Wait, Did Harry Styles Just Reference Taylor Swift on His New Album?
After several years away (and countless jokes about other male pop stars attempting to replace him), Harry Styles is back. His newest album, titled Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally., was released on Friday, and it continued the flurry of conversation around him. Just how far is he going to take the David Byrne-esque aesthetic? Why does his upcoming concert tour have to be that complicated?
And then there’s Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. itself, and the lyrics and production for fans to unpack. One particular connection has already risen up in the hours since the album was first released: is Styles referencing his onetime ex-girlfriend, fellow pop star Taylor Swift?
The biggest parallel can be found on “Carla’s Song”, the closing track of Styles’ album, where he sings: “If you know, then you know / If you don’t, then you don’t.” This perked up the ears of some fans given Swift’s recent hit single “Opalite” from The Life of a Showgirl, in which she sings “And all the perfect couples say / ‘When you know, you know’ / and ‘When you don’t, you don’t.”
There’s also Styles’ “Paint By Numbers”, which culminates in a chorus of “It’s a lifetime of learnin’ to paint by numbers / And watchin’ the colours run.” Swift’s “the one”, the opening track off of her 2020 album folklore, includes the line “We never painted by the numbers, baby / but we were making it count.”
Swift and Styles famously dated from the fall of 2012 to the beginning of 2013, after meeting backstage at the Kid’s Choice Awards while Styles was a member of One Direction. Their brief romance was marked by multiple vacations, very-photographed public outings, and a public kiss during a New Year’s celebration in Time’s Square, before they were reported to have broken up in January of 2013.
In the years since, fans have theorized that a number of Swift and Styles’ songs are about their romance, from One Direction’s “Perfect”, to Styles’ “Two Ghosts”, “Satellite”, and “Daylight” (the latter of which he debunked), to a good chunk of Swift’s 2014 album 1989. When Swift released 1989: Taylor’s Version in 2023, fans interpreted the majority of the previously-unheard vault tracks to be about Styles, particularly “Is It Over Now?”
“When You Know, You Know….”
So, it’s nothing new for the Internet to find those parallels between Swift and Styles’ work: but what does that mean for these nods in Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.? Obviously, neither of them are the main subjects of either songs: “Opalite” is all but confirmed to be about Swift’s now-fiance Travis Kelce, and Styles revealed in an interview with Zane Lowe that “Carla’s Song” is inspired by a friend of his. There’s also the matter of production timelines: Styles has been reportedly working on his album for several years, and vinyl records traditionally take several months to press. If the “if you know, you know” line was a direct response to “Opalite”, which was released on The Life of a Showgirl in early October, that would potentially be too quick of a turnaround.
There’s a chance that the connection between “Paint By Numbers” and “the one” is a bit more intentional: but even then, fans have also speculated that Styles’ new song is about everything from his reputation as a public figure, to his previous public romance with Olivia Wilde. Either way, even if the parallels between the new album and Swift’s stratosphere aren’t on purpose, they’re still there for fans to interpret if they want to.
People were already making “Haylor” comparisons in the lead-up to Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally., particularly because of Styles’ wardrobe drawing similarities to Swift’s outfits on the Eras Tour. In the promo photoshoot for his One Night in Manchester concert film to promote the album, he’s wearing a blue tinsel jacket very similar in design to one Swift would wear while performing “Karma.”
And the black jacket he wore to the recent Brit Awards does look slightly similar to one Swift wore during performances of “The Man.” Styles has also been romantically linked to actress Zoë Kravitz, who is friends with Swift and has even been credited on a few of her songs, which has led to plenty of jokes and speculation about whether or not that pair will attend Swift and Kelce’s upcoming wedding. So, in one way or another, the connections between the two music superstars are sure to keep continuing.
(featured image: Laura Jan Coulson/Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott)
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