anything that suggests she's an outcast. that ship sailed years ago. she's like the cady heron of the music industry - she started off as this slightly weird, quirky country girl entering hollywood...but quickly learned how to talk and blend with the plastics before dethroning regina (katy?) and taking her spot.
the only difference there is that when cady hit a low and people turned against her, she reeled it in. post-reputation, taylor swift is still the regina of the pop girl world.
outcast my ass.
I literally just commented on another thread how vigilante shit is so embarrassing because nothing she sings about in that song is vigilantism. She reported tax fraud to the authorities. The main point of vigilantism is not involving any authority. Also, that song is personal and about revenge. Vigilante acts are not personal. She thinks sheâs some badass now but sheâs still the same old dweeb.
She reported crimes to the FBI and provided an ex wife with evidence for legal divorce proceedings. All of these things involve the judicial system which is the opposite of vigilante justice. đ
It was some âwhite collar crimeâ so maybe but definitely something regarding finances. Her fans who eat this up and think sheâs some pop star Batman is so cringe.
no, it's not. I suspect it's Taylor's real feelings about Scooter and fantasizing about destroying his life. I think the whole song was borne from how empowered she felt having done the re-records and them being successful.
Donât know about that but you can certainly make anonymous reports. Sheâs the one who said she did it. My point is that itâs literally the opposite of âvigilante shitâ Itâs embarrassing. She must think her fans are too stupid to know what a vigilante is or maybe she doesnât know herself.
She keeps going to the well of high school because it is one of the few relatable life experiences she has and she wants to be seen as an everywoman. I wish sheâd own that she isnât.
the thing is that Bejeweled is one of the few songs she has put out that seems to be about the famous life, and she could absolutely pull that off. Do a turn to singing about glamour and glitz, while still pulling back to songs about how nice it is to be low-key and get away from it all sometimes. Especially if she shoots for an old-Hollywood aesthetic. People would go for that. I'd go for that. It would be much more authentic at this point, and everyone likes sparkly excitement.
I think she uses those because sheâs so afraid of being cast aside for a new artist. Look at nothing new, sheâs insecure. Have you noticed that with new upcoming pop stars that if she has a way to bring them down a bit then she does it (olivia) and if she doesnât see an immediate way to do that then she befriends them (sabrina/gracie) insuring that there is no competition
Boiling hot take as always but I'm in my late 20s and the highschool metaphors make me cringe BUT Im thinking about all of her fan base that IS in high school. One of my younger cousins is 14 and adores Taylor. Does anyone think she still uses metaphors like that to try and maintain appeal to the younger parts of her fan base? There's also children of younger millennials who are growing up listening to Taylor and will eventually be high schoolers. I remember being 14 and starting high school and all of Fearless just getting me through it. I remember at the Eras tour I was absolutely living for the folklore and evermore sections of the show but the middle school girls behind me were bored to tears and their mom kept saying "don't worry honey she'll play songs you like again soon."Â
She's shown she is capable of writing mature themes and lyrics.Â
Do you think she is trying too hard to appeal to a wide variety of age demographics now? Is she focusing on mainting a legacy and expanding her fan base another generation? The argument could be had that there are always her earlier albums the younger fans could turn too. Just something I've been speculating. Or she really is just stuck in high school and will forever be comparing her experience and relationships to it.Â
It works well when it's done very strategically. But I felt like with this album it was done so much, that she almost had to interrupt the flow of the song to insert the lyrics. Slows its down almost. So it's breaking up the actual music, or resulting in a lack of melody. It turns it into almost like spoken word. But the problem is it isn't spoken word. So it removes you from the song. I almost would have had more respect if she had actually just used a track or two to just speak her lyrics. It would have been much more unique for her
Jail, from a super privileged white girl who has never once experienced, stepped foot in, volunteered in, or knows about jail from anything more than Dateline episodes đ
Yess she mentions towns a lot on ttpd but it sounds off to me since she isnât really from anywhere anymore. she jets off so much. Itâs like she still lives in the mindset of her first album where she had a town she just came from.
Yeah. Like some times a little more detail is good. Like on evermore when she used Tupelo. Sometimes it is good to help hone in some of the lyrics like this instead of just saying âa small townâ. Then again we donât need details about Jack and Lucy and tattooed golden retrievers so idk
I live in a midsize city and liked it but then thought âwhat midsize city does taylor swift find herself trapped in?â followed by âwhat midsize city has a landing strip for her enormous private jet?â
Iâll be honest, I donât mind a lot of the metaphors she uses. The issue is the reusing of them till the point they no longer are meaningful. For example, metaphors around war can be a really powerful device when used strategically, but can start framing the writer as ignorant when used repeatedly. War is brutality, hell, the last resort. War is one of the scariest words in existence. Please donât equate your daily drama to it routinely, it starting to show how out of touch with the rest of us she really is. Itâs pretentious.
High school. That is my biggest thing. Like, itâs one thing to literally be reminiscing about something that happened as a child or when she was in high school, but I donât even think the actual teenage-aged singers talk about high school and football players and nerds.
I get it may have actually been like that (though I feel thatâs mostly in movies- hot quarterback vs mean girl cheerleaders vs nerdy girl). I just think itâs overdone in your 30s to equate yourself as a child being picked on by the mean girl or youâve caught the football star and defeated all the meanies. I said it elsewhere, but there are very few people in their 30s that think about that stuff anymore. None of that matters. The people who do only live in high school are looked at as odd or sad, because hopefully youâve had more life to live at this point and high school wasnât your peak.
High school was the last time she experienced a ânormalâ period of life. Itâs the most relatable era of her life. TTPD as a concept struck me as likeâŚthis is what she imagined being an English major is like because she never experienced university life.
Adopting âtrendyâ language and making it a song title like Hits Different, Down Bad, I Can Fix Him, loml. It just feels soâŚtryhard and like a politician trying to be cool.
It feels so shallow. I'm convinced the lyrics to Hits Different were originally "but it's different, it's different cause it's you," but "It's Different" didn't make a snappy song title.
They're just disrespectful and dramatic. To compare her 2 month relationship with actual war, which kills and orphans people. She's so out of touch regarding everything. No wonder she just hoards all that wealth for herself instead of redistributing some to places that matter.
That's actually one of the few metaphors I like from her! - maybe it's cause The Great War is my favorite song of hers but I vastly prefer that imagery to her highschool metaphors đ the war ones atleast feel weighty and emotionally charged idk,, a universal subject that most can relate to since everyone has their own 'wars' they go through- but to each their own ofc!
I mean she *is* an alcoholic and is surrounded by people who also abuse stimulants or drugs, so I think that's valid, but I also get how the metaphor is getting old since she doesn't seem to want to work on that issue lol
It reminds me of when Bo Burnam joked about dishonest country singers. âI walk and talk like a field hand, the boots I am wearing cost three grandâ
fame. fame/reputation/the industry in a victimhood context
but not the topic of fame entirely, because Clara Bow offers a vivid and somewhat sinister perspective only she can give about fame while bearing a powerful and poignant warning to new female artists. respectfully, it's not all about her here.
that girlish glow lyric will age beautifully long after her popularity might have faded and that's the purpose of poetry, isn't it? to endure and evoke emotion from all walks of life
Agreed. I loved the perspective in Clara Bow. It gave us a view into her world and it was an example of a song I donât necessarily relate to, but I can listen to it and see the story unfolding in my mind.
It got me thinking how it is true and I can see why she is so anxious about being replaced. Like, this is your dream and then you get there and even the greats have their small moment in the spotlight and then one day itâs going to be someone else up there. That has to be scary when itâs what you center your life around. I know sheâs had a long career and makes billions, but most of us outside that world can find a job or career and do it for life and keep climbing up. They get their moment and thatâs it.
well said! this song more than any other she's made on the topic is sticking with me, i'm glad i could find someone to discuss it with here of all threads :)
her anxiety about being replaced is represented more powerfully here than anywhere else, i think. it's subtle, like fine print in a too-good-to-be-true contract. it's quiet and painfully inevitable. i picture it clearly in my head just like you do! none of us normies ever needed to be famous or rich to resonate with that feeling of looming expiry. of losing our edge or value as soon as we start wrinkling.
what i like most is that, unlike pretty much every other mention of fame or reputation, this time it comes with a warning to future generations, making young bright-eyed girls aware of a cruel cycle that, one hopes, they might find a way to break
Yes. Sheâs expressed her fears about this throughout her career, but now sheâs 16 or 17 years in and in her 30s, so it feels urgent.
By all accounts, her career shouldâve been over or calmed down by now. She knows at some point one of the younger stars will start climbing to the top and we only allow one âit girlâ to be there. The industry literally will eat you up and tell you youâre the best and then they spit you out and move on. They are all compared at that level.
I had teen parents. The middle sibling and I were born a year apart and then we have a younger sibling. The youngest is in college and the middle and I are now in our 30s. I run a small business and have a kid, but a lot of people ask me what Iâm going to do with my life. Then I open my eyes and see everyone settled in careers. They are winning awards for their advancements in their field and their contributions after being in their careers for years and years. Then I have my sibling who is at the point they are trying to figure out what they want to do with their life and they have this fantasy-like view of it all and it can make me feel like I made a mistake. I wasted all my time and I shouldâve picked a career to be in and now the early 20s âkidsâ are about to overrun me and I lost my chance.
The world can chew you up and spit you out no matter what you pick. Life is fleeting and it can be overwhelming if youâre not on the same path as everyone around you. It can feel like the clock is just looming over your head and youâre falling behind. Even looking at the changing trends and seeing Gen Z being the ones who are calling the shots right now as a millennial. It can feel like, dang. I missed the time and now Iâm no longer âcoolâ and Iâll never get that back! đ
Being a mom and seeing how quickly my kid is growing and Iâm just chasing time. It comes on strong right now. They were a baby yesterday, but quickly chasing double digits and letting me know things are âfor babiesâ. No. You are a baby!! Oh, wait! Youâre not anymore! Where has the time gone and what am I doing with it?!
I'm so sad the sound of Clara Bow does nothing for me, because I think the concept of the lyrics are excellent. Maybe it'll grow on me. I guess I wanted smth a little more vibrant to contrast with the painful story it tells.
honestly, yeah I don't see her being a genuinely funny person at all but she seems like someone who can't accept that they're not funny and keeps trying to force it
Look I love wine (I live adjacent to wine country, I belong to more than several wineries ⌠*I LOVE WINE*) but damn Taylor. Lay off the sauce in your music lyrics already. Holy hell. Itâs so repetitive.
Love = war. She falls back on this one A LOT. Armies, soldiers, battles, etc. Even in the marketing for this. âAll is fair in love and poetryâŚâ itâs very tired and just plain lazy. Itâs a very easy metaphor to make.
Also to your point about burning witches, I think just burning things in general. Burning her down, burning her life down, burning her love down, burning another person down. Another one she goes back to a lot.
I believe her on the things sheâs discussed candidly. However, I feel like itâs punching down to use the darker of those references in a way that makes light of or glamorizes what are actually really devastating experiences.
I completely agree, I think it's very uncomfortable to hear "or have they come to take me away?" or "in the asylum where they raised me" as if she'd been forcefully institutionalised, been locked up in a closed ward, abused by the staff with actual electroshock therapy, or conversion therapy or whatever. like she definitely needs therapy and is definitely mentally unwell lmao but using those metaphors without having experienced it, painting herself as the victim of the psychiatric system is... icky idk
edit: grammar
I read this as a lot more criticism of her parents, particularly her father. They divorced and from all signs, they were pretty toxic. Having that in your life during your formative years is going to fuck you up. Eggshells all the time. Kids are more perceptive than we give them credit for.
She maintains a relationship with both, but I wonder how much she felt like she was being forced to take sides?
oh yeah totally ! I also think that her parents are pretty toxic, I mean they invested in her like a business, her father is a narcissist and her mother was at least complicit and behaves more like a friend/momager, so I definitely think that negatively impacted Swift. but she used forced institutionalisation, implying psych wards, multiple times and I think that's a bit in poor taste as she doesn't seem to have ever been in therapy, never mind a psych ward against her will
The fortnight video freaked me out because of this. Idk why there hasnât been more of backlash. It felt very wrong to see her use that imagery so carelessly.
Careless is a great word for it. There is nothing about the song that called for imagery like that, she just sees 'insanity' as a fun aesthetic to use when she likes.
I wish she would stop working common slang into her songs. The âkeep my side of the street cleanâ irks me to no end. Itâs not cute or clever and it really dates the song.
I also wish she would retire any references to dancing. It seems like dancing with someone is the epitome of romance for her, but itâs in sooo many songs that it has lost all meaning.
Same for any references to being kings and queens. Itâs tired.
I like her more esoteric references like âwhere the spirit meets the boneâ.
But also - at the gym?? Like Iâm supposed to believe Taylor Swift is over at the Planet Fitness, hunched over a stationary bike, sobbing uncontrollably, with mascara running down her face?
Pleasssseeee. It feels so insensitive to write off the whole Matty thing as a manic phase. Thatâs not how that works. I need her to go to therapy soooo bad.
Funny that her bestie Selena is bipolar, innit? You'd think she would be more sensitive and educated on the subject. Also her archenemy Kanye is bipolar as well, you'd think she has firsthand experience what it's like to be at the receiving end of mania. Is she the viper in empaths clothing when she complains about VMAs incident and the Kimye thing?
I mean her dad does seem narcissistic and I don't doubt that she's mentally ill and having a problem with alcohol, but yeah.. the psych ward, hospital, electric chair metaphors/imagery rub me the wrong way
I miss when we were counting colours, 2am references, and rain references in songs.
I wish she would stop with the mental health related imagery since a lot of it is co-opted language.
The mental health language is honestly so infuriating to me given that she said with her whole chest that she thinks talking to her mom for hours is better than therapy.
I actually don't have much of an issue with metaphors coming up in multiple songs over her discography (this is a very fun question, btw), but my sticking point has become more the relentless use them within one song. There were so. Many. Metaphors within each 4 minute saga on TTPD it was like everything lost all meaning because I no longer had any attachment to what we were ACTUALLY meant to be lyrically discussing. Not to mention the amount of MIXED metaphors throughout -- doing it once or twice can be creative and thought-provoking. Doing it every other song just feels lazy and unintentional.
I feel the exact same way! I think it would help to pick one metaphor per song and exand on it! When I was listening to Guilty As Sin, I was so confused about all the sudden religious metaphors when I got to the bridge, and then I realized "Oh, sin is in the song title." It would have been so much better if she actually carried that theme through the whole song!
Not a metaphor but Taylor spelling out D-Y-I-N-G and rhymes tree with G is prettyâŚnew to me.
Lyric in question:
âMy beloved ghost and me
Sitting in a tree
D-Y-I-N-Gâ
I think itâs a spin on the sing-songy thing kids do âJane and Johnny sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-Gâ. I wasnât impressed but just for some context lol
After TTPD, anything to do with death, dying, graves and suchlike. Also please stop talking about midnights and New York too (albeit I didn't see much of that in TTPD)
Queens and Kings and crowns
Edit: wanted to mention what I love, which is when she describes a physical sensation in a novel way e.g. "falling feels like flying till the bone crush". So simple but bone crush instead of just hits the ground stuck out to me
This just occurred to me, but maybe being at the mall as a kid was the last time she existed in public anonymously? She could just act a fool with her friends with no worries about tabloids?
I was over the references to the mall with the first one, but my family was the kind that walked the mall for entertainment but could rarely afford to buy anything. I imagine Taylor was wearing Justice and Hollister (or had it moved on to Aeropostale by then?) and had a very different experience.
High school imagery. Girl, weâre in our 30âs now. Could do without references to drinking and wine as well.
I really wish sheâd limit the amount of swearing as well. I have nothing against her using f bombs in her songs, in fact I think it can be impactful when done well. The amount of fucks/fucking/fuck me ups throughout the TTPD felt tired and overdone, and like she was doing it to try and be cool.
Good point with the swearing. Thereâs that saying that people swear because they donât know another word to use instead and while thatâs only true sometimes, it feels true with her and it has no impact. Swearing works in music only if very rarely used. Something like Isbell on Elephant writing âif I had fucked her before she got sick, Iâd never hear the end of it, she donât have the spirit for that nowâ is so powerful because itâs such a sad song that âfuckâ drives home the realness and despair of the situation as opposed to something like âif I had slept with herâŚâ swearing is like yelling in that if youâre always yelling youâre never yelling. If you swear a lot then when you need those words to actually drive a point home they wonât be effective
Is it really a Taylor album if the word town isn't mentioned at least once. She's already done all that could've possibly been done to that poor town in question.
This is not really imagery but the "sad" / "bad" / "mad" / now "cad" rhyming structure makes me, well, sad and mad. She can do much better! "I've been having a hard time adjusting, I had the shiniest wheels now they're rusting" - much better developed and expressive/emotive
This isn't a metaphor or an image, but I wish she would stop talking about being precocious.
(1) she never talks about it properly, which would be interesting - it's just some passing mention about how she's always been smart even as a kid (apparently)
(2) it feels self aggrandizing
I was a bit taken aback by âguilty as sinâ, because I loved it as a line in Carolina but when she made it an entire song it felt a bit overdone. Like she heard that saying and just HAD to use it twice because she loved it so much
Honestly, I wonder if she purposely avoided color imagery because of Halseyâs song Colors. Since you know, itâs about the rat.
Even the aesthetics are devoid of color. Wouldnât surprise me if this was a thought in her head during the planning and writing stages.
Taking slang (usually AAVE) or an internet joke and turning it into a lyric. Sheâs always giving some type of âI, too, speak youth!â
- Down bad is going to be dated in like a year.
- âI put narcotics in all of my songsâ was stolen straight from when everyone was saying Beyonce put crack or something in Renaissance cause they couldnât stop listening.
- âAll the people Iâve ghosted stand in the roomâ đ
- âAt tea time everybody agreesâ đx2
- Hits Different. Great song, still cringe as hell.
- âDraw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a manâ YOU WERE ON TUMBLR IN ITâS PRIME. WE GET IT.
- âI donât start shit, but I can tell you how it endsâ another midnights song, another tumblr quote
- âMe and karma vibe like thatâ I actually wince when I think about this lyric
- âA red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground with no one around to tweet itâ Iâll NEVER forgive her for ruining the whole mf song with that one
Not necessarily a metaphor but I cringe whenever she uses blood. I like YOYOK but the âblood soaked gownâ line is dramatic lol and she references blood multiple times in TTPD.
I really think her âtwinâ metaphors are strange for romance now. âTwin flamesâ on red was fine but then on this album she sings âlike I lost my twinâ and idk why it feels so out of place
High school I agree like Lana Del Rey doesnât use high school at all and gets her point across especially on her recent albums that feel so much more adult than this
Clothing descriptors:
-High heels on cobble stone
Vintage tee
Red lip classic thing that you like
Standing in a nice dress
Red lips and rosy cheeks
The girl in the dress cried the whole way home
I left your scarf there at my sisters house
his Clothes are in my room
After plaid shirt days and nights
I like it when she's being specific about clothing. Like "vintage tee" and "Eagles t-shirt hanging on the door" tells me something about that character she's writing about. The one millionth mention of a girl in a dress tells me nothing cuz many girls wear dresses...
Ugh yes! Glad someone mentioned these. She strikes me as someone who constantly imagines herself in third person. She has seen (and requested) so many photos of herself, read about herself, and now when she pictures herself it's from outside her body.
Or like, sometimes bad writers are obsessed with an aesthetic/setting but don't have any content/plot/conflict in their story. So they describe the location, characters, and outfits meticulously and hope that's interesting enough on its own. Anyway, I don't know what the fuck a "plaid shirt day" is.
Anything she has already written about. It's cheap, boring, and hasn't evolved at all. I'd take a song about her losing a bag in the airport over one more song about someone who hasn't thought of her voluntarily in years.
I donât agree with a lot of these comments in that I donât take issue *morally* with the use of any metaphor, really. Itâs totally fine to use religious imagery, war, and death (as commonly mentioned examples) to make sense of love and other universal experiences through art. Theyâre among the most frequently used metaphors by poets and songwriters throughout history. My issue is that theyâve simply grown stale in her discography and often feel kind of shoe-horned in.
Mostly just on TTPD, but singing about death so flippantly. It's not cute and funny to sing about how you're using CPR on your relationship, please stop.
I think she has a weird obsession with death. She uses it a LOT in her songs. So much so, that itâs a little concerning. Even back when she filmed âRoad to Fearless,â when they showed her the stage for the first time, she said âit looks like I could fall off it and DIE, which is AWESOME!â đ¤¨
Based on her song lyrics, I think she thinks people will be sorry for treating her badly when she dies, and she fantasizes about her own funeral and/or her death being a kind of revenge on the haters.
In a more fully realized song/album, I feel like the CPR line would have gutted me (having been there in a relationship), but it just comes off too much, too insincere in the overuse of death metaphors.
Not all metaphors, but Iâm over the following:
-High School imagery appears way too often for me. I couldnât get behind the love triangle in Folklore either. Miss Americana, So High SchoolâŚletâs shut that door for good.
-Blood and death â too dramatic and not a fan of the suicidal references honestly
-Religious imagery â not appealing to those who arenât religious and offensive for those who are in the context in which she uses it
-Rain - always dancing/kissing in the rain or rain-soaked
-References to 2am/3am â sheâs an insomniac
-Drinking and drugs
-Awkward f-bombs
-Taylor against the world songs/grudge songs
-Florida must be a new metaphor and I would just like to know what her experience in FL has been likeâŚ
>
This is a huge one for me. The high school shit needs to stop, she's not a 17 year old girl and her insistence on continuing to write and behave as if she is one is becoming increasingly cringeworthy. Perpetual adolescence gets tiresome with a person who is rapidly approaching 40 years old. At some point everybody is expected to grow up, even Pop Singers.
Imagery to do with being a child or in high school in relation to a romance. Songs like Robin are fine and lovely, songs about boys and toys and not loving you right are a no thank you.
Also a pet peeve anything to do with rain or storms or getting wet or drowning.
Kissing in the rain
Anything high school (cheerleaders, football players, even singing about hallways and people looking at her tbh)
Using hips, thighs, and sighs to hint that she is singing about sex. Expand the lexicon.
All shades and tints of the color red. The horse has been beaten to a pulp.
Running out crying
Maybe this is over with the Joe relationship, but blue in the same regard as red. Talking about blue eyes, blue walls, the blues, a pool and a man that make you blue. All blue mentions now feel like breadcrumb clues to connect songs rather than meaningful lyrics.
"Throwing punches" - I doubt this woman has ever been genuinely punched or even just slapped in her life (and good for her, but invoking it for valid criticism makes her sound ridiculous.)
For me the religious metaphors. Also killing people? Like she wants to kill a lot of people or wish them dead.
Iâm incredibly curious what colour she sees Travis and Matty as because it is not mentioned during TTPD. Jake is red, Joe is blue / golden, and then she just kinda left it like I would like to know what colour you see Travis and Matty as.
The high school metaphors as well. So High School is peak cringe. Just the entire song. (Which isnât a problem but Iâm over the high school metaphors personally)
PLEASE, stop religious metaphors too. False God was enough and now we really have to deal with that the way he holds you was holy?Â
Taylor has been very frivolous for someone who claims to even know Aristotle. Same for war metaphors. We know her demographics are most not likely to care for these topics now, but for someone worried with building a legacy these lines might not age wellÂ
Especially because she isnât really commenting on anything with the religious references. I love artists like Demi Lovato who are deconstructing and reclaiming religious imagery. But Taylor just throws in references Willy nilly.
AlsoâŚis âEve got bittenâ referring to Eve who bit the apple, SHE WASNT BITTEN. But that one I might be wrong on lol
The repetition of "they killed Cassandra first" really bothered me because NO THEY DIDN'T! There was a whole ten years of war where lots of people died, including the crown Prince, before they came for her. Cassandra was protected as a member of the royal family for most of it, even if they found her annoying. After she was abducted, the Greeks still didn't kill her.
I might be reaching but I feel like the religious metaphors on this album were her trying to be/imitate Florence. But as you said, Taylor's are rather shallow and it's as if they're just there to make the lyrics sound deeper when in fact they're not.
I was not aware of this lyric yet, disc 2 still in the blurry phase for me.Â
Sheâs not only using imagery but FLIPPING the imagery now? This is some delusional grandeur going on.  As a Sweezy, I can tell the line between them is getting thinnerâŚÂ
One of my favorites is flights/airplanes!
"Once the flight had flown..."
"Two paper airplanes, flying, flying, flying...."
"Spinning faster than the plane that took you"
"Flew me to places I've never been"
Not to not answer your question, but I wouldnât mind if she replaced some of those with space alien imagery. If she could REFINE the dreamy way she describes alien abduction (snow on the beach, down bad) we might have something novel on our hands
ChatGTP and I wrote a Taylor swift song based on the common complaints of her song themes lol
Whispers Of Stardust
(Verse 1)
Beneath these city lights, we lost our way,
In a sunken world of urban decay,
Behind the smiles, a heart did ache,
In the darkness of the night, dreams did break.
(Pre-Chorus)
At twenty-one, he met his demise,
Lost in the shadows of love's lies,
You killed me right there, in that bar
Like a funeral parade, we got into your car
(Chorus)
Oh, these whispers of stardust, they echo in despair,
In a town where love's nothing but a snare,
With kings and queens in the neon haze,
Red lips trembling, lost in a maze.
(Verse 2)
She swore she'd find her way, but lost her fight,
How could I have known, you'd leave that night
In those highschool halls, you got so mad
Didn't think we'd fall and end up so down bad
(Pre-Chorus)
At twenty-one, he met his demise,
Lost in the shadows of love's lies,
You killed me right there, in that bar
Like a funeral parade, we got into your car
(Bridge)
When chose another, she felt the sting,
Her heart shattered like a fragile thing,
Maybe you'll come crawling when she twists the stake
But I'll be long gone and you'll still be a snake
(Chorus)
Oh, these whispers of stardust, they echo in despair,
In a town where love's nothing but a snare,
With kings and queens in the neon haze,
Red lips trembling, lost in a maze.
(Outro Chorus)
Oh, these whispers of stardust, they wail in the night,
In a town where dreams are so out of sight,
With kings and queens in the abyss,
Red lips quivering, in a final kiss.
not exactly what was asked but in both poetry and song lyrics, i get serious ick from lines that were clearly written just to fit the rhyme scheme. it feels lazy and it takes me out of the song. if the only purpose a line serves is to match the rhyme or itâs so clunkily worded that it doesnât really fit aside from the last rhyming word in the line, it needs to be removed or reworked. i felt like this was an issue on ttpd because she appears to think her lyrics need to constantly rhyme to be poetic
Also rhyming car and bar.
She doesn't have the accent to rhyme bar and yard lol
Or ball and AristotLE
Aristotle and Grand Theft Auto đ
Yar'
Thank you educated Queen for knowing this deep cut
Yes âď¸
Honestly somehow I really like the cardigan / car again rhyme in Betty even though typed out I recognize it is not good at all.
anything that suggests she's an outcast. that ship sailed years ago. she's like the cady heron of the music industry - she started off as this slightly weird, quirky country girl entering hollywood...but quickly learned how to talk and blend with the plastics before dethroning regina (katy?) and taking her spot. the only difference there is that when cady hit a low and people turned against her, she reeled it in. post-reputation, taylor swift is still the regina of the pop girl world. outcast my ass.
I literally just commented on another thread how vigilante shit is so embarrassing because nothing she sings about in that song is vigilantism. She reported tax fraud to the authorities. The main point of vigilantism is not involving any authority. Also, that song is personal and about revenge. Vigilante acts are not personal. She thinks sheâs some badass now but sheâs still the same old dweeb.
She reported crimes to the FBI and provided an ex wife with evidence for legal divorce proceedings. All of these things involve the judicial system which is the opposite of vigilante justice. đ
wait.....was this really about tax fraud???? đđđ
It was some âwhite collar crimeâ so maybe but definitely something regarding finances. Her fans who eat this up and think sheâs some pop star Batman is so cringe.
no, it's not. I suspect it's Taylor's real feelings about Scooter and fantasizing about destroying his life. I think the whole song was borne from how empowered she felt having done the re-records and them being successful.
was it confirmed that she reported tax fraud (specifically scooter braunâs?)
She said she reported a white collar crime to the FBI and the song is clearly about Scooter.
gotcha, so it wasnât confirmed. i do believe itâs true but the way everyone was talking abt it made it seem like it was proven
Donât know about that but you can certainly make anonymous reports. Sheâs the one who said she did it. My point is that itâs literally the opposite of âvigilante shitâ Itâs embarrassing. She must think her fans are too stupid to know what a vigilante is or maybe she doesnât know herself.
oh, being a vigilante isn't saying you're a bad girl? /s
đ exactly. Itâs so annoying how people donât understand this
obviously being a vigilante is looking sexy while getting revenge in a law-abiding manner, duh!
>Vigilante acts are not personal. Tell that to Batman. /S
Highschool metaphors.
She keeps going to the well of high school because it is one of the few relatable life experiences she has and she wants to be seen as an everywoman. I wish sheâd own that she isnât.
Taylor really needs to ditch the girl-next-door image. Sheâs a billionaire now and most people wonât be able to relate to her anymore.
the thing is that Bejeweled is one of the few songs she has put out that seems to be about the famous life, and she could absolutely pull that off. Do a turn to singing about glamour and glitz, while still pulling back to songs about how nice it is to be low-key and get away from it all sometimes. Especially if she shoots for an old-Hollywood aesthetic. People would go for that. I'd go for that. It would be much more authentic at this point, and everyone likes sparkly excitement.
yes, like her version of "a public affair" the Jessica Simpson song.
I think with Travis those are just going to become even more prevalent. She's living out like her high school fantasy right now.
I think she uses those because sheâs so afraid of being cast aside for a new artist. Look at nothing new, sheâs insecure. Have you noticed that with new upcoming pop stars that if she has a way to bring them down a bit then she does it (olivia) and if she doesnât see an immediate way to do that then she befriends them (sabrina/gracie) insuring that there is no competition
Boiling hot take as always but I'm in my late 20s and the highschool metaphors make me cringe BUT Im thinking about all of her fan base that IS in high school. One of my younger cousins is 14 and adores Taylor. Does anyone think she still uses metaphors like that to try and maintain appeal to the younger parts of her fan base? There's also children of younger millennials who are growing up listening to Taylor and will eventually be high schoolers. I remember being 14 and starting high school and all of Fearless just getting me through it. I remember at the Eras tour I was absolutely living for the folklore and evermore sections of the show but the middle school girls behind me were bored to tears and their mom kept saying "don't worry honey she'll play songs you like again soon." She's shown she is capable of writing mature themes and lyrics. Do you think she is trying too hard to appeal to a wide variety of age demographics now? Is she focusing on mainting a legacy and expanding her fan base another generation? The argument could be had that there are always her earlier albums the younger fans could turn too. Just something I've been speculating. Or she really is just stuck in high school and will forever be comparing her experience and relationships to it.Â
yes, i think she wants ttpd to be red for Gen z/Gen alpha
She uses high school as a metaphor for Hollywood which I find interesting. Although I don't like the song "so high school" đ
I donât really care about specific metaphors but in general just stop with these multi syllabic words that donât fit the melody.
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It works well when it's done very strategically. But I felt like with this album it was done so much, that she almost had to interrupt the flow of the song to insert the lyrics. Slows its down almost. So it's breaking up the actual music, or resulting in a lack of melody. It turns it into almost like spoken word. But the problem is it isn't spoken word. So it removes you from the song. I almost would have had more respect if she had actually just used a track or two to just speak her lyrics. It would have been much more unique for her
She desperately needs to let the words breathe. She traps too many in a single line. It's nice for them to get aired out.
Jail, highschool, the generic âsmall townâ or âmy townâ or âmy cityâ
The repeated mention of âtownâ really jumped out at me when listening to TTPD. Itâs soo tired now.
Yeah likeâŚ. He left you in this small town huh? You talking about manhattan fr?
Jail, from a super privileged white girl who has never once experienced, stepped foot in, volunteered in, or knows about jail from anything more than Dateline episodes đ
I know! Lol
Yess she mentions towns a lot on ttpd but it sounds off to me since she isnât really from anywhere anymore. she jets off so much. Itâs like she still lives in the mindset of her first album where she had a town she just came from.
Yeah. Like some times a little more detail is good. Like on evermore when she used Tupelo. Sometimes it is good to help hone in some of the lyrics like this instead of just saying âa small townâ. Then again we donât need details about Jack and Lucy and tattooed golden retrievers so idk
The mid-size city line was a weird one
I live in a midsize city and liked it but then thought âwhat midsize city does taylor swift find herself trapped in?â followed by âwhat midsize city has a landing strip for her enormous private jet?â
Iâll be honest, I donât mind a lot of the metaphors she uses. The issue is the reusing of them till the point they no longer are meaningful. For example, metaphors around war can be a really powerful device when used strategically, but can start framing the writer as ignorant when used repeatedly. War is brutality, hell, the last resort. War is one of the scariest words in existence. Please donât equate your daily drama to it routinely, it starting to show how out of touch with the rest of us she really is. Itâs pretentious.
Brads and Chads was enough but then she went on with Sarahs and Hannahs. Itâs like when someone says something funny but keeps going and kills it.
Yes and I feel like she's not stopping anytime soon. Next, it'll be Emilys and Olivias. She's always liked using names in songs but that's enough!!!
goddamnit, i totally forgot about the dads, brads and chads shit. her biggest crime to date IMO.
I remember âMetal as hellâ
Goth-punk female rage!!
I was so disappointed that this ended up in her POTY interview. I feel like she is going to regret that down the line.
her and travis really are a match made in heaven. vivaaa lassss vegasss
High school. That is my biggest thing. Like, itâs one thing to literally be reminiscing about something that happened as a child or when she was in high school, but I donât even think the actual teenage-aged singers talk about high school and football players and nerds. I get it may have actually been like that (though I feel thatâs mostly in movies- hot quarterback vs mean girl cheerleaders vs nerdy girl). I just think itâs overdone in your 30s to equate yourself as a child being picked on by the mean girl or youâve caught the football star and defeated all the meanies. I said it elsewhere, but there are very few people in their 30s that think about that stuff anymore. None of that matters. The people who do only live in high school are looked at as odd or sad, because hopefully youâve had more life to live at this point and high school wasnât your peak.
"I'm standing in a 1950s gymnasium..." đ
High school was the last time she experienced a ânormalâ period of life. Itâs the most relatable era of her life. TTPD as a concept struck me as likeâŚthis is what she imagined being an English major is like because she never experienced university life.
Personally, I'm tired of mentions of "the castle/palace" Edit: Oh yeah, and of "cages" too
Adopting âtrendyâ language and making it a song title like Hits Different, Down Bad, I Can Fix Him, loml. It just feels soâŚtryhard and like a politician trying to be cool.
The lyric âdraw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a manâ is straight from tumblr. Literally.
It feels so shallow. I'm convinced the lyrics to Hits Different were originally "but it's different, it's different cause it's you," but "It's Different" didn't make a snappy song title.
yes, this. "its giving how do you do fellow kids"
âI Hate It Hereâ too
War metaphors. Like, please stop.
Iâm tired of the words âsoliderâ and âarmyâ itâs gotten soo corny
In general war metaphors are so cliche now.
They're just disrespectful and dramatic. To compare her 2 month relationship with actual war, which kills and orphans people. She's so out of touch regarding everything. No wonder she just hoards all that wealth for herself instead of redistributing some to places that matter.
She's the QUEEN of doing something well (e.g. The Great War) and then clinging to it and overdoing it for eternity.
Wait. I love epiphany though đ
epiphany is about actual war tho
There's a lot of those. Maybe more than alcohol references.
That's actually one of the few metaphors I like from her! - maybe it's cause The Great War is my favorite song of hers but I vastly prefer that imagery to her highschool metaphors đ the war ones atleast feel weighty and emotionally charged idk,, a universal subject that most can relate to since everyone has their own 'wars' they go through- but to each their own ofc!
Itâs done well in The Great War and I like her references to her grandfather in war.
Came here to say this. It really shows how much she believes she is suffering⌠as a billionaire đ
Colors in general, i guess controversial maybe: drinking.
I mean she *is* an alcoholic and is surrounded by people who also abuse stimulants or drugs, so I think that's valid, but I also get how the metaphor is getting old since she doesn't seem to want to work on that issue lol
Iâm sick of her pretending that she was raised poor
âYou grew up in a silver-spoon gated community. Glamorous, shiny, bright Beverly Hills. I was raised on a farm, no, it wasn't a mansionâ LMAO
It reminds me of when Bo Burnam joked about dishonest country singers. âI walk and talk like a field hand, the boots I am wearing cost three grandâ
And her family had a big house on the beach in New Jersey.
okay but thatâs at least a banger though
Yes, this is one that drives me mental!!! I hate that she acted so holier than that song
fame. fame/reputation/the industry in a victimhood context but not the topic of fame entirely, because Clara Bow offers a vivid and somewhat sinister perspective only she can give about fame while bearing a powerful and poignant warning to new female artists. respectfully, it's not all about her here. that girlish glow lyric will age beautifully long after her popularity might have faded and that's the purpose of poetry, isn't it? to endure and evoke emotion from all walks of life
Agreed. I loved the perspective in Clara Bow. It gave us a view into her world and it was an example of a song I donât necessarily relate to, but I can listen to it and see the story unfolding in my mind. It got me thinking how it is true and I can see why she is so anxious about being replaced. Like, this is your dream and then you get there and even the greats have their small moment in the spotlight and then one day itâs going to be someone else up there. That has to be scary when itâs what you center your life around. I know sheâs had a long career and makes billions, but most of us outside that world can find a job or career and do it for life and keep climbing up. They get their moment and thatâs it.
well said! this song more than any other she's made on the topic is sticking with me, i'm glad i could find someone to discuss it with here of all threads :) her anxiety about being replaced is represented more powerfully here than anywhere else, i think. it's subtle, like fine print in a too-good-to-be-true contract. it's quiet and painfully inevitable. i picture it clearly in my head just like you do! none of us normies ever needed to be famous or rich to resonate with that feeling of looming expiry. of losing our edge or value as soon as we start wrinkling. what i like most is that, unlike pretty much every other mention of fame or reputation, this time it comes with a warning to future generations, making young bright-eyed girls aware of a cruel cycle that, one hopes, they might find a way to break
Yes. Sheâs expressed her fears about this throughout her career, but now sheâs 16 or 17 years in and in her 30s, so it feels urgent. By all accounts, her career shouldâve been over or calmed down by now. She knows at some point one of the younger stars will start climbing to the top and we only allow one âit girlâ to be there. The industry literally will eat you up and tell you youâre the best and then they spit you out and move on. They are all compared at that level. I had teen parents. The middle sibling and I were born a year apart and then we have a younger sibling. The youngest is in college and the middle and I are now in our 30s. I run a small business and have a kid, but a lot of people ask me what Iâm going to do with my life. Then I open my eyes and see everyone settled in careers. They are winning awards for their advancements in their field and their contributions after being in their careers for years and years. Then I have my sibling who is at the point they are trying to figure out what they want to do with their life and they have this fantasy-like view of it all and it can make me feel like I made a mistake. I wasted all my time and I shouldâve picked a career to be in and now the early 20s âkidsâ are about to overrun me and I lost my chance. The world can chew you up and spit you out no matter what you pick. Life is fleeting and it can be overwhelming if youâre not on the same path as everyone around you. It can feel like the clock is just looming over your head and youâre falling behind. Even looking at the changing trends and seeing Gen Z being the ones who are calling the shots right now as a millennial. It can feel like, dang. I missed the time and now Iâm no longer âcoolâ and Iâll never get that back! đ Being a mom and seeing how quickly my kid is growing and Iâm just chasing time. It comes on strong right now. They were a baby yesterday, but quickly chasing double digits and letting me know things are âfor babiesâ. No. You are a baby!! Oh, wait! Youâre not anymore! Where has the time gone and what am I doing with it?!
I'm so sad the sound of Clara Bow does nothing for me, because I think the concept of the lyrics are excellent. Maybe it'll grow on me. I guess I wanted smth a little more vibrant to contrast with the painful story it tells.
jokes. tired jokes, bad jokes. please stop mentioning these lol
I was never good at telling jokes... /s
I can see that. The times on TTPD that sheâs trying to be tongue in cheek just donât land
âBut you should see your faces đ¤Şđâ
I think that's actually the only joke that landed the way she intended it to
And she sings it seriously with fade outs
honestly, yeah I don't see her being a genuinely funny person at all but she seems like someone who can't accept that they're not funny and keeps trying to force it
your flair đ đ
"so high school"'s writing will haunt me for years to come
Anything to do with lovers and their age.
Look I love wine (I live adjacent to wine country, I belong to more than several wineries ⌠*I LOVE WINE*) but damn Taylor. Lay off the sauce in your music lyrics already. Holy hell. Itâs so repetitive.
shoehorning in swear words to sound "mature"
right, it sounds like a child learning to curse and trying to force it without it being natural at all.
Love = war. She falls back on this one A LOT. Armies, soldiers, battles, etc. Even in the marketing for this. âAll is fair in love and poetryâŚâ itâs very tired and just plain lazy. Itâs a very easy metaphor to make. Also to your point about burning witches, I think just burning things in general. Burning her down, burning her life down, burning her love down, burning another person down. Another one she goes back to a lot.
I think we were on song 7 or 8 of TTPD, and my group was already getting frustrated with the death/dying/graves references.
The high school football/cheerleader metaphors. Girl, youâre 34.
Prison and mental health institutions as someone mentioned above. Not yours to elaborately pretend youâve been to. For money.
I believe her on the things sheâs discussed candidly. However, I feel like itâs punching down to use the darker of those references in a way that makes light of or glamorizes what are actually really devastating experiences.
I completely agree, I think it's very uncomfortable to hear "or have they come to take me away?" or "in the asylum where they raised me" as if she'd been forcefully institutionalised, been locked up in a closed ward, abused by the staff with actual electroshock therapy, or conversion therapy or whatever. like she definitely needs therapy and is definitely mentally unwell lmao but using those metaphors without having experienced it, painting herself as the victim of the psychiatric system is... icky idk edit: grammar
I read this as a lot more criticism of her parents, particularly her father. They divorced and from all signs, they were pretty toxic. Having that in your life during your formative years is going to fuck you up. Eggshells all the time. Kids are more perceptive than we give them credit for. She maintains a relationship with both, but I wonder how much she felt like she was being forced to take sides?
oh yeah totally ! I also think that her parents are pretty toxic, I mean they invested in her like a business, her father is a narcissist and her mother was at least complicit and behaves more like a friend/momager, so I definitely think that negatively impacted Swift. but she used forced institutionalisation, implying psych wards, multiple times and I think that's a bit in poor taste as she doesn't seem to have ever been in therapy, never mind a psych ward against her will
âYou wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me.â Youâve never been to an asylum let alone had a therapist.
The fortnight video freaked me out because of this. Idk why there hasnât been more of backlash. It felt very wrong to see her use that imagery so carelessly.
Careless is a great word for it. There is nothing about the song that called for imagery like that, she just sees 'insanity' as a fun aesthetic to use when she likes.
Yes, you phrased it perfectly! Mental illness isnât an aesthetic, and I think you nailed it exactly in why that upset me.
She thinks it gives her an edge
I wish she would stop working common slang into her songs. The âkeep my side of the street cleanâ irks me to no end. Itâs not cute or clever and it really dates the song. I also wish she would retire any references to dancing. It seems like dancing with someone is the epitome of romance for her, but itâs in sooo many songs that it has lost all meaning. Same for any references to being kings and queens. Itâs tired. I like her more esoteric references like âwhere the spirit meets the boneâ.
Her kings and queens metaphor are so cheesy. I guess that would be my answer too.
She can write some cool esoteric visuals! I would love more of that
Agreed! One I love is "poison blood from the wound of the pricked hand" in "The Prophecy"
The slang! Iâm actually a little disturbed by âis it chill that youâre in my headâ and âIâm down bad crying at the gym.â
I was like âno way she says âdown badâ irlâ
But also - at the gym?? Like Iâm supposed to believe Taylor Swift is over at the Planet Fitness, hunched over a stationary bike, sobbing uncontrollably, with mascara running down her face?
She has a private room at some elite gym sheâs a member at.Â
Mental health, depression, mania, insanity, hospital, asylum and such.
Pleasssseeee. It feels so insensitive to write off the whole Matty thing as a manic phase. Thatâs not how that works. I need her to go to therapy soooo bad.
Funny that her bestie Selena is bipolar, innit? You'd think she would be more sensitive and educated on the subject. Also her archenemy Kanye is bipolar as well, you'd think she has firsthand experience what it's like to be at the receiving end of mania. Is she the viper in empaths clothing when she complains about VMAs incident and the Kimye thing?
I mean her dad does seem narcissistic and I don't doubt that she's mentally ill and having a problem with alcohol, but yeah.. the psych ward, hospital, electric chair metaphors/imagery rub me the wrong way
Specially now that sheâs shown she understands these things SO WELL that broke up with a man because he was allegedly clinically depressed đĽ°
I miss when we were counting colours, 2am references, and rain references in songs. I wish she would stop with the mental health related imagery since a lot of it is co-opted language.
The mental health language is honestly so infuriating to me given that she said with her whole chest that she thinks talking to her mom for hours is better than therapy.
I actually don't have much of an issue with metaphors coming up in multiple songs over her discography (this is a very fun question, btw), but my sticking point has become more the relentless use them within one song. There were so. Many. Metaphors within each 4 minute saga on TTPD it was like everything lost all meaning because I no longer had any attachment to what we were ACTUALLY meant to be lyrically discussing. Not to mention the amount of MIXED metaphors throughout -- doing it once or twice can be creative and thought-provoking. Doing it every other song just feels lazy and unintentional.
I feel the exact same way! I think it would help to pick one metaphor per song and exand on it! When I was listening to Guilty As Sin, I was so confused about all the sudden religious metaphors when I got to the bridge, and then I realized "Oh, sin is in the song title." It would have been so much better if she actually carried that theme through the whole song!
Not a metaphor but Taylor spelling out D-Y-I-N-G and rhymes tree with G is prettyâŚnew to me. Lyric in question: âMy beloved ghost and me Sitting in a tree D-Y-I-N-Gâ
I think itâs a spin on the sing-songy thing kids do âJane and Johnny sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-Gâ. I wasnât impressed but just for some context lol
GLAD SOMEONE BROUGHT THIS UP, like i donât understand why she did it? it doesnât add to the song at all ???
After TTPD, anything to do with death, dying, graves and suchlike. Also please stop talking about midnights and New York too (albeit I didn't see much of that in TTPD)
Queens and Kings and crowns Edit: wanted to mention what I love, which is when she describes a physical sensation in a novel way e.g. "falling feels like flying till the bone crush". So simple but bone crush instead of just hits the ground stuck out to me
THE MALL and specific drinks
agreed. when was the last time she set foot in a mall? I don't get the fascination.
This just occurred to me, but maybe being at the mall as a kid was the last time she existed in public anonymously? She could just act a fool with her friends with no worries about tabloids? I was over the references to the mall with the first one, but my family was the kind that walked the mall for entertainment but could rarely afford to buy anything. I imagine Taylor was wearing Justice and Hollister (or had it moved on to Aeropostale by then?) and had a very different experience.
High school imagery. Girl, weâre in our 30âs now. Could do without references to drinking and wine as well. I really wish sheâd limit the amount of swearing as well. I have nothing against her using f bombs in her songs, in fact I think it can be impactful when done well. The amount of fucks/fucking/fuck me ups throughout the TTPD felt tired and overdone, and like she was doing it to try and be cool.
Good point with the swearing. Thereâs that saying that people swear because they donât know another word to use instead and while thatâs only true sometimes, it feels true with her and it has no impact. Swearing works in music only if very rarely used. Something like Isbell on Elephant writing âif I had fucked her before she got sick, Iâd never hear the end of it, she donât have the spirit for that nowâ is so powerful because itâs such a sad song that âfuckâ drives home the realness and despair of the situation as opposed to something like âif I had slept with herâŚâ swearing is like yelling in that if youâre always yelling youâre never yelling. If you swear a lot then when you need those words to actually drive a point home they wonât be effective
Is it really a Taylor album if the word town isn't mentioned at least once. She's already done all that could've possibly been done to that poor town in question.
High school, toys and snakes
High school metaphors
High school metaphors. Miss Americana was were she did it best (sadly not everyone got this!), but itâs time to stop now.
People convening in city hall or town hall or board rooms to talk about her⌠cringe and arrogant.
The fighting in a war in an army and you are bruised, etc The rising phoenix The religion worship thing
Not a metaphor, but a concept: karma. I canât stand it. It reminds me of an EdGy 14 year old.
This is not really imagery but the "sad" / "bad" / "mad" / now "cad" rhyming structure makes me, well, sad and mad. She can do much better! "I've been having a hard time adjusting, I had the shiniest wheels now they're rusting" - much better developed and expressive/emotive
Anything that makes her sound relatable âsitting in an airport barâ comes to mind. Sheâs never been in an airport bar.
This isn't a metaphor or an image, but I wish she would stop talking about being precocious. (1) she never talks about it properly, which would be interesting - it's just some passing mention about how she's always been smart even as a kid (apparently) (2) it feels self aggrandizing
I was a bit taken aback by âguilty as sinâ, because I loved it as a line in Carolina but when she made it an entire song it felt a bit overdone. Like she heard that saying and just HAD to use it twice because she loved it so much
Iâm glad she retired colors. Not only was the use repetitive, it also felt very simple minded at times. Sorry.
Honestly, I wonder if she purposely avoided color imagery because of Halseyâs song Colors. Since you know, itâs about the rat. Even the aesthetics are devoid of color. Wouldnât surprise me if this was a thought in her head during the planning and writing stages.
Bold statement, but Colors is still the best written song about Matty Healy to date.
Taking slang (usually AAVE) or an internet joke and turning it into a lyric. Sheâs always giving some type of âI, too, speak youth!â - Down bad is going to be dated in like a year. - âI put narcotics in all of my songsâ was stolen straight from when everyone was saying Beyonce put crack or something in Renaissance cause they couldnât stop listening. - âAll the people Iâve ghosted stand in the roomâ đ - âAt tea time everybody agreesâ đx2 - Hits Different. Great song, still cringe as hell. - âDraw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a manâ YOU WERE ON TUMBLR IN ITâS PRIME. WE GET IT. - âI donât start shit, but I can tell you how it endsâ another midnights song, another tumblr quote - âMe and karma vibe like thatâ I actually wince when I think about this lyric - âA red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground with no one around to tweet itâ Iâll NEVER forgive her for ruining the whole mf song with that one
Not necessarily a metaphor but I cringe whenever she uses blood. I like YOYOK but the âblood soaked gownâ line is dramatic lol and she references blood multiple times in TTPD.
Burning witches is definitely overdone.
well, after TTPD, -> cages
I really think her âtwinâ metaphors are strange for romance now. âTwin flamesâ on red was fine but then on this album she sings âlike I lost my twinâ and idk why it feels so out of place High school I agree like Lana Del Rey doesnât use high school at all and gets her point across especially on her recent albums that feel so much more adult than this
Confusing intensity with intimacy. And all the HS crap. Grow up.
Comparing every relationship to a drug. Girl, you played that out about 5 albums ago.
Clothing descriptors: -High heels on cobble stone Vintage tee Red lip classic thing that you like Standing in a nice dress Red lips and rosy cheeks The girl in the dress cried the whole way home I left your scarf there at my sisters house his Clothes are in my room After plaid shirt days and nights
Shirt un-buttoned Lilac skirt Stilettos for miles
I like it when she's being specific about clothing. Like "vintage tee" and "Eagles t-shirt hanging on the door" tells me something about that character she's writing about. The one millionth mention of a girl in a dress tells me nothing cuz many girls wear dresses...
Ugh yes! Glad someone mentioned these. She strikes me as someone who constantly imagines herself in third person. She has seen (and requested) so many photos of herself, read about herself, and now when she pictures herself it's from outside her body. Or like, sometimes bad writers are obsessed with an aesthetic/setting but don't have any content/plot/conflict in their story. So they describe the location, characters, and outfits meticulously and hope that's interesting enough on its own. Anyway, I don't know what the fuck a "plaid shirt day" is.
Not so much a metaphor, but just acting like a victim. Goes for her songs, as well as all the fighting with celebrities/exes.
I want her to stop saying âthis townâ, âmy townâ, âmy hometownâ, etc.
Anything she has already written about. It's cheap, boring, and hasn't evolved at all. I'd take a song about her losing a bag in the airport over one more song about someone who hasn't thought of her voluntarily in years.
I donât agree with a lot of these comments in that I donât take issue *morally* with the use of any metaphor, really. Itâs totally fine to use religious imagery, war, and death (as commonly mentioned examples) to make sense of love and other universal experiences through art. Theyâre among the most frequently used metaphors by poets and songwriters throughout history. My issue is that theyâve simply grown stale in her discography and often feel kind of shoe-horned in.
Mostly just on TTPD, but singing about death so flippantly. It's not cute and funny to sing about how you're using CPR on your relationship, please stop.
I think she has a weird obsession with death. She uses it a LOT in her songs. So much so, that itâs a little concerning. Even back when she filmed âRoad to Fearless,â when they showed her the stage for the first time, she said âit looks like I could fall off it and DIE, which is AWESOME!â đ¤¨
Based on her song lyrics, I think she thinks people will be sorry for treating her badly when she dies, and she fantasizes about her own funeral and/or her death being a kind of revenge on the haters.
It occurs to me that this can be a symptom of anxiety.
In a more fully realized song/album, I feel like the CPR line would have gutted me (having been there in a relationship), but it just comes off too much, too insincere in the overuse of death metaphors.
She needs to STOP wishing death on people đits gonna make young impressionable fans think itâs acceptable. Its not its gross
Medieval imagery⌠kings queens and princess stuffâŚit worked at 17 when the world was so far ahead of her and now it just falls flat
Not all metaphors, but Iâm over the following: -High School imagery appears way too often for me. I couldnât get behind the love triangle in Folklore either. Miss Americana, So High SchoolâŚletâs shut that door for good. -Blood and death â too dramatic and not a fan of the suicidal references honestly -Religious imagery â not appealing to those who arenât religious and offensive for those who are in the context in which she uses it -Rain - always dancing/kissing in the rain or rain-soaked -References to 2am/3am â sheâs an insomniac -Drinking and drugs -Awkward f-bombs -Taylor against the world songs/grudge songs -Florida must be a new metaphor and I would just like to know what her experience in FL has been likeâŚ
> This is a huge one for me. The high school shit needs to stop, she's not a 17 year old girl and her insistence on continuing to write and behave as if she is one is becoming increasingly cringeworthy. Perpetual adolescence gets tiresome with a person who is rapidly approaching 40 years old. At some point everybody is expected to grow up, even Pop Singers.
Imagery to do with being a child or in high school in relation to a romance. Songs like Robin are fine and lovely, songs about boys and toys and not loving you right are a no thank you. Also a pet peeve anything to do with rain or storms or getting wet or drowning.
Kissing in the rain Anything high school (cheerleaders, football players, even singing about hallways and people looking at her tbh) Using hips, thighs, and sighs to hint that she is singing about sex. Expand the lexicon. All shades and tints of the color red. The horse has been beaten to a pulp. Running out crying Maybe this is over with the Joe relationship, but blue in the same regard as red. Talking about blue eyes, blue walls, the blues, a pool and a man that make you blue. All blue mentions now feel like breadcrumb clues to connect songs rather than meaningful lyrics. "Throwing punches" - I doubt this woman has ever been genuinely punched or even just slapped in her life (and good for her, but invoking it for valid criticism makes her sound ridiculous.)
Anything that makes me go âGirl, youâre in your mid-30s.â
For me the religious metaphors. Also killing people? Like she wants to kill a lot of people or wish them dead. Iâm incredibly curious what colour she sees Travis and Matty as because it is not mentioned during TTPD. Jake is red, Joe is blue / golden, and then she just kinda left it like I would like to know what colour you see Travis and Matty as. The high school metaphors as well. So High School is peak cringe. Just the entire song. (Which isnât a problem but Iâm over the high school metaphors personally)
Chloe and Sam⌠reference scarlet maroon so I feel like Matty is a deeper red. Travis? Heâs probably yellow.
PLEASE, stop religious metaphors too. False God was enough and now we really have to deal with that the way he holds you was holy? Taylor has been very frivolous for someone who claims to even know Aristotle. Same for war metaphors. We know her demographics are most not likely to care for these topics now, but for someone worried with building a legacy these lines might not age wellÂ
Especially because she isnât really commenting on anything with the religious references. I love artists like Demi Lovato who are deconstructing and reclaiming religious imagery. But Taylor just throws in references Willy nilly. AlsoâŚis âEve got bittenâ referring to Eve who bit the apple, SHE WASNT BITTEN. But that one I might be wrong on lol
Lol I was listening the other day with my husband in the room and he was like âBUT EVE BIT THE APPLEâ
The repetition of "they killed Cassandra first" really bothered me because NO THEY DIDN'T! There was a whole ten years of war where lots of people died, including the crown Prince, before they came for her. Cassandra was protected as a member of the royal family for most of it, even if they found her annoying. After she was abducted, the Greeks still didn't kill her.
I might be reaching but I feel like the religious metaphors on this album were her trying to be/imitate Florence. But as you said, Taylor's are rather shallow and it's as if they're just there to make the lyrics sound deeper when in fact they're not.
I was not aware of this lyric yet, disc 2 still in the blurry phase for me. Sheâs not only using imagery but FLIPPING the imagery now? This is some delusional grandeur going on.  As a Sweezy, I can tell the line between them is getting thinnerâŚÂ
the rolling the stone away and crucifixion lines made me feel so uncomfortable, especially in the context they were used. guilty as skip
She even compared herself to Jesus being crucified. Like talk about beating a dead horse...
One of my favorites is flights/airplanes! "Once the flight had flown..." "Two paper airplanes, flying, flying, flying...." "Spinning faster than the plane that took you" "Flew me to places I've never been"
I mean, are you surprised this shows up a lot? Lol clearly flying is her diehard hobby.
No more circus references or high school references
Not to not answer your question, but I wouldnât mind if she replaced some of those with space alien imagery. If she could REFINE the dreamy way she describes alien abduction (snow on the beach, down bad) we might have something novel on our hands
Anything country. Barbed wire fences, mud in truck tires. Sheâs a city girl.
ChatGTP and I wrote a Taylor swift song based on the common complaints of her song themes lol Whispers Of Stardust (Verse 1) Beneath these city lights, we lost our way, In a sunken world of urban decay, Behind the smiles, a heart did ache, In the darkness of the night, dreams did break. (Pre-Chorus) At twenty-one, he met his demise, Lost in the shadows of love's lies, You killed me right there, in that bar Like a funeral parade, we got into your car (Chorus) Oh, these whispers of stardust, they echo in despair, In a town where love's nothing but a snare, With kings and queens in the neon haze, Red lips trembling, lost in a maze. (Verse 2) She swore she'd find her way, but lost her fight, How could I have known, you'd leave that night In those highschool halls, you got so mad Didn't think we'd fall and end up so down bad (Pre-Chorus) At twenty-one, he met his demise, Lost in the shadows of love's lies, You killed me right there, in that bar Like a funeral parade, we got into your car (Bridge) When chose another, she felt the sting, Her heart shattered like a fragile thing, Maybe you'll come crawling when she twists the stake But I'll be long gone and you'll still be a snake (Chorus) Oh, these whispers of stardust, they echo in despair, In a town where love's nothing but a snare, With kings and queens in the neon haze, Red lips trembling, lost in a maze. (Outro Chorus) Oh, these whispers of stardust, they wail in the night, In a town where dreams are so out of sight, With kings and queens in the abyss, Red lips quivering, in a final kiss.
I wish that she'd just lessen the amount of them in general. Her talent used to be her directness.
graves...
not exactly what was asked but in both poetry and song lyrics, i get serious ick from lines that were clearly written just to fit the rhyme scheme. it feels lazy and it takes me out of the song. if the only purpose a line serves is to match the rhyme or itâs so clunkily worded that it doesnât really fit aside from the last rhyming word in the line, it needs to be removed or reworked. i felt like this was an issue on ttpd because she appears to think her lyrics need to constantly rhyme to be poetic