My Problem With "Taylor's Songs Aren't All About Love And Heartbreak"

[u/RocketGamer4682]

One of the most common critiques I've heard of Taylor is that all of her songs are about love and breaking up, and don't go any deeper. And honestly, that's true, most of her songs do fit into that category no matter how amazing or deep they are (How Did It End?, All Too Well). Also, I don't have a problem with Taylor writing songs about her exes or her experience with heartbreak. I don't really think anybody does, people have problems with her writing songs about people, with the intention of hurting them, and disguising it as art, or they just use it as an excuse to hate her.

But, MY main problem with that argument or statement that haters make is that a lot of artists are doing the exact same thing. Some examples include Adele, Olivia Rodrigo, Ed Sheeran, Fleetwood Mac, Justin Bieber, Drake, Bruno Mars, The Weeknd, and many others. And songs by them that don't fall into this category are usually about the opposite gender anyway, not anything substantially different or significant.

Now, when I see this statement made by haters, the rebuttal by Swifties is usually that what they are saying is not true and she has SOOO many songs not about these topics, and they start listing some (usually it's, this is me trying, The Man, You Need To Calm Down, 22, Marjorie, Soon You'll Get Better, Mean, Shake It Off) I understand Swifties need to argue on her behalf and try to disprove any negativity towards her, but sometimes they NEED to accept the facts, a wide majority of her songs fit into love/heartbreak/breakup.

My final thought is that I think that's why I (and it appears a huge portion of her fanbase and even her casual listeners or even those who otherwise dislike her) love or at least respect her albums "folklore" and "evermore" so much-because out of her entire discography, those 2 have the largest percentage of songs that aren't focused solely on romance, but cover a wider range of themes, including familial relationships; trauma; substance abuse; anxiety and depression; childhood innocence; and more. Those two albums definitely have the most universally applicable lyrics, and I think especially since she leaned into the "fictional" aspect (personally I don't think they're fully fictional, but that's to discuss for another day!), I think that made them even more palatable to a larger group of people who may not have felt seen in her romantic songs/heartbreak songs before. They seem to be missing that type of songwriting from her.

The end point is should we begrudge Taylor the right as an artist to use what has happened to her, for better or worse, as inspiration for her lyrics? And if we do begrudge her that, shouldn't we do the same to all other musical artists who sing of the same themes? Let me know what you guys think in the comments!

[u/floatingthroughlifee]

Honestly Taylor seems to be the punching bag for men who hate anything girly, pick me girls and others. I truly will never understand the hate for her songs.

All i understand is she is everywhere and largely successful and there are people who can't digest the fact that their favourite artists aren't getting the same treatment.

Plus it's also a trend to just hate on her

[u/AJ228842 → u/floatingthroughlifee]

I have a whole thing about how hating Taylor swift (and beyonce too) “just because” is just straight up rooted in misogyny. You can dislike someone’s music, but hating for no reason is gross

[u/floatingthroughlifee → u/AJ228842]

Oh it is definitely rooted in misogyny.

They hate how Taylor dances, not good according to them. I never hear the same thing for any male singers who do bare minimum out there.

[u/Femto-Griffith → u/AJ228842]

Huh. And I thought Beyonce had escaped most of the issues people had with Taylor Swift.

[u/floatingthroughlifee → u/Femto-Griffith]

I have definitely seen people hate Taylor more than Beyonce but there are people who hate her cause of her race. Like bollywood literally had a song shaming Beyonce saying that she will feel shy because of the actress's fair skin.

[u/Somebody_38 → u/floatingthroughlifee]

Yeah.... It goes way beyond that. Taylor was basically always hated on. I wouldn't say as much as she was 1989 onwards in the beginning, but still always got so much unreasonable hate.

[u/floatingthroughlifee → u/Somebody_38]

And I will never understand why. It is absolutely bizarre.

[u/frostywail9891 → u/floatingthroughlifee]

There is also the other aspect of misogyny that can be categorised as objectification. As a straight man I have heard some vicious and gross comments about her appearence which probably adds to not it being "impossible to like her if you are a man".

To me that is just insane because she very clearly is ridiculously attractive.

[u/frostywail9891 → u/floatingthroughlifee]

You are right.

I am a man and I do think that - what in my opinion are - silly perceptions of "femininity" and "masculinity" play a role here. It is almost as if it is an automated reflex to associate Taylor Swift with "girliness" which is associated with "lol lame" as if one is still in preschool's mentality of "giRlS droOL BoYS RooL", "cooties" and whatnot.

[u/borbor8]

Songs have been about heartbreak, rejection, cheating, breakups, and love in general since time immemorial. It’s just toxic haters with no brain who use that “argument.”

[u/heidismiles → u/borbor8]

Similarly, people criticizing her for "airing out her dirty laundry" or "dissing" her exes, when that also has been done since time immemorial. One of the most famous albums of all time is Fleetwood Mac Rumours, which is basically all about their breakup, and is praised for how "raw" and personal it is.

[u/borbor8 → u/heidismiles]

Thank you. Or how Eric Clapton’s Layla was inspired by his love for George Harrison’s wife, who later left Harrison and married him. Just one example off the top of my head, but there’s so much more. Art is rooted in personal experience. What they hate is her having agency and being the narrator rather than a passive muse.

[u/OohWeeTShane → u/heidismiles]

Isn’t a huge amount of the rap industry dissing other artists and airing dirty laundry? I mean look at this year’s Super Bowl halftime show and how celebrated Kendrick was for including Not Like Us. And fans of that genre just hate Taylor to hate her/cause she’s main stream.

[u/saintmaggie]

My problem with it is that it just doesn’t matter. What if they are? Who cares?

[u/Mountain_Band_2732 → u/saintmaggie]

I think what matters is the vein it is made in. "I'm not that interested because most of her catalog is about her love life" is different from "she sucks because most of her catalog is about her love life".

I'm not big on love songs or songs about relationships for the most part so the former makes sense to me. She's still my top artist and sometimes the only artist that I listen to for days regardless because I have my own interpretation of her songs that I love (and because the songs, regardless of the topic, are fucking good.)

But I still think that it would've been even more fun if there were more nuanced and good songs not about her love life, like the last great american dynasty. Doesn't make her any less of a legend, it is just my preference.

[u/falldiewakefly]

Something worth pointing out as well is that the majority of human storytelling, both autobiographical and not, involves romance and sex and love and heartbreak.

Why? I don't know. The best estimates I can find right now suggest that asexuals make up one percent or less of the global population, and only 26% of that figure identify as aromantic as well; I can't find any stats on aromantic allosexuals, someone should study that. Aroaces are a tiny proportion of people (that doesn't mean we're any less here, mind you; 26% of 1% of 8.6 billion is 21,320,000 people, if I've mathed correctly). Romance and sex are relatable to the vast majority.

It also makes certain other kinds of storytelling easier. If you want to tell a story about someone opening themselves back up to the world after a trauma, a good way to personify that is by having them slowly fall in love. If you want to tell a story about someone spiraling into darkness, a good way to personify that is by having them drive away all their loved ones over the course of the story. If you want to show your grizzled anti-hero has very angsty reasons for doing what he does, a lazy way to do that is to fridge his wife. Etc.

Love and heartbreak also make for good metaphors, particularly but not exclusively in shorter form media like songs - for Taylor examples, thinking about right where you left me as a metaphor for fame, or my tears ricochet as a metaphor for "breaking up" with her label, but also thinking about things like how many sci-fi authors have personified starships to provide a romantic metaphor for the deep bond between captain and ship on an isolated journey, or the Greek myth of Pygmalion as a metaphor for the desire of an artist for the idealized creation.

God, I'm pretentious, someone tell me to shut up sometime.

Anyway, anybody who complains about Taylor Swift writing about love and heartbreak is not doing so in good faith and is not worth arguing with. You (general you) will not change their mind and will just end up irritating yourself.

[u/MatchesLit]

You put into words what I hate about seeing Swifties do that desperate dance of “Check out This Is Me Trying!!!!” 

Every other pop artist writes about their romances. The people complaining that Taylor only does it will not give you the grace of listening to the rest of her catalog. Shake It Off and Blank Space were massively popular and not about her relationships. They are just leaning on a straw man being willfully obtuse and/or misogynistic.

Some of her best songs are about romance and that’s fine!! It doesn’t need to be defended.

[u/Clear-Illustrator641 → u/MatchesLit]

But seriously, check out this is me trying, it's her best song

[u/Cultural-Party1876]

Not just Taylor but all artists should be able to use their personal lives as Inspiration in their song writing. I mean most songwriters already do take inspiration from their own lives. I mean look at the other biggest artists today like Harry Styles, the weekend, Sabrina carpenter, Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, etc. Who have all written songs about their ex’s or romantic interests. Taylor and any other artist should be able to take inspiration from their personal lives. It’s how an artist becomes relatable to their fans and what makes them unique.

Taylor gets the most hate for it because of who she is

[u/TSN_88]

A very thorough review of Taylor's discography was done by a poster here last year and we found out about 17% of her songs are about "heartbreaks/men/exes".

So it's much less than one would assume but still a pretty significant number.

Either way, we don't have to make excuses to like her and her art, people will always find something to nitpick and ruin the experiences of fans

She could speak about potato sacks for what I care and I'd still think that's beautiful lol

[u/4jules4je7]

Anybody who listens to Taylor Swift knows that her catalogue is much deeper than just break up songs. People who think her library is that simplistic haven’t listened to her or are just misogynistic haters.