Decoding …Ready For It, Swift’s “partner in crime” Reputation opener, to uncover her deeper meaning

Joe Romm (0:00)

Yeah. Hi, I'm Joe Romm.

Toni Romm (0:04)

And I'm his daughter, Toni.

Joe Romm (0:06)

Welcome to Decoding Taylor Swift, where you'll learn the storytelling tools Swift uses that make her a modern-day Shakespeare.

Toni Romm (0:14)

But can make you a better communicator, so you can drive your mission and build your tribe.

Joe Romm (0:19)

This podcast will not only transform how you think about Swift's songs, but also give you the life-changing tools to lead, connect and change the world.

Toni Romm (0:27)

Yeah. Are you ready for it? I'm just kidding. That was a joke because today on the podcast, we are doing the song that is Are You Ready For It?

It's the first song off of The Reputation. Reputation is, I like it a lot.

Joe Romm (0:46)

Yes, we are going to do Ready For It. It is the first song on Reputation, but not the first song released.

Toni Romm (0:53)

Right.

Joe Romm (0:54)

As always, we will at the end, wrap up and get the full deeper meaning of the song. This is the top 200 lists of trending podcasts on Spotify.

Toni Romm (1:06)

We are number six.

Joe Romm (1:07)

Somehow, we have managed to get on to number six, not six, seven.

Toni Romm (1:12)

We were seven and now we're six.

Joe Romm (1:14)

That only happens because you guys are listening and a lot of you are listening to the end.

Toni Romm (1:22)

Guys, comment down below if you're listening to this right now.

Look at your watch. It's right now, o'clock and you're going to be listening to it. Comment down below if you right now are listening to it.

Joe Romm (1:32)

It is because I think a lot of this is because of my daughter, because she's singing the song.

Toni Romm (1:37)

I don't know about that. I don't know about that.

Joe Romm (1:39)

But if you are someone who is now becoming really a regular listener, please tell your friends, please give us a rating and comments. You can give us comments because we want feedback.

Toni Romm (1:53)

And we want feedback. We're always trying to be better. It's a lot of it is for him. You know, he's he's very I know that I'm doing a good job. Like he needs to be told like constantly.

Joe Romm (2:03)

Now, a couple of things.

Toni Romm (2:05)

I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_3 (2:07)

The title of this song is Dot Dot Dot Ready For It is has an ellipsis.

Joe Romm (2:13)

And at the end of her album, in the middle of the album, she has another song with ellipsis, had ends with ellipsis.

Toni Romm (2:22)

Yes, right. What is it?

SPEAKER_3 (2:23)

And so it goes.

Toni Romm (2:25)

So it goes. Right.

SPEAKER_3 (2:26)

Right. Right. Right.

Joe Romm (2:26)

Um, the but here's the thing. So what does the ellipsis mean? Do you think this is clearly she doesn't use punctuation a lot in her song titles.

And here she has two songs where she has the same unusual punctuation marks.

Toni Romm (2:41)

They are for very different reasons for each song. I mean, so it goes is it's to kind of accentuate the kind of a sarcastic nature of so it goes like so it goes. And that's, I mean, you just say so it goes. But but with the dog, do you think there's an ellipsis?

Joe Romm (3:00)

Why do you think has an ellipsis?

Toni Romm (3:02)

Well, that's a great question, Joe. You know, I know, but I'd like to test you. I'd like to test you and make sure that you know. So for the viewers at home who won't know, like, I think you should just tell people.

Joe Romm (3:12)

I was thinking about it because I was looking around what other people thought. I think that the reason why this has an ellipsis is she's saying a lot happened before this song, right? That's the dot dot dot is a replacement for, can be a replacement for a lot of stuff that already happened that she's not going to tell you about. And this album is in fact a year late. She was dropping out every two years. She got the very kind of devastating Snake Gate, the whole thing with Kim and Kanye and whether she was. Why not? All that stuff, which we've talked about. But the point is it really got to her and she sort of took a year off. And she was kind of devastated. And this song is like the response to that. I mean, the first part of this album is the response to what happened. It is about her reputation. So that's my theory. The dot dot dot is a statement. Hey, you know a lot's happened. I know a lot's happened now. And I will say that in the prologue to this song, she says, here's something I've learned about people.