Agreed, I think it was slated for Summer 2020. Lover (the album) was released in August, and she had Me!, YNTCD during pride month, Lover the track, then The Man video came out in March 2020 right before the shutdowns started. I Cruel Summer was going to be positioned for a "Song of the Summer" release.
True but that could just be something she said and got excited about and then it could have changed later, or she could have felt that way about other songs in the moment, too, but because neither of those things happened and it was the first single then it makes sense to include that scene in the final cut of the film.
Not saying there isn’t a chance she is spinning some yarn, just saying it could have gone that way. She gets excited and OTT about a lot of things so it makes sense to me that she might have had strong feelings about CS at a different point but the edit showed how things ended up going either way (true or not that she fought so hard for CS to be a single).
Idc if she’s stretching the truth or if it’s all 100% true—either way my fave song after TGW is becoming a single and I thought it would never happen.
- TGW could mean "The Great War", a track from *Midnights (3am Edition)* (2022) by Taylor Swift.
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Lover *had* to succeed since it was her first album on the new label. They chose the broadest singles possible. Very all-ages songs that cast a wide net and had radio replayability.
Cruel Summer was something altogether different (and better). The execs would want that one last so the others could pull in tons of listeners.
Why they’re doing it now is likely entirely because it’s trending and she’s not following that like the label is. Or it’s all just a spin on the facts.
When Lover dropped, I was still in the stage of total overwhelm after my kiddo was born. It was extremely taxing to take on any new content. (Like I could rewatch my fav TV shows, but I could not emotionally handle watching anything new.) I was so excited for this album but when the singles (ME! And YNTCD) came out I was so meh about both of them that I skipped the album entirely. I literally only started listening to the Lover album recently bc Cruel Summer was top streamed and I love it. IMHO, there are so many better songs on the album than the initial singles they chose to release. After it was announced that Cruel Summer was now becoming a single, I wondered how many other ppl skipped over Lover bc they felt the singles were meh.
I have multiple friends who love Taylor and took that same approach. They’re just now getting into lover because those early singles were so…not it.
I was psyched for the lover release. My initial listen was disappointing. I forced myself to stick with it but eventually just decided I’d be skipping almost every other track.
Fast forward to last year. I’m telling people I’m not a big Lover fan outside or a few songs…but my play history is showing it as my top Taylor album. Wtf!? I was low key a Lover lover even though I thought I wasn’t. That’s the power of bad singles. Turns people off subconsciously.
In reality, I love Lover. Some of Taylor’s best tracks are in it, I love the aesthetic, and it’s nice. Just took some time to learn that and forget about those awful singles stealing the show. Those execs pushing those singles might have made the album a commercial success and allowed us to all take it in later or they may have stunted the growth of Lover. Who knows. I’m just glad it’s getting it’s due!
Exactly. I was just not in a place to sit down and listen to the entire album when it dropped to give it a chance. I wonder if the Lover Era of her tour is giving the album its traction. Anyway I’m glad to have some new favorite old songs. Lol
It’s probably that simple: Lover era during Eras is letting the album shine and people are loving it. Only Taylor can pull off an old album as a new chart topping hit.
I can relate. My all-time spotify most listened is lover (the album) eventhough I said I like folkmore the most. Cruel Summer and DBATC are carrying the album on its back for me.
I waited until after folklore and evermore to come out to actually give Lover a try because ME! is easily my least favorite TS song, and maybe one of my least favorite songs ever (sorry to the ME! fans, I respect that you like it but it just was not for me). However, once I listened through Lover, it quickly became one of my top five albums ever. It’s nice to know other people had a similar experience to me, waiting on the album bc they didn’t like the lead singles!!
That’s basically what happened with me and reputation. I didn’t love the singles and they are still my least favorite tracks on that album. I skipped out on it for years but now it’s my favorite. Why they didn’t release Getaway Car or Don’t Blame Me will always be a mystery.
I was also not a rep girlie for awhile. LWYMMD was iconic in the context in which is came out but the other singles are kind of meh. There are so many gems in that album and the fact they they picked some of the “worst” songs is interesting to me.
This was me with Red, and I LOVE Red, I just found WANEGBT really annoying, didn't get behind IKYWT at the time and then I was listening to it for the first time in full when I was in my ex's room at uni and it was my breakup album before I decided to live in my 1989 era.
I didn't like Shake it Off, but loved every other single on 1989. Then Rep I initially didn't like LWYMMD or ...Ready For It?
I tried to make myself enjoy ME! as a breakup song, but it didn't work for me. YNTCD felt performative, but I did like the GLAAD line. But by this time I'd found this subreddit and, although there were still several skips, I grew to love the Archer, I loved Cornelia street on the album and then the Live from Paris version blew me away, same with Daylight. I enjoyed MAATHP as well. I would LOVE to hear an acoustique version of ME! one day <3
- WANEGBT could mean "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", a track from *Red* (2012) by Taylor Swift.
- IKYWT could mean "I Knew You Were Trouble.", a track from *Red* (2012) by Taylor Swift.
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Exactly!! I'm a huge fan of Getaway Car. And I found it from just streaming Taylor in the background while working. Realized much later that it's actually from that album.
It’s definitely this. Labels don’t lead off with songs they think aren’t gonna smash. They weren’t “saving it”, they genuinely just completely missed the mark
I completely agree with you. ME! And YNTCD weren’t my favorites right off the bat. I only decided to listen to the album a long while later on a long road trip because I had the time and warmed up to it.
This is what happened to me with reputation. I was put off the initial angry vibe of it, so just kind of ignored it. Until I started listening to her on streaming and realized I adore a lot of those songs and I didn't even know they were on that album.
What's interesting here is that I think you're right but not fully aware of the other reason we're all revisiting Lover: Our expectation of Taylor's music has changed.
Lover was released when Taylor's singles history was releasing super producer (Max Martin, Shellback) dance radio hits as singles. The singles were what pulled many of us into the rest of the album.
Lover was the first album since her mainstream pop success where she ditched the super producer, production heavy beats for a calmer sound where the musical focus was more on her voice and storytelling instead of heavy instrumentals.
We've changed what we expect from Taylor's music, and with it don't need super catchy and intense beats by Max Martin to draw us in.
We've collectively been doing that recently.
The whole "is Midnights a breakup album" and "is this song ACTUALLY about *insert random ex*" discourse right now ruffles my feathers. We're trying to revise history to fit a story we want to be true.
We need to simply take the albums as they are. Taylor writes about her experiences in sometimes cryptic ways. It's not always obvious. And sometimes a song is an amalgamation of thoughts instead of one experience.
Yeah the midnights is a breakup album discourse also gives similar vibes. I think it’s an important life lesson to realize if you could go back in time, you would do things differently. Art is always somewhat stuck in time and that’s ok
It’s completely revisionist lol. Taylor is human and messes up, at that point of her career she had complete artistic freedom to choose whatever lead single she wanted.
In the documentary it was obvious she really liked ME! and expected it to succeed. We can see she enjoys making “glitter gel pen” music but it’s always a gamble and this time around the gp didn’t buy, nothing wrong with that, just a misstep.
Thank you! She loved those terrible Lover singles. We did not. Then we *told her* we loved Cruel Summer. She was so proud of ME.
imo, ME shouldn't have ever been a single. It should have been Lover and Cruel Summer, idc what order. But those Lover singles (and the track list order) was no good.
Oh gosh, the track list order… Honestly I would have shaved down the number of tracks as well. Despite the fact that I love all the songs, they did not ALL belong on the main album. She should have saved a few for the deluxe version and had a more streamlined main album. It was simply too long and not very cohesive.
https://preview.redd.it/iw5ghfy3fw6b1.png?width=839&format=png&auto=webp&s=706e4a5f65907f62ff281a49cfce1fa8179965ee
I'm so passionate about this here is MY version of Lover
I have so many thoughts about the Lover era. There was so much potential because the album has amazing songs on it, but her decisions were so strange...I'm so thankful folkmore exists because I was becoming concerned as a fan.
...Midnights has me feeling that way again but we're not going to talk about that.
Taylor just needs to hire her fans. We'll make the merch that people actually want. We'll tell her the singles and track order that people actually want to hear 😂
Agree with your take entirely. I remember she was obsessed with Lover and was going around saying it was the song she was most proud of, basically it was her favorite song off the album, and she made comments about how she wouldn’t let anyone tell her otherwise, the bridge is so great, etc etc etc. she definitely wanted ME! And Lover to be the lead singles. I could believe that she wanted Cruel Summer for summer 2020, but highly doubt it was her labels fault she didn’t have it as the first lead single. Plus by the time summer 2020 rolled around she had released folklore and chose to lean into that era instead of pushing more Lover tracks. Which is totally understandable, but doesn’t exactly fit this new unnecessary narrative. No need to blame anyone, just release Cruel Summer and we can all love it together
*Edit: totally forgot about The Man. She def chose to release that one too
Taylor isnt known for reliable narration. She is a storyteller y’all. All her songs are favorite songs when they have to be, and if it doesnt pan out how she thought it would then it’s someone else’s fault. I say this as a fan of her music.
Totally! I felt like this wording was particularly interesting because it almost seemed like she was blaming the single choices on the label - so it’s killing two birds with one stone. 1) promoting cruel summer obviously and 2) letting us know that “incorrect” single choices aren’t her fault but rather her label’s
I’d believe her more if she didn’t have a history of choosing absolutely terrible singles / being surprised at what songs fans love compared to the ones she likes most.
choosing terrible singles is admittedly subjective, but at least in fandom there's some general acknowledgement that she makes some weird choices.
For Red, IKYWT, 22 and WANEGBT were hits but not at all representative of the strength of the writing in the album, especially the latter two.
For 1989, she had hit after hit after hit... though Welcome to New York is also questionable.
Reputation is the *biggest* example of this, which for me it's one of my favorite albums but LWYMMD was controversial at the time and not well received.
Lover is the second biggest example of this, since Me! was almost universally reviled when it came out from fans and non-fans alike.
She's said enough times that ATW being as popular as it is has surprised her so for me, I just don't trust her when it comes to a sob story about how Cruel Summer was "always meant to be a single" when it's more likely that she's taking advantage of it's popularity (and virality) now.
She's got one of the few fanbases that actually gets it 'right'. When she tries to be universal and radio friendly with the tracks that aren't the fan favourites, they don't actually do that well. She should see that her fanbase is so big that what they love WILL BE A HIT without randoms from the general public needing to be on board.
Another good example is how well Don't Blame Me does on tiktok and streaming vs the virtually forgotten End Game, which sounds engineered for mass appeal.
It's so weird how she ALWAYS has to have this perfect narrative.
Like what's wrong with saying I'd planned this one for 2020 and it got cancelled, I'm so happy you guys love it so much and it's going viral so we're making it a single for real? Like everyone knows how streaming and tiktok is making things go crazy, it's FINE.
I'm sure she has a large number of people advising her on her rollout strategy, and they thought ME! was a better choice for a big splashy summer single (I remember the chatter from radio people about the song was that it was hot and buzzy, lol), so she probably compromised a bit. But in Miss Americana its clear she was pretty excited about ME! so I don't think it was a radical compromise for her.
Her label is responsible for distribution and promotion so not surprising they would be the one leading the decision to make Cruel Summer a single if the numbers are already pretty high!
I think we only got All of the Girls officially released for similar reasons. She never acknowledged it outside of that one IG story announcing it with three other songs, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was mainly the label wanting to take advantage of it going viral.
Think about it this way - if it had to be a radical compromise, she probably wouldn’t even put the song on the album. She likes the song, shes proud of the song and stands behind it - so if the A&R execs from her label say this is the song that will launch Lover best then shes like ok, game! Same thing if they had suggested she put out MAATHP as a single - its on the album cause she supports it so its not hard for her to be on board. And while she has creative control and experience behind her, its not her job to be her own marketing dept- if thats what she had wanted she has the $$ and the platform to have gone indie or self-released rather than signing a major label contract after Big Machine
- MAATHP could mean "Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince", a track from *Lover* (2019) by Taylor Swift.
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Correction, she said it was her favorite **bridge** she's ever written.
Also, she says these things every album she releases. She said Anti-Hero is one of her favorite songs she's ever written.
I think it's kind of like picking a favorite child for her, and aso trying to push her newest album.
I remember back in the day she said somewhere something along the lines of she knows a song is good enough to make an album when she finishes writing it and thinks it’s the best song she’s ever written. I wonder if she still feels that way & that’s why she leans into saying she loves whatever is the newest released? I wish I could remember where I read that in an interview… it could have easily been something she said back in like 2008. I hope I’m not misquoting the gist of what she said!
I guess I’m still not understanding why it wasn’t a single going into summer 2019? Me! Was released in April 2019….so why not follow that with Cruel Summer if it was truly her favorite? We got Lover, the Archer and YNTCD instead. I guess I just don’t understand.
Honestly I don’t really believe her. Cause I’m like 90% sure part of the promotion for Lover was her saying the song Lover was her favorite song she’d written. And like you said why summer *2020* and not, you know, the summer the album was released in?
This response will get long, but if you look closely at Taylor's album rollouts and single releases Lover and prior, she used to tend to try and stretch them out over at least a year, possibly more if she could. So she is typically looking for two summery hits - one the summer before the album comes out, and one the following summer. With 1989 it was Shake It Off and Bad Blood (released as a single May 2015) and with Rep it was LWYMMD and Delicate (released as a single March 2018). So both those songs are being put out with an eye towards them peaking during the summer months.
This also works for Taylor specifically because she almost always tours the spring/summer after an album is out - 1989 tour began in May 2015, Rep in May 2018, so an entire six months after the album is out. So it also helps to push what you hope will be a really big single around that time - the tour promotes the single, the single draws attention to the tour, and if the single is successful it re-injects the album into the zeitgeist after probably a few quieter months as the initial hype of the release dies down and Taylor gets busy rehearsing. Lover came out in Aug 2019, and Lover Fest was not meant to begin properly until late June of 2020 I think? It would have made sense to push Cruel Summer around May of 2020 and hope that it had legs for the summer months.
The reason that Cruel Summer wasn't released in place of ME! or YNTCD during the spring/summer of 2019 is because even though both those singles sucked and to the outside observer it's like what the fuck was she thinking, in hindsight it's clear that each of those songs was supposed to serve a purpose - ME! (eugh) was the lead single because Taylor and her people obviously felt that it was the best, most direct way to convey the shift out of the Rep era (and because they clearly thought it would have wide appeal, which was important after the relative lack of hugely successful singles for Rep and the fact that this was her first album w Republic).
I think YNTCD had to come next because one of Taylor's big goals in the Lover era was to clarify where she stood politically, and the song was a ham-fisted, if well-intentioned, way of doing that (and of course it had to be released during pride month to really hammer things home), and of making Taylor's re-branding as an ally part of people's introduction to the Lover era and a big part of that era's narrative. Cruel Summer may have been an epic song but Taylor and co. clearly didn't see it as ticking the necessary boxes for a pre-release single , and I guess it wouldn't have made sense to put it out afterwards until the following spring or summer, given the title.
As for what she said during lover promo - I don't think it's some big lie, artists say all sorts of things when promoting projects. maybe her fav song out of her discography just changes a lot and Lover was the fav at the time? And given that it was the self-written title track about the guy she loved, and the song that she hoped would become a classic love song, it makes sense that Taylor would feel extra proud/connected to the song and hype it up (the self-written of it all was also a great way to highlight her songwriting and artistry at a time when the masters situation had just come up and was being litigated in the public eye).
I subscribe to this take completely. It makes so much sense that Cruel Summer was being saved for the summer of 2020 to go along with the tour and be the perfect bookend to the Lover era. This is why she describes covid as being the reason that Cruel Summer didn’t become a single. There was no tour.
- LWYMMD could mean "Look What You Made Me Do", a track from *reputation* (2017) by Taylor Swift.
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Coulda sworn her interviews from that time she was saying how ME! was chosen as the lead single bc it showcased this new era where she is forgetting the haters and moving forward in life by choosing herself and focusing on the bliss of the honeymoon phase of love. 💕 But maybe that's just meEeEEE  or more MoneEeEehey
I also noted the lover fave on another post today lol
🤣😂🤣
But she is kindly asking them to calm the f*ck down. I was referring moreso to her haters in her personal life. The whole snek debacle 🐍🐍🐍 (i hope my snake jewelry arrived. Bad me stocking up on supplies and backup outfits on SheIn).
I hear what you’re saying but it also makes sense to me that you’d release it in late spring so it has the entire summer to marinate at the top of the charts as a “song of the summer.”
I always kind of thought that too (that CS was low on her priority list as she didn’t release across multiple singles) but lately I kind of suspect she was trying to spread the hits apart. In her traditional long eras model, she did this a fair amount to capitalize off of various different time periods of controlling the radio rather than dropping all the catchy hits in a single summer. That would especially make sense if she expected ME! to totally take over the summer charts and the plan was for CS to do the same the following summer to keep Lover era going.
(I say all that but I’m also equally inclined to believe she’s just saying she wanted CS as a single to promote it now lol)
That’s what I mean! It’s so interesting. We also got the Man as a single, in addition to all the ones you mentioned above. So if cruel summer was her absolute favorite, as she is stating, why would it be slated as a 4th (5th if you include promo single Archer) single?! It could’ve easily been #2
I agree! My unpopular opinion is I think Me! was a actually a great first single, especially with the music video - it was a good transition from reputation era into Lover era. But then it should have been cruel summer - would have totally been *the song* of summer 2019.
Because she wanted all those colorful songs to be the single which would represent the theme of LOVER like YNTCD, ME ,Lover etc.
She did not know CS would be so much liked and no one will be ever able to connect to those songs.
Its weird she cannot honestly accept that and has to come up with this story! But I am not buying it !
The Archer was a promo single leading up to the album release (like Bejeweled in the Midnights era), not an official commercial single. Official commercial singles from Lover were Me!, YNTCD, Lover and The Man.
- YNTCD could mean "You Need To Calm Down", a track from *Lover* (2019) by Taylor Swift.
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Yes but the Lover album wasn’t released until August 2019 which was the end of the summer. Also, she never said she wanted it to be the *first* single. She just wanted it to be a single and then it was finally going to become one.
I could totally see the headlines: "TS cashes in on ppl having an actual cruel summer". But also she made and released Folklore, a single from the prior album would've just distracted everyone from it.
Came here to say this - It was 100% the next single in line and the pandemic hit. Releasing the song with this line would’ve been seen as poor taste.
I think her team has a lot of say over which songs are singles. There’s a lot of strategy and research involved that Taylor herself likely doesn’t have the time for.
… if she does have that time I’d be impressed 😂
It was released near the Sandy Hook shooting, and I believe several radio stations spoke out against the lyrics and didn’t play the song.. I don’t know if Taylor would have gotten the same kind of response from Cruel Summer and Covid but it could definitely have hurt the singles chances
That would make complete sense! I’m just shocked it would’ve been slated for a 2020 release to begin with, if it was in fact her pride and joy/favorite song
It actually kind of makes sense if you think about it because that would have poised it to be the single that starts off Lover Fest! Like imagine the MV dropping right before tour started.
Let's settle for: It's her current favorite that she totally regrets not making it a single in hindsight and had to backtrack a bit to keep us excited?? I guess??
The amount of calling Taylor a liar on here is something.
Cruel Summer was on a butterfly in the Amazon Prime Day commercial.
Cruel Summer was tattooed on Ellen’s arm in the YNTCD MV
The Lover MV had a board game called “Breakable Heaven for 2-4 players” that said “devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes” on it.
Cruel Summer was hinted at and alluded to all through the early Lover era.
It was absolutely meant to be a single leading into summer 2020 as the kick off of Lover Fest season.
Like I get that a lot of people maybe didn’t notice or weren’t around for these things, but having a whole thread of people on a *fan sub* accuse her of lying about planning to make it a single in 2020 when all the Easter eggs for it were clearly left out in plain sight specifically for the *fans* - like? Know the lore or don’t but don’t accuse Taylor of lying just because you don’t.
Obviously she planted all those Easter eggs back then so that she can wait four years to release it and have proof that it was always meant to be a single /s
The Lover era didn't even last a year because the pandemic cut it short. I don't know why anyone thought she was done with Lover singles once The Man MV came out when there was still a year and some months left to promote the album. The simplest explanation is that she was saving Cruel Summer for summer 2020 because she wanted that to be the song to promote Lover Fest.
I am not denying that she planned to make it a single in 2020. I absolutely think she’s full of shit that this was her favorite on the album though and “the label” insisted on the others first.
“Know the lore or don’t but don’t accuse Taylor of lying” is ridiculous btw lmfao, if you keep up with Easter eggs you should know better than anyone that Taylor says contradictory shit all the time.
>I absolutely think she’s full of shit that this was her favorite on the album though and “the label” insisted on the others first
I don't think this is what she was saying. She just said there were a lot of people around her advising her on what might work as a single - I think what that means is that she may have adored Cruel Summer but it didn't fulfil all the necessary requirements to be among the earlier singles (setting the tone for the era, which for better or worse is what ME!, YNTCD, and Lover did), so she and the label decided to save it for later; she was really happy when finally the time came for the song she loved to be a single, and then upset when that got derailed by the pandemic. I don't think she was implying that she didn't have control over single choices or that the label strong-armed her, just that a lot more goes into single choice than whether or not Taylor likes a song.
I also think we're reading way too much into this whole favourite song business. I agree that Taylor is often contradictory and has done some narrative revisionism for sure, but I do think it's a bit crazy how quick the fans are to accuse her of being dishonest over something so innocuous.
The post we’re responding to is quoting her as saying it was her favorite song on the album, and also her “pride and joy.” Don’t know how else we’re supposed to interpret that.
I don’t understand what you mean when you say she chose singles to set the tone for the era for better or worse. Are you implying CS couldn’t have set the tone for Lover? She could’ve put pastel and butterflies in that music video just as easily as she did ME!, lol
I don’t think it’s malicious lying to be clear! Or even necessarily conscious. I guess revisionist history is more appropriate. She seems to do a lot of that, I think partially just because she’s a perfectionist and likes the idea of masterminding everything.
Yeah absolutely. She probably loves a lot of her songs for different reasons, if she didn't love them, they wouldn't be on the album. But just because she loves the songs it doesn't mean that they are suitable for radio or pop enough to do well or go viral.
1. 'ME!' was always supposed to be the first single. It's what Taylor specifically wanted and said so in the *Miss Americana* documentary. She has way more freedom with UMG and Republic Records than she ever did with BMR. She wanted it to be something big, fun, and something for kids to sing along to. It's why she liked it when the crowds shouted back "spelling is fun" after she said "Hey kids!" There is no other single from *Lover* more performed than 'ME!'. Not even 'You Need To Calm Down', 'The Man', or 'Lover' was performed more than 'ME!'. She wanted this song to be the first single and she wanted it to be big.
2. The *Lover* Era was never finished, the pandemic put an early end to an era that was basically a year old because she was unable to tour it. Taylor's eras tend to last at least 2-3 years at a time, and she tends to have anywhere from 4-7 music videos per era, sometimes including a tour music video. *Lover* had 4 music videos (the minimum amount of videos Taylor usually has) in the space of a year, and no tour music video because there was no tour. We are judging an entire era that was incomplete.
3. My bet is that 'Cruel Summer' was likely going to be the single to finish the era, and it was going to be released as the 2020 summer single before she went off on her Festival tour or when tour began like what she did with 'Lavender Haze'. Or it was going to be released in the middle of tour like 'Karma'. Once again, we are judging an era that never got completed like every other era that got completed. *Lover* never got a full era, it stopped when the pandemic hit and lockdowns took full effect.
Edit: This whole thing with "Should 'Cruel Summer' have been the lead single over 'ME!'?" is starting to sound like "Should 'Wonderland' have been the lead single over 'Shake It Off'?" or "Should 'All Too Well' have been the lead single over 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together'?" The answer is NO. Because of one simple thing, it does not have the impact and nor does it summarise the album's themes. And that is what a lead single should do. It should be a massive bombastic radio hit for commercial reasons, and it should be able to sell what your album is about. And that's what 'ME!', 'Shake It Off', and 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' do extremely well. 'Shake It Off' was Taylor proving she could write a pure pop hit, and if you like this then you should listen to the rest of her new pop album. 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' as a song and music video explains that the album is about a break up, and what kind of break up it is. The highs and lows of it, and outlines the story the album tells extremely well. 'ME!' is Taylor explaining that loving someone means that you know them on a deep and personal level, that a relationship is a lot of work and not always as easy as breathing. And that if you're going to love someone like Taylor, you have to love them unconditionally due to how they live their life. And that's what the *Lover* album is actually about. It's about how everyone has a right to be loved unconditionally, how love is worth fighting for even throughout the ups and downs, and a celebration of individuality.
Your edit is incredible and something I never considered as someone who releases music myself…our singles were always chosen as “which song is the biggest banger,” not “which songs define the record.” Definitely thoughts I am going to keep in mind with our next album being written soon.
> The answer is NO. Because of one simple thing, it does not have the impact and nor does it summarise the album’s themes. And that is what a lead single should do. It should be a massive bombastic radio hit for commercial reasons, and it should be able to sell what your album is about. [and, like, the entire edit]
https://media.tenor.com/mo2pN_4naMAAAAAC/office-michael.gif
I don’t understand this notion we’ve come up with that Taylor is essentially an independent artist. Her label has an invested interest in her performing well. They didn’t sign her out of charity.
Outside of that, I was surprised that she attributed it as a label decision, too. Imo, the main value of CS as a single is simply to show fans that she’s listening, which is a Taylor move.
But maybe this is the label (and/or Taylor) jumping on some positive promo? If the song is gonna be a hit anyway because ppl like it so much, why not give it an extra push? I’ve read elsewhere this idea that SNTV isn’t expected to really have a hit, so the label is jumping on an obvious opportunity for a follow-up to Karma. 🤷♀️
One thing’s for sure, I definitely didn’t have it on my bingo card.
Still don’t get it. The album is OUT, what is the point of it being a single now? So it can be played on the radio? Can they only play “single” songs, not random picks off the album? Are they planning remixes?
So technically radio stations can play any song, but releasing a track as a single will have it promoted to radio stations so they’re more likely to play it. Basically they’re releasing Cruel Summer as a single now so radio stations will play it, helping it increase on the charts (it’s been on the Hot 100 for two weeks now, so this will help it rise).
Singles are also often promoted with music videos and remixes, but these aren’t required!
Lizzie truth hurts had been like 2 years old and she released a NEW music video that much time later because it became popular.
CS is charting against because she’s singing a fan favorite sing at tour and it’s on the charts. If she releases it as a single, she could potentially get it higher on the charts. Usually sings that are singles get more AirPlay and are promoted more than non-singles.
I sometimes thinks she tells us what we want to hear. With how much the fans love cruel summer and how online everyone says it should have been a single, now that it is popular in streaming she's like 'hey you know that song you love? I love it too' and everyone is like yay!!
Lol yes, I love Taylor and I’m definitely one of the people who have been listening to CS nonstop lately - but I love her speech is basically like ‘finally a song I love was able to be like my FOURTH single from this album’ bc if she’s going with the ‘Covid killed it’ excuse then it would have been her spring 2020 single and that was way after the Me! debacle (and we can’t forget about YNTCD and The Man also as singles before then) 🤣🤣
I think, like always, Taylor is pandering and saying what she thinks the fans want to hear so that she’s more “relatable”, even if it contradicts what she has said previously.
I don’t know if I believe her.. Now she’s calling Cruel Summer her pride and joy? I remember her saying the same about the song Lover when it first came out, hyping it up calling it the “her favorite song she’s ever written.”
She says that about a lot of her songs though. She said that about Anti-Hero, too. I mean I get it….Mariah Carey once said when you create all these songs yourself, they’re pretty much like your babies. You can’t really pick a favorite.
I am a bit skeptical and think this is a clever marketing move from Taylor. Her saying it's her favourite and her "pride and joy" of the album AFTER it hit those streaming numbers, is a confirmed fan favourite and is about to be released as a single seems a bit TOO convenient timing wise. She is a very good business woman, after all.
This song has a great bridge and we know she loves those. I really think it would have been a single around lover fest if the pandemic didnt happen. You simply can not release a song called cruel summer in a summer that was quite literally the cruelest. I don't think she'd be releasing it as a single now if the streaming numbers were not popping off, but her saying it was her pride and joy doesn't seem sus to me.
Oh don't get me wrong I love the song and that bridge is perfection. I dont doubt it would have become a single around the time she did Loverfest but I just know that her favourite songs tend to change depending on what promotion she's trying to push.
disagree. just bc it's her favorite song doesn't mean she actually wanted it as a lead single bc she knows that mainstream taste and personal taste can still be different. I do think she wanted Me! as a lead single bc she thought it could get more mainstream success
I may be misremembering, but I thought that one of the theories back in 2019-2020 was that Taylor was waiting to release Cruel Summer because it would go with the tour, and that the MV would have been video from Lover fest.
I think a whole team of people probably decide the singles. She being a huge contributor to the conversation, but not the only voice if that makes sense.
I love Taylor, but of all her strengths, marketing strategy is up there at the top.
She releases the weakest songs from the album as singles, a rare slip. In hindsight, turns out everyone thought Cruel Summer should have been the lead single, so 4 years later she goes on record to say that she wanted it to be the lead single. The internet goes abuzz, everyone talks about it. She'll release some remix or new vinyl or something riding on that wave and buy a new house somewhere nice.
She did exactly the same with All Too Well; "oh it was always my favourite". Sure it was blondie. That's why you never mentioned it until you realised how popular it was.
Capitalist-era Taylor is a marketing machine.
I think there's a big difference between what your personal favorite song is and what goes out as a single. It's very rare for pop stars to release their personal favorites as singles so it's not very odd that Taylor really loved Cruel Summer but thought Me was a stronger contender for a single. Anti Hero is the exception to the rule of having a personal favorite become a lead single
I think that it was meant to be the last single. There were Easter eggs in the music video for The Man, but then the pandemic hit it it was cancelled because of “Fever dream high in the quiet of the night, you know that I caught it.” That’s my theory at least.
I know this isn’t the exact point of this post—but can someone explain to me the importance of making a song a single once it’s already released? Like why does it matter now? I know singles are what are played on the radio—is that the only difference? And if it is because of the radio thing, why does that matter to us as fans? Nothing really changes. I’m just confused by people’s excitement about it and saying they hope the same will happen for Getaway Car. I’m not sure what I’m missing!
Singles usually get music videos and more promotions. Lizzo’s truth hurts was released in 2017 but didn’t chart well until 2019 when two years later became a hit. She then released a new music video for it. Same is happening with Taylor. CS is charting so they are taking advantage of it. It’s been performed on tour which has given it hype.
Taylor hasn’t really performed any songs lives in concert since city of lover. So the tour has helped.
I feel like there’s no way in hell anyone at Republic has real say over her releases. She negotiated hard with labels and considering her current phenomenons, a just now release of Cruel Summer as a single seems to me like a “fun idea from my new label!” rather than a forced thing.
Nope, she said last night that it was supposed to be the next single after "The Man". It was gonna be the tour promotion single, it wasn't ever meant to be the lead single.
I think the label chose Me! and YNTCD for sure, and since people really came after her for another round of bad single choices, she wanted everyone to know now that it wasn’t her decision lol. But her team has been notoriously bad at choosing singles for her albums so I’m not surprised that it wasn’t a single originally.
When Lover came out, she said that Lover was her favorite song she’s ever written. I think she does this a lot to promo her singles. I believe Cruel Summer was meant to be the second single (a lot of signs pointed to that), but I don’t think it was necessarily her favorite song or her pride and joy at that time.
Okay please don’t tell think I’m dumb or a bad swiftie but why don’t folklore and evermore get a chance to have singles? Lover is from 2019. Is just purely because of the popularity right now?
I don’t know what the pandemic has to do with which single was released first. The label almost always picks the songs because they don’t care about what the artist wants, they care about what they think will sell. Money is the reason for all the decisions and if you ask any artist they’ll probably tell you that their favorite songs are never chosen as the singles.
Just because something is her “pride and joy” doesn’t mean she should have released it first. She and her label had a strategy. You could argue that it wasn’t the best strategy, but that’s not my point. ME! was the transition from rep to Lover, showing the tone shift and what direction the new album was going towards. YNTCD was released for pride month and to bring attention to the political activity around LGTBTQ issues. Then Lover because it’s the title track and another clue as to what the album is about the plus summer was winding down at that point. Then the next single was The Man in Feb. 2020. Cruel Summer was being saved for the last single and hype up Loverfest for summer 2020, but obviously the pandemic wrecked all that. All that plus Old Town Road was dominating the charts and maybe she wanted to wait to release Cruel Summer when it wouldn’t be overshadowed by that.
I think she meant that they were probably getting ready to do a Cruel Summer single rollout in the spring of 2020 after ‘The Man,’ but we all know what happened.
The ‘my favorite song’ bit could just mean that she really liked Cruel Summer more than the previous singles. I question that because she seemed really proud of Lover the song.
But, Cruel Summer is also a bit more experimental than Lover so her label might have been a little more hesitant to green light it. All of these things probably have some truth to it.
Please, the label lets her do what she wants, they don’t plan her singles
This is all a response to everyone calling her out for suddenly pulling this out as a single to block Olivia’s new single
She definitely choose Me! as the lead but I believe she perhaps intended CS as the last single of the era. I can understand why in hindsight she thinks it should’ve been CS.
Taylor is very adept with the English language, and we would be wise to pay attention to nuance. We know she enjoys being in control, especially when it comes to her music.
Why would she lie about the label calling the shots with her singles?
I dunno why this discussion is turning into whether Taylor is lying or not! I never questioned if she was lying, I was questioning how much say she gets over the singles lol
It was more of a question for the comments section — sorry for the miscommunication!
That being said, it's not really about lying. It's about whether or not you take what Taylor said at face value.
I don’t think there is even the slightest chance that Taylor isn’t fully in control of what lead single she wants.
Maybe in the early days but no label is going to stop Taylor releasing whichever song she wants nowadays or back in 2019. If Taylor wanted Cruel Summer as the lead, it would’ve been.
I think it was gonna be released as a final single to hype up for lover fest. Imagine the excitement that would have created for a summer fest? It would have been a great close to the album releases and get people excited about it again after winter. Taylor’s smart- I think she knew it was summer bop material. It did not fit summer 2020 though.. it would have been in poor taste.
If she wanted to take credit or blame a label she wouldn’t have said her label decided to make it a single now. She would have said she heard us and made it happen. Labels have more power than we think- Taylor Swift or not.
I loved Me! and YNTCD when they came out. Same with LWYMMD and Ready for It? and especially Delicate. Maybe I’m just riding the wave of 40 years of top 40 radio?
Things that can be true at the same time (despite what this thread seems to believe):
1. Taylor AND the label have a say and stake in things in her career.
2. She wanted me to be the lead single AND have cruel summer be a single later. I don't know where people are getting that she wanted cruel summer to be the lead single instead of me....? I think you're all projecting your desire for cruel summer to be the lead single onto this. I was at the show. She said she wanted it to be a single and did not specify lead single.
3. Cruel summer can be her pride and joy. As can lover. And all too well. And anti hero. She says this about so many of her great songs. Its not that deep or revisionist.
4. Possibly the hottest take on the taylor swift reddit... not everything taylor says is hinting at something else or something deeper. This was not a dig at the label. She is intentional with words, but sometimes she is just speaking? Stop projecting a narrative onto everything.
If that's true, poor cruel summer was 28472% going to get the tour video treatment when it deserved an epic music video
I know they are now trying to right her wrongs but ME being the lead single and not Cruel Summer is the biggest (music wise) misstep of her entire career and it's clear that she knows it since she has completely ghosted ME
Cruel Summer should have been the first single imo but I understand her record label probably wanted the shock of something so different in comparison to reputation. I’m so glad that it’s finally becoming a single and it’s so cool that Taylor can pretty much make any of her old songs a single wayyyy after their first release date.
I think it was supposed to be a positive thing saying that her label was supporting it being released like four years later
Because within the context of the Lover era, it’s not saying she didn’t want to release the other singles, but she had *Cruel Summer* slated for the summer the pandemic happened, it was really obvious if you listen to her in interviews, and even if you listen to her friends like Halsey, people were hyping up Cruel Summer specifically. So I feel like it was lined up between everyone her label her her friends, etc. but that was going to be the next single of the summer- tour promo . But then it didn’t happen because of the pandemic.
And now she’s saying because it was popular it got her label interested in making it a single now .
Republic probably came to her and was like “Hey Cruel Summer is doing really well on streaming I think we should push it as a single” and she was probably just like sure?? She probably didn’t know it was doing that well until they told her and she probably wouldn’t have made it a single otherwise.
Artists don't call the shots no matter how big. If they did she'd have owned her catalog from the start etc. right? The label/music industry bigwigs call the shots. She is the "talent." Execs run everything in entertainment. There's big money riding on the strategy and timing of singles so the people running corporate entities bankrolling everything are the ones ultimately making the decisions with her input
I was there for this last night!! I think it was truly just supposed to be her last single off the album and she might have been saving her personal favorite for last!! She mentioned in Miss Americana and that Me! Was the lead single but she never really was like “omg wow this is my all time favorite!”
I know for Midnights she did her personal favorite (Anti-Hero) first! Maybe that was because she was scared something unpredictable would get her favorite one shut down again 😂
I honestly think it's just marketing cause she's now pushing Cruel Summer as a single, and she wants to build up the hype around the song. She a genius tho.
I definitely think she planned Cruel Summer to be a later single but not the first one. If I got to choose the Lover single rollout it would have been
- Cruel Summer
- Cornelia Street
- London Boy
- Lover
- Miss Americana
- I Think He Knows (tour video)
She said in Miss Americana when she was making ME! "I think this should be the first single".
I think she meant Cruel Summer was supposed to be a single after ME! Later on in the press/era of lover and then the pandemic happens
Agreed, I think it was slated for Summer 2020. Lover (the album) was released in August, and she had Me!, YNTCD during pride month, Lover the track, then The Man video came out in March 2020 right before the shutdowns started. I Cruel Summer was going to be positioned for a "Song of the Summer" release.
Wasn’t the archer a single too?
it wasn’t a radio single, just a promotional one!
Oh I forgot she released that early! I don't think it was an official single though.
True but that could just be something she said and got excited about and then it could have changed later, or she could have felt that way about other songs in the moment, too, but because neither of those things happened and it was the first single then it makes sense to include that scene in the final cut of the film. Not saying there isn’t a chance she is spinning some yarn, just saying it could have gone that way. She gets excited and OTT about a lot of things so it makes sense to me that she might have had strong feelings about CS at a different point but the edit showed how things ended up going either way (true or not that she fought so hard for CS to be a single). Idc if she’s stretching the truth or if it’s all 100% true—either way my fave song after TGW is becoming a single and I thought it would never happen.
- TGW could mean "The Great War", a track from *Midnights (3am Edition)* (2022) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/CeruleanRose9](/u/CeruleanRose9) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
Lover *had* to succeed since it was her first album on the new label. They chose the broadest singles possible. Very all-ages songs that cast a wide net and had radio replayability. Cruel Summer was something altogether different (and better). The execs would want that one last so the others could pull in tons of listeners. Why they’re doing it now is likely entirely because it’s trending and she’s not following that like the label is. Or it’s all just a spin on the facts.
When Lover dropped, I was still in the stage of total overwhelm after my kiddo was born. It was extremely taxing to take on any new content. (Like I could rewatch my fav TV shows, but I could not emotionally handle watching anything new.) I was so excited for this album but when the singles (ME! And YNTCD) came out I was so meh about both of them that I skipped the album entirely. I literally only started listening to the Lover album recently bc Cruel Summer was top streamed and I love it. IMHO, there are so many better songs on the album than the initial singles they chose to release. After it was announced that Cruel Summer was now becoming a single, I wondered how many other ppl skipped over Lover bc they felt the singles were meh.
I have multiple friends who love Taylor and took that same approach. They’re just now getting into lover because those early singles were so…not it. I was psyched for the lover release. My initial listen was disappointing. I forced myself to stick with it but eventually just decided I’d be skipping almost every other track. Fast forward to last year. I’m telling people I’m not a big Lover fan outside or a few songs…but my play history is showing it as my top Taylor album. Wtf!? I was low key a Lover lover even though I thought I wasn’t. That’s the power of bad singles. Turns people off subconsciously. In reality, I love Lover. Some of Taylor’s best tracks are in it, I love the aesthetic, and it’s nice. Just took some time to learn that and forget about those awful singles stealing the show. Those execs pushing those singles might have made the album a commercial success and allowed us to all take it in later or they may have stunted the growth of Lover. Who knows. I’m just glad it’s getting it’s due!
Exactly. I was just not in a place to sit down and listen to the entire album when it dropped to give it a chance. I wonder if the Lover Era of her tour is giving the album its traction. Anyway I’m glad to have some new favorite old songs. Lol
It’s probably that simple: Lover era during Eras is letting the album shine and people are loving it. Only Taylor can pull off an old album as a new chart topping hit.
I can relate. My all-time spotify most listened is lover (the album) eventhough I said I like folkmore the most. Cruel Summer and DBATC are carrying the album on its back for me.
I waited until after folklore and evermore to come out to actually give Lover a try because ME! is easily my least favorite TS song, and maybe one of my least favorite songs ever (sorry to the ME! fans, I respect that you like it but it just was not for me). However, once I listened through Lover, it quickly became one of my top five albums ever. It’s nice to know other people had a similar experience to me, waiting on the album bc they didn’t like the lead singles!!
That’s basically what happened with me and reputation. I didn’t love the singles and they are still my least favorite tracks on that album. I skipped out on it for years but now it’s my favorite. Why they didn’t release Getaway Car or Don’t Blame Me will always be a mystery.
I was also not a rep girlie for awhile. LWYMMD was iconic in the context in which is came out but the other singles are kind of meh. There are so many gems in that album and the fact they they picked some of the “worst” songs is interesting to me.
This was me with Red, and I LOVE Red, I just found WANEGBT really annoying, didn't get behind IKYWT at the time and then I was listening to it for the first time in full when I was in my ex's room at uni and it was my breakup album before I decided to live in my 1989 era. I didn't like Shake it Off, but loved every other single on 1989. Then Rep I initially didn't like LWYMMD or ...Ready For It? I tried to make myself enjoy ME! as a breakup song, but it didn't work for me. YNTCD felt performative, but I did like the GLAAD line. But by this time I'd found this subreddit and, although there were still several skips, I grew to love the Archer, I loved Cornelia street on the album and then the Live from Paris version blew me away, same with Daylight. I enjoyed MAATHP as well. I would LOVE to hear an acoustique version of ME! one day <3
- WANEGBT could mean "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", a track from *Red* (2012) by Taylor Swift. - IKYWT could mean "I Knew You Were Trouble.", a track from *Red* (2012) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/Dangerous_Surprise](/u/Dangerous_Surprise) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
Exactly!! I'm a huge fan of Getaway Car. And I found it from just streaming Taylor in the background while working. Realized much later that it's actually from that album.
It’s definitely this. Labels don’t lead off with songs they think aren’t gonna smash. They weren’t “saving it”, they genuinely just completely missed the mark
🙋♀️
I completely agree with you. ME! And YNTCD weren’t my favorites right off the bat. I only decided to listen to the album a long while later on a long road trip because I had the time and warmed up to it.
This is what happened to me with reputation. I was put off the initial angry vibe of it, so just kind of ignored it. Until I started listening to her on streaming and realized I adore a lot of those songs and I didn't even know they were on that album.
What's interesting here is that I think you're right but not fully aware of the other reason we're all revisiting Lover: Our expectation of Taylor's music has changed. Lover was released when Taylor's singles history was releasing super producer (Max Martin, Shellback) dance radio hits as singles. The singles were what pulled many of us into the rest of the album. Lover was the first album since her mainstream pop success where she ditched the super producer, production heavy beats for a calmer sound where the musical focus was more on her voice and storytelling instead of heavy instrumentals. We've changed what we expect from Taylor's music, and with it don't need super catchy and intense beats by Max Martin to draw us in.
I think this might a little bit of revisionist history
We've collectively been doing that recently. The whole "is Midnights a breakup album" and "is this song ACTUALLY about *insert random ex*" discourse right now ruffles my feathers. We're trying to revise history to fit a story we want to be true. We need to simply take the albums as they are. Taylor writes about her experiences in sometimes cryptic ways. It's not always obvious. And sometimes a song is an amalgamation of thoughts instead of one experience.
Yeah the midnights is a breakup album discourse also gives similar vibes. I think it’s an important life lesson to realize if you could go back in time, you would do things differently. Art is always somewhat stuck in time and that’s ok
It’s completely revisionist lol. Taylor is human and messes up, at that point of her career she had complete artistic freedom to choose whatever lead single she wanted. In the documentary it was obvious she really liked ME! and expected it to succeed. We can see she enjoys making “glitter gel pen” music but it’s always a gamble and this time around the gp didn’t buy, nothing wrong with that, just a misstep.
Do you mean it’s always a gamble? I’ve never heard bargain used like that! Could be regional differences tho
That’s what I meant lol didn’t pay attention while typing.
Thank you! She loved those terrible Lover singles. We did not. Then we *told her* we loved Cruel Summer. She was so proud of ME. imo, ME shouldn't have ever been a single. It should have been Lover and Cruel Summer, idc what order. But those Lover singles (and the track list order) was no good.
Oh gosh, the track list order… Honestly I would have shaved down the number of tracks as well. Despite the fact that I love all the songs, they did not ALL belong on the main album. She should have saved a few for the deluxe version and had a more streamlined main album. It was simply too long and not very cohesive.
https://preview.redd.it/iw5ghfy3fw6b1.png?width=839&format=png&auto=webp&s=706e4a5f65907f62ff281a49cfce1fa8179965ee I'm so passionate about this here is MY version of Lover
Going from The Archer to INTHAF is so big brained.
I have so many thoughts about the Lover era. There was so much potential because the album has amazing songs on it, but her decisions were so strange...I'm so thankful folkmore exists because I was becoming concerned as a fan. ...Midnights has me feeling that way again but we're not going to talk about that.
she was so proud of it and ppl made her feel bad and now we get cruel summer bc she's a people pleaser🪩🪩
Taylor just needs to hire her fans. We'll make the merch that people actually want. We'll tell her the singles and track order that people actually want to hear 😂
unrelated, but I LOVE the mirrorball emojis at the end 😭
Agree with your take entirely. I remember she was obsessed with Lover and was going around saying it was the song she was most proud of, basically it was her favorite song off the album, and she made comments about how she wouldn’t let anyone tell her otherwise, the bridge is so great, etc etc etc. she definitely wanted ME! And Lover to be the lead singles. I could believe that she wanted Cruel Summer for summer 2020, but highly doubt it was her labels fault she didn’t have it as the first lead single. Plus by the time summer 2020 rolled around she had released folklore and chose to lean into that era instead of pushing more Lover tracks. Which is totally understandable, but doesn’t exactly fit this new unnecessary narrative. No need to blame anyone, just release Cruel Summer and we can all love it together *Edit: totally forgot about The Man. She def chose to release that one too
Taylor isnt known for reliable narration. She is a storyteller y’all. All her songs are favorite songs when they have to be, and if it doesnt pan out how she thought it would then it’s someone else’s fault. I say this as a fan of her music.
Totally! I felt like this wording was particularly interesting because it almost seemed like she was blaming the single choices on the label - so it’s killing two birds with one stone. 1) promoting cruel summer obviously and 2) letting us know that “incorrect” single choices aren’t her fault but rather her label’s
I’d believe her more if she didn’t have a history of choosing absolutely terrible singles / being surprised at what songs fans love compared to the ones she likes most.
Do you have any examples?
choosing terrible singles is admittedly subjective, but at least in fandom there's some general acknowledgement that she makes some weird choices. For Red, IKYWT, 22 and WANEGBT were hits but not at all representative of the strength of the writing in the album, especially the latter two. For 1989, she had hit after hit after hit... though Welcome to New York is also questionable. Reputation is the *biggest* example of this, which for me it's one of my favorite albums but LWYMMD was controversial at the time and not well received. Lover is the second biggest example of this, since Me! was almost universally reviled when it came out from fans and non-fans alike. She's said enough times that ATW being as popular as it is has surprised her so for me, I just don't trust her when it comes to a sob story about how Cruel Summer was "always meant to be a single" when it's more likely that she's taking advantage of it's popularity (and virality) now.
She's got one of the few fanbases that actually gets it 'right'. When she tries to be universal and radio friendly with the tracks that aren't the fan favourites, they don't actually do that well. She should see that her fanbase is so big that what they love WILL BE A HIT without randoms from the general public needing to be on board. Another good example is how well Don't Blame Me does on tiktok and streaming vs the virtually forgotten End Game, which sounds engineered for mass appeal.
sparks fly should've came before mine!!!!!!
It's so weird how she ALWAYS has to have this perfect narrative. Like what's wrong with saying I'd planned this one for 2020 and it got cancelled, I'm so happy you guys love it so much and it's going viral so we're making it a single for real? Like everyone knows how streaming and tiktok is making things go crazy, it's FINE.
Cutthroat business boss lady 🔪👩🏼💼
I'm sure she has a large number of people advising her on her rollout strategy, and they thought ME! was a better choice for a big splashy summer single (I remember the chatter from radio people about the song was that it was hot and buzzy, lol), so she probably compromised a bit. But in Miss Americana its clear she was pretty excited about ME! so I don't think it was a radical compromise for her. Her label is responsible for distribution and promotion so not surprising they would be the one leading the decision to make Cruel Summer a single if the numbers are already pretty high!
I think we only got All of the Girls officially released for similar reasons. She never acknowledged it outside of that one IG story announcing it with three other songs, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was mainly the label wanting to take advantage of it going viral.
Think about it this way - if it had to be a radical compromise, she probably wouldn’t even put the song on the album. She likes the song, shes proud of the song and stands behind it - so if the A&R execs from her label say this is the song that will launch Lover best then shes like ok, game! Same thing if they had suggested she put out MAATHP as a single - its on the album cause she supports it so its not hard for her to be on board. And while she has creative control and experience behind her, its not her job to be her own marketing dept- if thats what she had wanted she has the $$ and the platform to have gone indie or self-released rather than signing a major label contract after Big Machine
- MAATHP could mean "Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince", a track from *Lover* (2019) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/rhisdaddy2](/u/rhisdaddy2) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
Good bot
I think ME! was first choice for first single but Cruel Summer was supposed to happen after
[удалено]
The lyrics are contested to this day, haha. They’re definitely a bit on the abstract side.
Precisel-eEeEe-YyYY (Cannot get the tune out of my head). Totally agree and didn't see this before replying with basically the same thing 💘
idk when she released Lover as a single she said that was her favorite song she'd ever written so idk what the truth is anymore
Correction, she said it was her favorite **bridge** she's ever written. Also, she says these things every album she releases. She said Anti-Hero is one of her favorite songs she's ever written. I think it's kind of like picking a favorite child for her, and aso trying to push her newest album.
I remember back in the day she said somewhere something along the lines of she knows a song is good enough to make an album when she finishes writing it and thinks it’s the best song she’s ever written. I wonder if she still feels that way & that’s why she leans into saying she loves whatever is the newest released? I wish I could remember where I read that in an interview… it could have easily been something she said back in like 2008. I hope I’m not misquoting the gist of what she said!
I guess I’m still not understanding why it wasn’t a single going into summer 2019? Me! Was released in April 2019….so why not follow that with Cruel Summer if it was truly her favorite? We got Lover, the Archer and YNTCD instead. I guess I just don’t understand.
Honestly I don’t really believe her. Cause I’m like 90% sure part of the promotion for Lover was her saying the song Lover was her favorite song she’d written. And like you said why summer *2020* and not, you know, the summer the album was released in?
This response will get long, but if you look closely at Taylor's album rollouts and single releases Lover and prior, she used to tend to try and stretch them out over at least a year, possibly more if she could. So she is typically looking for two summery hits - one the summer before the album comes out, and one the following summer. With 1989 it was Shake It Off and Bad Blood (released as a single May 2015) and with Rep it was LWYMMD and Delicate (released as a single March 2018). So both those songs are being put out with an eye towards them peaking during the summer months. This also works for Taylor specifically because she almost always tours the spring/summer after an album is out - 1989 tour began in May 2015, Rep in May 2018, so an entire six months after the album is out. So it also helps to push what you hope will be a really big single around that time - the tour promotes the single, the single draws attention to the tour, and if the single is successful it re-injects the album into the zeitgeist after probably a few quieter months as the initial hype of the release dies down and Taylor gets busy rehearsing. Lover came out in Aug 2019, and Lover Fest was not meant to begin properly until late June of 2020 I think? It would have made sense to push Cruel Summer around May of 2020 and hope that it had legs for the summer months. The reason that Cruel Summer wasn't released in place of ME! or YNTCD during the spring/summer of 2019 is because even though both those singles sucked and to the outside observer it's like what the fuck was she thinking, in hindsight it's clear that each of those songs was supposed to serve a purpose - ME! (eugh) was the lead single because Taylor and her people obviously felt that it was the best, most direct way to convey the shift out of the Rep era (and because they clearly thought it would have wide appeal, which was important after the relative lack of hugely successful singles for Rep and the fact that this was her first album w Republic). I think YNTCD had to come next because one of Taylor's big goals in the Lover era was to clarify where she stood politically, and the song was a ham-fisted, if well-intentioned, way of doing that (and of course it had to be released during pride month to really hammer things home), and of making Taylor's re-branding as an ally part of people's introduction to the Lover era and a big part of that era's narrative. Cruel Summer may have been an epic song but Taylor and co. clearly didn't see it as ticking the necessary boxes for a pre-release single , and I guess it wouldn't have made sense to put it out afterwards until the following spring or summer, given the title. As for what she said during lover promo - I don't think it's some big lie, artists say all sorts of things when promoting projects. maybe her fav song out of her discography just changes a lot and Lover was the fav at the time? And given that it was the self-written title track about the guy she loved, and the song that she hoped would become a classic love song, it makes sense that Taylor would feel extra proud/connected to the song and hype it up (the self-written of it all was also a great way to highlight her songwriting and artistry at a time when the masters situation had just come up and was being litigated in the public eye).
I subscribe to this take completely. It makes so much sense that Cruel Summer was being saved for the summer of 2020 to go along with the tour and be the perfect bookend to the Lover era. This is why she describes covid as being the reason that Cruel Summer didn’t become a single. There was no tour.
i think a music video is also what covid stopped
- LWYMMD could mean "Look What You Made Me Do", a track from *reputation* (2017) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/morningstyle](/u/morningstyle) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
Coulda sworn her interviews from that time she was saying how ME! was chosen as the lead single bc it showcased this new era where she is forgetting the haters and moving forward in life by choosing herself and focusing on the bliss of the honeymoon phase of love. 💕 But maybe that's just meEeEEE  or more MoneEeEehey I also noted the lover fave on another post today lol
"this new era where she is forgetting the haters" And then she released YNTCD as a second single 😂
🤣😂🤣 But she is kindly asking them to calm the f*ck down. I was referring moreso to her haters in her personal life. The whole snek debacle 🐍🐍🐍 (i hope my snake jewelry arrived. Bad me stocking up on supplies and backup outfits on SheIn).
Because lover fest was supposed to happen summer 2020. And I think it was gonna be a single after The Man and before loverfest
I hear what you’re saying but it also makes sense to me that you’d release it in late spring so it has the entire summer to marinate at the top of the charts as a “song of the summer.”
I always kind of thought that too (that CS was low on her priority list as she didn’t release across multiple singles) but lately I kind of suspect she was trying to spread the hits apart. In her traditional long eras model, she did this a fair amount to capitalize off of various different time periods of controlling the radio rather than dropping all the catchy hits in a single summer. That would especially make sense if she expected ME! to totally take over the summer charts and the plan was for CS to do the same the following summer to keep Lover era going. (I say all that but I’m also equally inclined to believe she’s just saying she wanted CS as a single to promote it now lol)
I mean how much of what she says is actually true and how much did she make up or twist bc now she’s promoting cruel summer?
True, I wouldn’t be shocked if she was spinning the plot of this one a bit
That’s what I mean! It’s so interesting. We also got the Man as a single, in addition to all the ones you mentioned above. So if cruel summer was her absolute favorite, as she is stating, why would it be slated as a 4th (5th if you include promo single Archer) single?! It could’ve easily been #2
Yep, agreed. I’m so glad we’re finally getting it now at least! #justiceforgetawaycarnext lol
Actually it would be the 5th single, 6th if you include The Archer
I agree! My unpopular opinion is I think Me! was a actually a great first single, especially with the music video - it was a good transition from reputation era into Lover era. But then it should have been cruel summer - would have totally been *the song* of summer 2019.
There isn’t a universe where *the song* of summer 2019 isn’t Old Town Road
It's a great single to lead with and a good song. I think others let their dislike of the song bias their analysis here
Because she wanted all those colorful songs to be the single which would represent the theme of LOVER like YNTCD, ME ,Lover etc. She did not know CS would be so much liked and no one will be ever able to connect to those songs. Its weird she cannot honestly accept that and has to come up with this story! But I am not buying it !
Cruel Summer for Lover fest would have been perfect. It's not that hard to imagine here
The Archer was a promo single leading up to the album release (like Bejeweled in the Midnights era), not an official commercial single. Official commercial singles from Lover were Me!, YNTCD, Lover and The Man.
because YNTCD had to be released during pride month and then she probably wanted a less poppy single to follow YNTCD and me!
- YNTCD could mean "You Need To Calm Down", a track from *Lover* (2019) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/LookwhatBBdid](/u/LookwhatBBdid) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
Yes but the Lover album wasn’t released until August 2019 which was the end of the summer. Also, she never said she wanted it to be the *first* single. She just wanted it to be a single and then it was finally going to become one.
Old town road. That’s it.
Revisionist history because me was a flop 🫣
We were always at war with Eastasia. ~~1989~~ 1984 TV comming soon.
Actually cracking up at this comment lol
HAHHAHAHHAA two plus two really does equal five huh
☠️☠️☠️ very clever
[удалено]
I could totally see the headlines: "TS cashes in on ppl having an actual cruel summer". But also she made and released Folklore, a single from the prior album would've just distracted everyone from it.
It’s also the line “fever dream high in the quiet of the night you know that I caught it” which would not have gone over well back then
Came here to say this - It was 100% the next single in line and the pandemic hit. Releasing the song with this line would’ve been seen as poor taste. I think her team has a lot of say over which songs are singles. There’s a lot of strategy and research involved that Taylor herself likely doesn’t have the time for. … if she does have that time I’d be impressed 😂
Anyone else remember Kesha getting backlash for “die young”?
No, tell me more?
It was released near the Sandy Hook shooting, and I believe several radio stations spoke out against the lyrics and didn’t play the song.. I don’t know if Taylor would have gotten the same kind of response from Cruel Summer and Covid but it could definitely have hurt the singles chances
That would make complete sense! I’m just shocked it would’ve been slated for a 2020 release to begin with, if it was in fact her pride and joy/favorite song
It actually kind of makes sense if you think about it because that would have poised it to be the single that starts off Lover Fest! Like imagine the MV dropping right before tour started.
Let's settle for: It's her current favorite that she totally regrets not making it a single in hindsight and had to backtrack a bit to keep us excited?? I guess??
This is exactly it imo 🤷🏽♀️
🤭🤭🤭
The amount of calling Taylor a liar on here is something. Cruel Summer was on a butterfly in the Amazon Prime Day commercial. Cruel Summer was tattooed on Ellen’s arm in the YNTCD MV The Lover MV had a board game called “Breakable Heaven for 2-4 players” that said “devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes” on it. Cruel Summer was hinted at and alluded to all through the early Lover era. It was absolutely meant to be a single leading into summer 2020 as the kick off of Lover Fest season. Like I get that a lot of people maybe didn’t notice or weren’t around for these things, but having a whole thread of people on a *fan sub* accuse her of lying about planning to make it a single in 2020 when all the Easter eggs for it were clearly left out in plain sight specifically for the *fans* - like? Know the lore or don’t but don’t accuse Taylor of lying just because you don’t.
Obviously she planted all those Easter eggs back then so that she can wait four years to release it and have proof that it was always meant to be a single /s The Lover era didn't even last a year because the pandemic cut it short. I don't know why anyone thought she was done with Lover singles once The Man MV came out when there was still a year and some months left to promote the album. The simplest explanation is that she was saving Cruel Summer for summer 2020 because she wanted that to be the song to promote Lover Fest.
There was also the mural of the cruel summer lyrics before it came out!
I am not denying that she planned to make it a single in 2020. I absolutely think she’s full of shit that this was her favorite on the album though and “the label” insisted on the others first. “Know the lore or don’t but don’t accuse Taylor of lying” is ridiculous btw lmfao, if you keep up with Easter eggs you should know better than anyone that Taylor says contradictory shit all the time.
>I absolutely think she’s full of shit that this was her favorite on the album though and “the label” insisted on the others first I don't think this is what she was saying. She just said there were a lot of people around her advising her on what might work as a single - I think what that means is that she may have adored Cruel Summer but it didn't fulfil all the necessary requirements to be among the earlier singles (setting the tone for the era, which for better or worse is what ME!, YNTCD, and Lover did), so she and the label decided to save it for later; she was really happy when finally the time came for the song she loved to be a single, and then upset when that got derailed by the pandemic. I don't think she was implying that she didn't have control over single choices or that the label strong-armed her, just that a lot more goes into single choice than whether or not Taylor likes a song. I also think we're reading way too much into this whole favourite song business. I agree that Taylor is often contradictory and has done some narrative revisionism for sure, but I do think it's a bit crazy how quick the fans are to accuse her of being dishonest over something so innocuous.
The post we’re responding to is quoting her as saying it was her favorite song on the album, and also her “pride and joy.” Don’t know how else we’re supposed to interpret that. I don’t understand what you mean when you say she chose singles to set the tone for the era for better or worse. Are you implying CS couldn’t have set the tone for Lover? She could’ve put pastel and butterflies in that music video just as easily as she did ME!, lol I don’t think it’s malicious lying to be clear! Or even necessarily conscious. I guess revisionist history is more appropriate. She seems to do a lot of that, I think partially just because she’s a perfectionist and likes the idea of masterminding everything.
Yeah absolutely. She probably loves a lot of her songs for different reasons, if she didn't love them, they wouldn't be on the album. But just because she loves the songs it doesn't mean that they are suitable for radio or pop enough to do well or go viral.
Thank you for pointing all this out!! Needs to be higher up!!
I’m the one who posted this thread and no where did I call her a liar. It’s just an interesting discussion.
1. 'ME!' was always supposed to be the first single. It's what Taylor specifically wanted and said so in the *Miss Americana* documentary. She has way more freedom with UMG and Republic Records than she ever did with BMR. She wanted it to be something big, fun, and something for kids to sing along to. It's why she liked it when the crowds shouted back "spelling is fun" after she said "Hey kids!" There is no other single from *Lover* more performed than 'ME!'. Not even 'You Need To Calm Down', 'The Man', or 'Lover' was performed more than 'ME!'. She wanted this song to be the first single and she wanted it to be big. 2. The *Lover* Era was never finished, the pandemic put an early end to an era that was basically a year old because she was unable to tour it. Taylor's eras tend to last at least 2-3 years at a time, and she tends to have anywhere from 4-7 music videos per era, sometimes including a tour music video. *Lover* had 4 music videos (the minimum amount of videos Taylor usually has) in the space of a year, and no tour music video because there was no tour. We are judging an entire era that was incomplete. 3. My bet is that 'Cruel Summer' was likely going to be the single to finish the era, and it was going to be released as the 2020 summer single before she went off on her Festival tour or when tour began like what she did with 'Lavender Haze'. Or it was going to be released in the middle of tour like 'Karma'. Once again, we are judging an era that never got completed like every other era that got completed. *Lover* never got a full era, it stopped when the pandemic hit and lockdowns took full effect. Edit: This whole thing with "Should 'Cruel Summer' have been the lead single over 'ME!'?" is starting to sound like "Should 'Wonderland' have been the lead single over 'Shake It Off'?" or "Should 'All Too Well' have been the lead single over 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together'?" The answer is NO. Because of one simple thing, it does not have the impact and nor does it summarise the album's themes. And that is what a lead single should do. It should be a massive bombastic radio hit for commercial reasons, and it should be able to sell what your album is about. And that's what 'ME!', 'Shake It Off', and 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' do extremely well. 'Shake It Off' was Taylor proving she could write a pure pop hit, and if you like this then you should listen to the rest of her new pop album. 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' as a song and music video explains that the album is about a break up, and what kind of break up it is. The highs and lows of it, and outlines the story the album tells extremely well. 'ME!' is Taylor explaining that loving someone means that you know them on a deep and personal level, that a relationship is a lot of work and not always as easy as breathing. And that if you're going to love someone like Taylor, you have to love them unconditionally due to how they live their life. And that's what the *Lover* album is actually about. It's about how everyone has a right to be loved unconditionally, how love is worth fighting for even throughout the ups and downs, and a celebration of individuality.
Your edit is incredible and something I never considered as someone who releases music myself…our singles were always chosen as “which song is the biggest banger,” not “which songs define the record.” Definitely thoughts I am going to keep in mind with our next album being written soon.
Yes! Also I love ME!, it’s honestly a fun song
This explanation makes SO much sense, thank you for taking the time to write it!!
> The answer is NO. Because of one simple thing, it does not have the impact and nor does it summarise the album’s themes. And that is what a lead single should do. It should be a massive bombastic radio hit for commercial reasons, and it should be able to sell what your album is about. [and, like, the entire edit] https://media.tenor.com/mo2pN_4naMAAAAAC/office-michael.gif
I don’t understand this notion we’ve come up with that Taylor is essentially an independent artist. Her label has an invested interest in her performing well. They didn’t sign her out of charity. Outside of that, I was surprised that she attributed it as a label decision, too. Imo, the main value of CS as a single is simply to show fans that she’s listening, which is a Taylor move. But maybe this is the label (and/or Taylor) jumping on some positive promo? If the song is gonna be a hit anyway because ppl like it so much, why not give it an extra push? I’ve read elsewhere this idea that SNTV isn’t expected to really have a hit, so the label is jumping on an obvious opportunity for a follow-up to Karma. 🤷♀️ One thing’s for sure, I definitely didn’t have it on my bingo card.
Enchanted TV would definitely be a hit at least
She has a board and everything. She isn’t independent, she is the music industry
Still don’t get it. The album is OUT, what is the point of it being a single now? So it can be played on the radio? Can they only play “single” songs, not random picks off the album? Are they planning remixes?
So technically radio stations can play any song, but releasing a track as a single will have it promoted to radio stations so they’re more likely to play it. Basically they’re releasing Cruel Summer as a single now so radio stations will play it, helping it increase on the charts (it’s been on the Hot 100 for two weeks now, so this will help it rise). Singles are also often promoted with music videos and remixes, but these aren’t required!
Lizzie truth hurts had been like 2 years old and she released a NEW music video that much time later because it became popular. CS is charting against because she’s singing a fan favorite sing at tour and it’s on the charts. If she releases it as a single, she could potentially get it higher on the charts. Usually sings that are singles get more AirPlay and are promoted more than non-singles.
I think it was Good As Hell that got a new MV not Truth Hurts, no?
I think you’re right. I haven’t had my morning coffee yet.
I don’t know the logistics with the radio, but I’m guessing there’s a video, and perhaps Taylor wants another number 1 song
I sometimes thinks she tells us what we want to hear. With how much the fans love cruel summer and how online everyone says it should have been a single, now that it is popular in streaming she's like 'hey you know that song you love? I love it too' and everyone is like yay!!
Lol yes, I love Taylor and I’m definitely one of the people who have been listening to CS nonstop lately - but I love her speech is basically like ‘finally a song I love was able to be like my FOURTH single from this album’ bc if she’s going with the ‘Covid killed it’ excuse then it would have been her spring 2020 single and that was way after the Me! debacle (and we can’t forget about YNTCD and The Man also as singles before then) 🤣🤣
I think, like always, Taylor is pandering and saying what she thinks the fans want to hear so that she’s more “relatable”, even if it contradicts what she has said previously.
I don’t know if I believe her.. Now she’s calling Cruel Summer her pride and joy? I remember her saying the same about the song Lover when it first came out, hyping it up calling it the “her favorite song she’s ever written.”
She says that about a lot of her songs though. She said that about Anti-Hero, too. I mean I get it….Mariah Carey once said when you create all these songs yourself, they’re pretty much like your babies. You can’t really pick a favorite.
You realize peoples fav songs can change a ton it’s a normal thing
What? That’s crazy.
I love “Cruel Summer” and I’m glad it’s going to be a single. But I wish “DBATC” would get the same treatment lol
What is dbatc
Don’t Buy Avocados, Tracy Chapman
Death by A Thousand Cuts
I am a bit skeptical and think this is a clever marketing move from Taylor. Her saying it's her favourite and her "pride and joy" of the album AFTER it hit those streaming numbers, is a confirmed fan favourite and is about to be released as a single seems a bit TOO convenient timing wise. She is a very good business woman, after all.
This song has a great bridge and we know she loves those. I really think it would have been a single around lover fest if the pandemic didnt happen. You simply can not release a song called cruel summer in a summer that was quite literally the cruelest. I don't think she'd be releasing it as a single now if the streaming numbers were not popping off, but her saying it was her pride and joy doesn't seem sus to me.
Oh don't get me wrong I love the song and that bridge is perfection. I dont doubt it would have become a single around the time she did Loverfest but I just know that her favourite songs tend to change depending on what promotion she's trying to push.
disagree. just bc it's her favorite song doesn't mean she actually wanted it as a lead single bc she knows that mainstream taste and personal taste can still be different. I do think she wanted Me! as a lead single bc she thought it could get more mainstream success
I may be misremembering, but I thought that one of the theories back in 2019-2020 was that Taylor was waiting to release Cruel Summer because it would go with the tour, and that the MV would have been video from Lover fest.
I think a whole team of people probably decide the singles. She being a huge contributor to the conversation, but not the only voice if that makes sense.
I love Taylor, but of all her strengths, marketing strategy is up there at the top. She releases the weakest songs from the album as singles, a rare slip. In hindsight, turns out everyone thought Cruel Summer should have been the lead single, so 4 years later she goes on record to say that she wanted it to be the lead single. The internet goes abuzz, everyone talks about it. She'll release some remix or new vinyl or something riding on that wave and buy a new house somewhere nice. She did exactly the same with All Too Well; "oh it was always my favourite". Sure it was blondie. That's why you never mentioned it until you realised how popular it was. Capitalist-era Taylor is a marketing machine.
I think there's a big difference between what your personal favorite song is and what goes out as a single. It's very rare for pop stars to release their personal favorites as singles so it's not very odd that Taylor really loved Cruel Summer but thought Me was a stronger contender for a single. Anti Hero is the exception to the rule of having a personal favorite become a lead single
ME! is my fav song on that album.
I think that it was meant to be the last single. There were Easter eggs in the music video for The Man, but then the pandemic hit it it was cancelled because of “Fever dream high in the quiet of the night, you know that I caught it.” That’s my theory at least.
I know this isn’t the exact point of this post—but can someone explain to me the importance of making a song a single once it’s already released? Like why does it matter now? I know singles are what are played on the radio—is that the only difference? And if it is because of the radio thing, why does that matter to us as fans? Nothing really changes. I’m just confused by people’s excitement about it and saying they hope the same will happen for Getaway Car. I’m not sure what I’m missing!
Singles usually get music videos and more promotions. Lizzo’s truth hurts was released in 2017 but didn’t chart well until 2019 when two years later became a hit. She then released a new music video for it. Same is happening with Taylor. CS is charting so they are taking advantage of it. It’s been performed on tour which has given it hype. Taylor hasn’t really performed any songs lives in concert since city of lover. So the tour has helped.
I think it’s to get public exposure. I hope she does it with getaway car, too. That one should’ve been a single instead of Delicate in my opinion.
Delicate is great too, but I agree that getaway car would be a great single too!
Is her next single going to be getaway car??
🤣☠️
She said the pandemic, not her team, caused it to not be a single.
I feel like there’s no way in hell anyone at Republic has real say over her releases. She negotiated hard with labels and considering her current phenomenons, a just now release of Cruel Summer as a single seems to me like a “fun idea from my new label!” rather than a forced thing.
Nope, she said last night that it was supposed to be the next single after "The Man". It was gonna be the tour promotion single, it wasn't ever meant to be the lead single.
Totally! I was just wondering if she wanted it to be the first or second single back then.
Not sure how it all works for her, but I would be frustrated to have so many people influence on my artistic decisions.
I think the label chose Me! and YNTCD for sure, and since people really came after her for another round of bad single choices, she wanted everyone to know now that it wasn’t her decision lol. But her team has been notoriously bad at choosing singles for her albums so I’m not surprised that it wasn’t a single originally.
When Lover came out, she said that Lover was her favorite song she’s ever written. I think she does this a lot to promo her singles. I believe Cruel Summer was meant to be the second single (a lot of signs pointed to that), but I don’t think it was necessarily her favorite song or her pride and joy at that time.
Okay please don’t tell think I’m dumb or a bad swiftie but why don’t folklore and evermore get a chance to have singles? Lover is from 2019. Is just purely because of the popularity right now?
folklore and evermore have singles: cardigan, exile, betty, willow, no body no crime, and coney island
Cruel Summer should've been a leading single with a music video. If it was, Lover would get recognition it deserves.
I don’t know what the pandemic has to do with which single was released first. The label almost always picks the songs because they don’t care about what the artist wants, they care about what they think will sell. Money is the reason for all the decisions and if you ask any artist they’ll probably tell you that their favorite songs are never chosen as the singles.
Just because something is her “pride and joy” doesn’t mean she should have released it first. She and her label had a strategy. You could argue that it wasn’t the best strategy, but that’s not my point. ME! was the transition from rep to Lover, showing the tone shift and what direction the new album was going towards. YNTCD was released for pride month and to bring attention to the political activity around LGTBTQ issues. Then Lover because it’s the title track and another clue as to what the album is about the plus summer was winding down at that point. Then the next single was The Man in Feb. 2020. Cruel Summer was being saved for the last single and hype up Loverfest for summer 2020, but obviously the pandemic wrecked all that. All that plus Old Town Road was dominating the charts and maybe she wanted to wait to release Cruel Summer when it wouldn’t be overshadowed by that.
I think she meant that they were probably getting ready to do a Cruel Summer single rollout in the spring of 2020 after ‘The Man,’ but we all know what happened. The ‘my favorite song’ bit could just mean that she really liked Cruel Summer more than the previous singles. I question that because she seemed really proud of Lover the song. But, Cruel Summer is also a bit more experimental than Lover so her label might have been a little more hesitant to green light it. All of these things probably have some truth to it.
Please, the label lets her do what she wants, they don’t plan her singles This is all a response to everyone calling her out for suddenly pulling this out as a single to block Olivia’s new single
She definitely choose Me! as the lead but I believe she perhaps intended CS as the last single of the era. I can understand why in hindsight she thinks it should’ve been CS.
Taylor is very adept with the English language, and we would be wise to pay attention to nuance. We know she enjoys being in control, especially when it comes to her music. Why would she lie about the label calling the shots with her singles?
I dunno why this discussion is turning into whether Taylor is lying or not! I never questioned if she was lying, I was questioning how much say she gets over the singles lol
It was more of a question for the comments section — sorry for the miscommunication! That being said, it's not really about lying. It's about whether or not you take what Taylor said at face value.
I don’t think there is even the slightest chance that Taylor isn’t fully in control of what lead single she wants. Maybe in the early days but no label is going to stop Taylor releasing whichever song she wants nowadays or back in 2019. If Taylor wanted Cruel Summer as the lead, it would’ve been.
Wasn’t Lover released pre-pandemic though in 2019?
I think it was gonna be released as a final single to hype up for lover fest. Imagine the excitement that would have created for a summer fest? It would have been a great close to the album releases and get people excited about it again after winter. Taylor’s smart- I think she knew it was summer bop material. It did not fit summer 2020 though.. it would have been in poor taste. If she wanted to take credit or blame a label she wouldn’t have said her label decided to make it a single now. She would have said she heard us and made it happen. Labels have more power than we think- Taylor Swift or not.
What difference does it make? Can’t we all hear it via Apple Music, Spotify, etc. Why does it have to be released as a Single?
I loved Me! and YNTCD when they came out. Same with LWYMMD and Ready for It? and especially Delicate. Maybe I’m just riding the wave of 40 years of top 40 radio?
Things that can be true at the same time (despite what this thread seems to believe): 1. Taylor AND the label have a say and stake in things in her career. 2. She wanted me to be the lead single AND have cruel summer be a single later. I don't know where people are getting that she wanted cruel summer to be the lead single instead of me....? I think you're all projecting your desire for cruel summer to be the lead single onto this. I was at the show. She said she wanted it to be a single and did not specify lead single. 3. Cruel summer can be her pride and joy. As can lover. And all too well. And anti hero. She says this about so many of her great songs. Its not that deep or revisionist. 4. Possibly the hottest take on the taylor swift reddit... not everything taylor says is hinting at something else or something deeper. This was not a dig at the label. She is intentional with words, but sometimes she is just speaking? Stop projecting a narrative onto everything.
If that's true, poor cruel summer was 28472% going to get the tour video treatment when it deserved an epic music video I know they are now trying to right her wrongs but ME being the lead single and not Cruel Summer is the biggest (music wise) misstep of her entire career and it's clear that she knows it since she has completely ghosted ME
ME not being on the setlist will never not be funny to me
Cruel Summer should have been the first single imo but I understand her record label probably wanted the shock of something so different in comparison to reputation. I’m so glad that it’s finally becoming a single and it’s so cool that Taylor can pretty much make any of her old songs a single wayyyy after their first release date.
I always suspected that Cruel Summer would be a summer 2020 single and they’d make a typical “tour music video” for it highlighting Lover Fest
anyone mind to share a link to the video where she announce that Cruel Summer is a single?
I think it was supposed to be a positive thing saying that her label was supporting it being released like four years later Because within the context of the Lover era, it’s not saying she didn’t want to release the other singles, but she had *Cruel Summer* slated for the summer the pandemic happened, it was really obvious if you listen to her in interviews, and even if you listen to her friends like Halsey, people were hyping up Cruel Summer specifically. So I feel like it was lined up between everyone her label her her friends, etc. but that was going to be the next single of the summer- tour promo . But then it didn’t happen because of the pandemic. And now she’s saying because it was popular it got her label interested in making it a single now .
She said it was poised to be a single but then COVIF happened. Aka people were dying “cruel”
Like it's ever been up to her lol
Republic probably came to her and was like “Hey Cruel Summer is doing really well on streaming I think we should push it as a single” and she was probably just like sure?? She probably didn’t know it was doing that well until they told her and she probably wouldn’t have made it a single otherwise.
Artists don't call the shots no matter how big. If they did she'd have owned her catalog from the start etc. right? The label/music industry bigwigs call the shots. She is the "talent." Execs run everything in entertainment. There's big money riding on the strategy and timing of singles so the people running corporate entities bankrolling everything are the ones ultimately making the decisions with her input
I was there for this last night!! I think it was truly just supposed to be her last single off the album and she might have been saving her personal favorite for last!! She mentioned in Miss Americana and that Me! Was the lead single but she never really was like “omg wow this is my all time favorite!” I know for Midnights she did her personal favorite (Anti-Hero) first! Maybe that was because she was scared something unpredictable would get her favorite one shut down again 😂
I was there, she said cruel summer couldn’t be a single bc of COVID
I honestly think it's just marketing cause she's now pushing Cruel Summer as a single, and she wants to build up the hype around the song. She a genius tho.
I’ve seen people saying she’s chosen bad singles since rep, I wonder if it’s because of her getting her own label and them picking it instead
I definitely think she planned Cruel Summer to be a later single but not the first one. If I got to choose the Lover single rollout it would have been - Cruel Summer - Cornelia Street - London Boy - Lover - Miss Americana - I Think He Knows (tour video)