For someone who knows her way around a song lyric, Taylor Swift can get awfully tongue-tied, said Craig Mclean in the London Independent. The 20-year-old country singer didn’t know how to respond when Kanye West famously interrupted her acceptance speech at last year’s MTV Video Music Awards, or when John Mayer ended their brief romantic fling. So she’s put her feelings in biting song lyrics instead. “When something really big happens and I have a million different feelings and emotions running through my mind, a lot of times it’s hard to figure out what to say. I don’t like to feel like I might hurt somebody’s feelings. Or it might come off in a way I can’t control.” It began in high school, when she had trouble making friends. “I would write songs about how my days at school were really lonely. And I would get through those days by saying to myself, ‘It’s okay ’cause I can write a song about this later.’” It may not be the healthiest approach, she admits, but it’s given her a career. “In my music, I can say things I wouldn’t say in real life. I couldn’t put the sentence together the way I could put a song together.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Critics’ choice: Restaurants worthy of their buzzfeature A fun bistro, a reservation worth the wait, and a modern twist on Mexican dishes
-
Film reviews: Snow White, Death of a Unicorn, and The Alto KnightsFeature A makeover for Disney’s first animated feature, greedy humans earn nature’s wrath, and a feud between crime bosses rattles the mob
-
Bombs or talks: What’s next in the US-Iran showdown?Talking Points US gives Tehran a two-month deadline to deal
