Taylor Swift and The Deeper Meaning Behind Some of Her Lyrics

Taylor Swift pictured on "The Eras Tour"

On October 3rd, Taylor Swift dropped her twelfth album: The Life of a Showgirl. This recent album has started debates amongst Swifties as to whether the writing style she chose for this album was good, and whether or not this was a huge deviation from the more poetic and meaningful songs she's written in the past. In light of this slight controversy, I thought I would go back to her roots and discuss some of her more deeper songs and the meaning behind some of her lyrics.

Starting off strong with a very popular song: "The 1." This song is track 1 from her 8th studio album Folklore. This song is about looking back on past relationships, and reflecting on the "what ifs" and "could have beens". In this song Taylor talks about looking back on a relationship and feeling the loss of someone you thought was "the one" while also acknowledging the reality of them no longer being in your life. There are many lyrics to unpack from this song, but one that personally stands out to me is: "We never painted by the numbers baby, but we were making it count". I'm sure we are all familar with those "paint-by-number" apps and coloring books, but if you are not, the idea is that you are given a number assigned to a color and must fill out the picture according to the numbers exactly. Taylor does a play on this and says that they never "followed the rules" of their relationship or didn't follow the set of expectations in a conventional relationship. In contrast to this she then says "but we were making it count" meaning that despite not following conventional rules, the relationship was still meaningful and worthwhile.

Another Taylor Swift song with meaningful lyrics is: "You Are In Love." This is track 15 from her 6th studio album 1989. This song is about love, but more specifically, the intense feelings you feel in a relationship, and the joy of finally understanding true love. The song talks about noticing yourself letting your guard down, and how even in the still and quiet moments of life you can feel the love that you have for a person. In the bridge of the song Taylor writes: "And you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars, and why I've spent my whole life trying to put it into words". This lyric is about finally being in love and realizing why people say "love makes you crazy". It is like getting an invitation to a famous club and understanding why so many people talk about and attend this club. This also points towards the famous phrase people say "when you know, you know". Taylor is acknowledging that love can creep up on you in small ways and through small actions, and when you truly feel love with another person, you know it is love.

Finally, also from her 8th studio album Folklore, "Mad Woman" is simply about female rage and the negative stigma about a woman showing her true emotions. In this song Taylor talks about her own experiences as well as just being a woman and feeling as if you have to always act a certain way. A lyric that is overlooked, but probably the most meaningful from the song is: "And women like hunting witches too, doing your dirtiest work for you. It's obvious that wanting me dead has really brought you two together". This lyric is about women putting other women down. This is a slight nudge towards salem witch trials, and how easy it was to acuse a lady of being a witch. Taylor is saying that it's not just men who put women down, it can be other women as well. Throughout the song Taylor shows anger and aggression, symbolizing frustration with the confusion of not wanting to be portrayed as angry, but actually being angry anyway.

Taylor Swift may not be everyone's cup of tea, but whether you like her or not the woman can write, and a lot of her songs are actually deeper than many would expect. Though her recent album may not have been super deep and filled with Shakespearean like quotes that Swifties were expecting, there are many songs written by Taylor Swift that can be reflected on, sung in the shower, or played in the background as you cry yourself to sleep. These are just 3 examples.