When Margot Robbie said “I want to be a part of the people that make meaning, not the thing that is made” in Barbie, she was probably channeling Matty Healy. The 1975’s frontman says he hasn’t listened to all of The Tortured Poets Department, which…fair. It’s a double album; that’s a lot of songs! When asked about his “diss track” by a paparazzi in Los Angeles, Healy said “I haven’t really listened to that much of it, but I’m sure it’s good.” Maybe Matty and his typewriter can make the time soon.
Healy is not the first alleged muse of Taylor who refuses to gaze upon her portraits. When asked if he’d listened to Red (Taylor’s Version), Jake Gyllenhaal said he hadn’t. “It has nothing to do with me,” he told Esquire. “It’s about her relationship with her fans. It is her expression. Artists tap into personal experiences for inspiration, and I don’t begrudge anyone that.”
Much of the internet chittering around TTPD has been over which songs are about Healy vs. which are about Taylor Swift’s other recent ex, Joe Alwyn. And, of course, they could all be about scenarios Swift made up in her head, or the relationship between Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, or actually an extension of Swift’s secret fan-fiction empire. Hey, it could happen.
