As soon as Taylor Swift released her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, her fans started working to decode every possible clue she left about her love life. Though many Swifties expected the album to focus on her breakup with Joe Alwyn after six years together, her brief romance with Matty Healy in mid-2023 emerged as the likely inspiration for some of the album’s buzziest tracks. The list may even include Tortured Poets’ first single, “Fortnight (feat. Post Malone),” and its Easter egg-filled music video.
“Fortnight”-Meets-The 1975
“Fortnight” is about a short but intense relationship. “And for a fortnight there, we were forever,” Swift sings in the chorus. Her lyrics show an imagined scenario where the two exes are married but still have to see each other. She captures the difficulty of the situation with lines like “I love you, it’s ruining my life.”
There are other Tortured Poets tracks that seem more blatantly about Healy, but the music video is full of nods to his band, according to TikToker Kelsie Carlos. As a fan of both Swift and The 1975, she described herself as someone “who knows way too much about them.” She put that knowledge to good use by breaking down the “Fortnight” video in a now-viral TikTok and explaining how she thinks Swift pays “homage” to Healy.
The Matty Healy “Homage”
The TikTok shows Carlos’ deep dive into “Fortnight” and the 11 ways she thinks Swift referenced The 1975. The “Fortnight” music video’s visuals are a big one for her, and she analyzes the black-and-white aesthetic, the lab setting, the silent film-inspired makeup, and more. Several specific symbols are just as telling, especially the box, which is a shape seen in the band’s logo and frequently in their work, she explains.
“For my 1975 fans, you know the box very well,” Carlos says. “And while Tyalor is getting her brain zapped to forget about this man that she’s talking about in the song — Matty — she is quite literally inside the box.”
Her list of similarities goes on, and many of the people in her comments section saw what she meant about Swift’s “homage.” “She made it so obvious,” one wrote. Another fan added, “Being a 1975 fan through this album release has been crazy. I feel like we’re all getting our own niche little easter eggs from Taylor.”
Watch the full TikTok below.
The Tortured Poets Department is out now.
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