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As mostly an outsider to this world, I am surprised by the comment that fans are possibly expecting an imminent retirement or quasi-retirement. I assumed she was in it for the very long haul.

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I also don't quite get it, tbh! Very hard for me to see a future where she isn't writing music at the very least. But I see it on like… the fan subreddit sometimes when I lurk there.

There was definitely a time around 2019-ish when Swift made public comments to the effect that she was at her career peak because she was going to be "too old" soon to be a pop star, which might have been part of it, but obviously… she was mistaken.

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It makes me think of c. 1964-65 interviews with the Beatles when interviewers would say "What do you intend to do it when it is all over?" But pop star actually proved to be a lifelong career. If you can manage not to flame out within a year or two, your career can last indefinitely and you can put a new album every five years or so even when in your seventies.

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was listening to Red just as this newsletter popped into my email and finished reading it just as Taylor says “who’s Taylor Swift, anyway?” in “22”

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i really wish she'd sell that on a shirt lol

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she did, however, wear the "no it's Becky" shirt.

was gonna say "this essay makes me think of Borges" but everything makes me think of Borges, i have a Borges themed tattoo

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