Taylor Swift: The Story Of Her Life...And The Day She Stopped Writing It (Part 2)

This is the second part of a two-part series breaking down my top Taylor Swift picks in order to answer the question: Has Taylor abandoned the soul-bearing, head-over-heels lovesick persona she’s so well known for, and why? Click here to read the first part (or else the point I keep alluding to may not make any sense)!

In the last part we ogled over five of Taylor’s masterpieces, praising her openness and her ability to tell her life stories in the way she does so effortlessly. But today, we’re going to take a look at another five revealing a different, uglier side of her fame and that may allude to the idea that, despite her good-natured humour towards it all, Taylor got tired of continuously being kicked back down just to brush herself off and pick herself back up again and again. Additionally, by the end of the list we’ll have speculated on where the new Taylor Swift goes if she’s abandoned the sense of self she’s held in the public eye for so long.

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.

6. Mean (Speak Now)

Mean. The first in Taylor’s timeline to address the condemnations she’d received, and will continue to receive, just for being herself. Even though in this particular song, she may be addressing a specific individual rather than a mass collective, the criticism (“You, with your words like knives/And words and weapons that you use against me), the message (“Someday, I’ll be living in a big old city/And all you’re ever gonna be is mean”) and the spirit will remain consistent throughout all subsequent examples. When taking a step back and realizing just how young of a girl she was, despite having already released two successful albums and a myriad of mega hits, she seems to have always taken criticism well and allowed the disapproval of others to slide right off her. As it was in the chorus, this is perfectly exemplified in bridge line, “Drunk and grumbling on about how I can’t sing/But all you are is mean.” There’s a certain confidence and self-respect she displays and will continue to display as the years of outside admonishment drag on, and Mean is only the beginning of that.

7. Blank Space (1989)

A wonderful trait Taylor possesses is her humour. She knows when not to take herself too seriously and she often exercises this part of her personality in one way or another (which is especially apparent in this particular batch of songs). However, I think she does it best in Blank Space. Taylor is both exorbitantly self-aware (at least, in regards to her public image) to a comical extent in which she playfully taunts those that align conceptualizations of “mad” Taylor as portrayed in the video to her legitimate personality. But the brilliance of this one is that she doesn’t say any of that but shows it. With lines such as, “Got a long list of ex-lovers/They’ll tell you I’m insane/But I’ve got a blank space, baby/And I’ll write your name” Taylor’s alluding to the idea that she jumps from man to man incessantly, always ready to write a new name as a placeholder until the next one comes around. Paired with the hilarity of the perfectly crafted music video, she’s painted herself as the love-crazed sociopath that the public views her to be, as if they’re watching her only with funhouse mirrors. And while there is sarcasm and a hint of satire that can’t be ignored, it’s without any real bitterness. She has fun with it, and Blank Space flaunts that without coming off as pretentious or conceited.

8. Shake It Off (1989)

In the same vein as Blank Space, Shake It Off stays gleeful and upbeat, once again poking fun at the people that love to hate her. However, the difference between this track and the last is black and white in terms of lyrical choices; where Blank Space showed, Shake It Off tells, and Taylor certainly tells it like it is. The first lyric: “I stay out too late/Got nothing in my brain/That’s what people say.” And she continues, “I go on too many dates/But I can’t make ‘em stay.” The point, however, it not just to acknowledge her renowned and often loathed image, but to say that she doesn’t care (if you couldn’t already tell from Blank Space) and that all she’s going to do is “shake it off.” She will write what she writes and express what she wants to express in the creative way she wants to do it. Even if that isn’t generally liked. She’s maintaining an upper hand that’s a thousand times more powerful than the insecurity and defensive attitude some other public figures have. Plus, it’s a much more entertaining one, too. And, as a whole, 1989 doesn’t tunnel vision on the backlash, or the celebrity clashes as tackled in Bad Blood, but balances it with tracks such as Wildest Dreams and Clean that remain vulnerable and dreamy, which are the ones in where her heart seems to remain content.

9. Look What You Made Me Do (Reputation)

Oddly enough, this was the first song of Taylor’s that thoroughly impressed me. It wasn’t necessarily because of the song though, but the music video. I’m not a filmmaker at all, but the detail, symbolism, and care that was put into the video to make such a statement was admirable. It led to Reputation being the first full album of hers I listened to (since that darker theme and musical style was where my interests lay at the time) and served as a stepping stone to discover her older classics, which I eventually came to enjoy and deeply appreciate (obviously). But it isn’t until now that I fully realize the impact and weight of this song when analyzing Taylor as an artist with such a lengthy career. The gist of it: this is a person fed up with the way she’s being perceived and wants to fight back. While the previous songs we’ve dissected so far all had a slice of humour on par with Taylor’s natural lightheartedness, Look What You Made Me Do, while displaying elements of cleverness that was visually apparent, sounds angry. Reputation revealed the toll that baring her soul for the whole world to witness, and judge, had on her. Never mind what references she’s made regarding spiffs with other musicians (an overarching theme on this track and This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things), the very chorus line and the title of the track that prompts the image of all her “personalities” lined up side by side, insulting each other and arguing with one another, ultimately says it all: “Look what you made me do.”

10. The Man (Lover)

The question becomes, post-Reputation era, has Taylor Swift changed? She’s known as the hopeless romantic, falling for love after love and writing elaborate songs about the good and bad times of each relationship up until the point of (with one notable exception) calling the individual out by name. Yes, this was, and maybe still is, her reputation. Taylor has acknowledged it and she’s made fun of it, even if one can’t help but wonder if all those jokes were tinged with a touch of genuine hurt. And with her publicly stated desire to keep her current romantic life private, coupled with the lyrical differences of her newest releases (specifically in terms of personal detail), I can’t help but think that a line has been drawn. I don’t think we will ever fully see into Taylor’s life as we once did. I use The Man as a point of reference here, but my following sentiment transfers to songs such as ME!, You Need To Calm Down, and even Lover: from a purely musical standpoint, interpreted solely on the basis of my personal opinion, Taylor has moved on from the ways of unabashed, plain as day, heart-on-my-sleeve, artist, songwriter, persona etc…to a public figure with a private life she wishes to remain private. Instead, she comments on social issues, such as misogyny that takes center stage in The Man with, “I’m so sick of running as fast as I can/Wondering if I’d get there quicker/If I was a man.” Then there are her newest releases of Folklore and Evermore, self-described as “bedroom pop” with stories I’ve no doubt Taylor adores…but I’m not sure they’re really hers. I don’t know. But I feel that the era of Taylor Swift as I remember her in my “younger years” has come to an end. Yes, maybe that era was of a little girl dreaming of true love, wearing rose-coloured glasses in a world that has far greater problems than the troubles of her romantic bubbles, and now we’re witnessing a woman all grown-up who wishes to use her voice and her influence to make a true difference. But…can there not be a balance of both? Even fully grown, I don’t feel Taylor’s same unapologetically revealing energy that was once so apparent, and the stories that used to coin her as Taylor Swift now feel slightly lackluster.

Perhaps these are just the trends of today, but when following the journey from Mean to the entirety of Reputation and what it stood for…I can’t help but think that Taylor got tired of having her humanity, her soul, her life, and her loves twisted into a persona that was poked and prodded without consequence. After all this time, I think she’s decided to live, act, and behave as a modern-day influencer rather than the creator that threw all troubles to the wind. Taylor Swift is still writing, yes, but has she stopped writing the story of her life?