What’s the Karma Fan Theory? Why Taylor Swift’s “Lost Album” Is Once Again Getting Traction

There are dozens of fan theories about what Taylor Swift is up to floating around the internet at any given moment, but—gather ‘round children—have you heard the Legend of the Lost Album? Known affectionately as the Karma Fan Theory, it speculates that Taylor recorded an entire pop album back in 2016, but scrapped it in favor of Reputation amid her public feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.Theories about Karma the album (not to be confused with “Karma” the song) have been circulating for a full decade, but they recently resurfaced amid the release of The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore. Before we get into it, take a quick look back on 10 years’ worth of Karma lore.Taylor Literally Said “Karma’s Real”It happened during a Vogue 73 Questions interview, and no one’s been able to let it go.We Need to Discuss the Karma Wall Taylor’s video for “The Man” features a wall with the names of all her albums, and included RIGHT THERE in the middle? The word “KARMA” (twice!) next to a sign that reads “MISSING.” The implication being an entire era—the Karma Era—is MIA.Fans Think Taylor’s Visually Hinted at Karma Through the YearsFans associate Karma with the color orange thanks to years of visual clues (including the orange writing on her Karma Wall), so when Taylor dropped the “Look What You Made Me Do” video and it featured her wearing orange in a cage, everyone read into it and assumed it was a metaphor for Karma being locked away.And Let’s Not Forget About the Orange Door at the Eras TourYou might be saying to yourself, “But wasn’t this an Easter Egg for TLOAS?” Maybe. Maybe not. Keep reading.Fans Were Convinced Karma Was Incoming in March 2022The clues WERE THERE.Taylor’s Fully Aware of the Karma LoreRemember when she announced the song “Karma” as track 11 on the Midnights album and then laughed at length? She knows.But honestly all ^ this ^ is just a smattering of the Karma fan theories, clues, and Easter Eggs. As you can see, there’s a lot of lore, which brings us to the latest...Fans recently noticed that a recent Spotify montage of Taylor’s music videos are in order—with the exception of “Karma.” On top of this, Taylor edited out the word “Reputation” from the Karma Wall in her VMAs montage, leading fans to think “it’s an easter egg for possible rep vault tracks and possibly the lost Karma album!!! 👀”Meanwhile, there’s the double exit sign theory. As the fan below speculates, “Is it possible that there IS a double exit from The Eras Tour because we didn’t originally exit the door as planned (TLOASG instead of Karma)?”They theorize that Taylor had two exits planned for her post-The Life of a Showgirl era, and both were referenced in visuals. We know one “exit” was The Encore (which was Easter egg’d in the “Opalite” video with “Patient for the Encore”), but what if the other is Karma—Easter egg’d on the lower left of her listening party poster with “Please use the orange door when exiting.”Lots to think about / I need to calm down, but you are now officially caught up on the Karma lore.