Music: All Too Well

Following on from my previous post about the most heartbreaking Taylor Swift song I thought I would talk about the one song that I find so earth shattering and agonizing to listen to from the first string of guitar playing, I almost cannot stand to hear it even at all, All Too Well.
This song tells a story with the most intricate detail, the little moments - from wearing his sisters scarf, the weather being described at the time to the highest point and the emotional factor 'I might be okay, but I'm not fine at all.' A line that has all gone through our heads at some point no matter the reason. I think what makes it even more HEARTBREAKING is how you can picture every single step she takes in your head 'cause here we are again on that little town street, you almost ran the red cause you were looking over at me' You can literally see it happening right in front of you, with the background music getting deeper and picking up you can see it crash and fall right in front of you, it makes it too real. Relationships, in my experience all come down the little things, the tiny habits you both have , the way one of you says something, the lines on your face, the small things that add up to big moments like 'here we are again in the middle of the night, we're dancing round the kitchen in the refrigerator light'. It's the memories like that we all hang on to.

If the whole story on it's own wasn't heart-wrenching enough it hits a climax at 3:46 with a bridge where Taylor with determination and anger looks back and gives her response, the effect of something which was perfect is just broken.
'Time won't fly it's like I'm paralyzed by it, I´d like to be my old self again
but I'm still trying to find it.' I think that's the saddest thing, when someone you once knew, changes and all memories you have of them become bad. You feel like you've lost yourself and the way she portrays this makes all those feelings come up to the surface and bubble. Originally 10 minutes, this song had to be cut down for the album but this just shows that clearly there is much to this story and situation than the six minute snippet she shows us. The way she breaks down and is vulnerable, that's scary, Taylor is a role model for so many girls especially with 'awkward boy' problems but the way she admits that she's actually broken down and torn into pieces about it instead of being more 'picture to burn' about it is scary. At one time in our lives I think we all go through something like this and the way the melody, the lyrics, and the background music can just bring the emotions back can be terrifying.....we remember it all too well.

Music: Sad, Beautiful, Tragic

Taylor Swift writes a lot of sad songs. The word “sad” is pretty well used, I suppose, but what if I used the word heartbreaking ?

What if I asked you to name a Taylor Swift song that literally has left you curled up in a fetal position on your bedroom floor with tears streaming down your face? You’d probably say Last Kiss, or Dear John or All Too Well.

Personally I have spent many nights on my own bedroom floor listening to Breathe on repeat in the complete darkness in my pjs with a duvet wrapped around myself while rain falls down at my windows. Nights like those, where I don’t want to talk to anyone, and just turn off my phone, are the most perfect for Taylor Swift songs.

What defines a sad song? – quiet and slow and melancholy – but then again you’d call Forever and Always a pretty sad song, too, wouldn’t you? And not just because of the piano version, but because of lines like back up, baby back up, did you forget everything, because those lines hit home, in whatever way they do, for you. That’s what makes a Taylor Swift song sad, the lyrics.

The name of a person flutters through your mind when you hear a lyric like 'and you come away with a great little story of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you' and a memory passes in front of your eyes when Taylor sings 'you call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest.'Taylor’s best sad songs have a tendency to reach a climax – in Dear John she howls that she’s shining like fireworks over his sad empty town. In All Too Well she wonders, angrily over a noise of guitars, if she asked for too much. In Last Kiss she comes pretty close to tears as she explores what’s left of a relationship that she never thought would end. In Cold As You she’s accusatory, screaming out you 'never did give a damn thing, honey.'All of these are moments that you scream-cry through alone lips yncing in your bedroom at 2am, that have you thinking no song has ever made me cry this hard until another Taylor Swift song with the next album has you saying the same thing. But once again, it’s the lyrics that really get you. What happens when you get a song that has no “chill inducing” climax? When happens when you can’t scream-cry along? What happens when Taylor doesn’t accuse anyone of anything, doesn’t howl, doesn’t get angry? From the beginning, the first five seconds of Sad Beautiful Tragic, with the ringing, the sound of forgetting, and the thumping of a train car blazing down the tracks, all the way to the end, the sudden drop off and silence, giving a feeling of being left behind altogether by a train that you can only see in the distance, there is no climax. There are no accusations. There is only a dismal sort of hollowness. The  plucking of the ukulele, marking each and every downfall of the relationship.  It’s almost like you can feel her giving up. 'We had a beautiful magic love there, but now it’s just…sad'. Tragic. Beautiful enough to want to get it back, and tragic enough that you just can’t. It ends, just like that with no warning, no happiness, it ends. 

The Taylor Swift Effect

After reading many blog posts online and many peoples comments on news websites I thought I would have a rant about the latest Taylor Swift drama and give my view on the subject..

I have been a fan of Swift ever since I discovered her first ever music video Tim McGraw on YouTube in 2006 and since then I have been lucky enough to see her perform in the UK at every single available opportunity, I have also been lucky enough to meet her mum, bandmates and almost the superstar herself multiple times. Reading comments online about her being a 'slut' and a 'whore' have this funny way of offending me too. Since the release of her latest album her popularity seems to be increasing as she has suddenly moved from the country market to the pop charts but this hasn't come without it's criticisms. 

Yes, she writes her songs about relationships and the emotions that come with them

Yes, she names and shames in half of her songs

Yes, she might come across as whiney and annoying and the only thing worth having is a boyfriend

BUT..

What songs nowadays aren't about the subject of romance? Isn't it nicer that young girls are listening to songs about one day finding their prince charming and falling in love rather than going into a club and getting drunk? 

''Taylor Swift’s life revolves around being in a relationship and that makes her a negative role model for young girls.'

I could understand this completely if it had some kind of truth in it but it does not at all, it's a popular topic in her songs I agree but first off, just because her songs revolve around love most of the time does not mean her life revolves around love. She writes love songs and if you don’t enjoy her music because it is too relationship-centered then stop listening to her. I do not respect the people that criticize her simply because she writes about relationships. I think the reason she writes most about love is because it’s a large part of her life, and also because it has become her 'thing' no matter if you like it or not, she's not going to be stopping that for anybody because all of her fans like her for the exact same reason. 

“After hearing my songs, a lot of people ask me, ‘How many boyfriends have you HAD?’ And I always tell them that more of my songs come from observation than actual experience. In other words, you don’t have to date someone to write a song about them.”

—	Taylor Swift

There is nothing wrong with naming the people who hurt her, she's a well known celebrity most of her relationships are public it's bound to happen and I'm sure that her suitors are well aware of this, it's what she's known for after all.

If you full on believe that she so called 'slut shames' (which I am not entirely convinced of), than DON’T LISTEN TO HER MUSIC. It’s as simple as that. If that one line in that one song (better than revenge, the one example I have found of it) has turned you off her music forever, so be it. Stop listening to her and don’t buy her music.

'Taylor Swift only dates guys to write songs'

So what if she has supposedly dated alot of guys or you're favourite celebrity crush, this by no means means that she is a bad person, the amount of people someone has been with does not convey there character at all at the end of the day it's her choice and if she wants to write about it then she can all she wants. The media is obsessed with tearing apart her love life, there is no celebrity that escapes this unfortunately a lot can be and is made up so before you go reading gossip sites about her being pictured with seven different guys in a week and dating every single one of them, just use your brain and think 'is this really true?'.

Taylor Swift is not the only music artist who might not be supposedly sending out the best possible message about relationships and maybe her music does makes it seem like a boyfriend is the key to happiness, but at the end of the day young girls would be getting this message regardless of Taylor Swift songs. She’s just a girl who wanted to write some songs to express her feelings, maybe you believe she’s childish, but she’s not the one who invented this problem, disney films and fairytales also have as much to answer for.

Personally Taylor Swifts music has been there for me when nothing else has and I find comfort in knowing that she has probably gone through the same situations as me. Until she actually does something 'scandalous' other than writing cute little love songs or sad breakup songs I will always have respect and adoration for her.