Unless you're living under a rock, you know that today's the day: Squad enthusiast Taylor Swift has announced that new music is coming. We get a lead single this FRIDAY, and then her latest album, Reputation, drops on Nov. 10.
Taylor also shared the album cover with us. Pretty cool, right?
But upon further inspection (and because this is Taylor Swift, after all), there's more to the cover than meets the eye. Let's take a deeper look, shall we?
First of all, some context. We know a major theme of Taylor's new music will be resetting her narrative — and reclaiming the snake emoji that has been used against her.
Wait it's legit National Snake Day?!?!?They have holidays for everybody, I mean everything these days! 🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍
You might recall commenters spamming her posts with the snake emoji following Kim Kardashian exposing her via Snapchat on "National Snake Day."
She's been uploading cryptic snake videos to social media, and with a title like Reputation, it's clear Taylor is not just here to reclaim an emoji (I can't believe that's a phrase I just typed) — she's here to clap back at the narrative used against her.
First of all, let's look at the font used on the album cover. At first, it seems like an obvious choice — the "Reputation" looks like a newspaper masthead, which fits the media-themed album cover. But there's more.
It *also* seems the font is very, very similar to — although perhaps not the *EXACT* same as — the one Kanye West used for his infamous merchandise during his Life of Pablo era.
This could be a coincidence — but really, when it comes to Taylor Swift, is ANYTHING coincidental? Say what you will about her, but she's a PR mastermind and thinks out every move she makes. My guess is this font choice was intentional — there's a bunch of other font options she could have picked (like something more tabloid-y), but this is the one she chose.
Hmmmmm...
👀
Taylor's choice of photographer is also definitely interesting. Famed photographers Mert & Marcus (Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott) are credited with shooting Reputation's cover. And that's kind of a big deal, considering who Mert Alas is friends with.
The last piece of evidence might be a *bit* of a reach, so be sure you stretch with me before I dive in.
I'm pretty sure Taylor's aesthetic/look on the album cover is meant to evoke Kim's sense of style and Kanye's Yeezy fashion sense.
Let's just say Taylor looks very different than she has in the past on this album cover. Yes, she seems to get a new haircut every album cycle. And her style has evolved over time! But her choices this time around feel very...deliberate.
The slicked-back, wet hair look is one Kim has famously rocked before (I'm not saying it's Kim's, or that Kim was the one to first make it popular — just that it's one closely associated with her). Taylor's sweatshirt and choker also are very different fashion choices for the pop star. I could *TOTALLY* see Kim rocking this look, and it almost looks like an ad for Kanye's Yeezy line. FWIW, I checked to see if the sweatshirt is ACTUALLY Yeezy and wasn't able to confirm...but wouldn't that be WILD if it was?
(FWIW, I'm not alone in this analysis.)
is taylor not wearing what looks like a yeezy sweater with kim k wet hair? #TaylorSwift #redemption @THISWEEKHADME… https://t.co/Vp3eqWwgtT
Taylor looks likes she's wearing knockoff Yeezy on this new album cover and she ain't slick.
So taylor swift bought a yeezy sweater and a choker with a black and white photo and she's edgy now
So that's what we've got: a font, a photographer, and an aesthetic. Is Taylor coming for blood this era? We'll know soon enough...
