After pictures from Taylor Swift’s recent concert in Singapore exploded all over my Facebook feed, I felt moved to reflect more deeply on her appeal. Now, one may scoff at her lyrics for being emotionally immature, or criticise her for releasing endless four chord pop ditties, but her songs answer a deep call of the human heart and despite not being a Swiftie, I provide some examples and in-depth analysis here.
You Belong With Me (2009)
Typical teenage love song? Sure. But she challenges the status quo: Don’t just be in a relationship with the person who seems to be compatible with you on a superficial level, who happens to run in the same circle of friends, whom it is convenient to date. A relationship should be about being with the one who can connect with you on a deeper level, someone who “knows your humour” and “gets your story.” She challenges us to search for more meaningful relationships instead of just envying those relationships around us that ‘look good’. She isn’t afraid to express her affection for the one whom she is attracted to and she doesn’t try to play it cool. She doesn’t say we should ‘be together’, she says you belong with me. Some might call that clingy but I think it could be pointing to how people who are connected on a deeper level can ‘belong’ to each other, can come to expect a more long-lasting relationship with the other because they can accompany each other on life’s journey as equals and as real companions instead of chasing after some emotional high or seeking pleasure for pleasure’s sake.
Our Song (2009)
She translates abstract feelings into a series of tangible moments: Our song is a slamming screen door/ sneaking out late tapping on your window/ when we’re on the phone/ and you talk real slow/ ‘cos it’s late and your mama don’t know/ our song is the way you laugh/ on the first date/ man, I didn’t kiss her and I should have/ and when I got home/ before I said amen/ asking God if He could play it again. The genius here is that she didn’t choose moments that were necessarily romantic or ideal, but just sort of random things that people do when young and in love. I took a class in poetry writing last semester, and one thing we always talked about was how life is lived in the particular. When we try to be general and appeal to the masses, we usually end up appealing to no one. But when we provide the details to our particular situation, our particular love, somehow everyone can put in their own memories of almost kisses and sneaking out to the HDB playground or void deck instead of ‘slamming screen doors.’ The song points to how the love we experience doesn’t occur in episodes, like that in movies. We don’t love because things always turn out well in the end. If our love is sincere, we don’t love because they have the nicest eyes or the best hair. We love because we choose to love and we chose to love them for who they are in that particular moment in time, in that particular situation.
I Knew You Were Trouble (2012)
One of the best things about this song is that it spawned this video:
T-Swift has this ability to be refreshingly honest in her songwriting. In the careful curation of all our social media platforms, we want to be invincible, we want to coolly pass off unfavorable events as if they don’t bother us or they never happened at all. But we regret our mistakes. And sometimes, we know something is wrong but we go ahead and do it anyway. Being able to admit our mistakes and admit how much we hurt because of them helps us to be free of the burden of trying to be perfect all the time. We can be free to acknowledge that sometimes we lose our way but ultimately, having the courage to make that recognition and accept it helps us to know that our worth is in who we are, not what we do.
4. Shake It Off (2014)
Probably my favourite of her songs to date. We can be our own person! Even if those around us are against us, we can ‘shake it off’ and just keep moving along. We are not defined by the criticisms we receive. If we want someone to believe in us, we should first believe in ourselves! We should rejoice in our good qualities, whether people notice them or not. And we should be honest enough to recognise those good qualities in ourselves. Now the danger here is that we will become self-absorbed and insular, thinking that we don’t ever have to better ourselves because ‘that’s just the way I am.’ But I guess it’s a growing process, knowing how to accept criticism and when we should act on it and improve ourselves and when we just need to ‘shake it off.’ Also, this article on Taylor Swift is en pointe.
