Much of Taylor’s media presence slipped during this time. 1989 was her peak and she was basically on top of the world, and America’s pop star. For more context, you can visit the Kimye Drama section in Reputation, that describe in much detail the attacks and negativity Taylor got in 2016. To summarize, though, a phone call was leaked between Taylor and Kanye West that started a rampage and the hashtag #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty on twitter where Taylor was called a “Snake” by hundreds of thousands of people including celebrities. Because of this, she went into isolation, until she released her album Reputation

After the media’s outburst and attacking of Taylor for the Kimye drama, her dating life, and media presence, Taylor was not seen out in public for many months. It’s suspected that Taylor isolated with her now long time boyfriend Joe Alwyn, after ending her short and very public relationship with Tom Hiddleston

“Karma” is a fan-conspiracy album that was allegedly unreleased due to the roadblock that was 2016 for Taylor. Since Taylor’s debut album, she has put out a new one every 2 years. 1989 was released in 2014, so fans were expecting a new album in 2016. But one never came, and over time, fans have come up with the name of an album that she was writing for during and after her 1989 tour. Fans pulled the title from quite a few sources. One being an interview with Vogue (72 questions) where she answered one question with “karma is real”. A source was also the music video for The Man, a song on her Lover album later in 2019. In the video, There is a subway wall shown that is graffitied on, with the names of many of Taylor’s previous albums, with “KARMA” drawn in the center. There are many other clues and sources Swifties pull from for this theory but those two are the largest