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By Scott T. Sterling
Deciphering the meaning (and targets) of Swift’s songs is always of paramount concern to her vast fanbase, and her new single is no exception.
While it’s pretty obvious that “Look What You Made Me Do” is a not-so-thinly veiled shot at rapper Kanye West, “…Ready for It,” is a little more difficult to parse.
Related: Taylor Swift Drops New Song, ‘…Ready for It’
Perusing the lyrics to the second single from her forthcoming album, Reputation, it’s apparent that someone is being hung out to dry, while someone else is being championed as the man of her dreams.
Lines such as “Some, Some boys are trying too hard/He don’t try at all though /Younger than my exes but he acts like such a man, so,” can very easily be taken as a reference to Swift’s current boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, who at 26 is younger than her two previous guys, Calvin Harris (33) and Tom Hiddleston (36).
Taken in another way, however, and the song could be Swift reminiscing about her time with One Direction’s Harry Styles.
At 26, Styles qualifies as not only “Younger than my exes,” but younger than Swift herself, who is 27.
When Swift sings, “First time that I saw him/Wonder how many girls he had loved and left haunted/But if he’s a ghost then I can be a phantom,” it could easily be taken as a reference to Styles. His single, “Two Ghosts,” which was construed by many as being about Swift.
“But if I’m a thief, then he can join the heist/And we’ll move to an island” and “Island breeze and lights down low” could point to Swift and Styles’ notorious joint vacation to the British Virgin Islands where they reportedly broke up.
Pretty much all of Swift’s exes are likely feeling a chill after hearing her sing the lines, “Every lover known in comparison is a failure/I forget their names now, I’m so very tame now.”
While we can only wait for more clues, confirmations and/or denials from everyone involved, fans will no doubt enjoy speculating who exactly Taylor is singing about in “…Ready for It.”
