Tag: Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)

Why is Taylor Swift so popular? The karmic genius that led to her success.

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Taylor Swift’s 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department,”  announcement at the 2024 Grammy Awards is cosmic-level for this Swiftie.

By Emily Laptad

CW: Mention of domestic abuse/violence, complex trauma, and childhood trauma.

On October 22, 2022, I woke up to listen to the bonus tracks on Taylor Swift’s tenth studio album, Midnights (3am Edition). It was a spiritual experience that nudged my personal life story in a direction I never saw coming when the lyrics, “Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first,” crooned through my earbuds as I listened to “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” for the first time.

So, it’s fitting that it’s 3 a.m. now as I try to weave together the words to illustrate just how much the historical popstar, musical mastermind, and 14-time Grammy Award Winner means to me—and so many other Swifties too. This particular editorial has been in the making for over a year now, and after tossing and turning over the shear dismay that Taylor blindsided the Swifties with a brand new album, The Tortured Poets Department, that’s coming out on April 19 (we all thought we were getting reputation (Taylor’s Version) instead) now felt like a better time than ever.

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‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’ is a Time Capsule of Adolescent Expression 

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By Hanna Ellington

Glittering, angsty, sparkling, and effeminate, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is an ode to girlhood and the unrestrained emotion that comes with growing out of it.

I sit here coming to you in my apartment in a big city reminiscing on who I was when Speak Now came out for the first time. Dark curly hair, ambition beyond the confines of Kansas, and an affinity for the unbridled twang of Taylor Swift. At 11, I had already paid my dues as a Swiftie with my copy of Fearless and her debut album tucked in the growing CD collection shared with my mom.

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