Taylor Swift’s rumored unreleased album “Karma” has been a topic of speculation among fans since 2016, with numerous Easter eggs and theories.

SUMMARY

Taylor Swift’s fans have been speculating about the existence of an unreleased album called “Karma” since 2016, when she failed to release an album despite her usual two-year release cycle.
Fans have uncovered several Easter eggs, including Swift’s comment about “karma” being her biggest life lesson in a 2016 Vogue interview, and lyrics from her songs “Look What You Made Me Do” and “The Man” that seem to reference the album.
The reason for the album’s rumored scrapping is speculated to be Swift’s highly publicized feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian in 2016, which led to her withdrawing from the public eye for a year.

Taylor Swift, one of the most globally endearing musical artists out there in the entertainment industry, has landed bops after bops after bops and is currently riding high on the success of her recently ended Eras Tour. Not only have nearly all her albums earned her the love of her millions of fans, but they have also earned her a name among the billionaires in the industry.

Over the course of nearly two decades since she signed with Big Machine Records back in 2006 – not to mention she signed with Sony/ATV as a songwriter before that when she was only 14 – and delivered her self-titled debut album the same year, Swift has released a total of 19 albums, including 11 studio albums, four re-recorded albums, and four live albums.

Taylor Swift. | Credits: @taylorswift / IG.

However, one of these very, long-anticipated albums never managed to see the light of the day: Karma. If anything, the album has had such tremendous smog surrounding it that even its existence has yet to be confirmed to date, and Swifties from all around the world have spent a considerable time of their lives busy investigating the truth behind it all to get some answers.

Since 2016, when it was expected to arrive, piecing together all the Easter eggs they could find, these eagle-eyed Swifties have managed to pull quite some facts together about the mysteries surrounding the “lost” album in Taylor Swift’s discography. That said, here’s all that’s uncovered to date about this reported album not being released to the public. Dig in.

The Story About Taylor Swift’s Reported “Karma”

Taylor Swift. | Credits: @taylorswift / IG.

The entire Karma controversy dates back to 2016 when the pop billionaire failed to release her much-anticipated album. As Swifties must have inevitably noticed, up until that year, Taylor Swift had been releasing an album every two years, almost like clockwork: Debut album (2006), Fearless (2008), Speak Now (2010), Red (2012), and 1989 (2014).

However, 2016 was a barren year for Swifties, even though, at the time, Swift was riding high the tides of success that her singles like Shake It Off and Blank Space from her Album of the Year Grammy-winning 1989 brought her.

All of it even had her becoming one of the world’s most famous women as she ascended to the highest echelons of pop, and yet, she decided to leave that year blank from her music.

This, of course, left a lot of fans baffled as experiencing such tremendous success had them expecting her to continue her course. But that wasn’t all the reason fans were anticipating an album from her, for it very much looked like she was about to deliver something – until she didn’t. To be more precise, her actions that year mirrored the same when she was about to release more work.

As fans already know, Taylor Swift has been famously reinventing herself with each new album as she changes up her aesthetic between albums, as has been the trend with many pop stars. 2016 was no exception to this either, which further had fans’ hopes up. So when the singer didn’t release anything, Swifties went into full-on speculation mode about what went wrong.

It all resulted in them coming to the conclusion that there had been an unreleased album from the artist that got lost along the way. And this very lost album had been given the name Karma by fans, but not without reasons all too valid; not to mention all the Easter eggs the singer had been dropping that all those eagle-eyed Swifties never once ceased to unearth.

The Easter Eggs About “Karma” Unearthed by Swifties

Taylor Swift. | Credits: @taylorswift / IG.

As mentioned before, Taylor Swift has found herself switching up her aesthetic in a bid to reinvent herself. The same went in the year 2016 as well, when she cut her hair and bleached it, appearing on the cover of Vogue. This had fans speculating that something was coming up since big pop stars like her rarely appear in interviews without an intention to promote something.

Then there was her 73 Questions interview with Vogue that same year, where, when asked about the biggest life lesson she had gotten to date, the You Belong With Me singer responded, “Karma is real.” This response, of course, didn’t hold much significance among fans back then. In fact, this went so well until fans realized it may have been an Easter egg about her missing album.

Hardcore Swifties all know: Taylor Swift absolutely loves to get in the minds of her fans. This she does perfectly well with her Easter eggs, as she drops hints every now and then for her fans to follow, through her music videos, song lyrics, and even in interviews, about what they could expect next from her – just like she seemingly did in her interview with Vogue.

That said, another Easter egg seemingly came through her follow-up album to 1989: Reputation, released in 2017. In the song Look What You Made Me Do, there are the lyrics, “The world moves on another day, another drama, drama / But not for me, not for me, all I think about is karma”. This ostensibly had fans’ attention returning to her comment on her biggest life lesson as well.

Taylor Swift. | Credits: @taylorswift / IG.

Adding to this, Swift’s follow-up album to Reputation, 2019’s Lover has a song titled The Man. In the music video for the same track, the word “karma” appeared in graffiti alongside the titles of her other albums – yet another apparent Easter egg in true Swiftian style. Then there was her throwing the word “missing” into the mix too, further adding fuel to the speculation fire.

All of this, of course, had the Swifties realizing that their beloved pop icon was trying to send them a message in her own unique style, and this message seemed to be, inevitably, about a scrapped album. But while these Easter eggs more or less confirmed among fans that they did miss out on an album, the real question was: Why was the album scrapped in the first place?

Speculation on Why “Karma” Never Saw the Light of Day

Taylor Swift. | Credits: @taylorswift / IG.

Just like all the above-mentioned speculation, none of these reports were ever confirmed officially. That said, the reason why this “Karma” never saw the light of day is also based on mere speculation, though it sounds valid enough to potentially shed more light to the truth than expected. So what exactly happened in 2016 that could have led to the death of this “Karma”?

The answer most likely lies in the pop billionaire’s public feud with rapper Kanye West and his then-wife and media personality Kim Kardashian. Of course, how can fans forget the spiraling controversy that erupted over the song Famous by Wes in 2016? “I feel like me and Taylor might still have s-x / Why / I made that b**** famous,” he had rapped on the track.

This was followed by quite a bit of cringe and a controversial turn of events that no Swiftie would like to recall. This included Swift’s reps claiming the singer had warned West against pushing ahead with the misogynistic rap. But then came Kim Kardashian’s infamous release of a snippet of a phone call between Swift and West, which appeared to show her giving the rapper her blessing.

It’s worth noting that the recording was made without Swift’s knowledge, and the Swifties were quick to point out that the recording was likely taken out of context. However, the fire had already been ignited, and the Enchanted singer became something of a public enemy as her reputation was seemingly left in tatters. All of this, eventually, had the singer pulling back from the public too.

Taylor Swift. | Credits: @taylorswift / IG.

As the series of events that followed saw Taylor Swift withdraw entirely from the public for something of a whole year, and the much-anticipated reported album from 2016 – which was anticipated by fans due to her clockwork-like routine with her album releases – never came to be released to the public. Just like that, “Karma” seemingly lost out on the chance to see the light of day.

However, since then, Swift has been doing a lot, including releasing a song named Karma in her album Midnights and re-recording all of her old albums after falling out with her former record label. That said, Swifties still haven’t lost all hope of coming across her ostensibly missing album someday.

Perhaps someday, Swift will end up proving all their speculated theories right. Who knows? She’s Taylor Swift, after all – the first woman in history to Album of the Year twice. She can do anything.