Week 4 post 2: folklore

 In Taylor Swift’s folklore, she breaks the boundaries of her past work and provides listeners with an album relevant to their current life. Swift released folklore a day after announcing it, just 11 months after her last album Lover. Another key difference is the change in genre. Swift has done and excelled in country and pop, and has even dabbled in hip hop in her album reputation, but folklore is the first time she has ventured into alternative indie folk. Most importantly, this album is not autobiographical like her previous work. She weaves together historical stories, personal stories, fictional stories, and combinations of all three into songs that blur the lines between fantasy and reality. Instead of first-person narratives, the listener becomes a part of a fictional world with relatable characters. 

Songs like My Tears Ricochet is literally about a tormentor showing up at the funeral of their object of obsession, but the lyrics connect to Scott Borchetta’s betrayal of Swift with the sale of her records. The Last Great American Dynasty tells the story of Rebekah Harkness, and at the end, Swift connects the story to herself when she buys Harkness’s old house. Epiphany tells a fictional story of Swift’s real grandfather at war. Because of the relatability these songs have towards Swift and the modern world listeners cannot help but connect with them and find themselves a part Swift’s fantasy, escapist world. When this album was released in 2020 during quarantine, this was exactly the escape people were looking for, which is a major reason for the album’s success.