When
1989 came out in 2014, you couldn’t turn on your TV or computer, or open a magazine without seeing something Taylor-related. It seemed like she was interviewed on every platform possible, and it worked —
1989 quickly became her most successful album ever.
During the
reputation era, apart from when she was playing shows, Taylor almost completely stopped making public appearances. She had been a regular fixture at awards shows since the beginning of her career, but starting with the release of
reputation, she mostly remained absent from red carpets. And it wasn’t just awards shows. She was also rarely spotted by the paparazzi, which was a stark contrast when you consider that a couple of years prior, barely a day went by without Taylor being photographed.
Taylor had also completely stopped giving interviews, and her posts on social media were few and far between. Her TV appearances were rare and exclusively consisted of performances: She was the musical guest to Tiffany Haddish’s
Saturday Night Live host in November 2017, and gave a surprise performance on Jimmy Fallon’s
Tonight Show in lieu of an interview. Meanwhile, although she’d been on the covers of both
British Vogue and
Harper’s Bazaar since making her comeback, the magazines didn’t publish interviews. Her
Vogue cover was accompanied by a
poem written exclusively for the magazine, and in the case of
Harper’s Bazaar, Taylor took on the role of the interviewer, speaking with ’60s icon Pattie Boyd.