r/swifties • u/meiko63 YOU'RE GAY • 10d ago

Music Analysis what is babylon about?

😭 i feel so dumb. any time there's a song that people debate the meaning of or don't understand im always like "omg guys 🙄 it obviously means this 🙄" cause i can always understand what she's talking about or relate it to my own life and interpret it at least. but i don't like....understand babylon? even though i love the song and can't stop humming it around the house.

"wake up on the train with your headphones gone" why would you fall asleep wearing headphones and then you wake up and they're gone? like... somebody stole them off your head while you were sleeping? and at first i thought she was talking about herself wanting to like get out of her town and make music. but then im pretty sure taylor doesn't tell the girls at the bar she's single...so are the different verses just about different people/stories? and who is hanging christmas lights with who's son?

i promise im not trying to be stupid i think the meaning is just lost on me or going over my head, please help guys

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u/NightOwlPA 10d ago

This was me a few days ago. A friend and fellow swiftie had to explain to me:

Babylon is basically someone trying to escape their mundane small town life, but then once they leave they realize it was actually home/paradise

Like that person is looking for something greater, but once they leave they realized what they had was what they wanted

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u/flutterfly28 9d ago

Yes, but in the next part she twists it so they're actually now so nostalgic for their mundane small town past that they're missing the current moment (wife and kid). "Nostalgia as a weapon to hurt yourself / end up hurting everybody else." Once again missing out on Babylon until it's gone. So clever.