Bleachella (Taylor's Version)
The Catch-Up
Welcome to Wonderful Things! Keep up with the swiftie community by subscribing for free:
I guess I’m still not used to Taylor Swift being a person who goes Places and does Things, because I’m still scraping my jaw off the floor after opening Twitter early this morning to find out that Taylor had been spotted at Coachella.
Swifties had already spent hours poring over footage like it was the Zapruder film. There’s a video of Taylor flipping her baseball cap around. Travis Kelce lifting Taylor to see above the crowd. Taylor reacting to Ice Spice giving her a shoutout on stage. Taylor and Travis watching Bleachers. There’s media coverage of her outfit, her dancing, her photo with Teresa Giudice.
Remembering Bleachella
If you joined the fandom during the reputation era or later, you might not be familiar with the mini-era dubbed “Bleachella,” which Taylor launched in mid-April 2016 with a Vogue cover and Instagram post. The events of this polarizing era would go down in swiftie history and lead to a light conspiracy theory that remains popular today.
After debuting her new platinum hair online, Taylor spent the weekend at Coachella to support her then-boyfriend Calvin Harris. Swifties spent the weekend debating her new hair and going feral over all the new Taylor content coming out of the festival.
A few weeks later, on May 2, Taylor attended the Met Gala as co-chair. To fit with the “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology” theme, she wore a custom Louis Vuitton metallic snakeskin-patterned mini dress with lace-up heels and deep plum lipstick.
We don’t need to relitigate the look. What’s important is what happened while Taylor was wearing it: She was photographed dancing with Tom Hiddleston, and she (allegedly) met Joe Alwyn. We didn’t know the significance of the night as it happened, but soon realized that Bleachella wouldn’t survive its consequences.
Taylor and Calvin Harris split dramatically a month after the Met Gala, and Taylor started dating Tom. By the time she was photographed on the beach in England with Tom’s mother at the end of June, Taylor’s hair had returned to its more tame pre-Bleachella blonde.
Some swifties believe that Taylor had been planning to release her sixth album in autumn 2016, following her usual release schedule, but scrapped it during the Kanye drama of summer 2016 in favor of 2017’s reputation. They point to Taylor’s darker, grungier Bleachella look as (one piece of) evidence that she had started transitioning to her TS6 look as early as spring 2016.
We may never find out if Karma is real, but we finally know what Bleachella looks like to a new generation of fans: Taylor laughing and dancing with her boyfriend during a break from the biggest tour in history, a week before dropping an album set to demolish nearly every conceivable record.
I think that’s an upgrade.
Because it’s TTPD release week, read on for more of the latest, including:
TTPD gets signed CDs, with a security upgrade
Target-exclusive CD variants
Another lyric drop
Secret messages return
An Aaron Dessner update
Did Taylor Nation confirm what “loml” stands for?
Taylor’s TikTok deal
‘All Too Well’ on SNL
A Security Upgrade on Signed CDs and Vinyl
The 13th of April brought signed versions of “The Manuscript” with checkout having seen a security upgrade since the Midnights signed variants:
Limit one per person
Waiting room before purchase
Captcha required for purchase
The process didn’t go perfectly: I saw multiple reports of people struggling to get through the Captcha (it took me three tries) or missing the minuscule “submit” button right below it, the Australian store dropped its stock while Australians were sleeping, international stores seemed to get very little stock overall, and we still need cart timers to make sure people who intend to make a purchase actually have a chance. So there’s still a lot of room to improve to make sure merch gets into the hands of actual fans before resellers and bots, but it’s heartening to see that our voices are being heard.
Target-Exclusive Tortured Poets CDs
Good news if you were hoping to get your hands on the four TTPD bonus tracks but didn’t score the collector’s editions: You can now pre-order all four editions of the CD at Target, each complete with its respective bonus track and a double-sided poster.
Another TTPD Lyric Drop + an Aaron Dessner Update
Taylor tweeted a lyric to promote the Target-exclusive phantom clear vinyl: “I wish I could un-recall how we almost had it all.”
It didn’t take long for swifties to notice an easter egg hidden in the tweet: Producer Aaron Dessner’s name is just barely visible on the record’s center label as a fun reminder that we truly have no idea what this album is going to sound like.
Secret Messages Return
Taylor is back to her days of hiding secret messages in the liner notes, but this time it’s on Apple Music. Every day until the album’s release, check the lyrics on songs on TTPD’s Apple Music playlists to find which one has random capitalized letters. Unscramble the letters to find a word that will tell you … something. We’re not sure yet.
Saturday’s word was “hereby,” found in “Glitch,” and Sunday’s word was “conduct,” found in “peace.”
Taylor Nation’s ‘loml’
Taylor Nation set off a mild panic by tweeting about “the loml’s brand new album” on Friday. Was TN confirming that “loml” stands for the traditional “love of my life” and not something unhinged like “loss of my life”? Or is TN as in the dark as the rest of us? We’ll find out this week.
SNL Parodies ‘All Too Well’
Emily Blunt joined Ryan Gosling on Saturday Night Live to perform a parody of “All Too Well” as an attempted farewell to his Ken character in Barbie. As Ryan says, “For processing a breakup there’s really only one thing that can help: the music of the great Taylor Swift.”
Taylor herself acknowledged the musical monologue in a tweet on Sunday night: “All Too Well (Ryan and Emily’s Version) !!! Watch me accidentally catch myself singing this version on tour. This monologue is EVERYTHING 🫶🫶👏👏”
In Other News
Revisiting Clara Bow, the Scrutinized “It Girl” Who Inspired Taylor Swift’s New Song (Vanity Fair)
Ina Garten Was Up at 3 A.M. to Buy Taylor Swift Tickets — Now She’s Planning Her ‘Sparkly’ Outfit (People)
What happens when Taylor Swift wears your brand? One business reached its monthly sales goal in a day. (Business Insider)
Taylor Swift turned down $9M offer to perform private show in the United Arab Emirates, French Montana claims (Page Six)
Taylor Swift surprised at Coachella. These artists may have predicted it. (SFGATE)
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announces Taylor Swift Fan Day for April 19 (WKYC)
That’s it for The Catch-Up this week. See you on Thursday for a preview of The Tortured Poets Department.