Taylor Swift: The 'folklore' Love Triangle

By Lauren Elizabeth Campbell, Editor-in-Chief

Taylor Swift became the fastest artist in 2020 to sell 1 million units with the surprise release of her album 'folklore.' It’s a fantastically narrative album and a departure from the pop sound that she has taken on since the 2014 release of 1989.

And in usual Swift manner, 'folklore' leaves several Easter eggs for Swifties to decode. One of the most prominent being a teenage love triangle depicted throughout three of the album’s songs: "Betty," "Cardigan," and "August."

Swift confirmed the love triangle during a live chat of her "Cardigan" music video premiere on YouTube, "There’s a collection of three songs I refer to as The Teenage Love Triangle. These three songs explore a love triangle from all three people’s perspectives at different times in their lives."

In the song "Betty," a 17-year old named James sings of missing a girl named Betty who found out about another person James was also seeing from the school gossiper, Inez. Betty rejects James because of this, and in the end, James comes back to Betty, asking, "Will you have me? Will you love me?" wanting Betty back.

"Betty" uses the names of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynold’s daughters "James," "Inez," and revealed their youngest child’s name to be "Betty," which the public was unaware of. "Cardigan" is told from Betty’s point-of view. The song reveals Betty knew James was a player, but she wanted someone to love her, shown in the lyrics "And when I felt like I was an old cardigan, under someone's bed, you put me on and said I was your favorite."

The point-of-view from the other girl is shown in the song "August." This girl is not named, but she knew when she was with James that James was still in love with Betty, in the lyrics, "'Cause you weren't mine to lose," and "'Cause you were never mine."

The Folklore love triangle is very similar to the love triangle in a song created on the TV show Friends, titled, "Two of Them Kissed Last Night." Friends character Phoebe Buffay sang and wrote this song that was inspired by three fellow characters: Ross, Rachel, and Julie.

The song starts, "There was a girl, we’ll call her Betty," and continues introducing Neil, the man Betty loves, but then things get trickier in the song when another girl shows up that catches Neil’s eye.

It is no secret that Swift is a huge Friends fan, and in 2015, she had Lisa Kudrow, who plays Buffay, as a guest at her 1989 concert in Los Angeles, having Kudrow teach her the correct way to sing "Smelly Cat," another one of Buffay’s songs, on stage.

While it is not confirmed Friends inspired the 'folklore' love triangle, Swifties can speculate.