The Lore and Literary Analysis of Taylor Swift
July 6, 2024
Run of Show
part one:
the lore
Quick review of important parts of Taylor’s life that’s relevant to the music.
part two:
the literary analysis
Listen to seven songs from Taylor’s discography and break down the deeper meanings behind the lyrics.
Why Taylor Swift?
She
She smuggles her art through
well packaged pop songs and glittery dresses.
Hidden in tea cups, you sip
Not knowing the doctor’s recipe.
Reducing to frivolity the medicine
which has cured you;
which has connected you;
which has endured the fiery trials.
She, because of course, is your foe.
And your redeemer.
Listen.
You may hear.
Look.
You may see.
Me? I breathe.
By me
My admiration for Taylor Swift isn’t about the glittery dresses and hyper-feminine persona. It’s not the love songs and vulnerability. It’s not even the catalog that’s almost as extensive as the Beatles – at just 34. And it’s not because so much of her music has been the focus of my hair brush dreams.
It’s because she kept going.
It’s because she didn’t just tell us, she showed us that trying is cool. Being cringey is cool.
Enduring is the hard part but surviving it all is the fun part.
She tells us that no one comes out alive in the end, and that is precisely the thing that liberates you.
You can deal with the heartbreak, the anger, the regret by creating something – anything. By writing it down, by wearing glittery dresses and screaming offensive decibels through the end of a hair brush. And that there are millions of other women doing the exact the same thing all over the world.
She tells us that we’re in it together. Even the woman who’s been famous since she was 15. Who’s been publicly humiliated and came back stronger. She’s the living example of one of life’s most important lessons: the process of creating art of any kind is the whole point.
Because the phoenix can never rise from the ashes if first there are no ashes.
Part One: The Lore
“The Eras”: 11 Studio Albums
Taylor Swift
Released in 2006
Fearless
Released in 2008
Speak Now
Released in 2010
Red
Released in 2012
1989
Released in 2014
reputation
Released in 2017
Lover
Released in 2019
Folklore
Released in July 2020
Evermore
Released in December 2020
Midnights
Released in 2022
The Tortured Poets Department
Released in 2024
The ashes…
The Great Cancelling: A Timeline
The 2015 Grammys
Recording of Taylor giving “approval”
Taylor is “cancelled”.
2018: “There will be no explanation; there will just be reputation.”
Taylor Swift is under the management of Scooter Braun and expresses to him that she’d like to purchase her own masters.
Scooter Braun secretly purchases her masters for $300 million – without Taylor’s consent.
She only learned of the acquisition when it was made public.
Scooter offers her a deal to partially own her own music, but only if she sign an intensive NDA and only if he would receive a large percentage.
Taylor declines the offer and instead decides to rerecord her first six albums, releasing “Taylor’s Version” of her first six albums.
The fans, as well as iHeart Radio pledge to only play “Taylor’s Version” of her albums, making Scooter’s ownership worthless.
A radio DJ takes a picture with Taylor Swift and puts his hand up her skirt. Him groping her is captured in the photo that they take together.
Taylor publicly calls him out and he loses his job.
He files a defamation lawsuit against her.
She countersues for $1.
Both the radio DJ and Taylor Swift appear in court for the trial, which lasted one week.
The jury ruled in Taylor Swift’s favor, granting her the symbolic $1 in damages.
Taylor is interviewed saying the only reason she chose to pursue the case was to make sure girls everywhere knew they can and should stand up for themselves.
…from which she rose.
The Re-recordings
Taylor Swift: Taylor’s Version
Yet to be re-released
(1) Fearless: Taylor’s Version
Re-released in April 2021
(3) Speak Now: Taylor’s Version
Re-released in July 2023
(2) Red: Taylor’s Version
Re-released in November 2021
(4) 1989: Taylor’s Version
Re-released in October 2023
reputation: Taylor’s Version
Yet to be re-released
Timeline of all releases:
Taylor Swift – 2006
Fearless – 2008
Speak Now – 2010
Red – 2012
1989 – 2014
Reputation – 2017
Lover – 2019
Folklore – 2020
Evermore – 2020
Fearless: Taylor’s Version – 2021
Red: Taylor’s Version – 2021
Midnights – 2022
Speak Now: Taylor’s Version – 2023
1989: Taylor’s Version – 2023
The Tortured Poets Department – 2024
Waiting for Taylor Swift: Taylor’s Version and Reputation: Taylor’s Version
Taylor’s “Easter Eggs”
Part Two: The Literary Analysis
Read
Listen
Talk
Taylor Swift Recommended Listens:
Tim McGraw
Picture to Burn
Our Song
Fearless Recommended Listens:
Fearless
Love Story
Fifteen
Hey Stephen
White Horse
Speak Now Recommended Listens:
Dear John
Mean
Never Grow Up
Long Live
Better Than Revenge
Album:
Red: Taylor’s Version
Song:
All Too Well (10 Minute Version)
Video:
Short Film starring Dylan O’Brien and Sadie Sink Directed by Taylor Swift
Important Vocabulary to Know:
Disposition: a usual mood, temperament
Self-effacing: humble, making fun of yourself in casual way, drawing attention away from yourself
Maim: injure, dismember, disfigure
All Too Well Favorite Lines:
“You kept me like a secret but I kept you like an oath.”
“You called me up just to break me like a promise.”
“So casually cruel in the name of being honest.”
“I’m a crumbled up piece of paper lying here.”
“The punch line goes, ‘I’ll get older but your lovers stay my age.’”
Red Recommended Listens:
Holy Ground
Starlight
Begin Again
State of Grace
The Lucky One
1989 Recommended Listens:
Clean
Out of the Woods
Now That We Don’t Talk
Suburban Legends
New Romantics
Reputation Recommended Listens:
Getaway Car
Dress
New Years Day
Lover Recommended Listens:
The Archer
Cornelia Street
Afterglow
Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince
False God
Daylight
Lover
Album:
Folklore
Song:
My Tears Ricochet
Video:
Official Lyric Video
Allison’s Notes on My Tears Ricochet
Important Vocabulary to Know:
Ricochet: to rebound from a surface
My Tears Ricochet Favorite Lines:
“I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace.”
“We gather stones, never knowing what they’ll mean. Some to throw, some to make a diamond ring.”
“You know I didn’t want to have to haunt you, but what a ghostly scene.”
“And I still talk to you when I’m screaming at the sky.”
Folklore Recommended Listens:
Watch “The Long Pond Sessions” on Disney Plus
The 1
Cardigan (1/3 in teenage love triangle fictional story – Betty’s POV)
Mirrorball
Seven
August (2/3 in teenage love triangle fictional story – Augustine’s POV)
Mad Woman
Betty (3/3 in teenage love triangle fictional story – James’ POV)
Peace
Hoax
The Lakes
Important Vocabulary to Know:
Swindled: to cheat or defraud
Gardens of Babylon: Structure of ascending tiers of gardens. One of the seven ancient wonders of the world located in modern day Iraq. Was considered a great achievement of engineering. We don’t know if they actually existed.
Cowboy Like Me Favorite Lines:
“But I said, ‘Dancin is a dangerous game.’”
“Now you hang from my lips like the Gardens of Babylon.”
“With your boots beneath my bed, forever is the sweetest con.”
Evermore Recommended Listens:
Tis the Damn Season
Gold Rush
Tolerate It
Ivy
Happiness
Marjorie
Right Where You Left Me
It’s Time to Go
You’re on Your Own, Kid Favorite Lines:
“From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes.”
“So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it.”
“You’re on your own, kid, yeah you can face this.”
Midnights Recommended Listens:
Maroon
Mastermind
The Great War
Bigger Than The Whole Sky
Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve
You’re Losing Me
Album:
The Tortured Poets Department
Song:
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
Video:
Official Lyric Video
Allison’s Notes on WAOLOM
Important Vocabulary to Know:
gallows: the platform where a person would stand to be hanged.
levitate: to float in the air, defy gravity
snarl: a vicious growl
asylum: word previously used to describe a psychiatric facility, think “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”
fearsome: causing or capable of causing fear
wretched: of poor character or state of being
narcotics: controlled substance; drug derived from opium
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? Favorite Lines
“My bare hands paved their path.”
“If you wanted me dead, you should have just said. Nothing makes me feel more alive.”
“So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street.”
“I was tame, I was gentle ‘til the circus life made me mean.”
Album:
The Tortured Poets Department
Song:
The Prophecy
Video:
Official Lyric Video
Allison’s Notes on The Prophecy
Important Vocabulary to Know:
Throttle: A lever or peddle that controls and engine.
“Pad around”: idolly wander, walk around aimlessly
Fable: a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story that has a moral at the end
“fools in a fable”: A “fool” is generally a character in a story that represents the wrong decision or “bad” way of thinking
The Prophecy Favorite Lines:
“A greater woman wouldn’t beg, but I looked to the sky and said, ‘please’.
“A lesser woman would’ve lost hope.”
Album:
The Tortured Poets Department
Song:
But Daddy I Love Him
Video:
Official Lyric Video
Allison’s Notes on BDILH
Important Vocabulary to Know:
Dutiful: careful to fulfill obligations
Tendrils: ringlet of hair
Precocious: advanced in development, usually with the context of a child who pushes back
Revelry: Boisterous merry-making; noisy festivity
Vipers: type of venomous snake
Sanctimonious: Having an unwarranted attitude of moral superiority
Soliloquy: Dramatic form of discourse; Shakespearean character perform when alone stage; talking to oneself (monologue)
Bestow: to present with a gift or high honor
But Daddy I Love Him Favorite Lines:
“I’d rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning.”
“I don’t cater to all these vipers dressed in empath’s clothing.”
The Tortured Poets Department Recommended Listens:
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
Down Bad
So Long, London
Florida!!!
Fresh Out The Slammer
Guilty as Sin?
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
loml
Clara Bow
imgonnagetyouback
The Albatross
So High School
The Black Dog
I Hate it Here
I Look in People’s Windows
Cassandra
Peter
The Bolter
The Manuscript
Continued Education
Watch on Disney Plus:
The Eras Tour
The Long Pond Sessions (Folklore Album)
Watch on Netflix:
Miss Americana (documentary)
Other worthy watches and reads:
Time: Person of the Year 2023 Article about Taylor Swift
All Too Well SNL 2021 Musical Guest Appearance
Kobe Bryant Talking about Taylor Swift
“Monologue Song” SNL 2013 Host Appearance
“In Summation” Prologue poem included in The Tortured Poets Department Vinyl