A new Taylor Swift Easter egg has Ohio ties (kind of).
The pop star announced “The Shiny Bug Edition” vinyl record variant for her 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” Aug. 18. The vinyl costs $29.99 and includes a “unique shiny bug edition” poem written by Swift along with a strip of four unique photos. The collectible album sleeve also has never-before-seen photos and album lyrics.
So what does a shiny bug have to do with Swift and being a showgirl?
Casey Tayler, a content creator and Swiftie, posted a video Aug. 18, which may have revealed the origin behind the shiny bug reference. The post had over 2.4 million views on Instagram as of Aug. 19.
Tayler pointed out that when one searces for a “shiny bug” on Google, a dogbane beetle is one of the more common results. She also said the bug sometimes looks purple and green, and at other times it looks orange and green. Orange and green are the main colors on Swift’s “Life of a Showgirl” album cover. Her “Shiny Bug” vinyl also appears to be purple, but Swift’s site lists it as violet.
The creator went on to say the dogbane beetle is from Ohio, which could be a nod to Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce, who is a Cleveland Heights, Ohio, native. The initials for “shiny bug” are additionally S and B, which could stand for Super Bowl.
What is the dogbane beetle?
While it can be green at times, the dogbane beetle isn’t purple (or violet) and orange, exactly. According to the Ohio State University extension, “as you change your viewing angle, the iridescent beetles glisten with mixed shades of green, copper, blue, red, and of course gold.”
Dogbane beetles can be mixed with “shades of green, copper, blue, red, and of course gold,” according to the Ohio State University extension.
Gold could be confused with orange, and violet is made by mixing red and blue. So, Swift’s album colors could possibly tie back to the dogbane beetle.
The bug is also native to Ohio, as they show up in Southwest Ohio (where Kelce went to college) around late June or early July, according to OSU extension. It isn’t just from the Buckeye State, though, as the University of Kentucky’s Department of Entomology says it “can be found in different habitats across eastern United States and east of the Rocky Mountains.”
So maybe the Kelce tie is a stretch? But nothing is ever a stretch when it comes to Swift’s clues.
Taylor Swift announced “The Shiny Bug Edition” variant to her 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” Aug. 18.
Additionally, UK says “the dogbane beetle is a specialist feeder, feeding exclusively on dogbanes,” which are perennials with small green and white flowers. They do not damage cultivated plants, and their colors are eye-catching. OSU extenions calls the bugs “nature’s eye candy.”
Swifties react to recent Easter eggs
In the video, Tayler pointed out several other Easter eggs Swift may have hidden over the years to symbolize “The Life of a Showgirl.” Many fans were astounded by the amount of work she potentially put in to sprinkling these within other pieces of her music.
“How does Taylor keep it so organized… I can’t remember what I even did yesterday,” one user commented. “How does she have it perfectly in order for 5 years????”
Someone else wrote, “My brain needs 47 business days to recover from this.”
Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” releases Oct. 3.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Why an Ohio bug is at the center of Taylor Swift’s latest Easter egg
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
