Love or hate her music—or her public image, for that matter—but it’s becoming clear that Taylor Swift is not one to be fucked with. There’s the symbolic lawsuit for $1 she recently won against a radio DJ who claims she got him fired (she countered by claiming he groped her at a meet-and-greet, a claim supported by the court). And then there’s her successful attempt to overshadow the trailer for the video for Katy Perry’s Taylor Swift diss track “Swish Swish,” by releasing even more cryptic teasers of her own. (To be fair, releasing a trailer for a music video is pretty lame, so Perry and her publicist share the blame for that one.)
Anyway, those cryptic teasers mark Swift’s return to social media after a brief absence that was similarly breathlessly reported late last week. Yesterday, she posted a cryptic video of what could either be an amp cord or a snake, prompting rumors that an announcement would be forthcoming that afternoon which spun out into even crazier rumors that Taylor Swift’s new music would have something to do with yesterday’s total solar eclipse.
Well, it didn’t. Swift continues to tease either her love of snakes, her true identity as a member of the cabal of reptilian shapeshifters controlling the world, her continued bitterness towards snake emoji-tweeter Kim Kardashian, or a new single and/or album about any of those things. Earlier today, Swift tweeted out another, longer video of the cord/snake thing:
Variety quotes “multiple sources” saying that the teasers do indeed tease a new single, or maybe even a surprise album drop, this Friday. That, rumor has it, will be followed by a music video to debut during this Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards, hosted by none other than—wait for it—Katy Perry. Last Friday’s purge coincided with the three-year anniversary of the announcement of Swift’s 1989 album, which helps explain why speculation on the cryptic teaser has been so intense. Not even a hardcore Taylor Swift fan can listen to “Shake It Off” for three years straight and not get sick of it, apparently.