TAYLOR SWIFT — 2024, Clara Bow

Clara Bow (1920s)

Clara Bow photographed by Eugene Robert Richee, 1926

Only when your girlish glow, flickers just so, do they let you know: It's hell on earth to be heavenly. Them's the breaks, they don't come gently. Clara Bow - The Tortured Poets Department (2024)

You look like Stevie Nicks

in ‘75, the hair and lips

btw clara bow had a nervous breakdown, got married, had her husband deny they were married for the sake of privacy, and never acted in films again after she made enough money to stay out of Hollywood.

"my life in Hollywood contained plenty of uproar. I'm sorry for a lot of it but not awfully sorry." - Clara Bow

The future’s bright, dazzling

what's so clever about Clara Bow is that when she references her own name at the end, she's not talking about the present but the future, quoting the inevitable way people are going to one day talk about her, imagining it will only be in regards to the woma(e)n who surpass her. because there will be someone who surpasses her, eventually. that's the cycle of fame, isn't it? we're simultaneously captivated by the alluring trick of the past while looking for the next big thing. we compare current stars to the lights that shined before them, "you look like taylor swift." but we're also constantly waiting for someone new and greater to take the crown and captivate us anew, "you've got edge she never did." And half the song is about acknowledging that being revered is hell on earth for the people who are in it, because you're always trapped between what came before and what will come after. you're only safe insofar as you remain shiny. But the real beauty of the song is that it never succumbs to this dichotomy, but embraces it. It's Taylor acknowledging she wouldn't be who she is were it not for the women who came before her, who shared the same dreams, and recognizing her place in the chain of the women who will come after. The future's bright, dazzling.

promise to be dazzling.

I love you, it's ruining my life.

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT || April 19th, 2024

OH MY GOD GUYS??!

AND FROM A CAR PARK OF ALL PLACES

crowd goes wild at her fingertips

Taylor saying her own name on Clara Bow felt hauntingly strange. It almost felt unnatural.

"The crown is stained but you're the real queen Flesh and blood amongst war machines You're the new god we're worshipping Promise to be dazzling"

you look like Clara Bow

you look like Stevie Nicks

you look like Taylor Swift