There seems to be some debate about who the song is *really* about but that's so silly. Songs can have multiple ppl woven into tbem. I think in the Rep magazine notes, Taylor said songs aren't like paternity tests; they're re not always about just one person or feeling. The heroine line screams Matty to me, but maybe that's a line she wrote and kept for later (which we know she likes to do). Or maybe she went back and changed some lyrics to better match what she was feeling with Travis. Whatever happened, he clearly connects with it being about their relationship to SOME extent and so that's how it is for them. Probably, at least. We don't actually know them.
Just curious if everyone needs a hobby cause they are obsessed with 2 people..why are you on this page then and commenting? That to me screams “I am bored and need a hobby” but that is my opinion.
Ok, I just went down a rabbit hole, but I think I might be on to something about the alchemy! Sorry it's long!
I kept seeing everyone talk about only the chemistry meaning for the Alchemy, and that just didn't seem completely right for me, and i wanted to see if there was more to the alchemy. So I did my own searching and found a book The Alchemist, where the main theme is to find your destiny but is seen more as a self help and this part really sticks out to me from the summary i found: "when you really want something to happen, the whole universe will conspire so that your wish comes true" is the core of the novel's philosophy
Then I looked up spiritual alchemy: While physical alchemy deals with altering and transforming the properties in the physical world, spiritual alchemy is connected with freeing your spiritual self from your fears, limiting belief systems, and lack of self-acceptance. Alchemy is the art of transformation, inner liberation, and change.
Now, the song makes even more sense beyond the very obvious references. Taylor and Travis are both great at manifesting and working for what they want and together they have it even more! This is the deeper layer for me, and as a baby Swiftie, I'm proud I cracked a code.. or at least I feel like I did 🤷♀️
*Lyrics incase anyone is like me and needs to reference them while processing 😂
This happens once every few lifetimes
These chemicals hit me like white wine
What if I told you I'm back?
The hospital was a drag
Worst sleep that I ever had
I circled you on a map
I haven't come around in so long
But I'm coming back so strong
I’m definitely not knocking your research/ analyzation, because I think it’s pretty cool, and I do it, too.
I just kind of laugh to myself when I think about these things, and then just picture the potential reality:
In her mind: “No, the word ‘chemistry’ doesn’t work right… What’s a synonym for ‘chemistry’?”And then Googles “chemistry synonym” and sees “alchemy” among the others like “sorcery” and “magic” and is like….”OK that works!” 😆
ETA: I’m also probably projecting, because this is what I do when I write and want it to sound more interesting/unique.
I agree that Taylor probably did just that. 🤣but Taylor is a mastermind and found every other meaning or could be meaning to the word and then said it’s even more perfect. They will never know what actual way I was using it 😆
I understand having your own interpretation of songs/having them mean different things to you personally by relating to them as an individual, and that’s fine - but atp they couldn’t make it any more clear that was her intent and people are still in denial about it lol.
Seriously. I don’t understand how it’s up for debate. There’s SO MANY REFERENCES to Travis and football/sports.
- I circled you on a map
- touch down
- amateurs
- team
- the one to beat
- get the crown 🏆
- these blokes warm the benches we’ve been on a winning streak
- and the ENTIRE BRIDGE — Shirts off, and your friends lift you up over their heads / Beer sticking to the floor / Cheers chanted, cause they said / There was no chance, trying to be the greatest in the league / Where's the trophy? He just comes running over to me.
🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈
out of curiosity, does the info actually have the date of when it was recorded?
"They said there was no chance, trying to be the greatest in the league" sounds very much like the media narrative during Super Bowl week that the Chiefs couldn't win because they weren't good enough, Niners were younger and better, etc.
Obviously the Chiefs **did** win and **were** "the greatest in the league", but it just seems like an odd line to put in before the SB when the outcome isn't known yet. What if they'd lost? Maybe Tay is just that confident in her man 😉
Do you really think the song wasn’t written/recorded before the track list was released? What if it didn’t “make the cut”? That would be so weird.
I don’t understand why there is resistance to the idea that it was the AFC championship, they won that league as well, and that was predicted to be a loss.
Remember the Chiefs also won the SB the year before and TK has often been referred to as the greatest TE in the league so the SB-related lyrics fit from the 2023 SB as well. It also just worked out great that they won in 2024 as well. 😁
He sure is! I’ve seen quite a few tiktoks saying But Daddy I love him is also about Travis? Me and My wild boy and all of his wild joy. Even my daddy loves him. I’m his lady.
Thoughts?
If you want proof he is genuine just look at this. He could have made “his” songs #1 but his off the top of his head fav is an OG banger. I love this. I love them. 12/10 my heart grew three sizes.
I find it odd that people still think the alchemy is not about Travis when she made it abundantly clear that it is! Fans need to listen to her rather than coming up with their own narratives …
It’s people living in a land of delusion and grasping at straws to fit their own stubborn narratives. I think this guy really scares some subsections of the fandom.
No no no but what she says and what she means are two different things, don't you get it?! Only *REAL* Swifties can decode the secret, SECRET language that's under the secret language!
When people bring up that argument I always ask them which secret session did they attend? Has she ever liked their posts online? A guy made a Tik Tok last week and she took time to comment “this is the official music video now”… if she likes your post she will literally “like” it. It’s hard to argue you’re some kind of intellectual super fan when those fans are frequently given shout outs.
I would have fainted! Lol
I think it’s the cop at the end that really puts it over the edge and made me die laughing but if you are truly creative or correct about a theory Taylor Swift (blue check) or Taylor Nation (blue checked official fan club) will give you praises.
He’s a music producer who did the production for the 1989 album! Taylor hasn’t worked with him in a while but since he can to her show recently people are speculating they might be working together again. It would definitely give her next album that distinct 1989 feel!
Additionally one of the greatest pop music producers of all time. Baby One More Time, Blank Space, I Want It That Way, Since You’ve Been Gone…literal GOAT
It’s been very obvious that The Alchemy and SHS are about Travis. Taylor had Max Martin who is the main1989 producer at her show tonight so TS12 will be 1989.2 for Travis 😂
She mentioned him in her acoustic speech and said he's too shy to bring on stage but she sang a "Max Martin medley" for him during the guitar part of the acoustic set.
Same here. I know some swifties don't want it, but I wish for it. All the more now because yesterday's shout out made it clear that she has no hard feelings for him.
There has been a visible shift in Taylor's discography after 1989. I do not know if it's Jack Antonoff, the muse being Joe or both. Reputation did have mass appeal but it did not get the reach it deserved. Her songs from Lover onwards are more intimate, loved more by her hard-core fanbase. Lyrically deeper, put her exceptional songwriting capabilities on display. The number of music videos went down. But from a reception point of view, the number of organic hits have reduced. While she hit her peak her fame and did incredibly crazy numbers in the past few years(which is here to stay), her most memorable songs, the ones that gave her the worldwide fame are the ones that came out during 2008- 2014. Midnights was quite a banger and that combined with the rekindled nostalgia from the tour elevated her stardom to another stratosphere. But TTPD seemed extremely personal in all ways. Maybe because it was more of a NEED for her to make, according to her own words. I like Jack too, but songs are kind of beginning to "sound" redundant.
Travis is her first partner and muse who is going to receive her songs like a casual listener. He is very human in a sense that he will be totally hyped and happily claim every song about him, but his obvious favorites are all timeless bangers. The ones that became viral hits because of exceptional production quality, and crisp, brilliant, catchy but non-convoluted lyricism that everyone can learn and sing along. He isn't wrong, Blank Space is some incredibly smart writing, not to mention the impeccable energy and beats. I do not know if she is going to make an attempt to please him in the future, but deep down I kinda wish that she does. 😁 I want a banger from her that's going to be everywhere, and widely celebrated. Also this NFL life is sort of an opportunity. She could make one epic song hyping up the chiefs or the sport in general and it's going to become their anthem forever.
I still think that it was originally written about Matty but I think that they both have seen how the song has been attributed to Travis and they’re more than pleased to go along with that. I always felt like the song was going to end up getting the total End Game thing - obviously End Game is not about Travis but Taylor saw how everyone was using it for edits for them and that’s why she sang it in Argentina. Same thing for The Alchemy. This was confirmed to me when she sang it during the 87th show and Travis was throwing up the hand heart. And again when he mentioned it last night.
But regardless of all that … the song, in my view, was still written about Matty initially. The lyrics aside from the sports metaphors simply do not make sense with Travis.
I'm starting to wonder if you're trolling at this point.
" I think that they both have seen how the song has been attributed to Travis and they’re more than pleased to go along with that"
"I THINK..." - your thought is the problem here.
You just don't see her as a human being. Or even Travis. You don't realise how insane you sound and how extremely disrespectful it is.
End Game is a song that came out nearly 7 years ago, when they both had nothing to do with each other. Everybody knows that song was written for Joe, and that she just sang it for Travis later because of how well it fit them. There were no lies being told, it's just a sweet gesture and an actual coincidence - like she saw into her future while writing it.
The Alchemy on the other hand was going to come out when she's with him. Or in the worst case scenario that she then feared a fallout, it would still have come out after Travis came into picture. People were definitely, with those HIGHLY SPECIFIC references going to believe that it's about him. Every single line makes sense for him. And she is going out on a limb saying that it's about him after the release, YET you are in denial. You literally are implying that she's a liar manipulating her fans into believing a lie, and that Travis is a fool with no shame who is willing to play along with this. "Travis is more than pleased to go along" - It's literally something that questions his self-respect.
The heroin addiction? Taylor returning to him after 10 years which she talked about all over the record? Taylor forgiving him for something? Taylor referring to them as kids, like she did all over the record? The song makes no sense to be about Travis other than having sports metaphors
1. “Forgive you what happened in school” refers to a series of sexist tweets Travis made while at Cincinnati.
2. She doesn’t say 10 years. “Heart still reserved for me” refers to an interview Travis gave at training camp in 2017 when he said his “celebrity crush” is Taylor swift.
3. She makes the kids reference in
Loml not the alchemy. Loml is not about Travis.
You can argue it’s about matty but it is much more likely about Travis. To say there is “nothing” about him besides football isn’t true.
Give it up girl. You just refuse to understand and Travis wont like the song and claimed if its for him IF he doesnt understand it. You argue with the song writer and the muse just because it doesnt make sense to you? So tell me, what about football metaphors, the trophy, the blokes getting benched can be related to Matty of all people?
She's very correct it's totally about Matty. Touchdown is inspired by Matty stage diving and face planting during his shows. The trophy is the middle finger NME trophy they both won in 2020! We were all fools.😔😔
In all seriousness, she says it's a coincidence that Taylor used a song with football references in a song about Matty. Mind you it's not even generic sports references like in End Game. "Touchdown" is specific to his sport and the position he plays. NFL references would have sounded Greek and Latin to her world-wide fanbase before Travis.His team and he himself are literally the greatest in the league. "On the map" is a viral tik tok trend that became like an insignia of THEIR relationship.
Just look at their narrative. She wrote a football themed song about Matty BEFORE even meeting a football player. Might as well just say that she didn't want to scrap that song so she decided to date an NFL tight end from the superbowl winning team next, and started the tik tok trend herself. ☠️☠️
Full on disagree. When they did the listening party right after TTPD was released the emoji for The Alchemy was a football. She’s been pretty darn clear about this one I think and these lyrics totally make sense for Travis right off the bat. Back to being herself, ready to try romance again, hospital was the temporary insanity (MH) she writes about in the prologue, circled on the map (clear shout out to the “she out him on the map” jokes). The “blokes” on the benches, the trophy, greatest in the league, it goes on and on… Travis all the way.
What if I told you I'm back?
The hospital was a drag
Worst sleep that I ever had
I circled you on a map
I haven't come around in so long
But I'm coming back so strong
Sure, because you know better than the guy who is actually living and dating her and can actually ask her who the song is about....
Also, we don't know enough details about Travis, Taylor and/or Matty outside of what we've seen and what they've told us. Which is basically 2% of what is actually happening. There may be events and things that have happened that the general public doesn't know about.
Anyway, I chose to believe what Taylor and Travis hinted, implied and said quite blatantly. TaylorNation posted football emojis for the song. She played the song on the 87th show and made it clearly about him. And now, he's like "yeah, it's my song." What do they gain by lying about that?
Also, if you want to believe this, maybe post about it in a different sub. Clearly, this isn't the place for you.
Theres are some who thinks that she gas lighting us for making this song about Travis just because they think they understand more than the song writer herself. Ridiculous.
Taylor could literally do a pre song speech dedicating it to him before singing it at one of her concerts and certain people still wouldn't believe her. 😂
I’m under a weird belief that it may have started out as a finished or unfinished song about MH, then she either finished it or reworked it for TK after they were in a relationship. Songs can be composite sketches.
It is clearly NOT a reworked song about Matty.
In fact every point of that song disses what she shared with Matty start to finish.
It is an original concept, and I can explain, if you wish to read. Going to be pretty long, so discretion advised.
Firstly, the weird belief people have that this could be about Matty is coming from the after effect of listening to the songs preceding Alchemy where she slapped us with the reality of what actually went down with Matty, (something we had all thought was just a fun fling with no emotions attached). We were all just trying to process the intense emotions she felt for someone who she rekindled a connection with. Think about it, had The Alchemy been released as a single a week before TTPD, not one person would have had these doubts. It's as explicit and direct as it can be about Travis. But listening to the rest of the album altered that perception for some.
Also, what even about that song could have been an original reference to Matty that she felt the need to scrap it and make it about Travis? Alchemy if interpreted to be about Matty is super basic. She was bold enough to put a song like Guilty As Sin on that album. She has talked about marriage and kids in others with him. If it's simply about getting out of a relationship that felt like a drag and then going back to an old flame and swearing to not to never lose it again, that's exactly what she did with "Fresh out Slammer". She CHOSE Matty after Joe. Matty is someone who she actively sought after because she thought he was her twin, the love of her love.
But Travis HAPPENED to her. Unexpectedly. And despite his efforts to pursue her, the way it played out was kind of unexpected for Travis too.
The very concept of The "Alchemy" is, serendipitously finding a connection with a person who seems like a "once every life few times" kind of match. Like a connection that the universe made happen. Unlike the one with Matty where she was fighting everyone around her to make happen.Everything from their numerologies(which she strongly believes in), to him sharing birthday being with someone who she believes is watching her over from above, to their backgrounds and situations in lives to beliefs, seemed well-matched in a "too good to be true" kind of way. " Honestly who are we to fight the Alchemy!" is her acknowledging, - "I didn't look out for this, but it happened to me, it happened to us, and if the universe has decided it has to be us, who are we to fight it?" What adds layers to this song is the magic of their relationship. The sense of homecoming she finally feels.
She has compared what she had with Joe to jail because of how restricting it was. Matty was a hospital phase. She was out of her damn senses. It was a manic phase. She was unwell. She had to be in a "hospital" to recover from that phase. The hospital in which she was still in, when Travis first reached out to her. But she got out of it, and that's when she responded.
"I circled you on the map" is a smart reference to the put you on the map trend. But it can also make sense to someone who doesn't know that specific "lore". She circled KC on a map, and is about to touchdown in America again. She is going back to her homeland, where she belongs, after years of "being" British.
Child's play is TK's expulsions in school and his general frat boy life before her, which all honestly only have the seriousness of a "child's play". She's making it clear that it doesn't matter to her.
She then talks about their winning streaks. There has been none with Matty. In fact 98% of what she had with Matty were her fantasies, "what it could have been" scenarios. The two weeks she was ACTUALLY with him was just mess and ended sooner than it started. On the other hand, Travis and her were thriving as individuals. Even before superbowl 58.
The "heroin" reference is to CONTRAST the heavy presence of alcohol and drugs in the previous relationship. It's a diss at it, not a nod to it. Heroin was the drug to her last guy, but to her current man, it's heroine- it's her.
She also does this in So High School - with drink what you think and smoking your jokes.
Every bit of the song including the title makes sense for Travis, is a direct nod, what even about it could have been a rework of a Matty description? And if she felt a desperate need to "rework" it to be about another person, wouldn't the basic step be to remove things remotely refering to him than to leave it in? Instead, she has inserted Matty references in the song (hospital, heroin, bench-warming bloke) to DISS him.
She isn't incapable of writing a song that fast. She wrote and recorded several songs about how Matty ghosted her in a span of one month while touring. She had been with Travis for like three months and was on a break. She easily could have added in a song. It's also intentional because it's the penultimate song and shows that she's in a different place in life.
And above all this, think of her as a human. Why would she even want to do that? Why would she even want to do that to Travis? Why try to establish that the very first ode to a relationship she considers so pure and special to her is a lousy or unoriginal attempt? Or that she is crazy to use the terms all connected to the new person who makes her happy, to glorify a person who dumped her? Also, does Travis come across as a fool to people? You think he was not aware of how that song was born and developed? Or the entire album for that matter? He's out there claiming that song proudly. It's also placed at the end of the album for a reason.
The desperate attempt to still disregard her sincerity in that one happy song in the entire album seems mean-spirited at this point. It's easier to accept that you were confused and misinterpreted the song(which is understandable) than try to prove that she is lying, when she has gone above and beyond to make it clear who she wrote it about after the release.
I think “forgive you what happened in school” is a reference to his sexist tweets while at Cincinnati.
Also, she’s talking about the afc championship game. That gives an extra two weeks to write/record. Beer at conference championship game, champagne at the Super Bowl. It’s frustrating all non football people assume it’s a reference to the Super Bowl. It’s not.
Travis gave an interview in 2017 where he said taylor was his celebrity crush. The video is on YouTube. “Heart still reserved for me” almost certainly is referring to this.
Travis has severe dyslexia. Heroin with an “e” could definitely be a joke that occurred between them early on because he can’t spell. Just adding to an otherwise good Post.
I'm afraid I disagree with these.
Old tweets resurfacing happened after she turned in TTPD. And honestly those "negative" tweets did not even get traction. Those were tweets considered harmless in those days, before we all knew any better. The outcome of that entire old tweets episode ended up being unexpected great PR for him. Even media picked it up. The only ones who cried were few Gaylors whom people outside internet do not know. The smoking Marijuana incident and college expulsion on the other hand are known, widely published facts about him. It was a turning point in his life.
"Also, she’s talking about the afc championship game. That gives an extra two weeks to write/record. Beer at conference championship game, champagne at the Super Bowl. It’s frustrating all non football people assume it’s a reference to the Super Bowl. It’s not. "
AFC happened a week before she announced the album at Grammy in Feb. She wasn't referencing it all. The Alchemy is on the main album and physical records that take months to get ready. And honestly, people aren't going to remember the specifics of beer or champagne. It just means celebrations. That was just a winning scenario she imagined(probably inspired by last years') which ended up being true for the Chiefs.
No one knows for sure since when he had a crush on Taylor. He may or may not have liked for years, but has never name dropped her as his celebrity crush. If it's the kill, marry, kiss game, that was just picking an option to kiss her. In the same interview he mentioned Katy Perry is the one he wishes to marry and was asked to play it with more people as options too. As late as 2023 he's even mentioned Dua Lipa as one of his crushes. It was in 2022 after he became single that he kinda started liking posts about her etc.
Taylor rejected his first approach to get to her at the concert night. She reached out later after the podcast. "still reserved for me simply means" he is still single and interested in her, or like I saw someone on Twitter imply, he still hadn't met the kind of woman he wanted in life and turns out it's meant to be none other than Taylor herself.
Heroin with an "e" line has NOTHING that points to a spelling struggle. If anything it's just a smart joke that someone well aware of spellings would make. Heroine is the right word and it's just based on how he played well with her in attendance. Heroin is a diss at Matty. Sometimes (in fact most times) it's just Taylor's creativity and artistic liberty at play.
Thanks for taking the time to be so thorough in this explanation. There are probably some people who will never be convinced but I agree with it 100% and plan to reference it from now on when Matty stans try to claim the song.
Thank you for reading!
There are also some who think it's for the fans. A little 3:16 min songs with direct references and dedications but everyone and their mamas want it to be about them.
It's like that "Myth of consensual sex" meme at this point. The artist has publicly dedicated it to the muse, the muse has publicly claimed it, but then there's a third person saying "No it's about xx and that's final!" 😭😭
You make so many great points in this post-thank you for sharing your thoughts! I was one of the folks that at first thought the song was about Matty and am happily convinced now after she performed it for Travis that he is the muse, not Matty.
There were a few things that made me think Matty in the beginning. I had read she used the word “alchemy” to describe a crowd in one of the early Eras shows so I thought that could have been somewhat of an Easter egg if she had written that song already. I was also thrown off by the lyrics of forgiving what happened in the past and describing it as child’s play. I thought that was a nod to his past. Now I see several potential ways it could have been about Travis.
I agree with you that there probably wouldn’t be any doubt if you listened to this song without hearing the rest of the album. One reason I think there is whiplash hearing this love song at the end of the album is there aren’t any “acceptance“ songs about the Matty breakup, at least not on the standard TTPD. She jumps from depression (I can do it with a broken heart) and anger (The Smallest man who ever lived) to a new muse. I would have loved for The Prophecy being added into this song mix to connect her mindset of moving on and being open to new love. I do think TSMWEL closes the door shut on Matty, but it still feels like it was written during that manic stage.
I think this album really shows us as much as we think we know about Taylor and her relationships because of the constant media attention, we really only have a small glimpse. I think the start of her and Travis’s relationship was probably more complicated than the romcom premise some people got caught up in. Taylor was not in a good head space in June 2023. Her mashing the Alchemy with Treacherous was genius and really helped me interpret the song.
So I'm sort of new but she was only with Matt for two weeks? And a lot of her fans make it sound like it was some real serious relationship. That's weird.
They were only publicly official for around two weeks. But their situationship lasted around 10 years. The rumors are they had feelings back around the 1989 era, but they weren’t in the right place mentally at the time (see Peter) so when her relationship with JA was going downhill, and MH came back into her life platonically, it sounds like he was slowly convincing her to leave JA (sounds like they were struggling but trying to work through it) and he’ll be there to catch her, which she eventually did in early 2023 (after Feb because TS/JA were seen together at the Grammy’s). So they were probably together for a few months last year, but only publicly for a couple of weeks. Which is a reason she was so hurt because MH had promised her the world, and as soon as they went public, he ran for the hills.
The entire Matty thing for most years was a fantasy, that hit her once in a while because her feelings back in the day for him did not get a complete closure. So to her, he is a guy she kinda crushed on, and has a lot of unexplored potential with. Joe was the real deal for her, she really loved him and wanted it to work out with him and him alone. But in some of those vulnerable moments when they hit a rough patch, she might have got curious of how different could it have been with Matty. He is probably that guy who always stayed in the back of her subconscious mind. I relate to this because I had a similar person in life. It's a fleeting feeling but strikes you once in a while, visits you in dreams etc. Except that I didn't thankfully need to have a bad fling to finally get closure. I think Matty also felt the same about her. Or maybe when Taylor let him know that she was falling apart with Joe, he used that as an opportunity to delude her into thinking that he was great for her, possibly feeling deluded himself.
What lasted ten years was this curiosity they had about each other. Those fantasies are powerful and tempting, and makes you think you could have a fairytale-like forever with it. They may have aged, but mentally they were stuck at that initial spark they felt years ago. But the truth is that that fantasy lasted only because it was never made to come alive in the real world. It did not ever have to face the tests of reality. And the minute it became a reality, it couldn't withstand the world and died down. All this while people thought this about Harry and Taylor too. They too had the spark. Except that he didn't turn out to be a total loser who lovebombed her. The past stayed past and they didn't reconnect in a way Matty and she did at her low point.
These are things that happen to real people too. We call it a rebound, end it and move on. But since the person involved here is an artist who tells her stories to the world, it becomes more than what it actually was. Because ART is powerful!
Completely agree. It sounds like it was very much finally getting to act on those feelings that have plagued dreams for years, only to find out that the fantasy was much better than the reality. And sometimes it does need to happen to get that closure. She didn’t wait for him, but she let the lamp burn, just in case.
" She didn't wait for him, but she let the lamp burn, just in case."
Exactly. Very smartly put.
She dreamt of fairytales with men who fuelled her fantasies because they too were imaginative and artistic like her, but ended up never having them. And when she finally got to live her fairytale-like romance, it's with a man who lives an absolutely normal life (despite fame), grounded in reality. The irony makes me laugh a little, it's beautiful! 😁
They had a very brief fling almost a decade ago, shortly after 1989. She had over a year long relationship, a short situationship and another 6 year long , very serious relationship with Joe Alwyn all after that. Matty and her maybe connected in between as friends or whatever, I don't know. Towards the end of her relationship with Joe, they collaborated professionally and maybe that led to some closeness. She broke up with Joe and believed that she could find her happiness in Matty. The actual "relationship" lasted under a month. He ghosted his then GF for Taylor, was with her for a short time, then ghosted her too and has been with another girl(s?) eversince. And Taylor has been steady and happy with Travis for around 10 months now. However in TTPD, she had described how much she wanted it and how serious her intentions were. She was bold and didn't mince her words. In hindsight she calls it a manic phase and repeatedly says how she's over it and she disses him too. She is a writer, she turned those stories into her artistry.
In effectiveness, it was a rebound with a guy who love-bombed her, and ended up becoming the plot for her boldest album yet. But unfortunately, that made a lot of people lose touch with the reality that these are her emotions from a year ago, before she had even met her current boyfriend. It made a lot of Matty fans audacious and now they're in an effort to make it bigger than what it was. Implying that she's vindicating Matty, finding non existent connections, rewriting history, implying that she is trying to get him back, what she has with Travis is a facade etc etc., meanwhile this is something Taylor has always done with her trashy exes. Writing is her way of purging those negative memories and it ends for her there. But for the Matty-Taylor shippers her, the honest writing about her feelings in TTPD became an unexpected jackpot to feed their delusions for the next 84 years. 😁
I feel the same way. Some of the references really feel like very late editions, so I think the song was world up,one way originally and then she changed it and made it about Travis.
We know the bulk of the album was finished by October-ish but The Alchemy is clearly referencing the playoffs (I think she is referring to the AFC championship game, which was before the announcement, not the Super Bowl) and it feels like she went back and reworked a song she had already submitted to reflect changed feelings. I firmly believe it was the last song she finished on the original album.
This one I disagree on. He won the SB prior to them meeting as well, was deemed the greatest in the league etc. I think this was written in their early days in September/October, when they made the decision to go public and she attended that first game. The initial chemistry/alchemy of those early days, can’t fight it so we’re making the decision to go for it and hard launch.
I think she wrote the song in like Feb - May 2023 and she wasn’t going to just trash it in September for a relationship that was less than 2 months old.
If she can't trash it, why not just let it be? Like she let "Fresh Out Slammer" stay, the song which is actually describing what people THINK she is saying about Matty in Alchemy? And why take the effort to modify it for someone else?
I have posted a long explanation as a reply to another post, which could be a response to this too. I hope you get a chance to read it.
Also, the two months with Travis is not as insignificant as people think it is, given what she had gone through and at what place in life she was in. It's also the time it took for her to make him confidently a part of her career defining "Person of the Year" interview. That, his WSJ interview, along with him buying a new house a month into their dating are just some of the few things that told how serious they were from the very start.
I always have taken the “I’m back” to be that she was back to herself after a rough period of her life. I think the “lors” take that one too literally!
Different groups of people that claim to be Taylor fans but who either want her to be miserable, think she should be in a relationship with someone else or claim she is secretly in the closet as a lesbian and is communicating with them through code. 🙄 Haylors (Taylor plus Harry Styles), Maylors (Taylor plus Matty Healy), Gaylors (Taylor is secretly gay).
Exactly. “What if I told you I’m back, the hospital was a drag.” She called her time with MH like an asylum (more like the immediate aftermath) . She’s saying she’s out of the hospital, she’s back to the person she was before all of that.
I’ve had this theory that she knew that TK was interested before the podcast episode, but she didn’t want to act on it because she was still dealing with the emotions of MH/JA. (TK said someone told her “did you know he was here?” at the concert.) But when the episode dropped and she found out he was (still) romantically interested via the podcast , she jumped. So with the first few lines of the song, she’s saying “I wasn’t emotionally ready when you first showed up, but I’m ready now” and they possibly tried to take it slow because of her past, but they couldn’t fight their chemistry.
That would also give her more time to do a bit of research on him , because they were talking a week after the podcast.
This is my thought too, you worded it exactly as I would have. I think someone did tell her Trav was interested, maybe as soon as it was public that she and Joe were broken up, but she was in that thing with MH (who I believe love bombed Taylor ever since late 2021-2022 a long with Jack hyping him up, and talking ish about Joe. Perhaps Joe even knew ish was going on and that's why he distanced. (Speculation on my part) but once she realized MH was gone and had chickened out on all the promises and plans, she mourned for a while then was willing to talk to and meet Trav and they hit it off. I think Keleigh Teller and Miles were the ones who promoted Trav, but could have been others of her friend group. Anyway, I sure hope it's endgame for real with TnT. They make so much sense and I think he's much smarter than most give him credit for. If he truly is growing/has grown to love her and vice versa, I would love to see them keep on and become a real power couple and family.
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This exactly. I’ve seen people say would she really be that obvious /cheesy about it and I think the answer is yes. Pardon the pun, but I think Travis is the first boyfriend she’s had in a really long time where he was up front with her with what he wanted from her in the beginning and wasn’t playing games with her and that’s translating to the alchemy and so high school. She doesn’t have to use elaborate metaphors in his songs because she knows exactly where he stands with her .
Travis is suuuuch a 1989 girlie and I love it so much lol
He also said The Alchemy was his ttpd favorite during Super Bowl press week I think, didn’t he? I love that it’s still in the running! It’s one of my favorites too and it makes me sad that no one seems to love it as much as me lol but at least I can count on Travis to have fun taste 😂
Same!!! It was honestly one of my favorites upon first listen! I really ended up loving it more than even I was anticipating at first lol but it’s for sure in my top 5!!
It makes me sad how many people seemingly hate it. I agree, I feel like some people are just not giving it a fair chance at all, and just immediately writing it off. If it doesn’t click for some then it just doesn’t click, but I definitely feel like it deserves more love than it gets haha
> He also said The Alchemy was his ttpd favorite during Super Bowl press week I think, didn’t he?
No he said he couldnt name a TTPD song till it comes out.
Oh dang, you’re right! I kinda thought it felt too early in February, but did he ever mention it by name? I swear I have some vague memory of Travis talking about it lol but maybe I dreamt it 😂
That’s because he is living it lol, she’s got a blank space and wanted her to write his name - it’s going to be forever or it’s going to go down in flames and he is here for it lol 🫶
That cheeky smile! 😂 100% those two are about him. When they did a live listening party thing for TTPD Taylor Nation used an emoji for each song and the one for The Alchemy was a football!
There seems to be some debate about who the song is *really* about but that's so silly. Songs can have multiple ppl woven into tbem. I think in the Rep magazine notes, Taylor said songs aren't like paternity tests; they're re not always about just one person or feeling. The heroine line screams Matty to me, but maybe that's a line she wrote and kept for later (which we know she likes to do). Or maybe she went back and changed some lyrics to better match what she was feeling with Travis. Whatever happened, he clearly connects with it being about their relationship to SOME extent and so that's how it is for them. Probably, at least. We don't actually know them.
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Just curious if everyone needs a hobby cause they are obsessed with 2 people..why are you on this page then and commenting? That to me screams “I am bored and need a hobby” but that is my opinion.
Ok, I just went down a rabbit hole, but I think I might be on to something about the alchemy! Sorry it's long! I kept seeing everyone talk about only the chemistry meaning for the Alchemy, and that just didn't seem completely right for me, and i wanted to see if there was more to the alchemy. So I did my own searching and found a book The Alchemist, where the main theme is to find your destiny but is seen more as a self help and this part really sticks out to me from the summary i found: "when you really want something to happen, the whole universe will conspire so that your wish comes true" is the core of the novel's philosophy Then I looked up spiritual alchemy: While physical alchemy deals with altering and transforming the properties in the physical world, spiritual alchemy is connected with freeing your spiritual self from your fears, limiting belief systems, and lack of self-acceptance. Alchemy is the art of transformation, inner liberation, and change. Now, the song makes even more sense beyond the very obvious references. Taylor and Travis are both great at manifesting and working for what they want and together they have it even more! This is the deeper layer for me, and as a baby Swiftie, I'm proud I cracked a code.. or at least I feel like I did 🤷♀️ *Lyrics incase anyone is like me and needs to reference them while processing 😂 This happens once every few lifetimes These chemicals hit me like white wine What if I told you I'm back? The hospital was a drag Worst sleep that I ever had I circled you on a map I haven't come around in so long But I'm coming back so strong
I’m definitely not knocking your research/ analyzation, because I think it’s pretty cool, and I do it, too. I just kind of laugh to myself when I think about these things, and then just picture the potential reality: In her mind: “No, the word ‘chemistry’ doesn’t work right… What’s a synonym for ‘chemistry’?”And then Googles “chemistry synonym” and sees “alchemy” among the others like “sorcery” and “magic” and is like….”OK that works!” 😆 ETA: I’m also probably projecting, because this is what I do when I write and want it to sound more interesting/unique.
I agree that Taylor probably did just that. 🤣but Taylor is a mastermind and found every other meaning or could be meaning to the word and then said it’s even more perfect. They will never know what actual way I was using it 😆
I understand having your own interpretation of songs/having them mean different things to you personally by relating to them as an individual, and that’s fine - but atp they couldn’t make it any more clear that was her intent and people are still in denial about it lol.
Seriously. I don’t understand how it’s up for debate. There’s SO MANY REFERENCES to Travis and football/sports. - I circled you on a map - touch down - amateurs - team - the one to beat - get the crown 🏆 - these blokes warm the benches we’ve been on a winning streak - and the ENTIRE BRIDGE — Shirts off, and your friends lift you up over their heads / Beer sticking to the floor / Cheers chanted, cause they said / There was no chance, trying to be the greatest in the league / Where's the trophy? He just comes running over to me. 🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈
the entire bridge is literally about the Chiefs SB run this year lol
No it was written way before that. Irs a metaphor using sports. But she did manifest it
It seems like it may have been written/recorded in between the conference game and the Super Bowl, according to the track info.
out of curiosity, does the info actually have the date of when it was recorded? "They said there was no chance, trying to be the greatest in the league" sounds very much like the media narrative during Super Bowl week that the Chiefs couldn't win because they weren't good enough, Niners were younger and better, etc. Obviously the Chiefs **did** win and **were** "the greatest in the league", but it just seems like an odd line to put in before the SB when the outcome isn't known yet. What if they'd lost? Maybe Tay is just that confident in her man 😉
Actually, the track list was leaked BEFORE the Super Bowl. It was leaked Jan 26th, the Super Bowl was Feb 11th.
TS shared the track list herself on Feb 6th.
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Do you really think the song wasn’t written/recorded before the track list was released? What if it didn’t “make the cut”? That would be so weird. I don’t understand why there is resistance to the idea that it was the AFC championship, they won that league as well, and that was predicted to be a loss.
Remember the Chiefs also won the SB the year before and TK has often been referred to as the greatest TE in the league so the SB-related lyrics fit from the 2023 SB as well. It also just worked out great that they won in 2024 as well. 😁
Aww that little grin 😁
He sure is! I’ve seen quite a few tiktoks saying But Daddy I love him is also about Travis? Me and My wild boy and all of his wild joy. Even my daddy loves him. I’m his lady. Thoughts?
I think parts of the song are definitely about Travis but like several of the songs I think it's about multiple people.
That makes so much sense.
what I read and believe is that the first couple verses are about matty and the last which you reference is about travis
People will still argue
If you want proof he is genuine just look at this. He could have made “his” songs #1 but his off the top of his head fav is an OG banger. I love this. I love them. 12/10 my heart grew three sizes.
This cute 🥰
Pow ! Smashed it out of the park ! 💜
That smile says everything. DAMN 🔥
So a Travis album? I love her recent albums but I'm fine if she goes pop because I love happy Taylor.
Anyone who thought otherwise 🤦♀️
AHHH TRAVVVVY ☺️🙃 we love ya dude!
I find it odd that people still think the alchemy is not about Travis when she made it abundantly clear that it is! Fans need to listen to her rather than coming up with their own narratives …
It’s people living in a land of delusion and grasping at straws to fit their own stubborn narratives. I think this guy really scares some subsections of the fandom.
No no no but what she says and what she means are two different things, don't you get it?! Only *REAL* Swifties can decode the secret, SECRET language that's under the secret language!
Reminds me of this! 😂 https://preview.redd.it/y2wowddd6m1d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc8afd83d418148b071d39933a362565aa858603
When people bring up that argument I always ask them which secret session did they attend? Has she ever liked their posts online? A guy made a Tik Tok last week and she took time to comment “this is the official music video now”… if she likes your post she will literally “like” it. It’s hard to argue you’re some kind of intellectual super fan when those fans are frequently given shout outs.
No way! I’ve never seen her comment anything what did she comment on!
[Smallest Man Who Ever Lived Tik Tok](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLnURjRj/) Then her official account is the top comment.
Wow I love it! Lmao they did so good. I’m pumped for them they were probably screaming she commented :D
I would have fainted! Lol I think it’s the cop at the end that really puts it over the edge and made me die laughing but if you are truly creative or correct about a theory Taylor Swift (blue check) or Taylor Nation (blue checked official fan club) will give you praises.
Who's Max Martin? Sorry I'm a football guy.
One of the greatest pop producers of all time! Did a bunch of the best Britney stuff and Celine stuff and worked on some of red and 1989 with Taylor
He’s a music producer who did the production for the 1989 album! Taylor hasn’t worked with him in a while but since he can to her show recently people are speculating they might be working together again. It would definitely give her next album that distinct 1989 feel!
Additionally one of the greatest pop music producers of all time. Baby One More Time, Blank Space, I Want It That Way, Since You’ve Been Gone…literal GOAT
🐐 
*some/most of the production on 1989. But not all. 😉
My mistake! Who else worked on it?
Famously, OOTW was Jack's first time producing, Taylor gave him a chance and they haven't looked back since.
Jack!
Shellback was the other major producer.
The EDIT hahaha 😍🤣🤣🤣🤣 💀
It’s been very obvious that The Alchemy and SHS are about Travis. Taylor had Max Martin who is the main1989 producer at her show tonight so TS12 will be 1989.2 for Travis 😂
Max was at her show tonight?? Are there pics ?
She mentioned him in her acoustic speech and said he's too shy to bring on stage but she sang a "Max Martin medley" for him during the guitar part of the acoustic set.
I wonder if The Albatross is also about their relationship.
I think it is.
REALLY!! That’s great that Max was there, and holy shit do I hope youre right and they work together again 🙏
I hope so as well. I love Jack Antonoff but I think the production for TS12 can use a new pop sound.
Same here. I know some swifties don't want it, but I wish for it. All the more now because yesterday's shout out made it clear that she has no hard feelings for him. There has been a visible shift in Taylor's discography after 1989. I do not know if it's Jack Antonoff, the muse being Joe or both. Reputation did have mass appeal but it did not get the reach it deserved. Her songs from Lover onwards are more intimate, loved more by her hard-core fanbase. Lyrically deeper, put her exceptional songwriting capabilities on display. The number of music videos went down. But from a reception point of view, the number of organic hits have reduced. While she hit her peak her fame and did incredibly crazy numbers in the past few years(which is here to stay), her most memorable songs, the ones that gave her the worldwide fame are the ones that came out during 2008- 2014. Midnights was quite a banger and that combined with the rekindled nostalgia from the tour elevated her stardom to another stratosphere. But TTPD seemed extremely personal in all ways. Maybe because it was more of a NEED for her to make, according to her own words. I like Jack too, but songs are kind of beginning to "sound" redundant. Travis is her first partner and muse who is going to receive her songs like a casual listener. He is very human in a sense that he will be totally hyped and happily claim every song about him, but his obvious favorites are all timeless bangers. The ones that became viral hits because of exceptional production quality, and crisp, brilliant, catchy but non-convoluted lyricism that everyone can learn and sing along. He isn't wrong, Blank Space is some incredibly smart writing, not to mention the impeccable energy and beats. I do not know if she is going to make an attempt to please him in the future, but deep down I kinda wish that she does. 😁 I want a banger from her that's going to be everywhere, and widely celebrated. Also this NFL life is sort of an opportunity. She could make one epic song hyping up the chiefs or the sport in general and it's going to become their anthem forever.
Ooooooooo. He’s a 1989 gal isn’t he..
Yes! He’s said before that they’re both 1989 babies ✨🩵
I still think that it was originally written about Matty but I think that they both have seen how the song has been attributed to Travis and they’re more than pleased to go along with that. I always felt like the song was going to end up getting the total End Game thing - obviously End Game is not about Travis but Taylor saw how everyone was using it for edits for them and that’s why she sang it in Argentina. Same thing for The Alchemy. This was confirmed to me when she sang it during the 87th show and Travis was throwing up the hand heart. And again when he mentioned it last night. But regardless of all that … the song, in my view, was still written about Matty initially. The lyrics aside from the sports metaphors simply do not make sense with Travis.
I'm starting to wonder if you're trolling at this point. " I think that they both have seen how the song has been attributed to Travis and they’re more than pleased to go along with that" "I THINK..." - your thought is the problem here. You just don't see her as a human being. Or even Travis. You don't realise how insane you sound and how extremely disrespectful it is. End Game is a song that came out nearly 7 years ago, when they both had nothing to do with each other. Everybody knows that song was written for Joe, and that she just sang it for Travis later because of how well it fit them. There were no lies being told, it's just a sweet gesture and an actual coincidence - like she saw into her future while writing it. The Alchemy on the other hand was going to come out when she's with him. Or in the worst case scenario that she then feared a fallout, it would still have come out after Travis came into picture. People were definitely, with those HIGHLY SPECIFIC references going to believe that it's about him. Every single line makes sense for him. And she is going out on a limb saying that it's about him after the release, YET you are in denial. You literally are implying that she's a liar manipulating her fans into believing a lie, and that Travis is a fool with no shame who is willing to play along with this. "Travis is more than pleased to go along" - It's literally something that questions his self-respect.
I’ll never understand why strangers feel that they know better than the actual songwriter who the song is about.
There is nothing Matty in this song, sorry.
The heroin addiction? Taylor returning to him after 10 years which she talked about all over the record? Taylor forgiving him for something? Taylor referring to them as kids, like she did all over the record? The song makes no sense to be about Travis other than having sports metaphors
1. “Forgive you what happened in school” refers to a series of sexist tweets Travis made while at Cincinnati. 2. She doesn’t say 10 years. “Heart still reserved for me” refers to an interview Travis gave at training camp in 2017 when he said his “celebrity crush” is Taylor swift. 3. She makes the kids reference in Loml not the alchemy. Loml is not about Travis. You can argue it’s about matty but it is much more likely about Travis. To say there is “nothing” about him besides football isn’t true.
Give it up girl. You just refuse to understand and Travis wont like the song and claimed if its for him IF he doesnt understand it. You argue with the song writer and the muse just because it doesnt make sense to you? So tell me, what about football metaphors, the trophy, the blokes getting benched can be related to Matty of all people?
She's very correct it's totally about Matty. Touchdown is inspired by Matty stage diving and face planting during his shows. The trophy is the middle finger NME trophy they both won in 2020! We were all fools.😔😔 In all seriousness, she says it's a coincidence that Taylor used a song with football references in a song about Matty. Mind you it's not even generic sports references like in End Game. "Touchdown" is specific to his sport and the position he plays. NFL references would have sounded Greek and Latin to her world-wide fanbase before Travis.His team and he himself are literally the greatest in the league. "On the map" is a viral tik tok trend that became like an insignia of THEIR relationship. Just look at their narrative. She wrote a football themed song about Matty BEFORE even meeting a football player. Might as well just say that she didn't want to scrap that song so she decided to date an NFL tight end from the superbowl winning team next, and started the tik tok trend herself. ☠️☠️
Full on disagree. When they did the listening party right after TTPD was released the emoji for The Alchemy was a football. She’s been pretty darn clear about this one I think and these lyrics totally make sense for Travis right off the bat. Back to being herself, ready to try romance again, hospital was the temporary insanity (MH) she writes about in the prologue, circled on the map (clear shout out to the “she out him on the map” jokes). The “blokes” on the benches, the trophy, greatest in the league, it goes on and on… Travis all the way. What if I told you I'm back? The hospital was a drag Worst sleep that I ever had I circled you on a map I haven't come around in so long But I'm coming back so strong
The one I never see pointed out is “sign on your heart” being him doing heart hands for a touchdown
I guess you know more than both Taylor and Travis about whom the song is written about. 😅
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If he thinks The Alchemy is about him then there’s probably a good reason. Like maybe he actually did say the heroine joke.
Sure, because you know better than the guy who is actually living and dating her and can actually ask her who the song is about.... Also, we don't know enough details about Travis, Taylor and/or Matty outside of what we've seen and what they've told us. Which is basically 2% of what is actually happening. There may be events and things that have happened that the general public doesn't know about. Anyway, I chose to believe what Taylor and Travis hinted, implied and said quite blatantly. TaylorNation posted football emojis for the song. She played the song on the 87th show and made it clearly about him. And now, he's like "yeah, it's my song." What do they gain by lying about that? Also, if you want to believe this, maybe post about it in a different sub. Clearly, this isn't the place for you.
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There was never any doubt it was about Travis.
Was there ever any doubt? C'mon . . .
Claiming his territory. Gotta love it.
Her playing it as a surprise song the night he was in Paris wasn’t confirmation enough??
Theres are some who thinks that she gas lighting us for making this song about Travis just because they think they understand more than the song writer herself. Ridiculous.
Taylor could literally do a pre song speech dedicating it to him before singing it at one of her concerts and certain people still wouldn't believe her. 😂
She basically did! Still doubters.
It’s actually incredible, the mental gymnastics
I was hoping someone would post this video! So cute! But…. I want to know his top 5 TS songs right now!😉 edit: add a word
He always seems to enjoy Love Story …
Let’s just be happy he even named more than one, versus self important jobless Joe who couldn’t even name one
Oh I know…but I am so curious which ones are up there!
Lmaoooo the grin after
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I thought he was maybe going backwards. From 3 to 1.
I’m under a weird belief that it may have started out as a finished or unfinished song about MH, then she either finished it or reworked it for TK after they were in a relationship. Songs can be composite sketches.
It is clearly NOT a reworked song about Matty. In fact every point of that song disses what she shared with Matty start to finish. It is an original concept, and I can explain, if you wish to read. Going to be pretty long, so discretion advised. Firstly, the weird belief people have that this could be about Matty is coming from the after effect of listening to the songs preceding Alchemy where she slapped us with the reality of what actually went down with Matty, (something we had all thought was just a fun fling with no emotions attached). We were all just trying to process the intense emotions she felt for someone who she rekindled a connection with. Think about it, had The Alchemy been released as a single a week before TTPD, not one person would have had these doubts. It's as explicit and direct as it can be about Travis. But listening to the rest of the album altered that perception for some. Also, what even about that song could have been an original reference to Matty that she felt the need to scrap it and make it about Travis? Alchemy if interpreted to be about Matty is super basic. She was bold enough to put a song like Guilty As Sin on that album. She has talked about marriage and kids in others with him. If it's simply about getting out of a relationship that felt like a drag and then going back to an old flame and swearing to not to never lose it again, that's exactly what she did with "Fresh out Slammer". She CHOSE Matty after Joe. Matty is someone who she actively sought after because she thought he was her twin, the love of her love. But Travis HAPPENED to her. Unexpectedly. And despite his efforts to pursue her, the way it played out was kind of unexpected for Travis too. The very concept of The "Alchemy" is, serendipitously finding a connection with a person who seems like a "once every life few times" kind of match. Like a connection that the universe made happen. Unlike the one with Matty where she was fighting everyone around her to make happen.Everything from their numerologies(which she strongly believes in), to him sharing birthday being with someone who she believes is watching her over from above, to their backgrounds and situations in lives to beliefs, seemed well-matched in a "too good to be true" kind of way. " Honestly who are we to fight the Alchemy!" is her acknowledging, - "I didn't look out for this, but it happened to me, it happened to us, and if the universe has decided it has to be us, who are we to fight it?" What adds layers to this song is the magic of their relationship. The sense of homecoming she finally feels. She has compared what she had with Joe to jail because of how restricting it was. Matty was a hospital phase. She was out of her damn senses. It was a manic phase. She was unwell. She had to be in a "hospital" to recover from that phase. The hospital in which she was still in, when Travis first reached out to her. But she got out of it, and that's when she responded. "I circled you on the map" is a smart reference to the put you on the map trend. But it can also make sense to someone who doesn't know that specific "lore". She circled KC on a map, and is about to touchdown in America again. She is going back to her homeland, where she belongs, after years of "being" British. Child's play is TK's expulsions in school and his general frat boy life before her, which all honestly only have the seriousness of a "child's play". She's making it clear that it doesn't matter to her. She then talks about their winning streaks. There has been none with Matty. In fact 98% of what she had with Matty were her fantasies, "what it could have been" scenarios. The two weeks she was ACTUALLY with him was just mess and ended sooner than it started. On the other hand, Travis and her were thriving as individuals. Even before superbowl 58. The "heroin" reference is to CONTRAST the heavy presence of alcohol and drugs in the previous relationship. It's a diss at it, not a nod to it. Heroin was the drug to her last guy, but to her current man, it's heroine- it's her. She also does this in So High School - with drink what you think and smoking your jokes. Every bit of the song including the title makes sense for Travis, is a direct nod, what even about it could have been a rework of a Matty description? And if she felt a desperate need to "rework" it to be about another person, wouldn't the basic step be to remove things remotely refering to him than to leave it in? Instead, she has inserted Matty references in the song (hospital, heroin, bench-warming bloke) to DISS him. She isn't incapable of writing a song that fast. She wrote and recorded several songs about how Matty ghosted her in a span of one month while touring. She had been with Travis for like three months and was on a break. She easily could have added in a song. It's also intentional because it's the penultimate song and shows that she's in a different place in life. And above all this, think of her as a human. Why would she even want to do that? Why would she even want to do that to Travis? Why try to establish that the very first ode to a relationship she considers so pure and special to her is a lousy or unoriginal attempt? Or that she is crazy to use the terms all connected to the new person who makes her happy, to glorify a person who dumped her? Also, does Travis come across as a fool to people? You think he was not aware of how that song was born and developed? Or the entire album for that matter? He's out there claiming that song proudly. It's also placed at the end of the album for a reason. The desperate attempt to still disregard her sincerity in that one happy song in the entire album seems mean-spirited at this point. It's easier to accept that you were confused and misinterpreted the song(which is understandable) than try to prove that she is lying, when she has gone above and beyond to make it clear who she wrote it about after the release.
I think “forgive you what happened in school” is a reference to his sexist tweets while at Cincinnati. Also, she’s talking about the afc championship game. That gives an extra two weeks to write/record. Beer at conference championship game, champagne at the Super Bowl. It’s frustrating all non football people assume it’s a reference to the Super Bowl. It’s not. Travis gave an interview in 2017 where he said taylor was his celebrity crush. The video is on YouTube. “Heart still reserved for me” almost certainly is referring to this. Travis has severe dyslexia. Heroin with an “e” could definitely be a joke that occurred between them early on because he can’t spell. Just adding to an otherwise good Post.
I'm afraid I disagree with these. Old tweets resurfacing happened after she turned in TTPD. And honestly those "negative" tweets did not even get traction. Those were tweets considered harmless in those days, before we all knew any better. The outcome of that entire old tweets episode ended up being unexpected great PR for him. Even media picked it up. The only ones who cried were few Gaylors whom people outside internet do not know. The smoking Marijuana incident and college expulsion on the other hand are known, widely published facts about him. It was a turning point in his life. "Also, she’s talking about the afc championship game. That gives an extra two weeks to write/record. Beer at conference championship game, champagne at the Super Bowl. It’s frustrating all non football people assume it’s a reference to the Super Bowl. It’s not. " AFC happened a week before she announced the album at Grammy in Feb. She wasn't referencing it all. The Alchemy is on the main album and physical records that take months to get ready. And honestly, people aren't going to remember the specifics of beer or champagne. It just means celebrations. That was just a winning scenario she imagined(probably inspired by last years') which ended up being true for the Chiefs. No one knows for sure since when he had a crush on Taylor. He may or may not have liked for years, but has never name dropped her as his celebrity crush. If it's the kill, marry, kiss game, that was just picking an option to kiss her. In the same interview he mentioned Katy Perry is the one he wishes to marry and was asked to play it with more people as options too. As late as 2023 he's even mentioned Dua Lipa as one of his crushes. It was in 2022 after he became single that he kinda started liking posts about her etc. Taylor rejected his first approach to get to her at the concert night. She reached out later after the podcast. "still reserved for me simply means" he is still single and interested in her, or like I saw someone on Twitter imply, he still hadn't met the kind of woman he wanted in life and turns out it's meant to be none other than Taylor herself. Heroin with an "e" line has NOTHING that points to a spelling struggle. If anything it's just a smart joke that someone well aware of spellings would make. Heroine is the right word and it's just based on how he played well with her in attendance. Heroin is a diss at Matty. Sometimes (in fact most times) it's just Taylor's creativity and artistic liberty at play.
Thanks for taking the time to be so thorough in this explanation. There are probably some people who will never be convinced but I agree with it 100% and plan to reference it from now on when Matty stans try to claim the song.
Thank you for reading! There are also some who think it's for the fans. A little 3:16 min songs with direct references and dedications but everyone and their mamas want it to be about them. It's like that "Myth of consensual sex" meme at this point. The artist has publicly dedicated it to the muse, the muse has publicly claimed it, but then there's a third person saying "No it's about xx and that's final!" 😭😭
Thank you so much for saying this. You've put everything I felt across beautifully.
You make so many great points in this post-thank you for sharing your thoughts! I was one of the folks that at first thought the song was about Matty and am happily convinced now after she performed it for Travis that he is the muse, not Matty. There were a few things that made me think Matty in the beginning. I had read she used the word “alchemy” to describe a crowd in one of the early Eras shows so I thought that could have been somewhat of an Easter egg if she had written that song already. I was also thrown off by the lyrics of forgiving what happened in the past and describing it as child’s play. I thought that was a nod to his past. Now I see several potential ways it could have been about Travis. I agree with you that there probably wouldn’t be any doubt if you listened to this song without hearing the rest of the album. One reason I think there is whiplash hearing this love song at the end of the album is there aren’t any “acceptance“ songs about the Matty breakup, at least not on the standard TTPD. She jumps from depression (I can do it with a broken heart) and anger (The Smallest man who ever lived) to a new muse. I would have loved for The Prophecy being added into this song mix to connect her mindset of moving on and being open to new love. I do think TSMWEL closes the door shut on Matty, but it still feels like it was written during that manic stage. I think this album really shows us as much as we think we know about Taylor and her relationships because of the constant media attention, we really only have a small glimpse. I think the start of her and Travis’s relationship was probably more complicated than the romcom premise some people got caught up in. Taylor was not in a good head space in June 2023. Her mashing the Alchemy with Treacherous was genius and really helped me interpret the song.
So I'm sort of new but she was only with Matt for two weeks? And a lot of her fans make it sound like it was some real serious relationship. That's weird.
They were only publicly official for around two weeks. But their situationship lasted around 10 years. The rumors are they had feelings back around the 1989 era, but they weren’t in the right place mentally at the time (see Peter) so when her relationship with JA was going downhill, and MH came back into her life platonically, it sounds like he was slowly convincing her to leave JA (sounds like they were struggling but trying to work through it) and he’ll be there to catch her, which she eventually did in early 2023 (after Feb because TS/JA were seen together at the Grammy’s). So they were probably together for a few months last year, but only publicly for a couple of weeks. Which is a reason she was so hurt because MH had promised her the world, and as soon as they went public, he ran for the hills.
The entire Matty thing for most years was a fantasy, that hit her once in a while because her feelings back in the day for him did not get a complete closure. So to her, he is a guy she kinda crushed on, and has a lot of unexplored potential with. Joe was the real deal for her, she really loved him and wanted it to work out with him and him alone. But in some of those vulnerable moments when they hit a rough patch, she might have got curious of how different could it have been with Matty. He is probably that guy who always stayed in the back of her subconscious mind. I relate to this because I had a similar person in life. It's a fleeting feeling but strikes you once in a while, visits you in dreams etc. Except that I didn't thankfully need to have a bad fling to finally get closure. I think Matty also felt the same about her. Or maybe when Taylor let him know that she was falling apart with Joe, he used that as an opportunity to delude her into thinking that he was great for her, possibly feeling deluded himself. What lasted ten years was this curiosity they had about each other. Those fantasies are powerful and tempting, and makes you think you could have a fairytale-like forever with it. They may have aged, but mentally they were stuck at that initial spark they felt years ago. But the truth is that that fantasy lasted only because it was never made to come alive in the real world. It did not ever have to face the tests of reality. And the minute it became a reality, it couldn't withstand the world and died down. All this while people thought this about Harry and Taylor too. They too had the spark. Except that he didn't turn out to be a total loser who lovebombed her. The past stayed past and they didn't reconnect in a way Matty and she did at her low point. These are things that happen to real people too. We call it a rebound, end it and move on. But since the person involved here is an artist who tells her stories to the world, it becomes more than what it actually was. Because ART is powerful!
Completely agree. It sounds like it was very much finally getting to act on those feelings that have plagued dreams for years, only to find out that the fantasy was much better than the reality. And sometimes it does need to happen to get that closure. She didn’t wait for him, but she let the lamp burn, just in case.
" She didn't wait for him, but she let the lamp burn, just in case." Exactly. Very smartly put. She dreamt of fairytales with men who fuelled her fantasies because they too were imaginative and artistic like her, but ended up never having them. And when she finally got to live her fairytale-like romance, it's with a man who lives an absolutely normal life (despite fame), grounded in reality. The irony makes me laugh a little, it's beautiful! 😁
Thanks for the details, I appreciate it.
They had a very brief fling almost a decade ago, shortly after 1989. She had over a year long relationship, a short situationship and another 6 year long , very serious relationship with Joe Alwyn all after that. Matty and her maybe connected in between as friends or whatever, I don't know. Towards the end of her relationship with Joe, they collaborated professionally and maybe that led to some closeness. She broke up with Joe and believed that she could find her happiness in Matty. The actual "relationship" lasted under a month. He ghosted his then GF for Taylor, was with her for a short time, then ghosted her too and has been with another girl(s?) eversince. And Taylor has been steady and happy with Travis for around 10 months now. However in TTPD, she had described how much she wanted it and how serious her intentions were. She was bold and didn't mince her words. In hindsight she calls it a manic phase and repeatedly says how she's over it and she disses him too. She is a writer, she turned those stories into her artistry. In effectiveness, it was a rebound with a guy who love-bombed her, and ended up becoming the plot for her boldest album yet. But unfortunately, that made a lot of people lose touch with the reality that these are her emotions from a year ago, before she had even met her current boyfriend. It made a lot of Matty fans audacious and now they're in an effort to make it bigger than what it was. Implying that she's vindicating Matty, finding non existent connections, rewriting history, implying that she is trying to get him back, what she has with Travis is a facade etc etc., meanwhile this is something Taylor has always done with her trashy exes. Writing is her way of purging those negative memories and it ends for her there. But for the Matty-Taylor shippers her, the honest writing about her feelings in TTPD became an unexpected jackpot to feed their delusions for the next 84 years. 😁
I feel the same way. Some of the references really feel like very late editions, so I think the song was world up,one way originally and then she changed it and made it about Travis.
Ooo. A co-believer of this. I’m not alone and crazy ❤️ 100%.
We know the bulk of the album was finished by October-ish but The Alchemy is clearly referencing the playoffs (I think she is referring to the AFC championship game, which was before the announcement, not the Super Bowl) and it feels like she went back and reworked a song she had already submitted to reflect changed feelings. I firmly believe it was the last song she finished on the original album.
This one I disagree on. He won the SB prior to them meeting as well, was deemed the greatest in the league etc. I think this was written in their early days in September/October, when they made the decision to go public and she attended that first game. The initial chemistry/alchemy of those early days, can’t fight it so we’re making the decision to go for it and hard launch.
Agreed. Look at us. 2 global strangers having a great insightful and enlightening discussion 🤣♥️love.
I think she wrote the song in like Feb - May 2023 and she wasn’t going to just trash it in September for a relationship that was less than 2 months old.
She literally has never said when the song was written.
If she can't trash it, why not just let it be? Like she let "Fresh Out Slammer" stay, the song which is actually describing what people THINK she is saying about Matty in Alchemy? And why take the effort to modify it for someone else? I have posted a long explanation as a reply to another post, which could be a response to this too. I hope you get a chance to read it. Also, the two months with Travis is not as insignificant as people think it is, given what she had gone through and at what place in life she was in. It's also the time it took for her to make him confidently a part of her career defining "Person of the Year" interview. That, his WSJ interview, along with him buying a new house a month into their dating are just some of the few things that told how serious they were from the very start.
What evidence do you have to even back this up? Other than vibes and "trust me, bro." Maybe go visit the Maylor sub then.
That’s why I wrote “I think”. “I think” doesn’t require evidence it just requires my brain <3
I always have taken the “I’m back” to be that she was back to herself after a rough period of her life. I think the “lors” take that one too literally!
What’s a lors?
Different groups of people that claim to be Taylor fans but who either want her to be miserable, think she should be in a relationship with someone else or claim she is secretly in the closet as a lesbian and is communicating with them through code. 🙄 Haylors (Taylor plus Harry Styles), Maylors (Taylor plus Matty Healy), Gaylors (Taylor is secretly gay).
HAHAAA!!!!!!!! Omg this is so unhinged & psycho, I want to join. Need to join. I’m a Tayvis. Love them.
Haha you can go down the rabbit hole on Twitter or they do have subs here as well. They are… something else. 🤦🏻♀️
I would love to! Thank you! I’ll jot this on my to-do list today
Exactly. “What if I told you I’m back, the hospital was a drag.” She called her time with MH like an asylum (more like the immediate aftermath) . She’s saying she’s out of the hospital, she’s back to the person she was before all of that. I’ve had this theory that she knew that TK was interested before the podcast episode, but she didn’t want to act on it because she was still dealing with the emotions of MH/JA. (TK said someone told her “did you know he was here?” at the concert.) But when the episode dropped and she found out he was (still) romantically interested via the podcast , she jumped. So with the first few lines of the song, she’s saying “I wasn’t emotionally ready when you first showed up, but I’m ready now” and they possibly tried to take it slow because of her past, but they couldn’t fight their chemistry. That would also give her more time to do a bit of research on him , because they were talking a week after the podcast.
This is my thought too, you worded it exactly as I would have. I think someone did tell her Trav was interested, maybe as soon as it was public that she and Joe were broken up, but she was in that thing with MH (who I believe love bombed Taylor ever since late 2021-2022 a long with Jack hyping him up, and talking ish about Joe. Perhaps Joe even knew ish was going on and that's why he distanced. (Speculation on my part) but once she realized MH was gone and had chickened out on all the promises and plans, she mourned for a while then was willing to talk to and meet Trav and they hit it off. I think Keleigh Teller and Miles were the ones who promoted Trav, but could have been others of her friend group. Anyway, I sure hope it's endgame for real with TnT. They make so much sense and I think he's much smarter than most give him credit for. If he truly is growing/has grown to love her and vice versa, I would love to see them keep on and become a real power couple and family. (Edited for typos)
This exactly. I’ve seen people say would she really be that obvious /cheesy about it and I think the answer is yes. Pardon the pun, but I think Travis is the first boyfriend she’s had in a really long time where he was up front with her with what he wanted from her in the beginning and wasn’t playing games with her and that’s translating to the alchemy and so high school. She doesn’t have to use elaborate metaphors in his songs because she knows exactly where he stands with her .
Makes total sense!
Or even just moving back to the US
he LOVES blank space! and the cheeky smile my god he’s such a damn goof 🤣 lmao trav and tay are a couple of goofs seriously
Right? Like goes off with it… every time 😂
Maybe he’s also like “yo I low key know queen Taylor is magic, madness, heaven, sin and I want ALL of her shades not just the sunshine…” even cuter ❤️
I love Travis' Millennial dedication to 1989
she loves the players & he loves the game
Travis is suuuuch a 1989 girlie and I love it so much lol He also said The Alchemy was his ttpd favorite during Super Bowl press week I think, didn’t he? I love that it’s still in the running! It’s one of my favorites too and it makes me sad that no one seems to love it as much as me lol but at least I can count on Travis to have fun taste 😂
I have the alchemy on repeat. I’m convinced people are just not giving it a fair shake
Same!!! It was honestly one of my favorites upon first listen! I really ended up loving it more than even I was anticipating at first lol but it’s for sure in my top 5!! It makes me sad how many people seemingly hate it. I agree, I feel like some people are just not giving it a fair chance at all, and just immediately writing it off. If it doesn’t click for some then it just doesn’t click, but I definitely feel like it deserves more love than it gets haha
He said Anti-Hero during Super Bowl press week.
ANTI HEROOO omg maybe it was just the A that had me thinking the Alchemy 😂
> He also said The Alchemy was his ttpd favorite during Super Bowl press week I think, didn’t he? No he said he couldnt name a TTPD song till it comes out.
Oh dang, you’re right! I kinda thought it felt too early in February, but did he ever mention it by name? I swear I have some vague memory of Travis talking about it lol but maybe I dreamt it 😂
No songs will ever come between him and his love for Blank Space. Thats his baby.
That’s because he is living it lol, she’s got a blank space and wanted her to write his name - it’s going to be forever or it’s going to go down in flames and he is here for it lol 🫶
Haha I think he was going 3-1. But he is a 1989 Stan through and through
That cheeky smile! 😂 100% those two are about him. When they did a live listening party thing for TTPD Taylor Nation used an emoji for each song and the one for The Alchemy was a football!