kanye drops the music video in late June and Kanye also appears on SNL and is recorded backstage calling Taylor “fake.”  Controversy was re-ignited by the audio clips from the 2009 VMA incident included on the video as well as most memorably, the nude wax figure of Taylor Swift Kanye is seen in bed with. Kim discusses the making of the video and the ongoing controversy in the July 17 episode of KUWTK, which is the date we reach the absolute peak of this drama. Kim also releases footage of the Taylor/Kanye phone call to her snapchat account in what’s known as “snapchatgate.” This footage is clipped, and paints Taylor out to be a liar. Kim throws more fuel on the fire with her famous “national snake day” tweet the following day, and followers flood Taylor swift with snake emojis. Taylor finally publicly explicitly address the Kanye drama with her instagram post that concludes “"I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009” #KimExposedTaylorParty begins to trend on twitter, followed by #TaylorSwiftisoverparty. Kanye denies that he was trying to “take down taylor” in his 2016 VMAs speech. 

So what is Taylor up to during this time? 

It is important to note that up until the 2016 drama with Kimye, Taylor Swift released new albums every 2 years like clockwork: Debut- Oct 24, 2006 (last thursday in october) 

Fearless- Nov 11, 2008 (second tuesday in november) 

Speak Now -Oct 25, 2010  (last monday in october) 

Red - Oct 22, 2012(last monday in october) 

1989 -  Oct 27, 2014 (last monday in october) It is kind of interesting that with the exception of Fearless, they are all even released during the last week of October - numerically within 5 days of one another.  Her last three albums were released EXACTLY two years apart if you consider that all three albums were released on the last monday of october. I also want to point out that although Friday releases are standard, Taylor Swift has released many singles on this date, she did not adhere to this “standard” when releasing her albums. 

Taylor likes to debut a change in hair / look and this had come to signify the start of a new era in Taylor’s career. For example, she let vogue cut her bangs for the first time going into the red era and she had her hair cut at the end of red tour to signify going into 1989. 

The 1989 tour ended 12 December 2015, the day before Taylor’s 26th birthday. The Grammy’s was a couple of months later, and spring of 2016 became known as the “Bleachella” era - Taylor  went to coachella for the first time with her extremely bleach blonde hair - Vogue wanted to debut her as a “Rock ‘n Roll Chick” for the May issue (6 months pre-expected karma drop date). This is also the same cover that she does the 73 questions interview where she says “Karma is real.” 

During this time, Taylor also wrote ‘This Is What You Came For’ under pseudonym for then-bf Calvin Harris (we will discuss this later in rep era). 

Taylor performs only once this year and it is known as “The” 2016 concert for this reason. She performs a “greatest hits” concert for Formula 1. 

Taylor also was a co-chair for the 2016 Met Gala where she met Joe Alwyn this year. We can discuss Tom Hiddleston as well, but let’s just thank him for inspiring Getaway Car and move on with the timeline. Thanks, Tom. And of course after meeting earlier in the year, Taylor and Joe began to date while Taylor was in hiding. Following her timeline from the Lover Diaries, she writes that they had been dating for three months as of Jan 3, 2017. It is interesting to note that other than this entry and the entry that she made in 2016 stating that “this summer is the apocalypse,” the lover diaries are devoid of any entries after 2015. She makes no mention on the process or lyrics of reputation or lover in the way she gave us insight into other eras of her life. It could have been “too close.” at the time, but since we are going to be thorough, I felt that it was worth noting when I searched for clues in the diaries I found nothing notable other than the lack of any content from this time period. Consider the dichotomy of the experiences that Taylor was undergoing in 2016. She was simultaneously on top the world for this incredible achievement for not only a second AOTY grammy win, but in another genre. But if you listen to her describe this time in the Miss Americana Doc, you realize how incredibly alone she feels at the time. We also know  that Taylor basically spent the entire year constantly biting her tongue while kimye continued to take public shots over and over again throughout the year. 

Taylor has always written songs - she may have taken a short break but this could have been more of an issue with her record label not letting her release the kind of music that she wanted to. This was going to be the last album that she recorded with this record label and she had to be extremely **”calculated”** in her decisions surrounding TS6.Taylor was much older and wiser than when she first signed the BMR, and you cannot convince me she didn’t know what could happen to her masters. Taylor took surprise songs and RAN with them on the rep tour, and no one can ever convince me otherwise: Taylor knew that could be a sort of “bye for now,” because she had no idea what was at the end of her contract with BMR. Taylor left easter eggs about stolen masters in LWYMMD because that did not happen overnight. It may have been a wildest nightmare for Taylor, but she is smarter than to have been completely utterly shocked at how that situation played out. But let’s go back to 2016. 

Fans theorize that Karma is more of a punk / rock album and possibly was a little more aggressive and possibly angry than her previous work. She was in the business of reinvention. (Also if you haven’t seen the live “rock” version of Bad Blood,” please go do yourself a favor and watch that and then come back. We will wait.)  But with her reputation plummeting, it seemed increasingly obvious as the year progressed that it would have been a bad idea to put out an album with that kind of negative vibe at that time. This could have been her label’s decision, her decision, or a little of both.

We do know that she was very likely writing songs while she was on tour, as we know touring and being with her fans inspires her. Whether she made an entire album yet, we couldn’t say of course. But we know that Taylor never stops writing songs. It is one of her greatest outlets. To those who argue that Taylor told us “I don’t know what’s next” - are you really telling me that she was going through some of the most difficult parts of her life and not writing songs? Please. She was writing songs. You’ll note that Reputation did not have any deluxe tracks, and it is a very carefully selected, sonically cohesive 15 songs. No further explanation. Taylor created other music in this time, and no one would ever be able to convince me otherwise. 

Following the peak of the kimye drama, Taylor Swift disappears from the public eye entirely for nearly a year. She is also said to have begun recording reputation at this time as well (September 2016). Although we have considered that her Earth, Wind, and Fire cover may have referred to an anniversary with Joe, the “28th night of September,” could really represent any one of many “transition moments” happening in her life simultaneously. - possibly the moment she decided to shelve karma and create a concept album for reputation.  

Fast forward through the dark Taylor-less ages because as we know, the world moves on another day, another drama, drama. 

Taylor Swift’s social media accounts are all famously wiped clean and she starts the reputation era with a literal blank slate. She teases and releases the lead single, Look What You Made Me Do. Let's take this point to go over the (known) easter eggs for Karma in this video, followed by …Ready For It? And Delicate. There are so many easter eggs in reputation - she didn’t give public interviews during this era.  In her first interview for the lover era, she stated that she wanted to communicate with fans and she left SO MANY easter eggs in the reputation era. Particularly she notes that she likes to leave easter eggs on clothes. 

LWYMMD released 24 August 2017 (monday) 

-Digging up different iterations of herself - “digging up the grave another time.” 

-dead taylor dug herself out of her grave and then buried her other self. 

-Nils Sjöberg is pictured in the cemetery as well (anagram of ringless job?) -last video we saw was herein OOTW video - same dress 

-”the world moves on another day, another drama, drama. But not for me, not for me, all I think about is Karma.” -bird cage Taylor dress all in orange -> and sings “they once belonged to me” 

-Taylor is physically in the vault and then seen stepping out of it - a representation of her vault tracks being set loose with her re-recorded albums. 

-5 cats in the vault including taylor - blue, pink, red, yellow. We do not see them take their masks off, but they follow Taylor out of the vault unmasked. - the person in the Orange shirt last in line 

-vault within the vault in the background

-unchained handcuffs in scene where taylor hits pile of money with a baseball bat -no speak now Taylor in the tower 

-TS6 with a new Taylor - grounds the plane and it becomes “reputation” instead. 

-different Taylors at the end  

Delicate - Taylor isn't being seen

Orange columns in subway station graffiti with “Track 5”

Ready for it 

Spider boy - “I see how this is gon’ go”  - Scooter is the spider boy 

“Naked” taylor in glass closet resists change - chaining her at first but then empowers her 

-same imagery we see on the eras tour during the LWYMMD set -  with different Taylor’s in glass closets. When they break free to come after her, she is already rising above them all 

The Orange Vault Taylor becomes sort of the first “symbol” of orange as the color representing Karma. She releases two magazines, one of which is orange. Taylor also released an orange limited pressing of reputation on vinyl. Some fans theorize this is an easter egg and some think that it could have been “leftover” from the karma plans and something taylor “used up.” Since we spent all of that time talking about Kanye, I want to point out something I did not realize until I started the research for this post. I am not myself a Kanye fan, so when I saw the album cover for “Life of Pablo,” I audibly gasped. Not only does the print remind me of half of the reputation cover, the color is strikingly “karma”orange. 

Now that Taylor is back and in full force, let’s enter the lover era. Taylor makes her directorial debut with “The Man,” and we are first introduced to “The Man Wall.” in 13th street station. 

In the Lover music video, we were shown different rooms in different colors meant to represent different eras in Taylor’s career. The yellow Fearless room is upside down, much like Fearless is written backwards here. Although fans did not know what it meant at the time, many people concluded that this is how Taylor would signify where she would begin her re-recordings. She emphasized that “it’s a clock,” and at the time of this writing, the rerecords have been announced in this order: Fearless, Red, Speak Now.  If the announcements continue to follow the clock, Taylor would announce reputation, Taylor Swift (possibly?) and end with 1989. You’ll notice the other word written on the wall is the word “Karma,” once in blue and once in orange. Fans speculate that the blue Karma represents the single and the Orange at the midnight position represents the Album. Following the clock, the release schedule would go 199 -> Karma, as Taylor always intended. Note that the word “MISSING” appears atop the poster on the karma wall. Here’s where it gets even more interesting. karmaonthewall.com redirects to Taylor Swift’s website. You are greeted with a page that says “OOPS... LOOKS LIKE SOMETHING'S MISSING!” and the www. Becomes “https://www.taylorswift.com/aftermidnightsitstarts”   …. after midnights, it starts. Of course we know that she has an album called midnights. Track 11 of midnights is Karma - a sleepless night, or many sleepless nights. Some fans speculate that each thing she “lists” in the song” could correlate to a song on her lost album of the same name. There’s yet another theory that says these lists refer to other artists under scooter’s control.  It is interesting to point out that Karma is Track 11 and if she released Karma after Midnights, it would be the 11th album. When Taylor announced the track for Karma in MMWM, she broke her “usual release cycle” of videos - much like she broke her usual release cycle of the album in the first place. The “Larger Than Life” Taylor that appears in the antihero music video and in the eras tour is wearing the same outfit she wore in the MMWM announcement video for karma. This could represent many things, but I think it could nod to something “bigger” than just a song called karma. This is also a truly vintage 70’s  shirt that she is wearing, not a modern iteration of an older fashion. The spotify canvas for the song Karma is arguably orange. Blake Lively made an instagram post that mirrors “The Man Wall” with an orange background. Let’s talk about the Eras tour a little. I don’t know exactly how to describe how it felt to watch the moments leading up to the opening, but I felt a wave of immeasurable emotion at her song choices in the leading moments. When I first heard Lady Gaga’s Applause I was immediately a little sad. I thought about how Taylor was pop culture so much that pop culture became her and of course “I live for the applause,” brought up echoes of Taylor in Miss Americana talking about how all she lived for was approval. I am not gonna lie, I almost cried, and not because Taylor was coming soon. And then the countdown clock started and You Don’t Own Me came on and I felt yet another crashing wave of emotion at this choice as well. I should stop here and note that people have had many different reports on when the countdown clock starts. I have caught very few live streams in time, but I have seen 02:23 a few times and this could mean a lot of things - even representing the year she is doing this tour. I saw a fan online theorize that 02:29 could represent the leap year upcoming in 2024, but I haven’t seen a 02:29 countdown. I don’t know what it means, but I did think it was worth mentioning. Taylor would do something as completely unhinged as plan to release a skipped album on a leap day, so do not put it past her. Although, I don’t think that’s a clown car I ride in, don’t forget the “it still feels like March '' written on an orange sticky note from her spotify advertisement during the pandemic - could that be a clue? The extra day in February could refer to something that “feels like March.” Back to eras tour. It’s important to note that Taylor concludes the tour with the song Karma and walks through an orange door at the very end of the show. Much in the way that Taylor dives into her midnights era on the tour, she also walks into her karma area just after the midnights era ends. 

Let’s talk about the green folklore outfit. It’s a custom Alprerta Ferelti - the original is orange. She debuted this as well as her orange 1989 outfit at her first show on the 13th. She also performed Speak Now this night, which would soon be announced as her next re-record. I think it's safe to say Taylor is signaling with the color changes of her costume changes, and equally safe to say that no one has yet deciphered the pattern yet. I still think this is worth nothing, as Orange has become a symbol for Karma. We also need to discuss Rebekah Harkness. Yes, that one. Her third husband nicknamed her Karma. Taylor said she wanted to write the Rebekah Harkness story for a long time on long pond, and this could be a call back to many things - mostly a nod to the fact that she’d been researching and thinking about Rebekah for a long time - likely since she bought the house, aka  just before Karma would have been thought of. Taylor wore a white jacket with her albums emblazoned on it at her AMAs performance to accept her artist of the decade award. She was joined on stage by 8 kids, seemingly representing each of her albums, but only 7 albums that we knew of existed. We now have the Karma music video since the time of initial writing, and so many other easter eggs to unpack here. I love the countdown clock in the final moments of the video, but this entire post was inspired by the first few seconds of the song Karma, and that’s what I will conclude with. I have been completely baffled that in all of my research on Karma, I haven't seen a single person point out that the beginning of the track sounds like an old album or like a dusty record. My partner picked up on this clue immediately because it was so obvious to us as older millennials. However, I didn’t see anyone point it out online. Taylor visually emphasizes this at the beginning of the music video for those who didn’t hear it automatically when listening to the track. Whether or not you believe in Taylor’s lost album, I hope you enjoyed reading the evidence I have compiled here today - and will continue tacking onto this post as time goes on. I can’t possibly have found all of the easter eggs, but I have been as thorough as I could in the making of this post. Please feel free to comment or message me with things I may have missed, because I want this to be a true master post. Much like the ten minute version of All Too Well was once a myth but is now a reality, there is a chance you, like me, believe that Karma is real…

[thenighttrain]

idk i'm always thinking about 2016 and the rep era and how taylor wanted to disappear forever and she didn't know if she'd make music again and now she's won another aoty, made multiple new albums that have been critically acclaimed, wrote and directed a short film and now she's directing a movie.. she said that creating makes her happy and it really shows. she’s working hard but she clearly enjoys it and it’s amazing seeing her find new outputs for her creativity. she came back stronger than a 90s trend and she keeps doing new things and reaching new heights, she just amazes me so so much! 

[diamondseaside]

i’m listening to a pop culture podcast and one of the hosts predicted midnights will win aoty at the grammys solely bc the grammys love her and not bc it’s well deserved… taylor has won only two grammys since 2016 even though she released 5 brand new albums in that time she’s not the grammys darling everyone thinks she is

[notesonartistry]

Taylor is nowhere near a Grammy darling, last Grammy she won was back in 2021 and it's 2024 now 💀 and before her 2021 1 x Grammy last time she won was 2016 💀

She won best music video last year for ATW, but the point stands, she's not a Grammy darling. She's won 12, and you could feasibly argue it should be double at least.

I think people get it skewed a little because she's got AOTY 3 times and so it's well known. It frustrates me to an extent, but I think it's also a reminder that they're all subjective.

[mysweetobsessions]

Grammy’s RECAP:

Lizzo won Best Record of the Year with About Damn Time, gives a great speech and thanks Prince & Beyoncé for inspiring her.

Beyoncé breaks record for most grammy wins ever and gets her 32nd award. Won Best Dance/Electronic Recording and Best Dance/Electronic Music Album among other untelevised wins in R&B categories.

Harry Styles wins Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Engineered Album Non-Classical

Viola Davis becomes the 18th person in history and 3rd black woman to achieve EGOT status (winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award) for winning Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording for her book Finding Me (untelevised).

Kim Petras (& Sam Smith) win best Pop Duo Performance for Unholy making her the first trans woman to win a Grammy.

Adele won Best Pop Solo Performance for Easy On Me.

Samara Joy wins Best New Artist (and Best Jazz Vocal Album -untelevised).

Kendrick Lamar wins Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, Best Rap Album.

The TEA/Complaints:

Best Music Video of the Year goes to Taylor Swift for All Too Well (10 Minute Version) but it isn’t televised

Beyonce should have won Album of The Year over Harry. She’s been nominated 4 times (I AM... SASHA FIERCE - 2008, BEYONCÉ -2013, LEMONADE -2016, RENAISSANCE -2022)

Or Bad Bunny should have won Album of The Year for Un Verano Sin Ti.

Harry Styles speech for AOTY includes him saying things like that don’t happen often to people like him 👉🏻 Fans say he is humble vs. others saying he’s a cis white male and things like that do happen for people like him, and they don’t like that others nominated did not win.

‘Pa los latinos:

Bad Bunny wins Grammy for Best Música Urbana Album.

Rosal��a won Best Latin Rock album for MOTOMAMI (untelevised)

Rubén Blades wins Best Latin Pop Album for Pasieros (untelevised)

Natalia Lafourcade y Marc Anthony won in other latin categories. (untelevised)

Others untelevised:

Encanto wins Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media and Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media (Includes Film And Television). We don’t talk about Bruno wins Best Song Written For Visual Media.

Jack Antonoff wins Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical.

Dave Chappelle wins Best Comedy Album for The Closer.

If anyone cares:

(My bad, I don’t know these people):

Bonnie Rait won several grammys for Just Like That including Song of The Year, Best Americana Performance, Best American Roots Song.

Brandi Carlile wins Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song, and Best Americana Album.