Single “Fortnight”
Outfits, films, actors: The hidden messages in Taylor Swift’s new music video
Taylor Swift at the Grammy Awards in February 2024
© Imago Images
Taylor Swift is known for giving her fans riddles or hidden clues. This also applies to the new single “Fortnight”. There is a lot to discover in the music video for the song.
Taylor Swift releases video for single “Fortnight”
Swift herself wrote on Instagram: “Pretty much everything in the video is a metaphor or reference to a detail of this or another album.” In fact, numerous fans have already taken the trouble to analyze every little thing in the four-minute work. Starting with the white dress that Swift appears in at the beginning of the video. It’s reminiscent of her Grammy outfit this year: She attended the awards ceremony in February in an off-the-shoulder Schiaparelli gown and announced her new album. The long gloves and a watch necklace that Swift not only wore at the Grammys but is now also wearing in the video also match.
Her striking make-up with heavily made-up eyes, dark lipstick and thin eyebrows is seen as a homage to the silent film actress Clara Bow: Swift dedicated a song to her on the album. The actress was known, among other things, for her turbulent love life – a similarity she shares with Taylor Swift. In the video for “Fortnight,” the singer is given pills from a can that says “Forget him.” Swift’s date of birth – December 13, 1989 – and the release date of the video are also printed on the label.
The artist is known for discussing failed relationships and ex-boyfriends in her songs. Several tracks on the album contain references to actor Joe Alwyn and musician Matty Healy, with whom Swift was most recently in a relationship. Swift is said to have suffered particularly from the separation from Alwyn, with whom she spent six years together. The black dress she wears in the video is therefore seen as a kind of mourning outfit.
Taylor Swift gets criticized for a lyric in a song
And that’s not all: With ruffles and a corset, it is reminiscent of 19th century fashion, and its dancers are wearing almost identical outfits on the current “The Eras Tour”. In fact, in her new song “I Hate It Here,” Swift sings: “My friends used to play a game where / We would pick a decade / We wished we could live in instead of this / I’d say the 1830s but without all that racists.” A line for which she has to face criticism on social media. The accusation is that it trivializes the era when slavery was commonplace in the USA and indigenous peoples were driven off their land.
Other scenes in the music video contain a reference to the film “Don’t forget me!” with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as well as reminiscences of older Swift songs such as “The Story of Us”, “Style” and “Cardigan”. In a brief moment, a black dog can be seen – matching the title “Black Dog” on the album.
Finally, actors Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles make a special appearance in the video. Both appeared in the classic “Dead Poets Society”. The film was released in 1989 – the year the singer was born. Thirty-five years later they appear as mad scientists in Swift’s “Department of Tormented Poets.” “It’s a huge honor,” Hawke wrote on Instagram, and Charles gushed, “I’ve admired Taylor for a long time, but meeting her in person has taken my fanship to a whole new level.”