How Taylor Swift expresses what she can’t say
For someone who knows her way around a song lyric, Taylor Swift can get awfully tongue-tied, said Craig Mclean in the London Independent.
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.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
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.
-
UK-US trade deal: can Keir Starmer trust Donald Trump?
Today's Big Question White House insiders say an agreement is 'two weeks' away but can Britain believe it?
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK
-
Netanyahu's Qatar problem
Two of the prime minister's key advisers are accused of taking bribes from the Gulf state in exchange for favourable publicity
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK
-
Cartier at the V&A: a 'dazzling' show
The Week Recommends A 'once-in-a-lifetime' display of the French jeweller's 'exquisite' objects
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK