More Than a Love Story: Unpacking My Internalized Misogyny And Taylor Swift’s Range Of Music From Thirsty to Existential

It has to be said: Taylor Swift has range. She can break our hearts or heal them, unpack gender stereotypes, and transport listeners anywhere from London to the Wild West.
Moreover, she has a knack for storytelling through song that will be studied for decades to come. And young artists like Olivia Rodrigo are already citing Taylor as their major song-writing inspiration.
As much as I currently love Taylor, there were years when I bought into popular narratives that categorized her as a calculating, manipulative, self-made victim. I even refused to listen to her 2017 album reputation because I thought she sounded “too bitter.”
But in the Lord’s year of 2022, I finally tuned in to what I’d been missing.
In honor of my mid-life Swiftie awakening, this list compiles some of Taylor’s time-stopping daydreams, tragedies, and fictions that will stay with you long after the album’s last song.
Instagram; pictured above is Taylor Swift
Angsty Taylor: the first half of reputation
The entire reputation album has major angst, but not necessarily the way you’d expect. Yes, there are allusions to her feud with Kanye West, and I usually skip songs like “…Ready For It?” (though I like the softer pre-chorus), “End Game,” and “Look What You Made Me Do.”
But Taylor falling in love during the reputation production created an incredible dichotomy between its earlier aggro pop synth and the loving, thrilling songs in the album’s latter half. This change first registers in “Delicate.”
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“This ain’t for the best / My reputation’s never been worse, so / You must like me for me.“
The song transitions by using the same stylistic elements of the album’s early songs, but it brilliantly retools them to run toward passion rather than away from shame.
Taylor’s Thirstiest Song: “Dress” (reputation)
The arc of this song goes from initial attraction to the torturous “moments before” a romantic moment, and um… they’re evocative!
This is the first verse: “All of this silence and patience, pining in anticipation / My hands are shaking from holding back from you.”
And the chorus is pretty self-explanatory: “Only bought this dress so you could take it off, take it off.” Phew!
Honorable Mention, Taylor’s Thirstiest Song: “Treacherous” (Red)
Again, we see Taylor’s proclivity toward closeness without touching, this time interwoven with a dangerous metaphor.
“Put your lips close to mine / As long as they don’t touch / Out of focus, eye to eye / ‘Til the gravity’s too much.”
She paints the risk through physical examples, including quicksand and driving at night: “This slope is treacherous / And I, I, I like it.”
Best Missed Connection: “Enchanted” (Speak Now)
There is specific lore surrounding “Enchanted.” Taylor met the lead singer of the band Owl City, Adam Young, and they had an instant spark.
Young even admitted to having a long-standing crush on Taylor and feeling “wonderstruck” when they met (a word that would later appear in “Enchanted”). Sadly, things never progressed beyond a few months of emailing back and forth. But Taylor has said this song is an ode to their encounter: “All I can say is, I was enchanted to meet you.”
Taylor’s Silliest Song: “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” (reputation)
Having conferred with a die-hard Swiftie, I feel confident enough to put this song at least in Taylor’s top five silly songs.
Here’s the chorus: “This is why we can’t have nice things, darling / Because you break them, I had to take them away.”
Comparing an emotionally immature ex to a toddler who lost toy privileges? Iconic.
Redundant Taylor: “Stay, Stay, Stay” (Red) and “All You Had to Do Was Stay” (1989)
This is a bit self-explanatory, but you could also consider the first a request and the second an expression of disappointment that the same love interest didn’t stay. “Stay, stay, stay / I’ve been loving you for quite some time, time, time.”
Then, the other song that came a few years later with 1989: “Hey, all you had to do was stay / Had me in the palm of your hand / Then why’d you have to go and lock me out when I let you in?”
Existential Taylor: “invisible string” (folklore)
This is arguably the song with the most beautiful, elegant guitar pattern, plucking each string with intentionality. And it JUST came on as I typed this. Fate!
“Time, mystical time / Cuttin’ me open, then healin’ me fine / Were there clues I didn’t see?”
“Chains around my demons, wool to brave the seasons / One single thread of gold tied me to you.”
“And isn’t it just so pretty to think / All along there was some / Invisible string /
Tying you to me?”
Depressing Taylor: “epiphany” (folklore) or “Ronan” (Red)
Okay, Epiphany is about an army doctor seeing unimaginable casualties of war.
“Keep your helmet, keep your life, son / Just a flesh wound, here’s your rifle.”
“But you dream of some epiphany / Just one single glimpse of relief / To make some sense of what you’ve seen.”
But Ronan is based on a poem sent to Taylor by a mom who had lost her little boy at just four years old.
“Come on, baby, with me / We’re gonna fly away from here / You were my best four years.”
Okay, “Ronan” wins because I’m tearing up just writing this.
The rest?
Infinite possibilities and categories! And, of course, the songs on her self-titled debut album, Taylor Swift, are peak Country Taylor.
So take this list as a sign that it’s time to give her another listen; it’s best to have a specific vibe in mind, then go from there!
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