Twice during 2020, Taylor Swift blessed her fans with new music. The first album, Folklore, was released on July 24, 2020, and the second, titled Evermore, was released on December 11, 2020. 

Despite months having passed since these albums were released, they seem to be gaining more and more traction every day, especially on Tik Tok with millennials and Gen-Z fans. 

The two albums are extremely different from anything Swift had released in the past. She is best known for writing all of her lyrics and making most of her songs about herself and her relationships, but these albums were a bit different. 

She did still write the lyrics for her songs, but the stories each song told weren’t necessarily about her. Each song has its own specific storyline, some songs on the albums even have storylines that intertwine with one another. 

Folklore has 16 songs, along with one bonus track, and Evermore has 15 songs and two bonus tracks. Swift released a total of 31 songs in 2020, which she did purposefully as she turned 31 in December. 

Swift puts immense thought into everything she releases and these last two albums are considered to be masterpieces by many. In these albums, she addresses themes of mental health, friendship, loss of loved ones, the way society portrays successful women, love and heartbreak. 

There are a couple songs that stand out in regards to those themes and are especially impactful. 

In Evermore, she explores the theme of mental health especially within her song, “evermore.” The song is about the feeling of hopelessness and how at times, it can feel as though it will last forever. She collaborated on the song with her own personal musical hero, Bon Iver and they created something incredibly beautiful and impactful. 

The message of the song is that although everyone will go through those moments of hopelessness, there will always be something that brings you out of it and those feelings will not last forever. 

“I listen to it whenever I feel hopeless and it always tells me exactly what I need to hear. It’s absolutely perfect,” said senior Fernanda Valdez. 

She explores the themes of friendship in both albums with her songs “seven” on Folklore, which is about one of her childhood friends who lived in an abusive home and with whom she lost touch with, but still thinks about and loves deeply. 

The other song, “dorothea” on Evermore, is rumored to be about her friendship with Selena Gomez. The song tells the story of old friends who only speak every once in a while on the phone since one of them moved away. Swift expresses how much she admires and misses her friend and will always be there for them, ready to welcome them with open arms when they want to come back to her. 

She also explores the themes of loss of loved ones in both albums with songs she wrote about her deceased grandparents. On Folklore, she wrote a song called “epiphany” about her grandfather’s experience fighting in the military. On Evermore, she wrote “marjorie” about her relationship with her grandmother, how it shaped her as a person and how her grandmother still lives within her. 

She spoke about the way society portrays successful women in her song, “mad woman” on Folklore. 

After her feud with Kanye West, a few public breakups and a sexual assault trial, the media quite literally began to portray her as a mad woman. Her song highlights how the way someone is portrayed by others shouldn’t be the only thing that defines them. 

In another Folklore song, “the last great american dynasty,” Swift tells the story about the woman who owned her house before she did and how their stories have many parallels, as they were both believed to be mad women who ruin everything by those who hated them. 

She presents a fantastic comeback when she states that they both, “had a marvelous time ruining everything.” She said this to show that no matter what you do, there will always be people who won’t like you. You might as well have fun and do whatever makes you the happiest. 

She also explores this theme in Evermore with her song “long story short.” The song speaks about the journey of her life and how despite all the hardships she’s faced, she came out stronger on the other side. 

The rest of her songs are obviously about love and heartbreak. In taking a closer look, it is evident that many of these songs have interconnected storylines. 

The most obvious and popular one is in Folklore, with the trio of songs, “cardigan,” “august,” and “betty.” They tell the story of a love triangle between three teens in high school, Betty, James and another unnamed girl who is rumored to be named August. 

This is an extremely unique trio of songs, as nothing like that had ever been done before. “Cardigan” is sung from Betty’s perspective, and is about how she was in love with James and he cheated on her. 

“August” is sung from the perspective of the girl James cheated on Betty with, which brings to light a whole new point of view and how an act that is morally wrong can break your heart. 

“Betty” is sung from James’ perspective and is about him realizing that he shouldn’t have ever cheated on Betty and how he regrets breaking her heart. 

“I love how she shows the guy’s point of view in “Betty” instead of how she always does only her point of view, or the girl’s point of view. This time she decided to change it up and I found it really interesting,” said junior Victoria Betancourt. 

Overall, the consensus among her fans is that her storytelling in these albums was incredible. She’s expressed that she’s going to take a bit of a break from writing new music, but she is working to come up with ideas for a tour once it is safe has released a lot of new merchandise. Click here to check it out!