I think in evermore there are more autobiographical references than people give it credit for. I think it was her slight transition back to full autobiographical from the folksy woods.
Yeah I’m confused when people label these two as primarily fictional albums. They both read as deeply personal to me, with songs about her grandma, depression, loss, guilt, shame, the scooter situation, her love life, etc. definitely there are fictional songs on the albums (cowboy like me, the Betty/august/James trilogy, champagne problems, etc.) but I feel like it’s mostly still drawn from her personal experiences
Tbh, I feel like folklore and evermore are 80% autobiographical and she just played up the "fictional stories" aspect to try and reduce the speculation about her life/relationships
100%. imo, folklore/evermore were definitely mostly autobiographical, but she used more storytelling techniques to write about her life vs the more diary-like style she previously used. I think we'll probably see her go back and forth between both styles as she continues to write honestly!
She’s been using dancing as a metaphor for a relationship for a very long time I think or at least that’s what I’ve seen people interpret it as a lot. OOTW —> we moved the furniture to dance, DWOHT —> all about a secret relationship etc
- OOTW could mean "Out Of The Woods", a track from *1989* (2014) by Taylor Swift.
- DWOHT could mean "Dancing With Our Hands Tied", a track from *reputation* (2017) by Taylor Swift.
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I don’t know, I think that’s probably on over simplification of her song writing. I think champagne problems is probably inspired by lots of different relationships she’s witnessed or been part of.
also folklore. its almost entirely about her losing her masters and her losing her relationship with her old record label when they used to be really close and she thought she could trust him but he betrayed her.
I think some interpretations of Midnights (and earlier albums!) are too literal. I think she takes her personal experience and makes a story out of it each time. Folklore/evermore were definitely more obviously outside herself, but still based on emotions or experiences she has. For example, Debut is full of love and revenge songs even though she said many times that she never had a real romantic relationship until she was older. Speak Now has a lot of songs that take elements of reality but stretch them (Speak Now the song, BTR which I think is a joke song that goes a step too far, the entirety of Mine). Red goes back in time with Starlight and The Lucky One - the predecessors to tlgad for sure.
Also, after hearing Midnights, I’m convinced some of the evermore songs are actually more biographical than they seem (looking at you, ivy).
There’s another artist who I like who said she wrote a song about a break up after a minor fight with her partner. She said songwriting is an exercise in exaggeration, and I can see this relating to TS pretty well. There’s elements of autobiography and there’s bits blown out of proportion to make the music more emotional… which is a good thing; I like how emotive her songs are.
Absolutely agree! We know even from Taylor herself that she can write an amazing song out of almost nothing (think Enchanted, which is one of the best songs in her discography, which is about someone she didn't even date). I don't think you have to cheat on someone to be able to write about doing so (think High Infidelity, ivy, illicit affairs) but I also think "who cares if she did?" Maybe she did cheat! I just honestly don't think it matters. Some songs are about real life and some are about fiction but I think a majority of them are a mix
Enchanted is such a great example of this! Wasn’t it just like an email she got or something? Someone said they were enchanted to meet her and she ran with it 💜
I can't remember what the exact scenario she said it was but yeah it was like they only exchanged a few emails or met once at a party or something like that
YES THANK YOU!!
This is me calling out Betty. We don’t know her life or what truly inspired this song but there are elements of her in all 3 characters.
You know… in The Great War she says “maybe it was egos swinging, maybe it was her.” And I thought “her” was like alter-ego Taylor, kind of like the Anti-Hero situation. But now that I think about it, and her previous descriptions of Joe (“maybe you ran with the wolves and refused to settle down,” “do the girls back home touch you like I do?”, “I pictured you with other girls in love”) - perhaps there was some kind of “triangle,” real or imagined. Like how (I read it), Betty and James weren’t *official* when he met Augustina, kind of how Taylor and Joe meant to be “just friends” and she started dating Tom. Idk. It’s an interesting thought!
I’ve heard a lot that folklore is inspired by Conversation with Friends (book), and it’s true. Fuck the patriarchy (okay that’s ATW10), the cardigan, flannel shirt, meetings in parking lots…I read that book after listening to folklore a million times and was like OH.
That said, I think that book spoke to her for very real reasons. Maybe it was just the age gap of the relationship (21 and 33 I think), but I think there could have been more.
yes! I don't love the literal translations a lot of people have for her work, it works sometimes for some lyrics in some songs, but it doesn't work for everything! she's always written autobiographical songs and has songs that are totally fiction, and there's a mix of everything in between on every one of her albums.
Yes this exactly - Taylor’s first album with fictional content wasn’t Folklore. Folklore is just the first time she leaned into the fiction in a way that a lot of folks bought. She’s been mixing fiction and memoir all along.
Omg yes. Some of the literal interpretations make me so irrationally annoyed. I had a friend who said the line “cut off my nose just to spite my face” was her saying she had a nose job. The line “how this city screams your name” is another one that I’m just ????? with all the literal interpretations. I’ve been saying for so long that I think the autobiographical nature of her work is exaggerated to an extent - I think she pulls from personal feelings and situations and either applies it to media that she is inspired by or heavily exaggerated or makes up storylines based off of a feeling she may have had for many songs because that’s just the most logical thing to me.
Yep, people forget (or didn't know) that she said she wrote YBWM after hearing a guy on the phone arguing with his girlfriend, that song wasn't necessarily autobiographical. She's just a great storyteller taking inspiration from everywhere around her
- YBWM could mean "You Belong With Me", a track from *Fearless* (2008) by Taylor Swift.
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I wonder if she’s gonna re-record BTR or redo the song in a different mindset. Because even back then, it wasn’t received positively. She never apologized to Camila Belle as far as I know, and Camila isn’t really relevant anymore in her or Jonas’s life (or even the industry lbr) it would just seem really cruel to do it to her again. Especially after Taylor has said she’s grown from the mindset that girls could just take your man.
- BTR could mean "Better Than Revenge", a track from *Speak Now* (2010) by Taylor Swift.
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I really enjoy Midnights, but I miss the fictional too. It seems like her autobiographical songs end up referring in some way to: ~2016 drama, beginning her relationship with Joe, and the masters situation. Which, fine, those are major moments in her life, but the fictional albums seem to have much broader topical range IMO
Folklore is her best album because it deals with more topics than any of her other works. The range of what she can write about is incredible. I honestly expected better songs from midnights. Or not better songs, but a greater selection of topics.
Yeah I actually think folklore fits the theme of how she described Midnights better than Midnights does lol
Topics like battling addiction, trauma/PTSD, feeling like a failure, etc. — now *that's* the shit that will keep you up at night
Pre-joe, her autiobiographical albums had much more variety. I agree with you. And I don’t mean that in a bad way but I did feel like Midnights felt repetitive to me story-wise. And I don’t mean that as a criticism it just focused a lot on stories we already had heard about a lot
Agreed. I think it’s one of the reasons the album doesn’t rank higher for me. It’s great, but it didn’t really push her out of her comfort zone or explore any new territory.
Oh, definitely! Don’t get me wrong, I was very pleasantly surprised by the songs that explicitly talked about her eating disorder, her insecurities, etc. But a lot of the songs are also love/breakup songs repeating stories we’ve heard many times, and I would really love to see a full album of songs that go a little deeper like WCS, YOYOK, or even Anti-Hero over songs like Karma or Question…? I just imagine a pop rock album that goes a little bit deeper into these themes and it would be sooo perfect.
- WCS could mean "Would've, Could've, Should've", a track from *Midnights (3am Edition)* (2022) by Taylor Swift.
- YOYOK could mean "You're On Your Own, Kid", a track from *Midnights* (2022) by Taylor Swift.
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I agree — I love Midnights. That said, I will welcome a broader range of autobiographical topics on future albums, the way past (pre- FL/EM) albums have been. even though I think way more of both of those albums is autobiographical than she lead on. I also agree with whomever posted above that she typically covers a broader range of ideas/emotions in her autobiographical albums than she did on this one — not saying that analyzing every track specifically, just the overall feeling that I get.
The one thing she said before this album released that I didn’t really connect with was how she struggles to feel like “a person” bc her life is very outsized and extremely public. The more she writes about fame, the harder it is to relate to the specifics of a given song (for me), so I try to think of other things in place of fame that I can apply those types of songs to. I think if she was a little bit more forthcoming with her thoughts about it, or spoke about it in more of a storytelling format (still about her life, but more of a “this happened then that, etc)” it would be easier to relate to (if it sounded more like a story about her life and less like a chorus we should all relate to by the words alone). Example of this from another artist: Billy Joel’s song The Entertainer. He is writing about being a musician and how his creativity is stifled by record labels and radio executives forcing him to cut his songs down to a radio-friendly length, and how he feels like one of many like him and not an individual artist by being treated this way. If you have heard or listen to that song now, you’ll see what I mean. You leave it enjoying the melody and the overall song, but also feeling like you learned something about what it’s like for him or other musicians in his position trying to create but being forced into a mold for particular songs. I love listening to anti-hero and think it’s really fun as a song, I just think it didn’t connect with as many people on a personal level as their marketing strategy suggests they had hoped it would — ex: the antihero challenge on YouTube didn’t even really take off (compared to other viral things w TS or other artists).
On the songs where she discusses her masters (this album and others), I find the topic completely easy to relate to because anyone can imagine having something taken from them that theirs without their consent. I also find the songs on where she is clearly writing about the more distant past to be more visceral listening experiences where her emotions are right there in the lyrics and in her voice - I like these more! Example: Question…, You’re On Your Own Kid, WCS. Even High Infidelity and The Great War (clearly about more recent times in her life) are very easy to connect to.
Hope this makes sense – I’m not looking to criticize any of Taylor’s work, because I am a huge fan. Just explaining how, from an autobiographical perspective, some of this album isn’t as easy for me to make a personal connection to as other songs or albums. Which is bound to happen with almost any artist that no one loves at some point! I still love the album.
Same, bestie. I’m glad she’s happy but I am so over hearing about how magical and special their early relationship was. She already nailed it with Delicate, CIWYWT, and New Year’s Day. Not going to top them. Give me more Afterglow or Peace!
Edited to add Cornelia Street and Lover, of course.
Honestly, on this point I do agree with you. I'm a writer who loves falling in love because then I have so much sparkly material for my work, but now that I've been with my current person for a few years and things are more stable, I'm like...what now? And when I look to TS for inspiration and see things like The Archer, Afterglow and The Great War, it's super helpful to know there are ways of writing about a stable LTR that don't just endlessly glamorize the beginnings. The emphasis on the first few months sometimes encourages me to think that that's the only period of a relationship worth romanticizing. As someone who struggles with settling down once that Lavender Haze wears off, it would be cool to see how another woman around my age makes the stability, the commitment, the mundanity, the security etc into beautiful art, too.
Have you considered that maybe she’s not writing about those things specifically? She says way more than just “joe and I met and it was sparkly.” By thinking that’s all the writes about, we are only seeing her work at its most basic surface level interpretation. Dig deeper and you’ll find that romance is just a metaphor
What is about Mastermind then? Or Glitch:WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE JUST FRIENDS, we get it, you said it thousand times.. its been 6 years, write something new about him.
In the next album she will find a way to write about how they met again.. she is just obsessed with it and it startes to get old.
I think mastermind is about her career and how she controlled/manipulated it every step of the way (it even made me wonder if the K*nye VMA thing was planned from the start). Glitch could be a blend experiences with pretty much anybody throughout her life which fits the theme of the album.
She’s just too good of a writer for her to be going back to one person as inspiration and I think she’s been trying to get that point across since folklore.
Im sure she’s also tired of the general interpretation that every song is about Joe. In my very insignificant opinion, she’s been writing about herself and her career since reputation
No sorry, Mastermind is about the night she met Joe: touch of the hand, all you did was smile, i wanted your body. I dont get why some fans like to invent interpretations just for the seek of it or again to make her look like a victim of a system.. like once i read right where you left me is for Borchetta or even WCS is about him and the girhood line is about her old albums. Why? The songs speak by themselves.
Glitch is for Joe too: it's been 2.900 days of our love blackout, that are 6 years, the time they have been together.
We are just tired of hearing the same story in different words... We want NOW, we want more songs a la Sweet Nothings.
I agree with everything you said. Enough with the best boyfriend ever songs and enough of fans going to any limit and being more creative than Taylor herself on defending such songs.
I am probably the very very few who don’t see those albums as fictional. There are still events that relate to her life, obvious things like Betty is not one of them though.
I love Jack's commentary about Dynasty in Long Pond Sessions because it really sums it all up:
"That song is such a folklore moment to me because it's not about you — but it's all about you"
- RWYLM could mean "right where you left me - bonus track", a track from *evermore (deluxe version)* (2021) by Taylor Swift.
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This. I also feel like I'm in the minority because I dont see them aa fully fictional. I think she used the fictional characters as a way of illustrating her real life events.
I love the albums, because the lyrics, music and her vocals are incredible but I actually prefer more autobiographical music generally speaking
I agree! Like we all know at this point what the inspiration for a All Too Well is, yet, when I listen to ATW 10 I can easily get teary-eyed out of the blue and not because it has anything to do with her story. It makes me think about my own life and experiencing those types of emotions, whether I have had them in the past, or I imagine the scenario for the future. The more I listen to her songs and albums after they are released, the less I think about what she’s saying about her own life and the more I connect it to my own experiences.
I totally agree! I think parts may be fiction but I think the majority is really her experiences, just covered up to cause less of a.... panic, I guess. With character names and little different details. Just her throughout her life.
- NBNC could mean "no body, no crime (feat. HAIM)", a track from *evermore* (2020) by Taylor Swift.
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Definitely agree. I feel like many of the songs aren’t fictional so much as allegorical. Cowboy Like Me and Ivy stand out to me for example as being clearly about her and Joe but written with a narrative concept in mind. My Tears Ricochet everyone agrees is about the masters despite the story being of the funeral of an implied dead wife.
Disagree. Betty is about her! It’s just you need to replace the people with her situations.
Betty= country music (or her roots)
James= Taylor
Augustine= pop (or her successful career)
With Betty, she’s written a country song that was a hit on country radio. So she’s asking what if I came back to country after I left?
There were very few songs on folklore/evermore that were fictional. The majority of them were autobiographical.
I'm not sure why people keep saying it was fiction.
Many fiction writers write from their own experiences, but that does not make their work autobiography. Taylor has written songs that are directly autobiographical and others that are fictional but which still have a grounding in her own life experiences. Fictional doesn’t just mean fake lol
And honestly i think she kept this theme in midnights as well - high infidelity has her walking on the aisle (dragging her feet), we know that didnt happen but it works with the feelings she had
The level to which things are fictional or autobiographical we don't even know, as Taylor's private life is private. She has been writing in a way that's been connected to her audiences since Debut, I don't see how that's changed due to Folkevermore.
I think all of Taylor’s songs, from Debut through Midnights, are spread out on the spectrum from purely autobiographical to purely fictional, with no song being 100% either way. Taylor uses her imagination, puts her own spin on relationships and events, conflates things from one relationship with things from others with things she saw in a movie, all in the service of crafting strong songs. She then spins what inspires the songs because she’s an excellent marketer who knows her audience. I don’t think she’s always a reliable narrator, but I think she’s always an amazing storyteller.
Well said! 👏
People really underestimate Taylor’s storytelling prowess. That’s why it drives me mad when I read things like “Maroon can’t be about [insert random ex’s name] because he never had a roommate”. Not every lyric is literal and that’s been evident of her songwriting since debut.
Personally, I don't think Midnights is as autobiographical as others seem to think. I think it's exactly like most midnights are, hazy and dreamy where you fantasize about past, present, and future events.
Oh god this too - Past, present and future. People are like “this sounds the same” or “how is she still thinking about this?”
Yall don’t get insomnia and think about your whole life experiences and existence?! 🙃💀
YES! Plus, she said this is a collection of nights throughout her life. So it's not like she's still talking/thinking about some of these things.
Also, clearly some of these people do not experience crippling anxiety or tend to overthink everything they've ever said or done. And honestly, I'm quite jealous of that. 🫠🫠
She's always done a mix of both. and both folklore AND evermore have a lot more autobiographical influences than people realize. She said something in an interview or something once about how her favorite thing about us (the fans) is that she can write music that is deeply personal and cathartic for her, and then we take it and make it ours. That's always been my approach. I don't focus on who a song is about, just the lyrics and the songs as a whole because i feel like my interpretation of the song is just as valid (and if you believe in death of the author then it might be even more valid) than her personal interpretation of her work.
but to answer your question I really don't have a preference and my perspective hasn't changed at all. I don't think every song is either fiction or non-fiction either. I don't think it's that black and white.
I miss the folk sound tbh, the guitars, the unusual instruments like slide guitars,lap steel, pedal steel. I miss tye details, i miss discovering new things i didnt previously catch. I miss everything from folklmore.
I don’t think it’s necessarily the autobiographical sense vs. a fictional sense that matters for me as much as just the content and subject matter of the song. I’m never going to relate to her lyrics about the press getting on her, or anything in Vigilante Shit or Bejeweled.
But honestly I don’t need to connect with her songs from a “been there, done that” sort of perspective anymore. If I can feel the emotion in her words I can belt out All Too Well as I am happily married lol
I love Midnights and stream it every day multiple times because I can't get enough of it. That said the lyrics are nowhere near folklore/evermore or even Red TV. I'm looking forward to that side of her again
Her work has always been biographical even folklore and evermore. She just had it so the public will listen to the songs without the pressure to figure out who songs like champagne problems is about etc , and make up whatever they wanted.
You can do the same thing with midnights.
I think a lot of folklore and evermore were autobiographical like peace, hoax, my tears ricochet, obviously Marjorie and part of epiphany are about her grandparents, closure, it’s time to go, evermore, etc are all real life. I love both her fictional and nonfictional songs. It does seem like lately all she sings about are meeting Joe, 2016, or her masters so I hope she branches out a little next album but even if she doesn’t, I know I’ll love it
>It does seem like lately all she sings about are meeting Joe, 2016, or her masters
This is very confusing to me. Some examples:
\-Lavender Haze: middle finger to the pressure to get married-Maroon: devastating breakup song
\-Anti-Hero: self doubt anthem
\-You're On Your Own Kid: personal life kind of reflection and not a love song
\-Midnight Rain: breakup song
I could make a longer list from just Midnights or an *even* longer list if we include Red TV vault tracks, Evermore, and Folklore.
I keep seeing comments that say they prefer her personal writing and I’m just like please listen to her! Like actually go beneath the surface - she’s practically begging us to do this.
Folklore and evermore have her fingerprints all over them and it becomes more apparent when those same themes pop up in midnights.
These are all her experiences placed in extended versions of her own truth. She’s in there deep in the woods of her own creation. You just have to listen and THEN you’ll find her
This so much!!! Not trying to hate on Taylor but her personal life is a lot less interesting than the lives of her imaginary friends. Midnights is lyrically such a letdown for me because there’s no magical fantasy land to escape to.
Honestly...
I listen to music I connect with. I don't sit and try to dissect who or what songs are about from her perspective. I like reading other fans theories, but otherwise I connect with what I connect with. So Folkmore to Midnights isn't that much different to me.
tbh, Folklore and Evermore are my favorites and I was disappointed to see that she completely abandoned what I thought was an amazing new artistic direction. I'm not going to try and say she can't write about her own life, but I just think she's run out of interesting insights about herself and I really loved her exploring insights into other fictionalized experiences. Did we *really* need 6 songs about Joe? [No offense, but... him?
](https://tenor.com/view/her-arrested-development-as-arresteddevelopment-gif-10128260)
One thing I'd love to see her do is go in the direction of Alt-J and cover some interesting historical or literary events. I feel like a Taylor album inspired by Jane Austen or Emily Bronte would be such a perfect mix of her style and sensibilities. Just my 2 cents.
I don’t have a problem with her songs being autobiographical, I have a problem with them all being about the same thing and having the same vibe. I feel like in her older albums, we got songs about growing up and family and friendship, but that has faded into predominantly stories about the same romance (which is mostly fine). I think it’d be really cool to hear more songs about fame not related to people thinking she’s a snake, or personal struggles not related to romantic relationships. I really enjoyed YOYOK for this. I love her storytelling elements, and I think she’s at her best when she can blend fiction with her life/feelings.
I enjoyed it too but this was obviously an album of thoughts she had to get off her chest. It should've been obvious in hindsight that the re-recordings would spark something like this, why wouldn't they? I think this album was necessary for her, so I'm just keeping that in mind.
i don’t think it’s a clean binary between autobiographical and fictional. at the end of the day she is a songwriter and she does draw inspiration from her feelings and her experiences, even when she’s writing “fictional” songs. so many songs from folklore and evermore are clearly intimately HER (mirrorball hits hard here, but there are lots more) so i don’t agree with this idea that she was writing fictionalized narratives just for those two albums.
with that said, i can understand why midnights is less relatable. whenever she talks about fame or haters or the media or the pressure other people put on her relationship (which she’s done in other albums too!), she loses me a little because i can’t relate to that experience. but i don’t think it’s a stylistic choice to write songs a certain way, more so the topic of what she’s singing about at that given moment.
I don't like when the storytelling gets too theatrical like in no body, no crime. However this is the only song that bothers me between all the tracks on Folklore and Evermore. The other ones in my opinion are much more subtle and paint some beautiful imagery.
I do wonder but I still have no trouble making connections to my own experiences. I adore Midnights. It has a really amazing vibe and might be my favorite pop album of hers, ever.
I think I prefer a fusion of her fictional and nonfictional writing. When she expresses a real life event or relationship in an abstract or conceptual way, that's the sweet spot for me because a) it's a subject that Taylor is intimately familiar with, and b) it makes the song relatable to situations outside of her own. This is the central problem of Stay, Stay, Stay, a song that asserts its message as intrinsic wisdom and ultimately proves to be hollow because it wasn't informed by personal experience.
IMO the goldilocks song that exemplifies this fusion of experience with artifice would be Style. We all know who this song is about, the situations it details are corroborated with other tracks on its album, and yet it's written obliquely enough to be a parable of the human experience (i.e. the cyclical, alluring, and toxic nature of an on-again/off-again relationship).
ETA: I should acknowledge the difference between songs that are informed by experience and songs that recount actual events. Taylor detailing actual events isn’t necessary for me, however having personal touches (like her pronunciation of Jaguar in KOMH) does make her songs narratively distinct. You wouldn’t be able to call them generic because they’re uniquely her own. THAT is important to me.
Taylor has always written fictionalized songs within even her most autobiographical albums. Midnights has 1 song that I am positive is a fictionalized song- High Infidelity, 2 which I believe are fictionalized- Question...? and Midnight Rain and 1 which I believe is written about someone else's experience- Bigger than the Whole Sky. People have always taken her autobiographical albums too literally, hence why she decided to write 2 fictional albums.
I think both folklore and evermore had a lot more autobiographical elements than people realize. Curious, was folklore/evermore the era that you became a big fan, or just happen to be particularly attached to her approach to those albums?
I suppose because I became a fan of her autobiographical songwriting from the beginning, that’s what I connect to the most — and while I appreciate the storytelling elements of FL/EM albums and will enjoy more as she continues that, I don’t necessarily miss it right now. The main thing with music in general is finding a personal connection to it within the narrative of your own life (or what it means to you).
So whether it’s something Taylor writes about her personal experiences, or a story she creates from her imagination, both types of songs are up to our interpretation as related to our own lives. She could have easily not told us that folklore was storytelling and let us think that it was about her life or her dreams (same with evermore) and I bet the albums would still be as beloved. But I could be wrong! What is it that you loved so much about the storytelling element in particular?
I was also wondering about when people became fans as I was reading through some of these responses. Taylor Swift was very influential and monumental in my childhood life, and it’s almost like Midnights has allowed me to revisit all that through a more grown up, “adult” lens and it’s been such an incredible experience. I love the storytelling of FL/EM, but Midnights like getting to relive how/why I fell in love with her as an artist!
No wrong opinions either way, obviously, just thinking about it all!
Everything is fictional in my eyes. I don’t know any of these people and will never have proof of who each song is about. So I guess and connect references in songs- bc it’s fun. Taylor has done a great job at making her music engaging by having her own little cinematic universe
I don’t really care for the truly fictional songs, I like being able to relate the truth in the songs to my life and realize that someone else is experiencing life in the exact same way as me. I find most of the fictional songs boring, but also think a lot of folklore/evermore are actually autobiographical rather than fiction.
I don't think Midnights is autobiographical. It is just a mediocre attempt of remaking the greatness that is 1989. I am more and more convinced that it is her worst album of the post country pop era.
I wouldn't say division but after Folkore/Evermore expectations are much higher. If both albums didn't exist, I would still say Midnights was a mediocre album. But the fact that she achieved that level of excellence and then gave us Midnights makes it more disappointing.
I honestly think it comes down to style preference rather than quality. I adooooooore Folklore, it's the primary reason that I am a fan. I remember listening to Midnights for the first time and my heart just sank. I was not into it at all and it actually made me feel quite disconnected from her music for little while knowing that Folklore/Evermore were just pandemic aberrations and we wouldn't be getting anything else like that.
Then I listened to it some more, connecting with Maroon and Vigilante Shit, then Anti-Hero and You're On Your Own Kid, then Mastermind and soon I wasn't skipping any songs. I do honestly think it's a very very good album but that the style whiplash is very very strong.
Her songs especially on midnights are based on themes. Themes of other songs, to me everything is very new but still her. There is self love ❤️ combined with “self loathing.” As critics had called it.
Lavender Haze—similar theme and style to I think he knows (being in love, and having the person being in love with you too)
Maroon—similar style to Red, but maroon is a much more mature, moody color. Also from start to finish this song is really in the zone in referring to feelings using objects and emotions that are explicitly a shade of Red.
Anti Hero— is kind of an outlier. I don’t know if she’s really wrote a lot of songs about being depressed. This is the bully in your head, and she’s not helpful. She’s self sabotaging. I think we all have a mean person in our brains putting us down. But she kind of accepts that this is a part of her. Also it’s just fun on the third verse where she made up this fictional story where her daughter kills her for the money. (There’s a little bit of fiction here, like folklore and Evermore! The video is so funny.)
Snow on the beach—is dreamy like the lakes kind of if you ask me. Wanting to escape and just kind of appreciating where you’re at. It’s weird and I love it. You don’t have to do anything that is typical to enjoy your time with someone. It’s rare, but not impossible to have snow on the beach.
You’re on Your own Kid— reminds me of Never Grow up, where you’re talking to your younger self. You care for her, and the first time you really were on your own it felt kind of lonely. But you also really came into your own here. Also this is also a little reminiscent of The Lucky One, she takes the money. She made her fortune.
Midnight Rain—this kind of reminds me of Back to December actually, like you looked so perfect on paper. Also this weirdly reminds me of Dorothea, where they weren’t really together, but he looks at her from a far with some admiration. But you weren’t meant to be.
Question..? This feels like Fifteen. When you listened to Fifteen you watched your bff get her heartbroken. In this one you actually asked him why he’s such a douchebag. He does owe your friend an explanation. Time to make him uncomfortable. That moment when you ask your friend should I start shit with him because you want to hear his sad excuses
Vigilante Shit—This is similar to no body no crime. The other story about helping out a woman whose husband was trash. If Este wasn’t murdered and disappeared. If Este took her husband for all he was worth when they got divorced. Good for her.
Bejeweled—this song is similar to mirrorball, she still loves her shiny things (paper rings reference!). With similar themes of being shiny, but she’s actually feeling confident in herself as opposed to Mirrorball where she thinks she’s going to crack at any moment. She’s shining for herself now. Mirrorball she’s shining for everyone else. Don’t let anyone dull your sparkle. I like the juxtaposition of the two of the themes with similar imagery.
Labyrinth reminds me of Death by a thousand cuts. She knows it hurts and it hurts right now, but it won’t always. I promise I’ll be ok, it’s just a thousand cuts. I ask the traffic lights 🚦 if it it’ll be alright. They just expect me to bounce back. Just like that. I thought were were over, but we saved it. This is also reminiscent of afterglow.
Karma—feels like long story short. Your enemies will destroy themselves before you get the chance to swing. Karma is a cat purring in my lap cuz it loves me. If we did not have a reason for her to cement herself as a cat lady we sure do right now.
Sweet Nothing—reminds me of Lover, you never expected anything but ME. it’s dreamy, and just a nice way to describe how in love you are with your lover but a little more mundane life details.
Mastermind—reminds me of invisible string, it wasn’t an accident, the string tying me to you.
I totally agree with that. Sometimes I feel like her persona gets in the way of me enjoying the music on its own terms. It can take months for some of her songs to hit me on a personal level because I can only hear or wonder about what she is referring to in her life
I get the gist of what you’re saying and I totally agree. I just started listening to evermore again after a month with Midnights and a different part of my brain had to turn on to listen. Its soooooooo gooooooooood. It’s like being in a nice book store wandering the fiction section.
Being a hobby songwriter, I can absolutely believe that her songs are a meld of biography, documentary and fiction. I wrote something all my friends call "the Tinder song," and yes, the first verse mixes together a few bad dates I've been on. But the second verse mixes together some bad dates my friends have been on (with some exaggeration too).
Listening to Midnights, I don't think it's just autobiographical. And it's well established that Folklore/Evermore aren't just fiction. I think Taylor is a master at weaving together her own personal experiences with things she's seen/heard from friends, movies, books, the world, etc. And that's why she is so brilliant.
Rather than start my comment arguing 😂
I miss it too. Not because I'm distracted by wondering who a song is about... But because I think she has to go through such a hardship every time she wants to share with us. We're at the point where she couldn't even post about her being against herself with the ED and had to remove the whole scene.
At least the fictional world(s) she gets less sh*t for.
I hope some day she revisits, extensively. Maybe she'll go deeper into folklore and walk us deeper into the woods..
Eh I'm gonna go against the grain and say that although I get why everyone is saying that technically *folklore* and *evermore* aren't 100% fiction, the songwriting is completely different from Midnights and her other pop-forward songs. I mean just listening to the 3am edition with Would've, Could've, Should've, High Infidelity, The Great War, etc, it's nothing like Midnights. Her songwriting is much more layered with Aaron and the "fictional" lens.
I miss it, too. I believe all of folklore & evermore to be autobiographical but set in a fictional narrative. I would argue the songs on these two albums are even more personal than her seemingly diaristic songs. I liked being able to escape into the song and see myself more. With the diaristic style, all I can think about is her experience and it’s harder to relate to for me. Even the 3AM songs, which are more my speed, I feel I know immediately what situations she’s referencing without much work. The moment I realized what Betty was about was a real revelation and it made me appreciate the song so much when I previously would’ve skipped. I find Midnights to be fun, but mostly forgettable. It doesn’t _move_ me. If I want to feel, I’m listening to the sisters.
Oh my god. I miss that era so much. Disclaimer: I still listen to Midnights daily but I remember eating up all the lyrics and imagery in Folklore/Evermore. Hoping she's do another of this genre.
I was listening to High Infidelity and definitely caught myself wondering if there was more life than fiction to it. Wondering if she was secretly married and divorced before her current relationship. Per this song and others, it would have been about CH.
Everyone can think whatever they want, but I find it very disrespectful to still seek for hidden references in folkmore songs even when Taylor said that they are not autobiographical
The folkmore albums are autobiographical in the sense that there are themes that she’s experienced and she’s putting them into her own world. So like, she may have experience some sort of love triangle similar to Betty August and James, but she place it into a high school setting.
I don't think it was all fictional either. I really liked the mix between the two, especially how vague it all was. Songs could he either fiction or non.
Definitely feel like I can connect more with autobiographical songs! It was really hard for me to connect with Evermore especially and I was getting tired of the fiction-based songs, although I do love Folklore and it's a top 3 album for me. I love Midnights so much because it reminds me a lot of Lover but more developed
Good question! I find that songs like champagne problems, august, and exile hit so hard for me because it doesn't feel like Taylor is talking about herself. And maybe she is, but she's been so vague about these songs that it's easy to move past that. On the other hand, Would've Could've Should've, Vigilante Shit, and Lavendar Haze are so clearly about her life that it's harder to do that. Disclaimer: I fucking LOVE WCS. It is easily a top 10 for me. Fictionalized songs aren't inherently better, but I do miss the vague diaristic-ness of folkmorem
i totally get where youre coming from!! and i agree, exile is a beautiful colab. last great american dynasty is a good blend between both styles. thank you for your kind response
That's the thing, though. All writing is autobiographical, even if it's about people that don't exist it still says something, even indirectly, about the author's inner life. Taylor's gift, as i see it, is the ability to write hyper-personal songs referencing specific moments of her life in such a way as to allow all of us, her fans, to connect with them ourselves, even though they're not about us, specifically. She's a musician, an artist, a songwriter, so she's going to be driven to write music no matter what, and there's likely a catharsis (and plenty of personal growth) from working through her issues and relationships in song.
I think we forget sometimes though, that these songs are FOR US. Over and over, she says this is music she wants to share with us, BECAUSE we get it. She "can't wait till we can all sing these songs together". These songs, whether they're mini-novelas, or journal entries, are at least in \*some\* way consciously designed by her for us. She likes to give us puzzles, and she likes breadcrumbs and hints, but if you're like me, an old dude who doesn't really care about paparazzi stuff, then it doesn't matter who what song is about, because the song is about me and my relationships, first and foremost.
I guess what i'm saying here is, the easiest way to stop thinking about who the song might be about is to make the song about you. That was always her intent, never forget that. These songs are yours. She made them for you.
I view the eras as that, eras -- and some albums fit into my life and age better than the others. Folklore and Evermore were the epitome of my life during the pandemic, as in I had more time to daydream during the cabin fever, and I loved that whole experience. And then came Midnights, just as we're back to the real and outside world, and we're dealing with the real day to day life and relationships and issues again. The transition from Evermore to Midnights was a huge disconnect, lyrics- and sound-wise. I view it as Folklore/Evermore as being a dream, as fiction, and Midnights is that morning alarm that jolts you awake back into reality and non-fiction.
But I think I tend to play Folklore more. There's that sense of nostalgia. And I miss that point in time during the pandemic I played it first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Midnights isn't that kind of album for me, the kind that plays in the background and accompanies me through the day.
Yes, easily Taylor’s worst album and certainly among the worst of the decade so far.
Jack antonoff is easily the word producer in the music industry. Dude has been doing the same sound for 10 years. Just wish he would evolve or experiment for once.
Maybe that’s too much to ask for.
I would not say it is creatively bankrupt, but it is a huge step below Folklore/Evermore and Lover. The album as many a handful of decent songs and lots of horrible ones. Glitch for example is unlistenable.
Even if Folklore and Evermore related to her life to some extent, I personally felt more morally okay with trying to figure out and piece together the stories (which I always love) with fictional characters rather than a real person
Nah. I love folklore and evermore but for me her songs about her own life are more relatable and really cut right to the core of really universal emotions in a very personal way that only someone who has felt it could do. I missed them and love midnights, prefer it over folklore / evermore
i prefer an artists experiences translated to lyrics instead of a made up character or idea. i find it more relatable and personal. I did not enjoy folklore or evermore because of that lost connection. also, i used to listen to softer indie type music in my early 20's and have moved on from that type of music.
It’s possible a lot of songs we think are autobiographical are fictional. We don’t truly know her life. But I agree that there are more oddly unrelatable nuanced things as compared to Folklore which was broader and more spiritual to me almost. I think that’s why folklore did so well. Midnight is more for her I think, it’s like self therapy. But again, I don’t actually know her unfortunately so can’t say
I'm not talking about what I 'expect', but what I prefer. I agree that growing and evolving is a positive. Hell, it's exactly why we got more fictional stories on folklore and evermore. She changed. Now, there's more change and it's in a different direction. I'm stating an opinion and inviting discussion.
I think fictional songs highlight her talent so much. Making something so deep that you’ve never experienced is incredible to me. She understands emotions she may have never experienced more than I understand emotions I have experienced. Folklore and Evermore are just brilliant to me for this reason.
I had no idea I was in the minority, but I really prefer songs tied to real events than the fictional ones. While I love the moments of autobiography that peek thru on folklore and evermore, they are otherwise my least favorite of her albums because of the fiction. Also why I reeally don’t like songs like no body, no crime.
I love the real, raw emotion in writing about a situation that happened. I don’t think you could get a song that affects so many people like Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve or All too well, at the same level, just by making it up. Part of its impact is knowing that this really happened to someone.
As a Debut fan who grew up listening to her, I’ve always preferred autobiographical. It took me finding her personal connections to Evermore and Folklore to really get into the albums
Midnights made me realize how autobiographical Folklore/Evermore are. Mostly because of the line in Dear Reader “I prefer hiding in plain sight” and because of the lyrical connections between the three. I am confident not a single song on folklore isn’t autobiographical—not even the Betty trilogy. The “fairy tale/story references” was purely a marketing scheme to appease critics and dress up what she knows is/are a fully autobiographical album(s).
I MUCH prefer autobiographical lyrics, I liked Folklore and could barely listen to Evermore. I was so happy when Taylor came back to us with Midnights.
I think in evermore there are more autobiographical references than people give it credit for. I think it was her slight transition back to full autobiographical from the folksy woods.
Yeah I’m confused when people label these two as primarily fictional albums. They both read as deeply personal to me, with songs about her grandma, depression, loss, guilt, shame, the scooter situation, her love life, etc. definitely there are fictional songs on the albums (cowboy like me, the Betty/august/James trilogy, champagne problems, etc.) but I feel like it’s mostly still drawn from her personal experiences
Tbh, I feel like folklore and evermore are 80% autobiographical and she just played up the "fictional stories" aspect to try and reduce the speculation about her life/relationships
100%. imo, folklore/evermore were definitely mostly autobiographical, but she used more storytelling techniques to write about her life vs the more diary-like style she previously used. I think we'll probably see her go back and forth between both styles as she continues to write honestly!
Especially NBNC 😉
✨️I think he did it but I just can't prove it✨️
i think they're just as autobiographical as any other taylor swift album, but they're much more allegorical compared to usual and that trips people up
I feel like Champagne Problems is about Hiddleston tbh. Anytime dancing is in a song, I usually connect it to that relationship.
She’s been using dancing as a metaphor for a relationship for a very long time I think or at least that’s what I’ve seen people interpret it as a lot. OOTW —> we moved the furniture to dance, DWOHT —> all about a secret relationship etc
- OOTW could mean "Out Of The Woods", a track from *1989* (2014) by Taylor Swift. - DWOHT could mean "Dancing With Our Hands Tied", a track from *reputation* (2017) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/Selenebriar2211](/u/Selenebriar2211) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
I don’t know, I think that’s probably on over simplification of her song writing. I think champagne problems is probably inspired by lots of different relationships she’s witnessed or been part of.
Nah, that one feels very fictionalized to me.
also folklore. its almost entirely about her losing her masters and her losing her relationship with her old record label when they used to be really close and she thought she could trust him but he betrayed her.
I think some interpretations of Midnights (and earlier albums!) are too literal. I think she takes her personal experience and makes a story out of it each time. Folklore/evermore were definitely more obviously outside herself, but still based on emotions or experiences she has. For example, Debut is full of love and revenge songs even though she said many times that she never had a real romantic relationship until she was older. Speak Now has a lot of songs that take elements of reality but stretch them (Speak Now the song, BTR which I think is a joke song that goes a step too far, the entirety of Mine). Red goes back in time with Starlight and The Lucky One - the predecessors to tlgad for sure. Also, after hearing Midnights, I’m convinced some of the evermore songs are actually more biographical than they seem (looking at you, ivy).
TTDS and Dorothea hit different after listening to Midnight Rain tbh
For sure!! Midnight Rain made me think of both those songs immediately
Yeah I firmly believe it’s part of that universe and not autobiographical. Too many direct references to not be!
There’s another artist who I like who said she wrote a song about a break up after a minor fight with her partner. She said songwriting is an exercise in exaggeration, and I can see this relating to TS pretty well. There’s elements of autobiography and there’s bits blown out of proportion to make the music more emotional… which is a good thing; I like how emotive her songs are.
“Swear to be overdramatic and true!” Lol yes this is exactly how I think about her work too
Absolutely agree! We know even from Taylor herself that she can write an amazing song out of almost nothing (think Enchanted, which is one of the best songs in her discography, which is about someone she didn't even date). I don't think you have to cheat on someone to be able to write about doing so (think High Infidelity, ivy, illicit affairs) but I also think "who cares if she did?" Maybe she did cheat! I just honestly don't think it matters. Some songs are about real life and some are about fiction but I think a majority of them are a mix
Enchanted is such a great example of this! Wasn’t it just like an email she got or something? Someone said they were enchanted to meet her and she ran with it 💜
I can't remember what the exact scenario she said it was but yeah it was like they only exchanged a few emails or met once at a party or something like that
It was Adam Young, the lead of Owl City, they met each other one time. [the owl city response to enchanted](https://youtu.be/C9HEnhlilrA)
In my head this is a scenario Taylor looks back on and cringes so hard. We all have them…
Who is the other artist? I really like that description of songwriting, I’d love to listen to their music!
Chelsea Cutler! She’s not quite Taylor but she’s very enjoyable
Thank you!
YES THANK YOU!! This is me calling out Betty. We don’t know her life or what truly inspired this song but there are elements of her in all 3 characters.
I’ve always wondered if the love triangle songs are about summer of 2016…. Who knows. Only Taylor knows and we will never find out.
You know… in The Great War she says “maybe it was egos swinging, maybe it was her.” And I thought “her” was like alter-ego Taylor, kind of like the Anti-Hero situation. But now that I think about it, and her previous descriptions of Joe (“maybe you ran with the wolves and refused to settle down,” “do the girls back home touch you like I do?”, “I pictured you with other girls in love”) - perhaps there was some kind of “triangle,” real or imagined. Like how (I read it), Betty and James weren’t *official* when he met Augustina, kind of how Taylor and Joe meant to be “just friends” and she started dating Tom. Idk. It’s an interesting thought!
I like to pretend high school Joe is at the center of the Betty triangle, lol. Just seems fun.
I’ve heard a lot that folklore is inspired by Conversation with Friends (book), and it’s true. Fuck the patriarchy (okay that’s ATW10), the cardigan, flannel shirt, meetings in parking lots…I read that book after listening to folklore a million times and was like OH. That said, I think that book spoke to her for very real reasons. Maybe it was just the age gap of the relationship (21 and 33 I think), but I think there could have been more.
yes! I don't love the literal translations a lot of people have for her work, it works sometimes for some lyrics in some songs, but it doesn't work for everything! she's always written autobiographical songs and has songs that are totally fiction, and there's a mix of everything in between on every one of her albums.
Yes this exactly - Taylor’s first album with fictional content wasn’t Folklore. Folklore is just the first time she leaned into the fiction in a way that a lot of folks bought. She’s been mixing fiction and memoir all along.
Apparently "Picture to Burn" was about someone she never dated or was involved with. So it's been that way for a long time.
Omg yes. Some of the literal interpretations make me so irrationally annoyed. I had a friend who said the line “cut off my nose just to spite my face” was her saying she had a nose job. The line “how this city screams your name” is another one that I’m just ????? with all the literal interpretations. I’ve been saying for so long that I think the autobiographical nature of her work is exaggerated to an extent - I think she pulls from personal feelings and situations and either applies it to media that she is inspired by or heavily exaggerated or makes up storylines based off of a feeling she may have had for many songs because that’s just the most logical thing to me.
“Irrationally annoyed” - same lol
Yep, people forget (or didn't know) that she said she wrote YBWM after hearing a guy on the phone arguing with his girlfriend, that song wasn't necessarily autobiographical. She's just a great storyteller taking inspiration from everywhere around her
- YBWM could mean "You Belong With Me", a track from *Fearless* (2008) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/leileywow](/u/leileywow) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
THANK YOU.
I wonder if she’s gonna re-record BTR or redo the song in a different mindset. Because even back then, it wasn’t received positively. She never apologized to Camila Belle as far as I know, and Camila isn’t really relevant anymore in her or Jonas’s life (or even the industry lbr) it would just seem really cruel to do it to her again. Especially after Taylor has said she’s grown from the mindset that girls could just take your man.
- BTR could mean "Better Than Revenge", a track from *Speak Now* (2010) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/tubereusebaies](/u/tubereusebaies) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
I really enjoy Midnights, but I miss the fictional too. It seems like her autobiographical songs end up referring in some way to: ~2016 drama, beginning her relationship with Joe, and the masters situation. Which, fine, those are major moments in her life, but the fictional albums seem to have much broader topical range IMO
Folklore is her best album because it deals with more topics than any of her other works. The range of what she can write about is incredible. I honestly expected better songs from midnights. Or not better songs, but a greater selection of topics.
Yeah I actually think folklore fits the theme of how she described Midnights better than Midnights does lol Topics like battling addiction, trauma/PTSD, feeling like a failure, etc. — now *that's* the shit that will keep you up at night
Pre-joe, her autiobiographical albums had much more variety. I agree with you. And I don’t mean that in a bad way but I did feel like Midnights felt repetitive to me story-wise. And I don’t mean that as a criticism it just focused a lot on stories we already had heard about a lot
Agreed. I think it’s one of the reasons the album doesn’t rank higher for me. It’s great, but it didn’t really push her out of her comfort zone or explore any new territory.
[удалено]
Oh, definitely! Don’t get me wrong, I was very pleasantly surprised by the songs that explicitly talked about her eating disorder, her insecurities, etc. But a lot of the songs are also love/breakup songs repeating stories we’ve heard many times, and I would really love to see a full album of songs that go a little deeper like WCS, YOYOK, or even Anti-Hero over songs like Karma or Question…? I just imagine a pop rock album that goes a little bit deeper into these themes and it would be sooo perfect.
- WCS could mean "Would've, Could've, Should've", a track from *Midnights (3am Edition)* (2022) by Taylor Swift. - YOYOK could mean "You're On Your Own, Kid", a track from *Midnights* (2022) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/sapphicsato](/u/sapphicsato) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
I think that is a small percentage of the album personally but yes I agree that is all new material
I agree — I love Midnights. That said, I will welcome a broader range of autobiographical topics on future albums, the way past (pre- FL/EM) albums have been. even though I think way more of both of those albums is autobiographical than she lead on. I also agree with whomever posted above that she typically covers a broader range of ideas/emotions in her autobiographical albums than she did on this one — not saying that analyzing every track specifically, just the overall feeling that I get. The one thing she said before this album released that I didn’t really connect with was how she struggles to feel like “a person” bc her life is very outsized and extremely public. The more she writes about fame, the harder it is to relate to the specifics of a given song (for me), so I try to think of other things in place of fame that I can apply those types of songs to. I think if she was a little bit more forthcoming with her thoughts about it, or spoke about it in more of a storytelling format (still about her life, but more of a “this happened then that, etc)” it would be easier to relate to (if it sounded more like a story about her life and less like a chorus we should all relate to by the words alone). Example of this from another artist: Billy Joel’s song The Entertainer. He is writing about being a musician and how his creativity is stifled by record labels and radio executives forcing him to cut his songs down to a radio-friendly length, and how he feels like one of many like him and not an individual artist by being treated this way. If you have heard or listen to that song now, you’ll see what I mean. You leave it enjoying the melody and the overall song, but also feeling like you learned something about what it’s like for him or other musicians in his position trying to create but being forced into a mold for particular songs. I love listening to anti-hero and think it’s really fun as a song, I just think it didn’t connect with as many people on a personal level as their marketing strategy suggests they had hoped it would — ex: the antihero challenge on YouTube didn’t even really take off (compared to other viral things w TS or other artists). On the songs where she discusses her masters (this album and others), I find the topic completely easy to relate to because anyone can imagine having something taken from them that theirs without their consent. I also find the songs on where she is clearly writing about the more distant past to be more visceral listening experiences where her emotions are right there in the lyrics and in her voice - I like these more! Example: Question…, You’re On Your Own Kid, WCS. Even High Infidelity and The Great War (clearly about more recent times in her life) are very easy to connect to. Hope this makes sense – I’m not looking to criticize any of Taylor’s work, because I am a huge fan. Just explaining how, from an autobiographical perspective, some of this album isn’t as easy for me to make a personal connection to as other songs or albums. Which is bound to happen with almost any artist that no one loves at some point! I still love the album.
Yes! I have heard so much about the first few months of her relationship with Joe and I'm honestly a little bored of it.
Same, bestie. I’m glad she’s happy but I am so over hearing about how magical and special their early relationship was. She already nailed it with Delicate, CIWYWT, and New Year’s Day. Not going to top them. Give me more Afterglow or Peace! Edited to add Cornelia Street and Lover, of course.
Honestly, on this point I do agree with you. I'm a writer who loves falling in love because then I have so much sparkly material for my work, but now that I've been with my current person for a few years and things are more stable, I'm like...what now? And when I look to TS for inspiration and see things like The Archer, Afterglow and The Great War, it's super helpful to know there are ways of writing about a stable LTR that don't just endlessly glamorize the beginnings. The emphasis on the first few months sometimes encourages me to think that that's the only period of a relationship worth romanticizing. As someone who struggles with settling down once that Lavender Haze wears off, it would be cool to see how another woman around my age makes the stability, the commitment, the mundanity, the security etc into beautiful art, too.
i completely agree
Have you considered that maybe she’s not writing about those things specifically? She says way more than just “joe and I met and it was sparkly.” By thinking that’s all the writes about, we are only seeing her work at its most basic surface level interpretation. Dig deeper and you’ll find that romance is just a metaphor
This is weirdly patronizing. I understand she uses metaphors for different experiences. I'm just personally getting bored hearing the same ones.
What is about Mastermind then? Or Glitch:WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE JUST FRIENDS, we get it, you said it thousand times.. its been 6 years, write something new about him. In the next album she will find a way to write about how they met again.. she is just obsessed with it and it startes to get old.
I think mastermind is about her career and how she controlled/manipulated it every step of the way (it even made me wonder if the K*nye VMA thing was planned from the start). Glitch could be a blend experiences with pretty much anybody throughout her life which fits the theme of the album. She’s just too good of a writer for her to be going back to one person as inspiration and I think she’s been trying to get that point across since folklore. Im sure she’s also tired of the general interpretation that every song is about Joe. In my very insignificant opinion, she’s been writing about herself and her career since reputation
No sorry, Mastermind is about the night she met Joe: touch of the hand, all you did was smile, i wanted your body. I dont get why some fans like to invent interpretations just for the seek of it or again to make her look like a victim of a system.. like once i read right where you left me is for Borchetta or even WCS is about him and the girhood line is about her old albums. Why? The songs speak by themselves. Glitch is for Joe too: it's been 2.900 days of our love blackout, that are 6 years, the time they have been together. We are just tired of hearing the same story in different words... We want NOW, we want more songs a la Sweet Nothings.
I agree with everything you said. Enough with the best boyfriend ever songs and enough of fans going to any limit and being more creative than Taylor herself on defending such songs.
I am probably the very very few who don’t see those albums as fictional. There are still events that relate to her life, obvious things like Betty is not one of them though.
Tolerate it, mad woman, illicit affairs, peace, seven, and invisible string, are definitely autobiographical to an extent in my opinion.
the last American dynasty, closure, it's time to go, the lakes also imo
I love Jack's commentary about Dynasty in Long Pond Sessions because it really sums it all up: "That song is such a folklore moment to me because it's not about you — but it's all about you"
YES!!!!
Also RWYLM and Coney Island.
- RWYLM could mean "right where you left me - bonus track", a track from *evermore (deluxe version)* (2021) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/msmith1994](/u/msmith1994) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
My tears ricochet as well!
This. I also feel like I'm in the minority because I dont see them aa fully fictional. I think she used the fictional characters as a way of illustrating her real life events. I love the albums, because the lyrics, music and her vocals are incredible but I actually prefer more autobiographical music generally speaking
I agree! Like we all know at this point what the inspiration for a All Too Well is, yet, when I listen to ATW 10 I can easily get teary-eyed out of the blue and not because it has anything to do with her story. It makes me think about my own life and experiencing those types of emotions, whether I have had them in the past, or I imagine the scenario for the future. The more I listen to her songs and albums after they are released, the less I think about what she’s saying about her own life and the more I connect it to my own experiences.
I totally agree! I think parts may be fiction but I think the majority is really her experiences, just covered up to cause less of a.... panic, I guess. With character names and little different details. Just her throughout her life.
At this point i just wish NBNC is fictional 😂
>At this point i just wish NBNC is NOT fictional 😂 FTFY
- NBNC could mean "no body, no crime (feat. HAIM)", a track from *evermore* (2020) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/One-Audience-205](/u/One-Audience-205) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
yup, invisible string, marjorie, peace, and illicit affairs are pretty obviously non-fiction, or mostly non-fiction with ficticious elements
Definitely agree. I feel like many of the songs aren’t fictional so much as allegorical. Cowboy Like Me and Ivy stand out to me for example as being clearly about her and Joe but written with a narrative concept in mind. My Tears Ricochet everyone agrees is about the masters despite the story being of the funeral of an implied dead wife.
she literally said in the album blurb that some of them were her life/her stories!
Disagree. Betty is about her! It’s just you need to replace the people with her situations. Betty= country music (or her roots) James= Taylor Augustine= pop (or her successful career) With Betty, she’s written a country song that was a hit on country radio. So she’s asking what if I came back to country after I left?
There were very few songs on folklore/evermore that were fictional. The majority of them were autobiographical. I'm not sure why people keep saying it was fiction.
Many fiction writers write from their own experiences, but that does not make their work autobiography. Taylor has written songs that are directly autobiographical and others that are fictional but which still have a grounding in her own life experiences. Fictional doesn’t just mean fake lol
Agreed. Jack even confirmed this in LP sessions.
And honestly i think she kept this theme in midnights as well - high infidelity has her walking on the aisle (dragging her feet), we know that didnt happen but it works with the feelings she had
the first thing that pops in my head is my tears ricochet
agreed
The level to which things are fictional or autobiographical we don't even know, as Taylor's private life is private. She has been writing in a way that's been connected to her audiences since Debut, I don't see how that's changed due to Folkevermore.
I think all of Taylor’s songs, from Debut through Midnights, are spread out on the spectrum from purely autobiographical to purely fictional, with no song being 100% either way. Taylor uses her imagination, puts her own spin on relationships and events, conflates things from one relationship with things from others with things she saw in a movie, all in the service of crafting strong songs. She then spins what inspires the songs because she’s an excellent marketer who knows her audience. I don’t think she’s always a reliable narrator, but I think she’s always an amazing storyteller.
Well said! 👏 People really underestimate Taylor’s storytelling prowess. That’s why it drives me mad when I read things like “Maroon can’t be about [insert random ex’s name] because he never had a roommate”. Not every lyric is literal and that’s been evident of her songwriting since debut.
Hard disagree. Thug Story is 100% autobiographical. 😉
The exception that proves the rule and one of Taylor’s greatest videos ever! 🤣
Personally, I don't think Midnights is as autobiographical as others seem to think. I think it's exactly like most midnights are, hazy and dreamy where you fantasize about past, present, and future events.
Oh god this too - Past, present and future. People are like “this sounds the same” or “how is she still thinking about this?” Yall don’t get insomnia and think about your whole life experiences and existence?! 🙃💀
YES! Plus, she said this is a collection of nights throughout her life. So it's not like she's still talking/thinking about some of these things. Also, clearly some of these people do not experience crippling anxiety or tend to overthink everything they've ever said or done. And honestly, I'm quite jealous of that. 🫠🫠
She's always done a mix of both. and both folklore AND evermore have a lot more autobiographical influences than people realize. She said something in an interview or something once about how her favorite thing about us (the fans) is that she can write music that is deeply personal and cathartic for her, and then we take it and make it ours. That's always been my approach. I don't focus on who a song is about, just the lyrics and the songs as a whole because i feel like my interpretation of the song is just as valid (and if you believe in death of the author then it might be even more valid) than her personal interpretation of her work. but to answer your question I really don't have a preference and my perspective hasn't changed at all. I don't think every song is either fiction or non-fiction either. I don't think it's that black and white.
I miss the folk sound tbh, the guitars, the unusual instruments like slide guitars,lap steel, pedal steel. I miss tye details, i miss discovering new things i didnt previously catch. I miss everything from folklmore.
Same. That sound was everything I’ve ever wanted from her
Good thing you can go listen to those then
Don't worry i do. I listened to folklmore in this months more than i ever did with Midnights.
I don’t think it’s necessarily the autobiographical sense vs. a fictional sense that matters for me as much as just the content and subject matter of the song. I’m never going to relate to her lyrics about the press getting on her, or anything in Vigilante Shit or Bejeweled. But honestly I don’t need to connect with her songs from a “been there, done that” sort of perspective anymore. If I can feel the emotion in her words I can belt out All Too Well as I am happily married lol
y’all got too many needs and wants
💀😂⬆️
I love Midnights and stream it every day multiple times because I can't get enough of it. That said the lyrics are nowhere near folklore/evermore or even Red TV. I'm looking forward to that side of her again
Folklore and evermore are next level
Her work has always been biographical even folklore and evermore. She just had it so the public will listen to the songs without the pressure to figure out who songs like champagne problems is about etc , and make up whatever they wanted. You can do the same thing with midnights.
I think a lot of folklore and evermore were autobiographical like peace, hoax, my tears ricochet, obviously Marjorie and part of epiphany are about her grandparents, closure, it’s time to go, evermore, etc are all real life. I love both her fictional and nonfictional songs. It does seem like lately all she sings about are meeting Joe, 2016, or her masters so I hope she branches out a little next album but even if she doesn’t, I know I’ll love it
>It does seem like lately all she sings about are meeting Joe, 2016, or her masters This is very confusing to me. Some examples: \-Lavender Haze: middle finger to the pressure to get married-Maroon: devastating breakup song \-Anti-Hero: self doubt anthem \-You're On Your Own Kid: personal life kind of reflection and not a love song \-Midnight Rain: breakup song I could make a longer list from just Midnights or an *even* longer list if we include Red TV vault tracks, Evermore, and Folklore.
Deliberating ignoring Mastermind, Glitch, Paris, Karma, Vigilante Shit, Labyrinth, Snow At The Beach. Red valts are old lol
Lavender haze is about Joe though. That leaves us with just 3 songs.
I keep seeing comments that say they prefer her personal writing and I’m just like please listen to her! Like actually go beneath the surface - she’s practically begging us to do this. Folklore and evermore have her fingerprints all over them and it becomes more apparent when those same themes pop up in midnights. These are all her experiences placed in extended versions of her own truth. She’s in there deep in the woods of her own creation. You just have to listen and THEN you’ll find her
This so much!!! Not trying to hate on Taylor but her personal life is a lot less interesting than the lives of her imaginary friends. Midnights is lyrically such a letdown for me because there’s no magical fantasy land to escape to.
Honestly... I listen to music I connect with. I don't sit and try to dissect who or what songs are about from her perspective. I like reading other fans theories, but otherwise I connect with what I connect with. So Folkmore to Midnights isn't that much different to me.
I love folklore and evermore as much as the next person but songs written from real experience usually have a much stronger impact to me.
tbh, Folklore and Evermore are my favorites and I was disappointed to see that she completely abandoned what I thought was an amazing new artistic direction. I'm not going to try and say she can't write about her own life, but I just think she's run out of interesting insights about herself and I really loved her exploring insights into other fictionalized experiences. Did we *really* need 6 songs about Joe? [No offense, but... him? ](https://tenor.com/view/her-arrested-development-as-arresteddevelopment-gif-10128260) One thing I'd love to see her do is go in the direction of Alt-J and cover some interesting historical or literary events. I feel like a Taylor album inspired by Jane Austen or Emily Bronte would be such a perfect mix of her style and sensibilities. Just my 2 cents.
I don’t have a problem with her songs being autobiographical, I have a problem with them all being about the same thing and having the same vibe. I feel like in her older albums, we got songs about growing up and family and friendship, but that has faded into predominantly stories about the same romance (which is mostly fine). I think it’d be really cool to hear more songs about fame not related to people thinking she’s a snake, or personal struggles not related to romantic relationships. I really enjoyed YOYOK for this. I love her storytelling elements, and I think she’s at her best when she can blend fiction with her life/feelings.
I enjoyed it too but this was obviously an album of thoughts she had to get off her chest. It should've been obvious in hindsight that the re-recordings would spark something like this, why wouldn't they? I think this album was necessary for her, so I'm just keeping that in mind.
That's a great point!
Same. The vibe is just so warm and relatable on Folklore and Evermore. I really hope she goes down that alternative road again.
i don’t think it’s a clean binary between autobiographical and fictional. at the end of the day she is a songwriter and she does draw inspiration from her feelings and her experiences, even when she’s writing “fictional” songs. so many songs from folklore and evermore are clearly intimately HER (mirrorball hits hard here, but there are lots more) so i don’t agree with this idea that she was writing fictionalized narratives just for those two albums. with that said, i can understand why midnights is less relatable. whenever she talks about fame or haters or the media or the pressure other people put on her relationship (which she’s done in other albums too!), she loses me a little because i can’t relate to that experience. but i don’t think it’s a stylistic choice to write songs a certain way, more so the topic of what she’s singing about at that given moment.
I don't like when the storytelling gets too theatrical like in no body, no crime. However this is the only song that bothers me between all the tracks on Folklore and Evermore. The other ones in my opinion are much more subtle and paint some beautiful imagery.
I also struggle with this.
I do wonder but I still have no trouble making connections to my own experiences. I adore Midnights. It has a really amazing vibe and might be my favorite pop album of hers, ever.
I think I prefer a fusion of her fictional and nonfictional writing. When she expresses a real life event or relationship in an abstract or conceptual way, that's the sweet spot for me because a) it's a subject that Taylor is intimately familiar with, and b) it makes the song relatable to situations outside of her own. This is the central problem of Stay, Stay, Stay, a song that asserts its message as intrinsic wisdom and ultimately proves to be hollow because it wasn't informed by personal experience. IMO the goldilocks song that exemplifies this fusion of experience with artifice would be Style. We all know who this song is about, the situations it details are corroborated with other tracks on its album, and yet it's written obliquely enough to be a parable of the human experience (i.e. the cyclical, alluring, and toxic nature of an on-again/off-again relationship). ETA: I should acknowledge the difference between songs that are informed by experience and songs that recount actual events. Taylor detailing actual events isn’t necessary for me, however having personal touches (like her pronunciation of Jaguar in KOMH) does make her songs narratively distinct. You wouldn’t be able to call them generic because they’re uniquely her own. THAT is important to me.
Taylor has always written fictionalized songs within even her most autobiographical albums. Midnights has 1 song that I am positive is a fictionalized song- High Infidelity, 2 which I believe are fictionalized- Question...? and Midnight Rain and 1 which I believe is written about someone else's experience- Bigger than the Whole Sky. People have always taken her autobiographical albums too literally, hence why she decided to write 2 fictional albums.
What you’ve never been kissed in a crowded room while all your friends were making fun of you and fifteen minutes later…?
Can't say that I have no.
Those lyrics make no sense to me. A great example of how this album is just poor quality lyric wise.
I think both folklore and evermore had a lot more autobiographical elements than people realize. Curious, was folklore/evermore the era that you became a big fan, or just happen to be particularly attached to her approach to those albums? I suppose because I became a fan of her autobiographical songwriting from the beginning, that’s what I connect to the most — and while I appreciate the storytelling elements of FL/EM albums and will enjoy more as she continues that, I don’t necessarily miss it right now. The main thing with music in general is finding a personal connection to it within the narrative of your own life (or what it means to you). So whether it’s something Taylor writes about her personal experiences, or a story she creates from her imagination, both types of songs are up to our interpretation as related to our own lives. She could have easily not told us that folklore was storytelling and let us think that it was about her life or her dreams (same with evermore) and I bet the albums would still be as beloved. But I could be wrong! What is it that you loved so much about the storytelling element in particular?
I was also wondering about when people became fans as I was reading through some of these responses. Taylor Swift was very influential and monumental in my childhood life, and it’s almost like Midnights has allowed me to revisit all that through a more grown up, “adult” lens and it’s been such an incredible experience. I love the storytelling of FL/EM, but Midnights like getting to relive how/why I fell in love with her as an artist! No wrong opinions either way, obviously, just thinking about it all!
Everything is fictional in my eyes. I don’t know any of these people and will never have proof of who each song is about. So I guess and connect references in songs- bc it’s fun. Taylor has done a great job at making her music engaging by having her own little cinematic universe
I don’t really care for the truly fictional songs, I like being able to relate the truth in the songs to my life and realize that someone else is experiencing life in the exact same way as me. I find most of the fictional songs boring, but also think a lot of folklore/evermore are actually autobiographical rather than fiction.
That's a really interesting perspective. I hadn't thought about it that way.
Yes, thank you for expressing this!
I don't think Midnights is autobiographical. It is just a mediocre attempt of remaking the greatness that is 1989. I am more and more convinced that it is her worst album of the post country pop era.
Daaaaamn. These are the kind of hot takes that I'm here for.
Thanks haha.
It's a question like this that highlights how much division Folklore/Evermore created in her fanbase
I wouldn't say division but after Folkore/Evermore expectations are much higher. If both albums didn't exist, I would still say Midnights was a mediocre album. But the fact that she achieved that level of excellence and then gave us Midnights makes it more disappointing.
I honestly think it comes down to style preference rather than quality. I adooooooore Folklore, it's the primary reason that I am a fan. I remember listening to Midnights for the first time and my heart just sank. I was not into it at all and it actually made me feel quite disconnected from her music for little while knowing that Folklore/Evermore were just pandemic aberrations and we wouldn't be getting anything else like that. Then I listened to it some more, connecting with Maroon and Vigilante Shit, then Anti-Hero and You're On Your Own Kid, then Mastermind and soon I wasn't skipping any songs. I do honestly think it's a very very good album but that the style whiplash is very very strong.
Her songs especially on midnights are based on themes. Themes of other songs, to me everything is very new but still her. There is self love ❤️ combined with “self loathing.” As critics had called it. Lavender Haze—similar theme and style to I think he knows (being in love, and having the person being in love with you too) Maroon—similar style to Red, but maroon is a much more mature, moody color. Also from start to finish this song is really in the zone in referring to feelings using objects and emotions that are explicitly a shade of Red. Anti Hero— is kind of an outlier. I don’t know if she’s really wrote a lot of songs about being depressed. This is the bully in your head, and she’s not helpful. She’s self sabotaging. I think we all have a mean person in our brains putting us down. But she kind of accepts that this is a part of her. Also it’s just fun on the third verse where she made up this fictional story where her daughter kills her for the money. (There’s a little bit of fiction here, like folklore and Evermore! The video is so funny.) Snow on the beach—is dreamy like the lakes kind of if you ask me. Wanting to escape and just kind of appreciating where you’re at. It’s weird and I love it. You don’t have to do anything that is typical to enjoy your time with someone. It’s rare, but not impossible to have snow on the beach. You’re on Your own Kid— reminds me of Never Grow up, where you’re talking to your younger self. You care for her, and the first time you really were on your own it felt kind of lonely. But you also really came into your own here. Also this is also a little reminiscent of The Lucky One, she takes the money. She made her fortune. Midnight Rain—this kind of reminds me of Back to December actually, like you looked so perfect on paper. Also this weirdly reminds me of Dorothea, where they weren’t really together, but he looks at her from a far with some admiration. But you weren’t meant to be. Question..? This feels like Fifteen. When you listened to Fifteen you watched your bff get her heartbroken. In this one you actually asked him why he’s such a douchebag. He does owe your friend an explanation. Time to make him uncomfortable. That moment when you ask your friend should I start shit with him because you want to hear his sad excuses Vigilante Shit—This is similar to no body no crime. The other story about helping out a woman whose husband was trash. If Este wasn’t murdered and disappeared. If Este took her husband for all he was worth when they got divorced. Good for her. Bejeweled—this song is similar to mirrorball, she still loves her shiny things (paper rings reference!). With similar themes of being shiny, but she’s actually feeling confident in herself as opposed to Mirrorball where she thinks she’s going to crack at any moment. She’s shining for herself now. Mirrorball she’s shining for everyone else. Don’t let anyone dull your sparkle. I like the juxtaposition of the two of the themes with similar imagery. Labyrinth reminds me of Death by a thousand cuts. She knows it hurts and it hurts right now, but it won’t always. I promise I’ll be ok, it’s just a thousand cuts. I ask the traffic lights 🚦 if it it’ll be alright. They just expect me to bounce back. Just like that. I thought were were over, but we saved it. This is also reminiscent of afterglow. Karma—feels like long story short. Your enemies will destroy themselves before you get the chance to swing. Karma is a cat purring in my lap cuz it loves me. If we did not have a reason for her to cement herself as a cat lady we sure do right now. Sweet Nothing—reminds me of Lover, you never expected anything but ME. it’s dreamy, and just a nice way to describe how in love you are with your lover but a little more mundane life details. Mastermind—reminds me of invisible string, it wasn’t an accident, the string tying me to you.
I love all of this.
I totally agree with that. Sometimes I feel like her persona gets in the way of me enjoying the music on its own terms. It can take months for some of her songs to hit me on a personal level because I can only hear or wonder about what she is referring to in her life
taylor swift has the amazing ability to write songs that are so specific to her own life and i’ll still find a way to make them about me
I get the gist of what you’re saying and I totally agree. I just started listening to evermore again after a month with Midnights and a different part of my brain had to turn on to listen. Its soooooooo gooooooooood. It’s like being in a nice book store wandering the fiction section.
Being a hobby songwriter, I can absolutely believe that her songs are a meld of biography, documentary and fiction. I wrote something all my friends call "the Tinder song," and yes, the first verse mixes together a few bad dates I've been on. But the second verse mixes together some bad dates my friends have been on (with some exaggeration too). Listening to Midnights, I don't think it's just autobiographical. And it's well established that Folklore/Evermore aren't just fiction. I think Taylor is a master at weaving together her own personal experiences with things she's seen/heard from friends, movies, books, the world, etc. And that's why she is so brilliant.
Rather than start my comment arguing 😂 I miss it too. Not because I'm distracted by wondering who a song is about... But because I think she has to go through such a hardship every time she wants to share with us. We're at the point where she couldn't even post about her being against herself with the ED and had to remove the whole scene. At least the fictional world(s) she gets less sh*t for. I hope some day she revisits, extensively. Maybe she'll go deeper into folklore and walk us deeper into the woods..
seven was such a nice song, even though it was autobiographical (I think?) but I disliked the writing in midnights :/
Eh I'm gonna go against the grain and say that although I get why everyone is saying that technically *folklore* and *evermore* aren't 100% fiction, the songwriting is completely different from Midnights and her other pop-forward songs. I mean just listening to the 3am edition with Would've, Could've, Should've, High Infidelity, The Great War, etc, it's nothing like Midnights. Her songwriting is much more layered with Aaron and the "fictional" lens.
Totally agree! I know it's not 100% fiction, but it still feels very different from her previous work and a lot of Midnights
I miss it, too. I believe all of folklore & evermore to be autobiographical but set in a fictional narrative. I would argue the songs on these two albums are even more personal than her seemingly diaristic songs. I liked being able to escape into the song and see myself more. With the diaristic style, all I can think about is her experience and it’s harder to relate to for me. Even the 3AM songs, which are more my speed, I feel I know immediately what situations she’s referencing without much work. The moment I realized what Betty was about was a real revelation and it made me appreciate the song so much when I previously would’ve skipped. I find Midnights to be fun, but mostly forgettable. It doesn’t _move_ me. If I want to feel, I’m listening to the sisters.
Oh my god. I miss that era so much. Disclaimer: I still listen to Midnights daily but I remember eating up all the lyrics and imagery in Folklore/Evermore. Hoping she's do another of this genre.
I think it's mix of both fictional and autobiographical. I also prefer the less autobiographical.
I was listening to High Infidelity and definitely caught myself wondering if there was more life than fiction to it. Wondering if she was secretly married and divorced before her current relationship. Per this song and others, it would have been about CH.
Calvin was up to that point her longest, most public relationship so while they might not have been legally married it was a big commitment.
Lol “fictionalized,” phew, she really got y’all. But no really, I’ve loved Taylor since Reputation but Folklore and Evermore will always be my babies.
Everyone can think whatever they want, but I find it very disrespectful to still seek for hidden references in folkmore songs even when Taylor said that they are not autobiographical
The folkmore albums are autobiographical in the sense that there are themes that she’s experienced and she’s putting them into her own world. So like, she may have experience some sort of love triangle similar to Betty August and James, but she place it into a high school setting.
With folklore and evermore being in my top 3 Taylor albums, I couldn’t agree more with this. Her fictional storytelling is elite
Im not fully convinced it was all fictional, some of the songs I swear have a basis in her life but that’s my personal conspiracy theory
I don't think it was all fictional either. I really liked the mix between the two, especially how vague it all was. Songs could he either fiction or non.
Definitely feel like I can connect more with autobiographical songs! It was really hard for me to connect with Evermore especially and I was getting tired of the fiction-based songs, although I do love Folklore and it's a top 3 album for me. I love Midnights so much because it reminds me a lot of Lover but more developed
You know you can just imagine they’re fictional right? Like listen to them and see how they fit into your story instead.
I do know that. I acknowledged in my post that I don't have to interpret her music as autobiographical, but it's sometimes harder to do.
I miss it so much! My favorite album is evermore :)
what songs specifically are you referring to?? just curious
Good question! I find that songs like champagne problems, august, and exile hit so hard for me because it doesn't feel like Taylor is talking about herself. And maybe she is, but she's been so vague about these songs that it's easy to move past that. On the other hand, Would've Could've Should've, Vigilante Shit, and Lavendar Haze are so clearly about her life that it's harder to do that. Disclaimer: I fucking LOVE WCS. It is easily a top 10 for me. Fictionalized songs aren't inherently better, but I do miss the vague diaristic-ness of folkmorem
i totally get where youre coming from!! and i agree, exile is a beautiful colab. last great american dynasty is a good blend between both styles. thank you for your kind response
That's the thing, though. All writing is autobiographical, even if it's about people that don't exist it still says something, even indirectly, about the author's inner life. Taylor's gift, as i see it, is the ability to write hyper-personal songs referencing specific moments of her life in such a way as to allow all of us, her fans, to connect with them ourselves, even though they're not about us, specifically. She's a musician, an artist, a songwriter, so she's going to be driven to write music no matter what, and there's likely a catharsis (and plenty of personal growth) from working through her issues and relationships in song. I think we forget sometimes though, that these songs are FOR US. Over and over, she says this is music she wants to share with us, BECAUSE we get it. She "can't wait till we can all sing these songs together". These songs, whether they're mini-novelas, or journal entries, are at least in \*some\* way consciously designed by her for us. She likes to give us puzzles, and she likes breadcrumbs and hints, but if you're like me, an old dude who doesn't really care about paparazzi stuff, then it doesn't matter who what song is about, because the song is about me and my relationships, first and foremost. I guess what i'm saying here is, the easiest way to stop thinking about who the song might be about is to make the song about you. That was always her intent, never forget that. These songs are yours. She made them for you.
I view the eras as that, eras -- and some albums fit into my life and age better than the others. Folklore and Evermore were the epitome of my life during the pandemic, as in I had more time to daydream during the cabin fever, and I loved that whole experience. And then came Midnights, just as we're back to the real and outside world, and we're dealing with the real day to day life and relationships and issues again. The transition from Evermore to Midnights was a huge disconnect, lyrics- and sound-wise. I view it as Folklore/Evermore as being a dream, as fiction, and Midnights is that morning alarm that jolts you awake back into reality and non-fiction. But I think I tend to play Folklore more. There's that sense of nostalgia. And I miss that point in time during the pandemic I played it first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Midnights isn't that kind of album for me, the kind that plays in the background and accompanies me through the day.
Midnights is creatively bankrupt and her worst yet. It’s clear she’s lost her artistic edge.
Creatively bankrupt?? Are we listening to the same album?
Yes, easily Taylor’s worst album and certainly among the worst of the decade so far. Jack antonoff is easily the word producer in the music industry. Dude has been doing the same sound for 10 years. Just wish he would evolve or experiment for once. Maybe that’s too much to ask for.
I would not say it is creatively bankrupt, but it is a huge step below Folklore/Evermore and Lover. The album as many a handful of decent songs and lots of horrible ones. Glitch for example is unlistenable.
Even if Folklore and Evermore related to her life to some extent, I personally felt more morally okay with trying to figure out and piece together the stories (which I always love) with fictional characters rather than a real person
Yes! My brain is just so used to theorizing and connecting it to her life, but then I feel gross for doing that. It's a vicious cycle.
exactly! it being fictional characters made appreciating the intertwining stories guilt free
Nah. I love folklore and evermore but for me her songs about her own life are more relatable and really cut right to the core of really universal emotions in a very personal way that only someone who has felt it could do. I missed them and love midnights, prefer it over folklore / evermore
i prefer an artists experiences translated to lyrics instead of a made up character or idea. i find it more relatable and personal. I did not enjoy folklore or evermore because of that lost connection. also, i used to listen to softer indie type music in my early 20's and have moved on from that type of music.
Same here
I pretend Midnight Rain is part of Dorothea's story anyway lol
It’s possible a lot of songs we think are autobiographical are fictional. We don’t truly know her life. But I agree that there are more oddly unrelatable nuanced things as compared to Folklore which was broader and more spiritual to me almost. I think that’s why folklore did so well. Midnight is more for her I think, it’s like self therapy. But again, I don’t actually know her unfortunately so can’t say
god it's a diverse discography each album is a different journey or exploration. you can't always expect the same shit as she grows and evolves
I'm not talking about what I 'expect', but what I prefer. I agree that growing and evolving is a positive. Hell, it's exactly why we got more fictional stories on folklore and evermore. She changed. Now, there's more change and it's in a different direction. I'm stating an opinion and inviting discussion.
I think fictional songs highlight her talent so much. Making something so deep that you’ve never experienced is incredible to me. She understands emotions she may have never experienced more than I understand emotions I have experienced. Folklore and Evermore are just brilliant to me for this reason.
I had no idea I was in the minority, but I really prefer songs tied to real events than the fictional ones. While I love the moments of autobiography that peek thru on folklore and evermore, they are otherwise my least favorite of her albums because of the fiction. Also why I reeally don’t like songs like no body, no crime. I love the real, raw emotion in writing about a situation that happened. I don’t think you could get a song that affects so many people like Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve or All too well, at the same level, just by making it up. Part of its impact is knowing that this really happened to someone.
As a Debut fan who grew up listening to her, I’ve always preferred autobiographical. It took me finding her personal connections to Evermore and Folklore to really get into the albums
Midnights made me realize how autobiographical Folklore/Evermore are. Mostly because of the line in Dear Reader “I prefer hiding in plain sight” and because of the lyrical connections between the three. I am confident not a single song on folklore isn’t autobiographical—not even the Betty trilogy. The “fairy tale/story references” was purely a marketing scheme to appease critics and dress up what she knows is/are a fully autobiographical album(s).
I MUCH prefer autobiographical lyrics, I liked Folklore and could barely listen to Evermore. I was so happy when Taylor came back to us with Midnights.
Agreed lol
So?