
Taylor Swift said she put a lot of Easter eggs in her video for 'Bejeweled', the second video from her new albumMidnights.And look, she wasn't lying.
"I was like, 'I want to make a video that is just for the fans who like certain things, like glitter and Easter eggs and lots of little cameos'," Taylor told Jimmy Fallon.
Sooo... she stuffed so many in she needed to create a PDF file to keep track of them all.
The 'Bejeweled' video is essentially Cinderella (Taylor's Version). It's her take on the classic fairytale, in which she plays the Cinderella-type character. But instead of searching for magic and marrying a prince, Cinderswift (I just made that up) knows she's "magic" enough as she is... and she just wants the castle, not the husband.
With cameos from people across the Swift universe, like Jack Antonoff and Zoe Kravitz, to legends of entertainment like Laura Dern and Pat McGrath.
Like the song says, it polished up real nice.
Here's everything we've found, and what we think it all means.
The stepmother and stepsister dialogue.
In the beginning of the video, (Oscar winner) Laura Dern and the Haim sisters, Danielle, Este and Alana, star as the stepmother and stepsisters of Taylor.
In the video, Dern says "Speak not, tired tacky wench, clean", which is absolutely a nod to Taylor's third album,Speak Nowand the song 'Clean', from her fifth,1989.
The characters then make some classic Swift references, including puns like "swiftly" and insults like "snake", which she was called during her 2016 drama with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West before she made them part of her brand with 2017'sreputation.
Speak Now (Taylor's Version)is coming.
'Sparks Fly' girlies, rejoice. 'Dear John' fans, scream. 'Better Than Revenge' apologists, go stand in the corner and think about what you did.
IT'S ALMOST OUR MOMENT.
BecauseSpeak Now (Taylor's Version)is absolutely the next re-recorded album. The 'Bejeweled' video is essentially screaming that in our faces.
The fact that 'Speak Now', the title song, is a fictional account of interrupting a wedding makes this whole thing even funnier. Now, in this music video and throughout songs onMidnights, Taylor sings about how unimpressed she is by the idea of marriage.
The music video release date.
The 'Bejeweled' video - from her 12th album, if you count two re-records - was released on October 25, 2022.
Speak Nowwas released on October 25, 2010.
Which was... 12 years ago.
The string arrangements of very familiar songs.
In the opening scene, a string arrangement of 'Enchanted' plays in the background.
Then at the end, another string arrangement of 'Long Live' plays as three dragons fly around the castle. Three because it's her third album, and dragons because of the line 'I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you'.
i love that there’s an instrumental of long live at the end of the bejeweled music video right when the dragons appear because “i’ve had the time of my life fighting dragons with you” 🥲 pic.twitter.com/XjGFShJ9s1
— jessica (@enchantedjess13)
The elevator.
The elevator itself is aSpeak Nowreference: the song 'Ours' begins with the line "Elevator buttons and morning air", and Taylor also rides an elevator in that song's music video.
In 'Bejeweled', Taylor hits level 3, which is coloured purple just like theSpeak Nowcover.
The 13th button is also purple, which is perhaps the most in our faces reference of them all.
The sparkling jewels.
On the third floor, Taylor is dressed in a bodysuit covered in gems representing the different colours of her albums, just like the elevator buttons.
As she leaves that room to go up to another, her earrings - which are red on top and purple below - sparkle.
Purple, of course, represents theSpeak Nowcover, but the red could also represent the deluxe version of that album's cover which switched her purple dress for red.
Or, it could represent the end of theRed (Taylor's Version)re-recording era before we head intoSpeak Now (TV).
I'm already starting to understand why she needed that PDF.
The 13th floor talent show.
When Cinderswift goes to the 13th floor, she performs on stage like this:
That clock is pointing to THREE.
The sky is also... purple.
There's also arepEaster egg here: she's dressed like Elizabeth Taylor inCleopatra, which also starred her then-husband Richard Burton. The "Burton to this Taylor," lyric from '...Ready For It' says hi!
Then there's this hint at theSpeak NowCD art:
The hair clips.
TS and SN?Suspicious.
The Speak Now tour hints.
Let me present you these two images, one from the end of the 'Bejeweled' video, and one from the encore performance of 'Love Story' during theSpeak Nowtour:
But here's where things really jump the shark (oh, you thought that'd already happened? Ha!)
Taylor's new castle has stained glass windows, that feature the same koi fish design as the guitar she used to perform 'Last Kiss' during theSpeak Nowtour.
The stained glass windows also hint at this re-record, because of the lyrics inMidnightstrack 'Would've, Could've, Should've'. In this, she sings "Stained glass windows in my mind, I regret you all the time" (and that song is older Taylor reflecting on the same relationship as inSpeak Now's track 5, 'Dear John').
Anyone still with me?
In short:Speak Nowis coming, I'm excited as hell, and John Mayer is quaking.
The outfit choices nod to her past eras.
I can't believe we just analysed a guitar pattern. Let's ground ourselves with something a little more entry level:
folklore / evermore / reputation / 1989 pic.twitter.com/CQmjnhJbEj
— blank neto (@folkloration)
The1989floor.
Between floor 3 and 13, Taylor takes a brief stop to the 5th floor - which is shown as light blue, the colour she considers representative of her juggernaut 2014 album,1989.
She visits it second, which points to that re-recording coming afterSpeak Now.
A few other possible hints:
Taylor's return to pop.
In the video, Taylor receives a shell necklace which counts down to the end of her 'exile'.
Firstly, 'exile' is a song on her first pandemic albumfolklore.
She has described the 'Bejeweled' lyric 'I can still make the whole place
Chelsea McLaughlin
Author
No Comments
Be the first to leave a comment