Latest Posts by swiftrrys - Page 4
the red album is so great because you can lay on your bed and listen to the whole thing and you stay captivated the entire time and when you’re done it feels like you just experienced this burning love and excruciating heartbreak and it hurts a little but it’s also a relief to know that you can survive pain like that. it’s almost like red is haunted.
““Shake It Off” and “Clean” were the last two things we wrote for the record, so it shows you where I ended up mentally. “Clean” I wrote as I was walking out of Liberty in London. Someone I used to date—it hit me that I’d been in the same city as him for two weeks and I hadn’t thought about it. When it did hit me, it was like, Oh, I hope he’s doing well. And nothing else. And you know how it is when you’re going through heartbreak. A heartbroken person is unlike any other person. Their time moves at a completely different pace than ours. It’s this mental, physical, emotional ache and feeling so conflicted. Nothing distracts you from it. Then time passes, and the more you live your life and create new habits, you get used to not having a text message every morning saying, “Hello, beautiful. Good morning.” You get used to not calling someone at night to tell them how your day was. You replace these old habits with new habits, like texting your friends in a group chat all day and planning fun dinner parties and going out on adventures with your girlfriends, and then all of a sudden one day you’re in London and you realize you’ve been in the same place as your ex for two weeks and you’re fine. And you hope he’s fine. The first thought that came to my mind was, I’m finally clean. I’d been in this media hailstorm of people having a very misconstrued perception of who I was. There were really insensitive jokes being made at awards shows by hosts; there were snarky headlines in the press—"Taylor Goes Through a Breakup: Well, That Was Swift!“—focusing on all the wrong things.”
— Taylor Swift on Clean (x)
Beautiful ‘Red’ Album Things:
The guitar slide right before the chorus of State of Grace where the sound amps up and how it all resembles the described relationship which starts out beautiful and then suddenly falls apart and explodes in heartbreak
The background vocals singing “uh oh” in State of Grace to symbolize how the seemingly beautiful relationship is heading for compete disaster
Taylor repeating the second verse of State of Grace as a background vocal right before the song ends
Ending the first song with “love is a ruthless game unless you play it good and right” as a warning of things to come
How the mini guitar solo in “Red” almost sounds like someone in hysterics
The gradual build up of instrumentals and vocals throughout Treacherous that works off the metaphor of the relationship being a dangerous slope/path to travel, as if the further in the song she gets, the steeper the path becomes and more she has to exert to keep going
The build up of the beat right before the bass drops in IKYWT just like how the relationship suddenly exploded
How the beat and instrumentals stop in IKYWT when she screames “Hey!” right before the chorus like a sudden realization that she’s all alone or it’s all her fault
How the pre-choruses and choruses in IKYWT get more beat and vocals as the song goes on and as she becomes more helpless and angry
All Too Well
“Maple Lattes”
How the “hey!” and “it feels like one of those nights” in 22 have a lot of vocal layers to give the feeling of a big group of friends yelling
“Who’s Taylor Swift anyway? Ew!”
How no other vocals but Taylor’s are present in I Almost Do, which is also shown in the song credits in the album booklet
The background vocal at the end of chorus of I Almost Do sounding like a ghost or a fading voice, which echoes how she is haunted by the relationship but can’t quite get herself to go back to it
The entire fact that WANEGBT is a pop song because the person it’s about looked down upon pop music
“With some indie record that’s much cooler than mine”
The sound of a record being suddenly stopped on a record player at the end of the bridge and how that relates to the last bullet point
“That’s so fun” at the end of Stay Stay Stay
How Taylor puts extra syllables in the rhythm at “now you carry my groceries and I”m always laughing” in Stay Stay Stay which resembles how the relationship goes beyond her expectations
How she put The Last Time right after Stay Stay Stay
The two point of views in The Last Time
The difference in urgency and volume and emotion between Gary Lightbody’s and Taylor’s voices to signify the dynamics of the relationship and break up
How Taylor’s voice lasts a little bit longer than Gary’s at the end of The Last Time to show how she was holding on longer
How the Last Time builds up and then suddenly drops everything but their vocals and one chord on a piano to convey the loss
How the background vocals of Holy Ground sound like they’re saying “hooray” even though Taylor has said they’re just ‘sounds of joy’
The urgency of Holy Ground like a memory that comes out of nowhere and fills you with a burst of happiness
How the main guitar line throughout Sad Beautiful Tragic carries the same rhythm as a train on a track and then “I stood right by the tracks and “this train runs off it’s track” and the secret message ”while you were on a train”
How, following that, the secondary guitar line pops in and out whenever she sings important lines like the memories coming back to her
The Lucky One/how it’s track 13/”wouldn’t you like to know”/ “hell”
The fact that The Lucky One was recorded in LA and Taylor never toured to Madison Square with Red or 1989 and then admitted to making us believe TS5 was going to be about roses with pics of her rose garden, like that’s some next level shit
“Good to go?”/Ed Sheeran
How Everything Has Changed sounds like an Ed Sheeran song with Taylor Swift lyrics
How the bridge of Everything Has Changed drops everything but Ed’s guitar and Taylor’s voice to give the feeling of intimacy but then explodes with full instrumentals and more vocals like a sudden burst of joy when the love interest shows up
The change to 1940′s vocabulary in Starlight to tell the story from Ethel’s point of view
The guitar at the beginning of Starlight sounding like stars glistening and then that being echoed in the background by the piano in the chorus
The calmness and softness of Begin Again after the wild ride you just went through
REFERENCING THE MAN/MUSICAL LEGEND/NOW FRIEND SHE WAS NAMED AFTER IN BEGIN AGAIN WHO SHE THEN BEATS FOR A GRAMMY 4 YEARS LATER
“But I do”
“I wear heels now”
How the album takes you through the entire deconstruction of a relationship but brings it full circle with a new love interest at the end and an echoing of hope and begins with an explosive pop rock song about wild love and ends with a gentle country song about easy, childlike love
The deconstruction of the idea of “fate” throughout the ‘story’ of the album and how it leaves you with the message that true love happens but it’s up to you to make it work and to play love “good and right” and that love should be easy and built on a solid foundation
Every lyric on this album
The Grammys fucked up
Harry Styles’ mum just tweeted a buzzfeed article filled with pictures of harrys head on taylors body that is so funny what the fuck lmao
Harry Styles’ mum just tweeted a buzzfeed article filled with pictures of harrys head on taylors body that is so funny what the fuck lmao
Harry Styles’ mum just tweeted a buzzfeed article filled with pictures of harrys head on taylors body that is so funny what the fuck lmao
I just keep thinking like, how much Joe helped Taylor become herself and grow as a person - not in the way that like, a man deserves all the credit, but it is so clear that he and their relationship helped her get to a place where she could discuss the topics on folklore / evermore / Midnights, where she could make her political post, hell even the amount of seductive choreo skyrocketed from 1989 to rep and then to Eras because she feels so comfortable with herself, and I don’t doubt that he was a part of that journey. Even if all he did was stand by her, he gave her the confidence to do it all and having that rock really deeply helped her. And like, whatever happened, but it’s clear to me that relationship made her into the best version of herself she could be, and that’s what any wonderful relationship is supposed to do and that is both beautiful and so fucking heartbreaking. And no matter what happened I am so grateful to him to have given those gifts to her.
i’m not sad about it anymore like i was 2 days ago when the news broke but god it is ironic how an album that has a love song they wrote together about protecting their little bubble is ultimately what ended up kind of being the final blow to their relationship
i know, but i also think it's interesting in a way that i hadn't considered before that so many of the love songs on midnights are about trying to protect that little bubble. like paris, lavender haze, sweet nothing.....it just is more contextually interesting given that the bubble was where they thrived and out of the bubble, which had once felt easy, started to feel harder.
What do you think is the actual deal between Harry and Taylor? Because they seem to be each other's muses- and with the lyrical back and forth that's been going on, EVEN AFTER A DECADE- it can't be nothing. They give off major soulmates vibes (musical-wise) and even relationship-wise (although they could also be star-crossed lovers) with such shitty timing everytime 😂 i've supported joe and taylor for years, but I've got this inkling in my mind like someway and somehow, H and T might still find their way back to each other. Joe just seems meh :/ tbh.
i almost feel like i shouldn't answer this because it's a bit loaded, but it's 3:30 am so why not 😅💕
i'm going to first defer to my friend @cowboylikedean who said:
"they can be soulmates, but not romantically. Consider: their whole relationship has been leading to a friendship which was always destined, but needed a contextual foundation that only an ill defined on again off again/only communicating through sex then song could create. Consider that. Joe is Taylor's forever person. doesn't mean Harry has to be nobody."
we don't know if they've forged a friendship behind closed doors or not, and whether we ever know anything about that is up to them. their interaction at the grammys was warm and familiar, which at the very least speaks to their feelings of respect and kindness towards one another as artists and people. taylor's support for him was clearly genuine (though you could say that of her support for basically everyone in that room). i think it's really important and meaningful to acknowledge that there are a vast array of dynamics that can be considered a soul connection - not only romantic, but familial, platonic/friendship, artistic, those can all be transcendent and vibrant relationships too. i personally feel there's a soul element and connection within their music that needed to exist as a spark to get them where they are today. (had they not been what they were to each other, what would their careers even look like? what would 1989 be? what would hs1 be? etc) and they were also, in many ways, peers when they were together, and in unique positions of fame at a young age that most other people couldn't understand. their timing was consistently wrong/off, but that connection in their hearts and art still came through clearly. to me, it's part of the invisible string - they had to meet and have that complicated on/off thing and have love for one another to be on the paths where they were supposed to go, in different ways, and to be able to stand in a room together where they're both succeeding and both feeling gratitude for what all of that meant.
i think it's a disservice to joe to...not pay attention to what taylor has explicitly said about him, and why that relationship is so different and profound for her. i've seen a LOT of commentary lately about him being boring and not "getting" their connection, and it strikes me as somewhat unfair because we don't see it, we're not privy to it, and we shouldn't be, that is very much by their design. (she did say romance isn't dead if you keep it just yours!) but because someone like h is sparkly and charismatic and a musician, and joe is somewhat more reserved and less obviously visible and an actor, there's this sense that we "know" him less, which can easily seem less interesting, but keep in mind that how any fan sees him and how taylor herself sees and describes him are totally different. he's home to her, he's that gorgeous dream to her, he's the daylight to her, and that's what matters. he's who she's built her life with and found her peace with for many years now, and vice versa. h hasn't found that yet, but i hope he does. but that doesn't necessarily mean harry has to be nothing to her. whether that's fondness and recognition of their influences on one another and gentle nods to the past, or whether that comes in actual friendship, i think it's really important and valuable to acknowledge that the soul connection can happen and NOT be romantic, or initially be romantic/sexual and then transform into something else later, and it's no less of a cosmic pull. in one way or another, they'll always be connected, even if it remains in lyric and melody - and that's also always going to keep having a life of its own.
Not to be a haylor shipper but I always found it pretty sweet that Taylor has nearly two albums written about her painting her in the most beautiful light possible by someone who loved her deeply. The same girl who was shamed for writing about love and heartbreak to the point where she herself doubted her self worth and felt like she was 'poisoned ivy' that destroyed everything she touches has lyrics like "moonlight dances over your GOOD side" and "summertime and butterflies all belong to your creation" and "I'm missing half of me when were apart" that was inspired by her. Even if the world doesnt know that she knows. She knows she not only left her mark as an artist but as a muse. This is why I don't want gp or casual people to find out that hs1 is about her. There is something romantic about Taylor being a nameless faceless person in his art. Someone who knew her as Taylor and not Taylor Swift.
[P.s I don't think they are soul mates or meant to be. But the mark their relationship left within themselves and music as a whole is fascinating ]
i have nothing to add to this because you phrased it so beautifully. <333 (and i wish sometimes we had more space to talk about this without the caveat regarding ~shipping~, which is simply not the point!) it's a little insight that we get to hear, both musically and from that human perspective. those threads of gossamer inspiration and tenderness and shared artistry.
(your ps!!! 100%, and i think you can be meant to meet rather than meant to be. the moment in time still matters, and the ripples across the music and the stories told and the unspoken dialogue is SUCH a cool creative arc to follow.)
This is Jackknife Lee talking about making songs with Harry & Taylor. He worked with Taylor on Red & Harry on “Something Great”. Do you think we will get these songs on 1989 Taylor’s version? 🤞
This is something I wondered for awhile. Do you think taylor would have taken harry back pre-joe if he fought hard enough? In all of 1989 he is the one who makes the move but she takes him back almost immediately no matter how many times she says no. This is present in HYGTG("I dont want you to go) and IWYW(that entire song). She also implies he knows how to get under her skin("you always knew how to push my buttons") and it is later proved in style when she chooses him over her rational self(" I should just tell you to leave cuz I know exactly where it leads but I watch us go round and round each time"). In question Taylor asks whether he wishes he put up more of a fight(a similar sentiment "if you wanted me you really should have showed" is in 'the 1' but that still feels like a speculation). In HS1 he explicitly says he wants her to apologise and therefore he wasn't making any moves this time( I also saw someone saying him constantly apologising probably made him powerless). I know he wrote songs but that isn't as same as fighting for them. We also know she was putting up with CH and really wanted to leave him. Plus considering how he was still threatened by H I think even some part of him probably suspected it. So do you think they had any shot pre joe if h fought?
this is really impossible to gauge without feeling like projection because we don't know what taylor's life would've looked like had joe not been there, and personally i think he really was meant to be there for her at that precise moment in time, when everything was falling apart, when she was in a such a fragile and dark place. some people don't like to hear this, but she clearly believes he saved her life. she's expressed that in lyrics repeatedly at this point - it doesn't diminish her strength or what she did for herself to recover and forge a path ahead, but the fact that she didn't have to do that alone, or bear everything alone, is monumental, and her life has completely changed, shifted, and blossomed around that. none of that would've been possible with harry, and it has nothing to do with who harry is as a person, and everything to do with both of their careers and their high pressure positions. he couldn't have grounded her and given her the sense of stability and normalcy that joe did. it puts us into a bit of an AU what-if, because there was overlap with ch, and because we'd have to presume things like snakegate didn't happen (which! i wish it hadn't for every possible reason). if he'd been willing to fight at a time when she was desperately trying to find her way OUT from how bad things got with ch, she might've been tempted to grab hold of him as a lifeline (which would've been understandable), but i worry it still would've been a getaway car situation where they both got extremely hurt because she was not in a good place, and harry at that point wouldn't have been equipped to give her the support she needed. and you're right that writing songs isn't the same as fighting for someone or reaching out, it's an artistic catharsis, but not a direct one - which is why he called it unspoken dialogue, because it was expressed, but not between them, rather through their music. i'm not sure i'd necessarily call the songs or the apologies powerless, but there is a causal distance. i do think they had a real connection and love for one another, and some unique understandings of each other because of their fame at young ages, their fast rises, and their connection to their music/songwriting too, there's a certain symmetry between them. actually this makes me think of something that was in daisy jones: "it's easy to confuse a soulmate with a mirror." they shared such potent mirrors with one another. in a different world, maybe that could've become a twin flame, but that's not how it was supposed to play out for them. i truly don't know if there was a chance for them in there at any point, if anything in their lives could've been less hectic. if they had reunited, the crash down might've been worse the next time - and having already experienced the paradise, the colors, and the pain of the burning flames, it probably would've made them cautious to reignite it, so they healed and moved forward. the one thing i do hope is that they have some measure of a friendship (and from their very warm interactions, i don't think it's far-fetched to believe they do), and i'd rather them find their way to that than have been caught in an acrimonious split. taylor found the person whose hand she was meant to hold (and i hope someday harry does too!).
Everything you said regarding haylor is right. This is why I have a pet peeve when people use MR to haylor edits. If anything they were both midnight rain and that's what drew them closer. They were constantly looking for light in other people to balance the darkness. Their relationship itself and the parallels between them as individuals is what makes us still talk about them. Not because we think they are meant to be. Harry and Taylor fandom has the biggest crossover of fans because there is an undeniable/unintentional mirroring that fans are unintentionally drawn to. I lost the count regarding the number of people who compared HsH and 1989 era and overexposure(though T had it worse because of misogyny). There is an unintentional parallelism in their music even when the songs have nothing to do with each other. They are the BIGGEST male and female pop artist RN and through their music we know they struggle with similar issues (listening to AIW and Dear Reader back to back is one hell of an experience. ) Which is why they need partners who can give them stability and comfort. T knew it after 1989 era and found it. And considering the way HsH era has gone I won't be surprised if harry came to a similar understanding. (And I hope he finds it someday). Like you said they were meant to meet because without these dead end streets Taylor wouldn't have met joe.
people have used "he was sunshine/i was midnight rain" for...harry...??? "chasing that fame, he stayed the same"????? how
i love what you said about them both being midnight rain, they really are - and this JUST made me connect ttds/midnight rain to changes, the song harry gave to cam. "there is a town, somewhere down a country road/I see it now, I take it everywhere I go/the river sways, I can almost hear it now/as if to say, "You're not the only one who wants a way out"/so, I go 'cause I don't wanna feel like I don't know you anymore/I memorize those roads.../God bless the young hearts sippin' cheap wine/Gettin' drunk with their friends for the first time/Thinkin' nothing's gonna change/'Til everything changes/They never leave/They're all havin' babies now/Watchin' daytime TV/Livin' off the gossip of a cruel small town/So, I go/'Cause I don't wanna feel like you don't know me anymore/Don't recognize my face," and that's very connected to love of my life too: "take you with me every time i go away, in a hotel usin' someone else's name.../i don't know you half as well as all my friends, i can't pretend i won't be doin' everything i can, to get to know your creases and your ends, are they the same?" it's: the road not taken looks real good now, and it always leads to you and my hometown. and it's: i guess sometimes we all get just what we wanted, and he never thinks of me, except when i'm on tv. they are the midnight rain, the one dreaming to get out, escaping, and finding themselves haunted. "we're just two ghosts standing in the place of you and me..."
They were constantly looking for light in other people to balance the darkness. this is very interesting in them too, because they're often perceived as light/bubbly/upbeat people (and they both do have that sparkle and those bright aspects!), but then we know from the songs they've written and things they've shared that they grapple with their darkness and loneliness too.
Their relationship itself and the parallels between them as individuals is what makes us still talk about them. Not because we think they are meant to be. Harry and Taylor fandom has the biggest crossover of fans because there is an undeniable/unintentional mirroring that fans are unintentionally drawn to...There is an unintentional parallelism in their music even when the songs have nothing to do with each other. exactly! the reason why many fans love them both and connect in similar ways to their music is because that mirrored expression and empathy and artistry draws us in! there are themes and emotions they both express that we connect to. the expressionism in how they craft their lyrics and how they present their art strikes something in us.
listening to AIW and Dear Reader back to back is one hell of an experience. oh nooo, i've never done this! you're no good alone /// a house, not a home, all alone 'cause nobody's there /// why are you sitting at home on the floor, what kind of pills are you on? /// my fourth drink in my hand, these desperate prayers of a cursed man...ouch 💔
yes, they need that groundedness and quiet and comfort to balance everything else out. the person who only wants sweet nothing. without all of the exes, fights, and flaws, we wouldn't be standing here so tall. all of the dead end streets led you straight to me, out of all the wrong arms right into that dive bar...and i think that makes so much sense, that you need someone constant and who gives you a sense of peace and freedom and completion to be your whole self, and who loves you in the best and the worst of it. the person who loves you for you, in the noise and the silence.
regarding h/t parallels. Last day when t talked about us accepting red and how that was her being experimental and curious it instantly reminded me of fine line. How he was experimenting a lot of sound which made it all over the place same as red. They both showed their messy self in that albums. It became an instant fan favourite but received moderately by critics. How they both got their first no1 with that albums. But those no 1 songs never defined those albums for fans. A song ignored by critics(ATW and FL) became fan favourites. How those albums led to the 'cohesiveness' of 1989 and HSH. The height those albums got them. But red/fl still being fan favourites and them sharing that love for those albums with us. How after giving time these albums flourished (red moreso because of time and rerecordings). I would never get tired of talking about them(platonic artistic)
happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time are really the themes of red/fine line. taylor saying last night that she really wanted to experiment on that record and, "Over time I've learned that trusting you to be open-minded has always been the best thing I could ever do, is trusting that you would accept me trying to do new things," and the other night when she talked about how us embracing red was also us embracing the scattered, fragile, changing person that she was, i think there are a lot of elements of fine line that speak to that as well. (remembering harry saying: "the album is yours. i am yours" and why he delivered it to the audience that way.) something i think is quite striking is this idea of "cohesiveness" - the sonic cohesiveness, the slick precision of 1989 and harry's house, got them a lot of critical acclaim and then awards attention, but the beautiful messiness and the narrative journeys of red and fine line, the exposed hearts of them, made them meaningful to fans. it's interesting how that ends up being SUCH a different perspective - critics are looking for elements that are so different than what we're holding onto at times. their respective awareness of how valued and beloved those records are to the fans, and the connection those albums have between us and them, i really believe will always be there.
Taylor performing “You Belong With Me” at the Eras Tour, Glendale
Taylor performing “You Belong With Me” at the Eras Tour, Glendale
does anyone remember when she said she was afraid to play non singles at tours because she didn’t think people would know the lyrics? pls help a swiftie out explaining to her irls why being upset about this isn’t completely insane 😭😭
no but i really want to ask taylor who was literally afraid to play non singles at her tours because she didn't think people would know the words how she feels about this situation and why no one involved in this process didn't come up with a better plan for actual fans to be able to attend the ERAS tour...this tour is literally FOR fans who have been around since '06 or '08 or even 2016 ffs but instead it seems to have gone almost entirely to people who just like folklore like please make it make sense
i don’t think it takes place in the present day at all! i’m even so far convinced that taylor dove into the body and mind of her 2014 self and wrote the song, how she felt during that time and the things she wanted to say/ask in that period of her life. like i’m pretty sure “you’re still with her” is the same girl that was in style “you’ve been out and about with some other girl”
I'm not fully convinced that Question...? takes place during pressnt day. It's been quite a while and the idea that Harry is still pining over Taylor, or that Taylor believes him to be, seems far-fetched. I feel like it maybe takes place around 2016 before she got committed with Joe (hence the "second-best" line) or maybe up to 2018 or so.
Of course, it definitely can still be present day. It's human to still feel petty about an ex not fighting for you, and bask in the fact that they regret not having you. And the "still with her" line fits the duration of Holivia more than anything else. But I dunno. That's the thing for me. He's been with Olivia for 2 years or so now. What reason would Taylor have to think that Harry still pines? I'm not totally convinced, but it's possible that the song represents her current thoughts. (I do think Harry probably carries *something* for her, though.) You can get a certain vibe off your ex even if you haven't spoken with them, and assume their relationship is shallow or inadequate, but I digress.
I don't necessarily even think it's more likely that the song takes place in the plast, but I don't see many people discussing the possibility.
taylorswift Dod this turn into anything on 1989?
when do you assume two ghosts was written and when they fell apart? i just have a hard time believing it was harry the ultimate factor to them breaking up and i think maybe yes, he wasn’t sure he could do a committed long term serious relationship because he knew their careers and their situations didn’t allow them that. so he couldn’t make promises he might not be able to live up to and didn’t fight “harder” to make it work instead of accepting their circumstances
well i have settled on a full story of haylor’s end. like not a “here’s a couple ideas but we’ll never know the full story.” question gave me the whole story
in january after the party, she asked him to try again. for real. because she was in a better place and she wanted to try, she didn’t want to live her life the way she had resigned herself to only having casual hookups.. she wanted to try something real again. And he basically said that he couldn’t. that he was willing to be her “good time guy” (stealing phrasing from private practice). And she was like “I want more than that” and he was like “I can’t,” which is where we get Perfect. He might never be the guy who is there for something real, but he can be the guy who can deal with the camera flashes and the songs for some troubled fun confined to the liminal spaces of hotels. And then she was like “okay well no” and then he didn’t think she would move on………… but she did. and fast, even. and that’s why calvin was so devastating for him. Because he genuinely thought he was calling her bluff. and then there’s this song where she’s like “you know what you little twerp. you healed something in me for half a second and I saw colors I’d never seen before and not seen since. I thought we had something. but when it was too much for me, you let me walk out, and then you never fought even when I wanted to try again so where do you get off getting upset that there was no bluff to call? I hope it feels nice to settle, because you chose this.”
tbh i can see this being the way haylor ended but i think they broke up and didn’t try again because they never found the right timing and always went in circles with no improvement. i think they both gave up because of outer circumstances and they were at their wits end the last time they “tried”/crossed paths again. i think the song “two ghosts” explains pretty much how it ended and how they were both exhausted from trying to make it work and how they didn’t feel like “them” anymore. they both felt the same way but it’s clear that deep down, taylor wished harry fought harder for her, even if she also gave up.
well i have settled on a full story of haylor’s end. like not a “here’s a couple ideas but we’ll never know the full story.” question gave me the whole story
in january after the party, she asked him to try again. for real. because she was in a better place and she wanted to try, she didn’t want to live her life the way she had resigned herself to only having casual hookups.. she wanted to try something real again. And he basically said that he couldn’t. that he was willing to be her “good time guy” (stealing phrasing from private practice). And she was like “I want more than that” and he was like “I can’t,” which is where we get Perfect. He might never be the guy who is there for something real, but he can be the guy who can deal with the camera flashes and the songs for some troubled fun confined to the liminal spaces of hotels. And then she was like “okay well no” and then he didn’t think she would move on………… but she did. and fast, even. and that’s why calvin was so devastating for him. Because he genuinely thought he was calling her bluff. and then there’s this song where she’s like “you know what you little twerp. you healed something in me for half a second and I saw colors I’d never seen before and not seen since. I thought we had something. but when it was too much for me, you let me walk out, and then you never fought even when I wanted to try again so where do you get off getting upset that there was no bluff to call? I hope it feels nice to settle, because you chose this.”
i just have to disagree with anon about ayhtdws and wonderland being the saddest songs out of 1989. ootw at the grammy museum personally crushed me. that’s when you realize the song stripped bare from its heavy production, is actually a very sad song about somehow sensing that this love you held was doomed from the start. trying to protect something you hold so dear and that could break at any moment due to its fragility and then it finally breaking because outside forces ultimately won and you had to give up what you were fighting for because it was too hard. it makes me so sad :(
Sorry about the haylor in your asks but if it is atleast partly inspired by him that means that there must've been more to it than we knew. Like I still can't believe AYHTDWS was the saddest song she could come up with in 1989. I think that she locked her sad songs in vault because she wanted a fun pop album. Especially after people dragging her for red aka heartbreak album in that era. Even wonderland (arguably the saddest one in 1989) is bonus that didn't get much attention. Man I can't wait for 1989 tv
from what we've heard of his side, there was definitely strong emotion, and the fact that she addressed that situation on midnights (and potentially folkmore) at all lends itself to the idea that there could be more beneath the surface there. we know they went back and forth for quite a while. as you mentioned, something i feel is important to recognize about 1989 era is that she was projecting a polished, perfected image on purpose. she had exposed real devastating heartbreak before and been dragged through the mud for it, as far as the media goes, and the response to red back then was quite different than it is now, and we also know about her then making that conscious decision to pivot - into pop, into a "cohesive" sound, into sort of glossing depth on the album in order to seem more...assured and effervescent. she suppressed her romanticism and she attempted to hide how she was struggling. i know i've mentioned that era was really hard for me and i stepped back for a few reasons, but it's more clear now how she was grappling with a lot of difficult things. this is totally subjective, but i've always thought the most emotionally vulnerable song on the record was this love (or at least it's tied with clean), and it's telling it was originally a poem written earlier. she tried to shed that signature heart on her sleeve (even in interviews, 1989 taylor was often at her most cynical), and the sadness and struggles and pressure she locked up tight. it's still good writing, it's fundamentally a perfect pop album, but it's at a bit more of a remove, layered with the slick production, and more weighted with anxiety than sadness. and you're right, some of that was to keep it fun - if you strip AYHTDWS or IWYW or OOTW or I Know Places or Wonderland down to bare acoustics, they'd sound a LOT more sad. i am very curious if the 1989 vault has any of the more vulnerable writing, or if she didn't really lean into that aspect of her pen at the time because of what she was focused on creating. we don't know anything about the songs that could be there, i don't think? it'll be so cool to hear what she held back from that time, and interesting if it illuminates/redefines any of the album the way Red TV did!
Speak Now (2010). Taylor Swift There is a time for silence. There is a time waiting your turn. But if you know how you feel, and you so clearly know what you need to say, you’ll know it. I don’t think you should wait. I think you should speak now.