Taylor Swift Subtly References Joe Alwyn in Her 'Ready for It' Music Video
There’s a lot to unpack in the “Ready for It” video that Taylor Swift dropped last night. The storyline, even after several viewings, is still unclear. We know Swift plays some kind of animatronic cyborg; she skulks around a futuristic-looking basement menacingly, fiddles with a neon crystal ball, and gets into a fight with herself at one point. But how these ideas are connected to a song seemingly about a relationship is still a mystery.
One thing that’s clear, though, is the reference she makes to her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, at the top of the video. It happens around the 16-second mark: The numbers 89 and 91 are spray-painted on the wall behind Swift. The first is an obvious self-reference—Swift, as we all know by now, was born in 1989—and the second is most likely a nod to Alwyn, whose birthday is February 21, 1991. Take a look at the numbers for yourself, below:
There’s one more 1989 reference you might’ve missed in the video, too. The phrase “The Year of the Snake” appears in Chinese toward the beginning of the video. Swift was infamously branded as a “snake” last year after that whole Kim Kardashian Snapchat drama. She’s since reclaimed that image, and she does it again here…because 1989 is the Year of the Snake. Connections!
It’s no surprise Swift nodded to Alwyn in this video. Most fans think “Ready for It” is about the English actor, whom Swift has been dating for more than a year. The lyrics make several not-so-subtle references to him. “Younger than my exes, but he acts like such a man,” Swift sings at one point. (Alwyn is 26—noticeably younger than her last two boyfriends, Calvin Harris and Tom Hiddleston.) The vibe of the tune also indicates a loose Alwyn theme: It’s about the giddy, bubbly stages of a new relationship.
“Ready for It” is the second song Swift’s released from her new album, Reputation. She dropped the first, “Look What You Made Me Do,” in late August, and the third (“Gorgeous”) just last week. The album is due out November 10.
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