Top 10 Fan Theories About Taylor Swift's Folklore

When looking for inspiration for her new album, Taylor seems to have stayed quite close to home for at least one track. The lyrics for "The Last Great American Dynasty" make reference to characters named Rebekah and Bill, who have a home called “Holiday House”. Fans quickly made the connection to Swift’s own Rhode Island home, which shares the same name. After doing a bit of digging, they realized that Rebekah and William Harkness were actually once owners of the house. William was the heir to an oil fortune and suffered an untimely death, just like the character in the song.

Swift is known for including lots of easter eggs in her songs and music videos, and her latest video for “Cardigan” is no exception. There are many symbols that the singer/songwriter associates with, and one of the most prominent is the number 13, which appears early in the video when we see a clock whose hands are pointing to one and three. Some noticed her use of the word “favorite” which may be in reference to her beau Joe Alwyn, who appeared in the film “The Favorite”. Eagle eyed fans also noticed that the portrait of a man seen in the video is none other than Archie D. Swift, Jr., Swift’s grandfather.

We already looked at the history behind "The Last Great American Dynasty", but it’s also possible that there’s reference to the story in more than one track on the album. Another song is called “Betty” which just happened to be the nickname that Rebekah Harkness used. There are other associations with “Betty” (which we’ll delve into soon) but it’s interesting that Swift opted to use Rebekah’s nickname in such prominence on the album. Harkness ended up becoming one of America’s richest women after her marriage to William Harkness, and her life definitely has lots of interesting stories to tell.

Even though Swift seems to be happily settled into a relationship now, it would be off brand if she didn’t make some reference to her exes on this new album. On the track “Invisible Strings”, Swift sings about boys who broke her heart, and then talks about now buying their babies presents. One of Swift’s exes just so happened to have a baby in July of 2020, right around the time that “Folklore” was released. That ex, of course, is Joe Jonas, who welcomed his daughter Willa with wife Sophie Turner.

Swift made clear that she was going to explore alternate perspectives on “Folklore” but one song got fans convinced that there’s a queer backstory. The song “Betty” is ostensibly told from the perspective of a teenage boy named James, but fans aren’t ready to take that explanation at face value. Some were quick to point out that Swift is actually named after James Taylor, and claimed that the James referenced in the song is actually her. They’ve also suggested that “Betty” is really her friend Karlie Kloss, whose middle name is Elizabeth. Swift has been a vocal supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, and lyrics like this have made many wonder if it’s a community she’s actually a part of.

When Swift announced “Folklore” she mentioned some of her collaborators including someone named “William Bowery”. The thing is though, William Bowery doesn’t exist. She didn’t tag his Instagram handle and there doesn’t seem to be anyone in the industry using that name. The speculation quickly began as to who “William Bowery” could be referring to, and many guessed that it’s none other than Swift’s boyfriend Joe Alwyn. Swift and Alwyn spent time at the Bowery Hotel together and Alwyn has an ancestor by the name of William so it’s possible there’s a connection - but as of now we’re still guessing.

When Swift released “Folklore”, we also got a new music video for “Cardigan”. Fans were of course quick to pick it apart, and many noticed connections of Swift’s ex, Harry Styles. A shot of Swift playing the piano looks remarkably similar to one from Styles’s video for “Falling”, which can’t be a coincidence. Likewise, there’s a scene of Swift grasping onto a piano as it floats in the sea, and “Falling” features a shot of Styles playing the piano underwater. What does this all mean? What sort of message is she trying to convey? We may never know.

Anyone who has been following Swift’s career is surely aware of her feud with talent manager Scooter Braun, who purchased her former record label and thus acquired the rights to the songs from her first six albums. Swift has been vocal about the injustice of not being in control of her own music, and there are two songs on “Folklore” that potentially make reference to this struggle. Both “Mad Woman” and "My Tears Ricochet" feature lyrics that many have interpreted as being related to Scooter and his wife Yael.

The song “Betty” features three names in the lyrics: Betty, James and Inez. Fans were quick to point out that James and Inez were the names of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’s two children, and guessed that perhaps Betty was the name of their third child, which had not been officially announced. It could have been a coincidence, but a source close to the family claimed it was true. Both Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively reacted to the new album on Instagram, with Ryan sharing a screenshot from “Cardigan” and Blake praising the album effusively.

Swift said that three songs on the album represent a “teenage love triangle” but didn’t actually tell us which three they were. Of course, fans were sure to immediately try to figure it out. The most commonly held view is that the three songs in question are “Betty” (which is told by James’s point of view), “August” (Inez’s point of view) and finally “Cardigan” (Betty’s point of view). There is some debate, with others positing that “Illicit Affairs” is actually the third song in the trifecta, since all three share themes of infidelity. She’ll tell us one day...right?