No, I don’t care who that song is about

“When this album comes out, gossip blogs will scour the lyrics for the men they can attribute to each song, as if the inspiration for music is as simple and basic as a paternity test.”

Miss Taylor Swift, I could not have put it better or more eloquently myself.

As a massive Taylor fan, ever since I can remember, all people think about when they hear her songs are which of her exes they are about. Over the many years I’ve loved and been forced to defend her against these people, it has made me more and more angry, to the point where I felt the need to write a blog post about it. Because that’s what people do when they need to let something out but people in real life are bored of your ranting, right?

To me, it’s simply degrading to pick songs apart and apply your extravagant theories to them. As Taylor says in her perfect introduction to ‘Reputation’, why should a song be reduced to something as simple as that?

Don’t get me wrong, I am always looking for deeper meanings in songs. I love studying lyrics (after all I studied English at uni) and appreciating the emotions and feelings that the songwriter is trying to put across. But when people do it to Taylor’s songs, that’s not what they’re doing. They’re simply twisting her words to fit their own fantasies instead of taking them for what they are.

Taylor truly is an incredible songwriter, and her lyrics deserve to be appreciated because they are truly beautiful. But I am done with seeing Buzzfeed articles pop up all over social media every single day entitled ‘Is Taylor’s new song about *insert famous guy she dated*?!’, ‘Was Taylor throwing shade at *insert another celebrity who’s been involved in Taylor drama* in her latest single?!’. Please stop. I don’t care.

Taylor has made it clear she writes songs from her heart and from her own experiences. Doesn’t every songwriter?  So why is it only ever Taylor who is picked on in this way? I might be overreacting, but it’s unfair.

It’s unfair because Taylor’s songs are so much more than the ex you think her song is about. It’s unfair because she has so many other songs which are about deeper things than slagging off an ex-boyfriend. It’s unfair because you place her in a box labelled ‘only sings about guys who have done her wrong’.

This narrative that people seem to have made up that Taylor is always ‘playing the victim’ by writing songs about her exes is just completely offensive and wrong. She writes songs about what she knows best, yes about heartbreak but also about love and friendship and family and about empowering women and being strong. And maybe I’m being dramatic but it seems like I’m just seeing more and more people labelling her music as just revenge on her exes or being petty about people she’s dated before.

I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m tired of how people treat Taylor. I don’t suppose it will ever change, as most people are stubborn once they have their minds made up. But how come other artists don’t get picked upon in this way?

I don’t see any gossip sites writing a theory about who Ed Sheeran’s new song is secretly about, or deep investigations into who inspired Adele’s album. Not to mention that when other people write songs about their exes, they seem to get praised for it. I adore Little Mix, but it’s totally obvious that ‘Shout Out to my Ex’ is about Zayn. And when people heard it, they were like ‘YAS GIRL POWER FEMALE EMPOWERMENT YOU GO GAL’.

I’m not saying this shouldn’t happen, but why doesn’t Taylor get the same reaction? ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ is, in my opinion, an amazing song for telling the haters to back off and whoever did Taylor wrong that they don’t bother her any more. And whoever that person is, I don’t need to know, because I appreciate the song for its message and what it stands for, not for who it’s allegedly about.
I really hope this hasn’t just sounded like a massive rant and you can see my logic here. I guess I’ve just seen one too many Buzzfeed posts theorising on who this Taylor song is about, and I’ve had enough.

Why can’t we just listen to a song and think ‘wow, that’s a good song’?

When I hear a song, I really don’t care who it’s about. I get that sometimes it’s fun to speculate, but when you degrade a song and the person who wrote it as nothing more than them slagging off the person you think it’s about and nothing else, that’s when it becomes problematic.

What matters is how it makes me feel, the emotions it evokes in me, whether it makes me feel happy or sad, whether it makes me want to dance or whether it empowers me and makes me feel like I can do anything.

So no, I don’t care who that song is about. I care what it’s saying to me, and nobody else.
This was a bit of a different post for me, I’m sorry that I haven’t posted in a while I just haven’t had much inspiration for posts recently hence why this one is a little random but I hope you enjoyed nevertheless!

Let me know if you agree with me, and if you don’t, let me know why! I’d also love to know if you like posts like this and whether I should do more in the future, so leave your comments below!

As always thank you so much for reading, x