After more than fifteen years, Taylor Swift is still finding ways to surprise her fans. Her newest album Red (Taylor's Version) was the talk of the town for months before it was released, but somehow Swift managed to keep both music videos from the album completely secret. Just a few days before the album came out, she announced there would be an accompanying short film called "All Too Well: The Short Film." Then, a few days later, she revealed that there would also be a music video for her song "I Bet You Think About Me," which is one of the few brand new songs on Red (Taylor's Version). The song features Chris Stapleton, and the music video is directed by Swift's longtime friend Blake Lively.
With the release of these brand new Taylor Swift music videos, fans are ready to look for clues. Swift is known to include secret clues in her music videos, called "Easter eggs," that often hint at what Swift will be up to next. Fans are still looking for the Easter eggs in the newest music videos, but these are the most fascinating Easter eggs from music videos past.
6 How She First Started Leaving Easter Eggs
In a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Swift shared the full story of how she become so invested in leaving Easter eggs for her fans to find. She said "The first time that I started dropping... clues and things in my music was... I was 14 and 15 putting together my first album... I wanted to do something that incentivized fans to read the lyrics... so in my lyrics... I would have all lower case letter lyrics except for capital letter, capital letter... every once in a while. And if they circled the capital letter and wrote them down it spelled out a secret code, a secret passage... it was really fun."
5 "Look What You Made Me Do" Was Chock Full Of Easter Eggs
"Look What You Made Me Do" might be Taylor Swift's most Easter egg-filled video of all. It was the lead single from Swift's sixth studio album reputation, which was the first album she released in more than three years, following the release of her Grammy-winning album 1989 all the way back in 2014. Therefore, it's no surprise that the "Look What You Made Me Do" music video was a huge deal for Taylor Swift fans, and knowing this, Swift made sure to fill the video with Easter eggs.
In her recent interview with Jimmy Fallon, Swift explained that "Look What You Made Me Do" was the first time she made a "crazy video" where the Easter eggs "got out of control". She explained, "I started playing with doing nods to former musical eras... and all kinds of weird stuff" for fans to find. She joked that fans could, "go through the video and be like 'That over there! What's that? What's that?'" Funnily enough, Jimmy Fallon revealed that that's exactly what he does when he watches a Taylor Swift music video!
Easter eggs in this video included Swift's many costumes (she dressed up as herself from earlier era, and she also dressed up as her then-rival Katy Perry) and a grave stone with the name "Nils Sjoberg" which was the fake name Swift used when she wrote "This Is What You Came For" with her ex-boyfriend Calvin Harris.
4 "Me!" (Feat. Brendon Urie Of Panic! At The Disco) Hinted At Future Songs
When Taylor Swift released "Me!" in April 2019, fans couldn't stop talking about the Easter eggs in the music video, probably because Swift herself directly told her fans that the video was chock full of them. In a Q&A on YouTube, she said: "Okay regarding Easter eggs.. there are a lot of them in this video. Some you'll find out right away and some will take a minute to reveal their meaning." Perhaps the biggest Easter egg of all was that the title of her new album (Lover) was briefly written in the background of one scene. Another major Easter egg was that the title of Swift's next single, "You Need To Calm Down," was spoken by Brendan Urie at the very beginning of the video.
3 "The Man" Starred Taylor Swift In An Incredible Costume
"The Man" was the final music video from Lover, and it was also the final music video Taylor Swift released that was chock full of Easter eggs before she decided to take a more subtle approach on her next few music videos. The most fascinating Easter egg in this video might also be the most obvious – the main character is played by Taylor Swift herself! Taylor Swift spent hours in the make-up chair in order to disguise herself as "The Man" and while some fans realized it was Swift immediately, others had no idea until her transformation was revealed at the end of the video. Another not-so-subtle Easter egg in the video is when Taylor's male alter ego pees on a subway wall that has the names of Taylor Swift's first six albums written on it.
2 "Cardigan" Featured A Picture Of Taylor Swift's Grandfather
"Cardigan" was the lead single from Taylor Swift's 2020 album folklore. When speaking about potential Easter eggs prior to the videos release, Swift said: "One thing I did purposely on this album was put the Easter eggs in the lyrics, more than just the videos.” However, that's not to say that there weren't any Easter eggs in the "Cardigan" music video – far from it. In particular, one scene at the beginning of the video shows a picture of Taylor's grandfather and a clock with the hands pointing to "1" and "3." The 13th track on folklore, called "Epiphany," was inspired by Swift's grandfather.
1 "Willow" Made Reference To Taylor Swift's Previous Album, 'Folklore'
"Willow" was the lead single from evermore, which Taylor Swift considered to be the "sister album" to folklore. Fittingly, the music video for "Willow" picks up exactly where the music video fro cardigan left off, something that eagle-eyed Swift fans were quick to notice. Throughout the "Willow" video, Swift is following a golden string, which many fans think was a reference to the folklore song "Invisible String," in which Swift sings about a "single thread of gold" that connected her to her partner.
