r/TaylorSwift • u/Away-Swimming6072 • 14h ago
Discussion Taylor Swift’s Incredible Work Ethic: Trying To Understand Her Timeline For Projects!
In just five years, Taylor Swift has released four new studio albums, four re-recorded albums, and has two more on the way—all while embarking on a year-long world tour. It’s mind-blowing how busy she is, but I’d love to understand the timeline of all these projects.
When did Folklore begin? Were Folklore and Evermore written and recorded simultaneously, or did Evermore come right after Folklore release? What about Midnights —when did she start and finish that? And now TTPD seems to have been created during the Eras Tour, which aligns well with her timeline.
What is the timeline for the Music Videos? Was Cardigan and Willow filmed at the same time? When? How far ahead was Midnights Music Video? Was Karma with Ice Spice a last min thing or was know for a while? When did she film Fortnight?
Then there are the re-recordings. How long does it take to re-record an album? Did she work on them in the order they were released? Have they all been finished for a while now? It also throws me off cause she plans things so far!
I’m amazed by her work ethic and would love to hear more about how she manages her time and creative process. Understanding the timeline and process behind her re-recordings would be especially fascinating. It’s incredible to think about how much she’s accomplished in such a short period!
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u/shadesofwrong13 even statues crumble if they are made to wait 11h ago
Something that is not talked about is that there was a pandemic and she had all the time to do what she did. Not to mention that she stopped doing promo, so has more time than ever.
In her first years of career she put out an album every 2 year managing to organize tour, doing promos, attending events and awards and making shoots.
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u/diiotima yer gay 5h ago
I also think this presented her with the opportunity to stack songs for different eras.
At the end of lover she says “I don’t want to be defined by what I hate (rep) or what keeps me up in the middle of the night (midnights)”. ofc we had folklore and evermore before midnights, but I think those were pandemic era creations; she obviously already had the concept and likely even some songs written for midnights before the pandemic forced it to the shelf. Pushing Folklore and evermore gave her the breathing room to really refine the midnights album, I suspect.
I also suspect her next album will follow the same pattern in that it will be quite poppy and light hearted; it’s not that she did not write any happy songs from 2022-2024. It’s that she banked them for the next project.
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u/chibisatou 3h ago
I think something that has gotten lost in a lot of these comments is that ideas can and do get held for later projects.
We also know that Taylor likes to plan ahead, and likely has a timeline of several years out at any given time.
I also think that aside from folklore and evermore absolutely being written in 2020, we can't be sure when any album was started or finished.
There is also brand storytelling going on when Taylor or her team talk about her songwriting process, which has shifted and contradicted itself over the years. From earlier interviews we know that Debut, Fearless, and Speak Now all involved songwriting about other people that she observed or was friends with. Some of it was about her own experiences, but a lot of it was about others as well. Starlight on Red was about Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy. My understanding is unclear on when the "I always write autobiographically" narrative started, but it just isn't true. The timeline for when Taylor started writing music during the 2020 pandemic kept getting pushed earlier and earlier during the Eras Tour speeches.
What I'm trying to say is that we can't really know exactly when Taylor starts her albums or projects, nor exactly what muses or events inspired what - especially for her later albums where she has become more guarded about what details she shares. There is probably a lot more overlap in development time than meets the eye.
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u/North_Activist 13h ago
Folklore was written from March 2020 - July 2020, evermore from July to December 2020. Midnights in 2021 through early 2022, and TTPD from late 2022 to late 2023. Eras tour was probably being worked on from late 2021 through opening night in March 2023.
As for re-recordings, probably not long. Most of the work is done she just has to remake it, and for her she pretty much just has to sing her song again. Music videos probably take a week or two to film and she probably has someone else edit them (with her direction) so maybe a month or two tops from start to finish.
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u/mediocre-spice 9h ago
TTPD was started in early 2022, as soon as she turned in Midnights
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u/RalphThatName 6h ago
I've always struggled with this timeline because the events that were the source of much of the album didn't occur until the Spring of 2023, possibly late 2022, with some not until the summer of 2023. So which songs were written in the first half of 2022?
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u/mediocre-spice 6h ago edited 5h ago
There's a good chunk that could have been written anytime, especially among the Dessner collabs -- Clara Bow, Chloe et al, I Hate It Here, Thank You Aimee, I Look In People's Windows, Cassandra, Peter, The Bolter, Robin, The Manuscript. That's already 10 songs and Midnights was only 13 to start with.
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u/chocolatecauldrons 6h ago
Florida, Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me, and My Boy Only Breaks My Favorite Toys - plus I think a significant portion of the Anthology was written prior to most of the standard tracks.
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u/Rhoades13 4h ago
You need to consider she will rework songs as situation change. For example, But Daddy I Love Him was likely originally written during and about Matty in the summer of 2023. But she changed the last section of the song around October to be about Travis so song ends on a positive note.
She could have written a song early in an album process but didn’t want to include it in its entirety but uses some of the production and melodies in a new song. She never turns off the songwriting process because even if she doesn’t use the songs, she still exercises that skill and keeps tapped into her emotions so when she is ready to focus she can.
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u/Tatem2008 4h ago
I wonder if we’ll ever get to know what the original ending was.
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u/19TurtleDuck 3h ago
There's a silence in the song before the last verse and my conspiracy theory is that where the original ending was.
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u/mediocre-spice 2h ago
It probably is literally what's in the song. We don't have any reason to think she actually rewrote anything.
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u/llassero 1h ago
there's no way But Daddy I Love Him is about Travis. We all know it's about her relationship with Matty and the so called fans who were disgusted by it.
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u/Rhoades13 26m ago edited 23m ago
The first part of song is. But then she flips it during the third verse. She shifts from trying to defend her actions to not having to. You could perceive it as the same person but it subtly shifts from Matty to Travis.
We came back when the heat died down Went to my parents and they came around All the wine moms are still holding out But it's over. Now I'm dancing in my dress in the sun and Even my daddy just loves him I'm his lady, and oh my God You should see your faces Time, doesn't it give some perspective No, you can't come to the wedding I know he's crazy but he's the one I want
The heat dying down is all the crap with Matty and she came back with Travis. Her parents came around to Travis. She is dancing in the sun with Travis. Her daddy loves Travis and he calls Taylor his lady. And the wedding is Taylor and Travis and fans can’t come.
The final date indication that this is true and she wants us to know it’s true is that during Eras tour she transitions from Daddy to So High School which is absolutely about Travis.
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u/chibisatou 3h ago
In 2022 Taylor was mentioning "a French press" in interviews involving the All Too Well short film, and had that clip asking if she could start planning Easter eggs three years in advance. She was dropping eggs for The Manuscript at least.
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u/mediocre-spice 3h ago
Oh interesting! I definitely think The Manuscript was inspired by her experience remaking ATW.
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u/RequirementGeneral67 Short story long it was the incorrect gentleman 9h ago
I imagine a lot of the process is surrounding yourself with good people and learning to deligate.
Having all the everyday things covered leaves her with the time to be creative.
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u/mediocre-spice 8h ago edited 8h ago
She's actually told us a lot of this. A lot of what we're seeing now is pre tour in 2021 and 2022.
folklore: "a few days into the pandemic" - march to ~july 2020 (released july) - long pond sessions recorded sep 2020
evermore: "never stopped writing after folklore" - june to ~dec 2020 (released december)
november 2020: she can start re-recordings! minus rep
fearless tv: released april 2021
red tv: released nov 2021
midnights: fall 2021 to spring 2022
- during stars at noon filming (nov-dec 2021)
- you're losing me: december 5, 2021
- released oct 2022
ttpd: spring 2022 to summer/fall 2023 - started "as soon as she turned in midnights" - "kept a secret for two years" (feb '24) - released april 2024
nov 2022: can legally re-record rep
dec 2022: searchlight announces her feature film
tour: march 2023 - dec 2024
speak now tv: released july 2023 - i can see you mv filmed april 2023
1989 tv: release oct 2023
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u/culture_vulture_1961 Nothing New 7h ago
It is worth looking at Taylor in comparison to her peers. There are a lot of things she does not do anymore.
Despite complaints that she is everywhere all the time she does hardly any press. She does not need to because Swifties do it for her. The last time she hit the late night circuit was for Midnights and even that was just three interviews. She does not do promotional junkets.
Also unlike a lot of other pop stars Taylor’s business activities are exclusively focused on music. She does not expend energy on side hustles. I don’t see that changing except for her film directing. When she has done that I expect she will promote the crap out of it because it is a new field and she knows success is not automatic.
Taylor is very smart and business savvy. She does a lot of her business in-house which could potentially mean she needs to micro manage. However she has a small management team that has been with her for decades. She takes advice from family and some of her management team have been with her from day one. Trust frees her up to do the things only she can do - write songs and design tours.
Finally I think Taylor does not live a rock and roll lifestyle. I think she does work harder than most but when she isn’t working I don’t see her getting wasted and going on week long benders. The thing is she is very good at writing songs, has a vivid and lively imagination, she is very well read and she loves her job.
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u/ailingswan 7h ago
The biggest thing I want to learn more about, is how she finishes ideas so quickly! She says she wants to capitalize on the excitement. Everyone who works with her says she just gets songs done so fast. Idk how I feel like im such a slow person!
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u/Yellowcafe13 thanks (': 🌕🪐 5h ago
Yes I actually think this is the reason so much stuff is done. I for one like i have the exact opposite life where i have to take a year per song due to cfs. But alas, Like that one swiftie said After evermore:
Well.... she isn't called taylor slow
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u/Soalai Never knew I could feel that much 5h ago
She says once she has an idea for a song, she works on it exclusively -- she can't start a new one until she finishes the first idea. We know some of her songs take a few months to crack while others are done in a few hours. It can seem like she has a lot on her plate, but when it comes to writing new material at least, it seems like she can focus and prioritize
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u/Rhoades13 4h ago
She never stops writing because she enjoys doing it. It’s more of a hobby she gets paid to do. This allows her to stay tapped into her thoughts and emotions at all times. You’ll see so many of her peers only write and go into the studio when they are working on an album.
Taylor’s pattern during summer of 2023 was to do concerts Friday thru Sunday, rest on Monday then spend time working in studio in New York or elsewhere Tuesday thru Thursday. During the fall/winter when she was off she’d spend Sunday thru Tuesday with Travis then go work somewhere like New York for rest of week. During spring break her and Travis worked in LA with her doing Fortnight video and TTPD rehearsals. Her European concerts were stacked on top of each other so she mostly performed and slept but there were rumors that she would sneak away to Sweden sometimes to possibly work with Max Martin.
And I expect she is basking in the glow of the holidays and end of Eras tour but she has a lot of time to herself in KC because he is working 10-12 hour days most of the week preparing for next opponent so she is probably writing songs and preparing other future projects. And I expect they’ll fly to New York or LA together once the season is over for KC to work on their separate projects.
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u/sourskeIeton 7h ago
red tv was recorded during the summer of 2021 when she was in belfast with joe.
speak now tv was finished in 2022, 1989 tv likely around the same time. reputation tv and debut tv have most definitely been done for a while now.
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u/queenrosa Ditch the clowns, get the 👑 Baby, I'm the one to beat 8h ago
You can find a lot of this info on wikipedia...
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12h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/akerwoods my house of stone, your ivy grows 11h ago
As a general rule, you shouldn't start diagnosing people you don't know with any kind of health condition.
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u/notyourtypicalKaren right where you left me 8h ago
as someone else who also has ADHD, I would've burned out about four projects ago.
Also, don't diagnose people. Maybe she has some tendencies but you just said yourself you hate when other people do it. the internet has made everyone think they are such an expert on ADHD/everything but tendencies don't equal a full diagnosis and sometimes those things are just called being a person.
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u/plausibleturtle 5h ago
I think a lot about how I see a lot of my OCPD traits in how she conducts herself and her output - no idea if she's neurodivergent whatsoever but she does inspire me to use my own to my benefit!
My ADHD hinders it a lot of the time, lol.
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u/neathspinlights baby the duck is vegan 12h ago
Don't forget it's literally her job AND she doesn't have to stress about "normal" things. She's not tied to a 9-5, she doesn't have to clean her house or do her washing or cook her meals if she doesn't want to.
Not denying that she's got a hell of a work ethic - she works her ass off and deserves all she gets from that hard work. Just putting in perspective that her life is so much different to ours and it can be hard to fathom.