Taylor Swift: The Story of Her Life...And The Day She Stopped Writing It (Part 1)

To celebrate the release of Taylor Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version), as well as this being the first ever blog posted on this site, why not indulge in the sheer brilliance of one of the greatest female songwriters of this generation? However, this is no ordinary top 10 list, because as I was meticulously picking and choosing my favourite songs, I started to notice an evolution of sorts as I moved from the days of good ol’ country twang to the modern pop bops our beloved Miss America is known for. And perhaps it’s a progression apparent only to me, but it was significant enough that it prompted many questions in my mind: Has Taylor Swift strayed from the hopeless romantic, “heart-on-my sleeve” songwriting style that garnered her passionate love (and hate) from all over the world? Was there a point in her Love Story in which she got tired of the flatline moniker of the lovesick Juliet? Is this a bad thing? Where does Taylor Swift go when she’s no longer lavishing in the persona she’s held since she was a teenager? In this two-part analysis, I’m going to speculate on these questions while analyzing some of Taylor’s greatest triumphs. So, let’s start by taking a good look at the pinnacle, the gems, the peak of Taylor Swift as a heartfelt and soul-bearing songwriter…

Note: While these are my Top 10 picks, the songs themselves are not listed in an order that defines them as being subjectively better or worse as another. This is simply the way I felt it was best to outline them in order to smoothly transition from one example to the next in a comprehensive manner.

1. All Too Well (Red)

A fan-favourite, and my personal favourite, All Too Well is, in my opinion, demonstrative of Taylor’s immaculate songwriting abilities at their peak. It’s undeniably raw, taking tokens of her treasured relationship (such as the repetitive callback to the symbolic scarf) and weaving them into a story about how it all fell apart. We’re taken from sweetheart beginnings with lines such as, “Oh, your sweet disposition/And my wide-eyed gaze/We’re singing in the car getting lost upstate” to bitter accusations like, “And you call me up again/Just to break me like a promise/So casually cruel in the name of being honest,” all with the overarching theme of fond remembrance, heartache, and unmistakable pain. The chorus is kept fresh and alive with new imagery introduced each time it is repeated (which is never too many) building on the intensity and the poignancy of her emotions. Finally, she ties it all together with a sweeping bow to the hook, “I remember it all too well” with a tone of even sorrow, allowing the listener to take a step back and revel in the heartbreaking story she has told. Swiftie or not, I believe any music lover can agree this is a masterpiece and a perfect image captured of an artist baring her soul for all to see.

2. Dear John (Speak Now)

Dear John runs in the same vein as All Too Well, if not a slightly younger, greener version, and holds a twinship with its companion track on the same album, Back to December, in that it also shares in many of the characteristics about to be discussed. Absolutely brilliant, simplistic, speaking of betrayal and loss of innocence, this 6-minute prize was written solely by the then near 20-year-old. Never mind the obvious, in which the incriminated is being publicly called out by name, what makes this song a true Taylor Swift classic are the little personal momentos she sprinkles throughout with lines such as, “Don’t you think I was too young to be messed with/The girl in the dress cried the whole way home.” While, yes, she is only the one who can ever see and recall in perfect detail the clarity in which she experienced them, we as an audience are getting a taste of that. Personally, that’s what I love about Taylor’s songwriting style; we get a peak into her life, as a human, and we witness that human’s story. But it’s also the artistic analogies she crafts like, “You paint me a blue sky/And go back and turn it to rain” that call to a poetic nature and the awesome ability to articulate. She weaves these two principles together to paint a picture of manipulation and misery in a twisted connection, and she does it in such a magnificent way that it can only be said that the listener is being given a gift; they are witnessing a real story in the most beautiful and profound way an artist’s work can possibly recreate it.

3. Love Story (Fearless)

Perhaps this song is not a screenshot of a unique life experience exclusive only to Taylor, but it could be said that it’s a good representation of how most of the world may perceive her. A bit of country flare, opening with that unmistakable banjo, the fairy tale begins. Melodically, it’s catchy, and lyrically, it’s grabby. With the near stereotypical allusion to the doomed Romeo and Juliet (except this time with the perfect happy ending), Taylor’s unabashed romanticism is clear as day and unashamed. This, in my opinion, is in itself a vulnerability. Being a girl of her age, her experiences and stories primarily focusing on love and romance, her shamelessness in having one of her most successful and memorable songs of her discography be so high school, fairy tale-esque, plus it being the first for her to re-record and release on Taylor’s Version, reveals a fearlessness to the mockery and belittlement of others. She’s a romantic, and boy, has it paid off.

4. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Red)

Yes, it’s a pop song (of which she has many), and it was an enormously, almost painfully popular hit (of which she also has had many). But, for the purposes of this analysis, it’s a brilliant representation of the balance that, in her peak, Taylor was able to achieve. A story about a personal experience, gently twisted and skewed to be something digestible she’s adding a bit of her essence to still make it hers. Everyone knows a Taylor Swift song when they hear one, even if it isn’t one of her big bangers; there’s just something about the way she writes and, obviously, her unequivocable voice, that calls attention. But even in her hay day (in my opinion, her top three releases being Speak Now, Red, and 1989) what has made her so popular is a) her vulnerability and b) her ability to tell a story that’s appealing to a commercial, mainstream audience. She does that here, effortlessly. I don’t believe many can write a “pop” song that still somehow holds the life of its creator, but Taylor does. Again and again and again. That’s something to be admired for.

5. Fifteen (Fearless)

Something endearing about Taylor’s first releases is the fact that she was very young at the time, and it doesn’t surprise me that this may be why many young girls gravitated towards her, and still do. In Fifteen, Taylor Swift, this mega superstar, irreverent icon, is just that: fifteen. Every detail, from first starting her freshman year of high school, to making friends with a red head named Abigail, to going on her first date, is simple, and ordinary, and personal. And as the listener follows along, they feel like they’re being given a lesson by a big sister telling her younger siblings, all the young girls looking to her as a role model, that, “You’ll do things/Greater than dating the boy on the football team/But I didn’t know it at fifteen.” Despite that poignant and sweet sentiment, there’s ultimately an innocence about it, and when looked at in a certain light, it’s an innocence that transfers to all of Taylor Swift’s songs; it’s the purity of creating art from life. There’s a certain integrity and, quite frankly, a certain amount of gut it takes to wear your heart on your sleeve in that way and to willingly and shamelessly bare it for the whole world to see. And criticize. Never mind the fact that she does it brilliantly, and that she has achieved eons of success immeasurable to most, which will certainly keep her in the history books, but it’s that she’s revealed her soul and her life as an artist, through her music, for years. That’s all she’s ever done.

But the question becomes: has she stopped?

Stay tuned for Part 2 coming soon where we attempt to answer that question!