History Music / Folklore2020

** The narrator in "the lakes" wants to escape with her muse from the business of the world to a quiet nature retreat.

* SwitchingPOV: In the "teenage love triangle" trilogy, every character gets their turn in telling the story: "cardigan" is narrated by Betty, "betty" is James groveling to her, and "august" is James' unnamed mistress reminiscing about their past romance.

'''Tracklist[[labelnote:*]]singles italicized[[/labelnote]]:'''

* ShoutOut: "cardigan" references the ending of ''Literature/PeterPan''.

** "cardigan" is about a relationship where the narrator (who is later revealed to named Betty) is very upset that her love interest (later revealed to named James) cheated and left her, but she recounted all the positive emotions they evoked in her as well as knowing that they will eventually came back to her.
** "illicit affair" subverted this hard by revealing that the love in question is an affair and the narrator is tired of all the secrecy.
** "invisible string" plays this the most straight, with the narrator recount all the events that brought her and her love interest together by the string of fate starting from their teenage years. This is the song most explicitly based on Swift and Alwyn's life without name dropping them.
** "betty", per WordOfGod, is from the other perspective of "cardigan" and "august", where the love interest James recount his action that led to his cheating and try to apologize to the titular Betty for his action.
** "peace" is about the narrator recounting all the things that threaten their relationship but also all the things she is willing to give him. Finally, the narrator asking her love interest if all the things she offered be enough "if [she] could never give [them] peace?".
** The narrator in "the lakes" wants to get away from the "hunter with cellphones" by going to the lakes with her muse.
* SongOfManyEmotions: "peace" is a song that had Swift first lamenting her journey to her maturity, then lamenting [[CelebrityIsOverrated the downside]] of being a celebrity, then state her love for her significant other before asking would that make up for "never give you peace?" in the chorus. She then states her significant other's good qualities while lamenting her bad ones but insist that she is still heavily devoted to them. And then lamenting the above chorus again.

The project carved a new path for Swift's discography. It has a [[NewSoundAlbum folksy, alternative sound]], as contrasted with her earlier country work and more recent SynthPop. It likewise marked a shift in her lyrical content, focusing more on fictional storytelling and worldbuilding rather than the personal narratives that Swift had previously been known for. Swift continued to work with her frequent collaborator and producer Jack Antonoff, but brought some new faces to her team, including Music/BonIver as her only feature and brothers Bryce and Aaron Dessner from Music/TheNational as writers and producers. The album also feature prominent writing credit of William Bowery, who was later revealed by Taylor to be her boyfriend at the time Creator/JoeAlwyn.

The project carved a new path for Swift's discography. It has a [[NewSoundAlbum folksy, alternative sound]], as contrasted with her earlier country work and more recent SynthPop. It likewise marked a shift in her lyrical content, focusing more on fictional storytelling and worldbuilding rather than the personal narratives that Swift had previously been known for. Swift continued to work with her frequent collaborator and producer Jack Antonoff, but brought some new faces to her team, including Music/BonIver as her only feature and brothers Bryce and Aaron Dessner from Music/TheNational as writers and producers.

The project is unlike anything Swift had ever put out. It has a [[NewSoundAlbum folksy, alternative sound]], as contrasted with her earlier country work and more recent SynthPop. Swift worked with her frequent collaborator and producer Jack Antonoff, but brought some new faces to her team, including Music/BonIver as her only feature and brothers Bryce and Aaron Dessner from Music/TheNational as writers and producers.

Less than five months later, Swift once again announced a surprise midnight album: ''folklore'''s "sister record," ''Music/{{evermore|2020}}'', which she described as a continuation of the same project and which shares many lyrical and technical similarities with its predecessor.

''folklore'' was named Album of the Year at the 63rd UsefulNotes/{{Grammy Award}}s, making Swift the first female artist to win the award three times.

'''Tracklist:'''
# "the 1" (3:30)
# "cardigan" (3:59)

# "exile" (ft. Bon Iver) (4:45)

# "betty" (4:49)

# "the lakes" (Bonus Track) (3:31)

''folklore'' was named Album of the Year at the 63rd UsefulNotes/{{Grammy Award}}s.

Rosé flowing with your chosen family\\

The project is unlike anything Swift had ever put out. It has a folksy, alternative sound, as contrasted with her earlier country work and more recent SynthPop. Swift worked with her frequent collaborator and producer Jack Antonoff, but brought some new faces to her team, including Music/BonIver as her only feature and brothers Bryce and Aaron Dessner from Music/TheNational as writers and producers.

* BittersweetSeventeen: The main characters in the “teenage love triangle” plot are 17 years old and experiencing heartbreak for the first time.

* WidowWoman: "the last great american dynasty" is about eccentric Standard Oil heiress [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebekah_Harkness Rebekah Harkness]], who became one of the richest women in America after being widowed by her husband Bill. She previously owned Swift's beach house in Rhode Island.

** "august" took this UpToEleven, with every verses and chorus started by expressing the singer's longing for the guy... Only to subverted at the end of verse by concluding that "You aren't mine to lose".

** "mad woman" particularly, as it's the only one that uses it degradingly and almost viciously.
-->Do you see my face in your neighbor's lawn?\\

* DarkerAndEdgier: Undoubtedly the darkest album she had ever done. The album has multiple songs with PrecisionFStrike, exploration of heavy themes like death, abuse, and sexism, and a lack of definitive happy endings for the characters involved.

* AmbiguousEnding: Does Betty takes James back? [[spoiler:"betty" implies yes but "cardigan" implies they fell apart again.]]

-->Do you see my face in your neighbor's lawn\\

or does she mouth 'Fuck you forever'.