this is longgg and i cant figure out how to add a cut on asks so sorry followers
the literal first lyric is “Walking through a crowd, the village is aglow/ Kaleidoscope of loud heartbeats under coats” like this album starts with a celebration of bright lights and loud sounds making you come alive. wtny also has “the lights are so bright, but they never blind me;” its a solitary experience, one that hurts others, but one taylor can withstand. and this holds up throughout the album.
there's notably no light in blank space but crystal skies (a luxurious glass bowl around her world) and burning flames (passion gone array).
Then theres “Midnight/ You come and pick me up, no headlights” in style--headlights in taylor swift is all about the future: we have treacherous where she’s embracing a future with someone else, cruel summer where she’s convincing herself there is no future in the second verse, ithk where there is no set future but there is their love, etc etc. In Style its a similar effect as cruel summer (they cant see their future, they dont know whats coming) and it serves the dual purpose of adding an element of secrecy. their love can’t survive outside of the dark. the mv also plays with the day/night aspects of their relationship; we have america’s sweetheart in the day, happy, in love, but all alone. at night we have the reality of her and the relationship: fleeting, mismatched, adult. (the blank space music video takes place entirely in the day-- also a play on her reputation).
in out of the woods, we get two fun things “the night we couldn't quite forget, when we decided to move the furniture so we could dance” and “when the sun came up i was looking at you/you were looking at me” if you follow the daylight = reputation/outside judgement metaphor from blank space and style, the song becomes two lovers’ private world being brought into the open, and then the next song, they break up.
shake it off has some glancing “I stay out too late,” but the motif really picks up with iwyw and the return of headlights! “It's 2AM in my room/ Headlights pass the window pane/ I think of you” the fun thing about this is that the headlights shut off once they actually come face to face: “2AM, here we are/ See your face, hear my voice in the dark.” the farthest into the future they're thinking is getting back together, but once they are together they don’t look further.
bad blood has “What was shiny/ Now it's all rusted” which is another example of a relationship not surviving in light. wildest dreams is the fun part; it takes place at sunset. its about trying to escape from view, driving from the city and its blinding lights, but still being stuck in the end. (theres also burning it down, a throwback to blank space).
theres some flames in this love and i know places representing the fragility of their love, but the album closes with a whole thing with storms. to catch up; in blank space the relationship ends in perfect storms, in hygtg she wants her ex to show up in the rain. in the out of the woods mv there's a storm, and style and wildest dreams both have lightning in the mv. clouds that cover crystal skies, darkness, with flashes of harmful light. (shake it off, a song about accepting the chaos of her life, has “lightning on my feet”). and then, in clean she emerges from the storm, well, clean.
