• Taylor Swift has been listed as one of the greatest living American songwriters by The New York Times.
  • Though she plants Easter eggs and encourages fans to hunt for clues, she admits there are times when people “take things to a really extreme place.”
  • Taylor also opened up about when it feels “weird” for Swifties to decode her lyrics.

Swifties have long considered Taylor Swift to be one of the greatest living American songwriters of our time, and now, she’s landed a spot on The New York Times’ list honoring that very accomplishment. That’s largely because of the prolific prose she manages to weave into her radio hits, and partly because of the notorious Easter eggs and secret messages she leaves for fans to decode.

While the 14-time Grammy winner constantly encourages Swifties to put on their detective caps, she admitted that it gets “extreme” and “weird” at times.

“There’s corners of my fan base who are going to take things to a really extreme place,” she explained to the NYT. “There’s nothing I can do about that. There’s people who are going to try and do…detective work.”

She continued, “When it gets a little bit weird to me when people act like it’s sort of a paternity test. Like, this song’s about that person. Because I’m like, ‘That dude didn’t write the song, I did!’ But, that’s part of it.”

As for how she deals with it? “You have to hold tight to your perception of your art, and your relationship with it,” she shared.

Over the years, the artist has expanded the impact of her art by planting clues in her lyrics, music videos, and, on rare occasions, interviews. In August 2025, Taylor even opened up about her thought process when it comes to planting Easter eggs for fans and admitted that she draws certain boundaries.

“The art of the Easter egg is there’s dos and don’ts, right?” she told her fiancé, Travis Kelce, on his New Heights podcast. “Like, I’m never gonna plant an Easter egg that ties back to my personal life. It’s always gonna be towards music or a musical something.”

She later added, “I want Easter eggs to be a certain thing where, like, if you are a part of the fandom and you want to experience music in a normal way, then you don’t even see this.”

Per Taylor: “You don’t even care what that thing is above that doorway over there that’s upside down, backwards, in Braille. You don’t need to know what that is.”

Noted, T!