If there is someone good at telling stories through her songs, it’s Taylor Swift.
Over the years we’ve watched her display her life through her lyrics.
Every time she releases a new album, people begin to speculate about who the songs are
about.
Before we take a look at the stories about the people behind the lyrics, Please make
a Swift move of that mouse and click our subscribe button.
10.
Mean This song has helped many people overcome
their anxieties and ignore bullies.
If you’ve never heard it, then it’s a must that you do.
It’s a 100% country hit that targets criticism in general but was written for one particular
person who knew how to push her buttons.
Taylor’s said she doesn’t handle criticism well.
All you should do is believe in yourself and ignore it.
When Taylor performed Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” with Stevie Nicks at the 2010 Grammy awards,
many people started to complain about her performance because it was off key.
Bob Lefsetz, the inspiration of this song, was the one that got to her the most by saying:
“did Taylor Swift kill her career overnight?
I’ll argue she did.
(…) Taylor’s too young and dumb to understand the mistake she made.”
Ouch.
There was no need to be so mean though… and Taylor simply shook it off with a song.
Singing “And I can see you years from now in a bar, talking over a football game.
With that same big loud opinion but nobody's listening.
Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things.
Drunk and grumbling on about how I can't sing, but all you are is mean.”
Ouch back.
Don’t mess with Taylor Swift.
9.
Starlight Do you remember Taylor dating Connor Kennedy?
It was brief and ended too soon but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
Still, this beautiful song isn’t about him… it’s about his family.
When he and Taylor dated, she became really close to Ethel Kennedy, wife of Robert F.
Kennedy.
The story, as told by her, started when she saw a family picture of two teens dancing
around in what seemed like the 40’s.
Taylor then saw they were actually Ethel and Bobby, and they looked like they were seventeen
at the time.
She didn’t know how they met or how their story unraveled, so she just made one up from
the ideas she got from the photo.
With lyrics that go “I met Bobby on the boardwalk, summer of '45.
Picked me up late one night out the window, we were 17 and crazy, running wild, wild.
Can't remember what song it was playing when we walked in; the night we snuck into a yacht
club party pretending to be a duchess and a prince” among others, make this song marvelous
and magical.
8.
We're Never Ever Getting Back Together So this tune from Taylor’s Red album was
the first single to top the charts.
Back in 2012, Swift dated Jake Gyllenhaal, and there we were thinking we’d never hear
Jaylor again (since she had dated Joe Jonas many years back).
They eventually called it quits and we were hoping for Taylor to write him some lines
to get an insight of what their romance was like.
When Taylor first released this song, she said she didn’t want to be too cryptic as
to who the inspiration was but she also didn’t want to give it all away so easily.
All she wanted was to make a catchy song that would make it to the radio and drive the guy
crazy.
Guess she pretty much accomplished her goal, considering how long the song stayed in the
top 10.
She hasn’t officially stated the song is about him, but if you look at the video, it’s
evident that it’s him.
The actor playing Swift’s ex in the video resembles Gyllenhaal in a crazy way.
Another thing that led us to believe the song is about him, is the many times Swift references
"indie music" in the video since Jake had previously dated Indie music singers.
7.
Forever and Always/Last Kiss/Holy Ground Taylor’s Fearless album revolves around
her relationship with Joe Jonas.
There’s no hiding anything.
He and Taylor dated for around four months and their love seemed to give hope to all
of us.
As many of you may know, he then broke up with her over the phone in a 28-second call.
Ouch.
Taylor wrote this song with feelings of betrayal and heartbreak and said it was about a love
that was fading.
Of course, Joe heard this and later said he felt flattered that she’d written about
him.
Two years after the release of Fearless, the Speak Now era came along with a song called
Last Kiss, which was also about him.
Discussing yet new things that happened in their past relationship.
This song didn't express resentment either, it was rather about being sad and still brokenhearted
and it made us all cry.
The part that goes “all that I know is I don't know how to be something you miss”
is simply too much for us.
Wow.
Two years later (this guy scored three songs!), and with the release of Red, Taylor gifted
us with Holy Ground, which pretty much says Joe all over it, once again.
This time, the song is hopeful, happy and thankful for the time they shared.
Taylor and Joe rekindled their friendship a couple of years later when he dated Swift’s
friend Gigi Hadid, and all is good again between the two.
6.
22 When Taylor released her Red album, “22”
was one of the singles she chose to make into a video.
In several interviews she has claimed this song is about her friends.
This is the moment she introduced us to her girl squad, which only keeps growing.
If you’re a huge Swiftie, you’ll know Taylor leaves hidden messages in all of her
song lyrics in the album art.
You’re supposed to pin the uppercase letters and decipher the message in the end.
The one you’ll find for this song is “Ashley, Dianna, Claire, Selena”.
Many of her friends are featured in the video as well, which just makes it awesome.
Among the friendly faces, there was Jessica Szohr (Gossip Girl’s Vanessa), who said
she had never had so much fun shooting because she did it with her real-life best friends.
Friendship goals much?
5.
Style/Out Of The Woods Speaking of, these two songs have one common
muse: Harry Styles.
Taylor dated Harry for a while and we all died anytime photos of them made it online.
When they broke up, it was only normal that there’d be a song or two written about him.
Style pretty much gives it away with the title, and its lyrics tell you all you need to know.
The lyric, “You got that long hair, slicked back white t-shirt”, says Harry Styles all
over it.
If all is true, Taylor pretty much explained this guy cheated on her, or so she felt.
Ouch.
However, we get to listen to Out Of The Woods next and slowly die.
And, if this one isn't obvious enough, there is also that famous line that goes: “your
necklace hanging from my neck, the night we couldn’t quite forget, when we decided to
move the furniture so we could dance, baby like we stood a chance, two paper airplanes
flying”; if you do your stalker job properly, you’ll see they had paper airplane necklaces
when they dated.
Is your heart breaking?
Because same.
4.
Better Than Revenge Even when this song was released in Taylor’s
Speak Now album, this story goes back to the Fearless era.
When Taylor dated Joe Jonas, something happened.
Actress Camilla Belle got involved with him and was the reason for their breakup, so naturally,
we’d have to find this out via Taylor.
Better Than Revenge was a way of letting Camilla know that she wasn’t over the situation
and she did an excellent job at it.
Judge for yourself and listen to the harsh lyrics.
“Sophistication isn’t what you wear or who you know or pushing people down to get
you where you wanna go… they didn’t teach you that in prep school so it’s up to me.
No amount of vintage dresses gives you dignity” and “stealing other people’s toys on the
playground won’t make you many friends” are two of the lines that we love the most.
One other thing that happens in this storyline is the end of the song.
(When Taylor and Joe broke up, he was still part of the Jonas Brothers, and they wrote
a song about her called “Much Better”.
We are sure of this because of the line “Now I’m done with superstars, and all the tears
on her guitar (Taylor’s song duh), I’m not bitter”).
When Better Than Revenge is reaching its ending, Taylor sings “show me how much better you
are”, which is directed at Joe.
Smart move, Taylor.
3.
Bad Blood This online “beef”, as many people call
it, is between Katy Perry and Taylor.
So obviously, the muse behind this song is Katy.
It all started because Taylor was on tour, and suddenly her backup dancers left to dance
for Katy Perry’s tour.
Taylor felt betrayed and had no dancers for her tour, so eventually, she decided to write
a song about it.
In this song, Taylor invites her girl squad 2.0 to join her in the music video.
The video features the friendly faces of Jessica Alba, Cara Delevingne, Lily Aldridge, Gigi
Hadid, and Selena Gomez, among many others.
This fight has been ongoing through the years, as “Swish Swish” is a Katy Perry song
that people have speculated is about her.
However, Taylor has been silent for months now, so we have no idea where she is at, what
she’s up to, or if she even cares.
2.
Dear John We think this is one of the most obvious Taylor
Swift songs.
It’s not as sweet as the Dear John movie though…
it’s actually a little too harsh?
Taylor dated singer John Mayer in 2010, and they even collaborated on a song together
before that!
Couple goals?
Even with their notable age difference, the two looked like they were in love and when
they broke up, we knew it’d be catastrophic because both were singers.
It was catastrophic, and we both loved and hated it.
Taylor came up with this song for her Speak Now album where she says “you paint me a
blue sky, then go back and turn it to rain” and “I took your matches before fire could
catch me so don’t look now, I’m shining like fireworks over your sad empty town”.
John Mayer said he felt humiliated with the song and we thought it was over.
It wasn’t.
He, years later then released his song “Paper Doll” where he sings “you’re like 22
girls in one” targeting her song 22, and “someone’s gonna paint you another sky”
responding to the Dear John lyrics.
1.
Innocent You had to see this one coming.
This is the thing everyone was talking about in September 2009 after the Video Music Awards.
When Taylor, 20, won her award, she was all set to give a heart-wrenching speech until
Kanye, 32, took the microphone out of her hands and said Beyoncé should’ve won the
award.
All hell broke loose.
Many people supported her that night and the days following the event, including Beyoncé,
who let Taylor say some words when she won an award.
It just felt like the world was going to end.
Even Obama had something to say about the incident.
Naturally, Taylor brushed it off in a song, which she titled Innocent.
This song, which is featured in Swift’s Speak Now album, was released before the 2010
VMAs and Taylor decided to sing it live at the event.
With lyrics that go “time turns flames to embers.
You'll have new Septembers.
Every one of us has messed up too” and “who you are is not what you've been… you're
still an innocent.
It's okay, life is a tough crowd.
32, and still growin' up now”, she made it clear who the song was about.
For more BabbleTop - check out our other videos