Egg Hunt: Easter Eggs Are Taking Over the Music Industry

When you think of an album announcement, what do you picture? Is it a statement on social media? A billboard? A press tour? Or maybe… do you picture an anonymous website that could possibly be linked to your favorite celebrity?

Notoriously executed by pop star Taylor Swift, subliminal messaging and ‘Easter eggs’ are becoming the newest trend when it comes to artists announcing their latest projects.

For decades, musical artists have used Easter eggs to hint at previous songs, conspiracies, and other pop-culture references. Popular rock band from the 80s and 90s, Guns N’ Roses, flawlessly pulled off this anomaly within their hit song “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”

At the end of the song, lead singer Axel Rose finishes his verse singing “where do we go now?” This line was never actually written into the lyrics, but rather Rose posing the question to producers and bandmates in the studio.

Now, musicians are hiding Easter eggs in order to tease fans about their upcoming business ventures.

In Taylor Swift’s recent music video for “Bejeweled,” the singer is shown walking onto an elevator with thirteen floors. Ten of these color-coded floors represent Swift’s original studio albums, while two represent her rerecordings. Soon after the video premiered, fans flooded social media platforms to analyze what this scene might convey in terms of future music.  

After watching Swift press the third button of the elevator, symbolizing her third album, Speak Now, and exiting on the thirteenth floor, fans concluded that it is plausible her next rerecording will be Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). While all of this is speculation, Swift fans have become seasoned professionals in uncovering these hidden clues.

“I’ve trained them to be that way,” Swift told Entertainment Weekly regarding fans ability to decode Easter eggs. “I love that they [fans] like the cryptic hint-dropping. Because as long as they like it, I'll keep doing it. It's fun. It feels mischievous and playful." 

However, Swift is not the only mainstream artist to partake in this mysterious phenomenon, with 2023 Grammy award winner Harry Styles joining in on the fun as well.

On March 18th, 2022, the Twitter account @youarehome, and its accompanying website featuring the image of a closed door, gained attention in the Harry Styles fandom due to the musician being the only person followed by the account.

Each day, the door on the website opened to reveal a new image while the Twitter account posted corresponding statements. Finally, on May 20th of the same year, the door opened to unveil a link to the award-winning album, Harry’s House.

While Styles and Swift are among the first of many mainstream artists to utilize Easter eggs in relation to album announcements, the trend seems to be growing larger with each passing year. Fans love detective work, artists love the playful interaction, and the media loves speculation.

We can only hope these musical Easter egg hunts become more and more eminent in entertainment.

What are some of your favorite Easter eggs in music history? Leave a comment below.