What Goes On In The 'Tortured Poets Department'? The Memes Of Taylor Swift's New Album, Explained

On 2024's internet, trying to avoid Taylor Swift is like trying to avoid the sky. Her fans, critics, stans and haters swarm every feed and timeline with memes and hot takes. Her latest album, the Tortured Poets Department, may not be your cup of tea and would take two hours to listen through in its entirety.

So here's a quick explanation of the most viral moments from the album. Hopefully, it can help you to orient yourself in the latest rounds of Taylor Swift discourse.

What Is The Tortured Poets Department?

The album has thirty-one songs and runs at just over two hours long. It's made of the original album plus "the Anthology," a whole other set of tracks which Taylor has also written. It is produced by both Swift's frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff and by Aaron Dessner.

The name of the album has inspired many memes. It seems that Taylor Swift thinks being a poet means writing with a quill pen or a typewriter, that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. The main tortured poet in the album appears to be Swift herself, followed by some of the men in her life and, maybe, her fans.

Is It About Matty Healy, Joe Alwyn, Or Travis Kelce?

While decoding Swift's lyrics is a cottage industry and one of her fanbase's favorite pastimes, some of the lines from this album appear to be pretty clearly about the latest period of Swift's life. In 2023, she reached a new peak of fame with the Eras Tour and saw a turbulent romantic period. Swift broke with long-time boyfriend Joe Alwyn, briefly (and controversially) dated 1975 frontman Matty Healy before finally settling down with football player Travis Kelce in what
some have argued is a psyop.

Throughout this period of change in Swift's life, one constant has been obsessive public attention on her every move and personal decision. Each of these relationships was turned into countless memes, discourses, and clickbait headlines. Now, they've been turned into songs.

According to observers, Tortured Poets Department is mostly about Matty Healy with some Alwyn and Travis Kelce thrown in. Lyrics make reference to a tattooed, potty-mouthed English lover with whom the author has had an on-again-off-again relationship. Healy famously got Swift in trouble with her fans for his public comments on the Cumtown podcast about Ice Spice.

In one memorable lyric, Swift describes a lover who is presumably Healy as a "tattooed golden retriever" and the two declare that "Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist." This inspired a series of memes with posters replacing Puth's name with their own preferred character.

What Are Some Of The Memes About The Album?

Many of the memes made about the album turn around specific lyrical choices, lines which either reflect the Swiftian mindset or make reference to one of her public relationships.

The line you know how to ball, I know Aristotle / touch me while your boys play Grand Theft Auto made many listeners think of Travis Kelce, leading to memes about the relationship between the two and the strangeness of intimate acts while gaming with the bros.

Others latched onto the line you wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me, seeing it as encapsulating Swift's self-dramatizing poetic flair. Many used the line ironically as a caption for images.

Fans also appreciated Swift's declaration that if she had to pick another decade to live in, I'd say the 1830s without all the racists. A few posters jokingly read between the lines, calling Swift racist, while others questioned her understanding of American history or joked about the image of the past she seems to hold.

What Do Fans Think Of The Album?

In general, the reception of the album has been mixed. Major reviewers have argued that the album is too long. Some online have criticized Jack Antonoff's production, arguing that it has turned stale. But many Swifties also love the album. Streaming data on Spotify shows it breaking records and Rolling Stone called it an "instant classic."

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For the full history of the "Tortured Poets Department," be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.