About 24 hours ago, Taylor Swift announced that she would be releasing a new album, Folklore. At midnight last night, it came out, and now there are questions for which fans are trying to find answers.
When Swift announced the album, she thanked some of the people with whom she worked on the album, including Aaron Dessner, Justin Vernon, Jack Antonoff, and somebody named William Bowery. Bowery — who is credited as a songwriter on “Betty” and the Bon Iver collab “Exile” — doesn’t appear to be an established figure in the music world. However, fans have done some sleuthing and come to the conclusion that Bowery is actually a pseudonym for Swift’s boyfriend Joe Alwyn.
Fans believed the fake name is derived from the actor’s great-grandfather William Alwyn (a composer and music teacher) and the Bowery Hotel, where Swift and Alwyn were spotted in 2016. Alwyn apparently used to also play guitar and sing, and he studied English literature and drama at the University Of Bristol.
WILLIAM BOWERY theory
on oct 2016, taylor (w her squad) & alwyn were spotted in BOWERY hotel. (smth special mustve happened here, that’s why she used d name “BOWERY” i guess?)
WILLIAM alwyn is literally joe alwyns great-grandpa. he was was composer, conductor, and music teacher pic.twitter.com/pDOaBieGgL
— a folkWHORE (@taylowkey13) July 23, 2020
OMG I JUST FOUND OUT JOE HAS AN ENGLISH LITERATURE DEGREE AND HE USED TO SING AND PLAY A GUITAR IN HIGH SCHOOL?? AT THIS POINT I WOULDN’T BE SUPRISED IF HE’S THAT WILLIAM BOWERY (WHO IS CREDITED ON 2 SONGS) MY MIND AND HEART CAN’T HANDLE IT BYEE I DIED DEAD
— «𝓓𝓪𝓰𝓶𝓪𝓻𝓪 » 𝒇𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒆 (@swift_afterglow) July 23, 2020
Um guys I think it’s 100% confirmed that “William Bowery” is pseudonym of Joe who is cowriter of song “Betty” and another song .
Since Joe’s great-grandfather name is William Alwyn and Bowery hotel is where Taylor and Joe met first timepic.twitter.com/vol1O8kJzb
— Centi | BLM (@Lorde_IsComing) July 23, 2020
It certainly wouldn’t be out of Swift’s range to use easter eggs this way. In the chat of the YouTube premiere for her “Cardigan” video, Swift noted of Folklore, “One thing I did purposely on this album was put the Easter eggs in the lyrics, more than just the videos. I created character arcs & recurring themes that map out who is singing about who. For example there’s a collection of 3 songs I refer to as the Teenage Love Triangle. These 3 signs explore a love triangle from all 3 people’s perspectives at different times in their lives.”