Line #10 YMMV/TaylorSwift


1	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
2	** Assuming all the song's protagonists [[WildMassGuessing are the same person]], then the reason they seem to have failed relationships is because they're ridiculously {{Tsundere}} towards the men in their life. For comparison's sake, let's look at a common pattern that relationships with a {{narcissist}} usually follow. So, imagine that you enter a relationship, and ''at first'' your partner seems [[IdealHero perfect]] - exactly what you deserve, after [[NeverMyFault years of suffering from heartbreak]]. But then - omigod! - you discover that your partner is actually their own person, with their own thoughts and wishes and even - gasp! - [[AndThatsTerrible imperfections]]. Oh noes! You thought they were so good, and they so aren't! Oh, that lying cheating bastard! So now you [[InsaneTrollLogic feel deeply betrayed]], and might even write a scathing BreakupSong about it. Sounds familiar?
3	** Others feel the singer of "You Belong with Me" is a stalker. As shown by {{Creator/Laina}} (aka [[ClingyJealousGirl Overly Attached Girlfriend]]), [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLrH0sTz6pE all it takes is a change of tone]] for her lyrics to suddenly sound very creepy.
4	** Another take on "You Belong with Me", based on the video: Why is cute guy's cheerleader girlfriend so bitchy? Maybe because he's ''constantly flirting'' with his cute blonde neighbor, chatting via whiteboard messages from their bedrooms, sitting too close to her on the bench at school and playing with her hair? And when cheerleader gives him a taste of his own medicine--flirting with another player on the football team--he goes berserk. And finally, he dumps his own date ''at the prom'' to dance with the protagonist, who showed up in a ''frickin wedding dress.'' The cheerleader can do better.[[note]]Taylor plays both the women in the video, likely to make us see the events from both sides, so it might be the IntendedAudienceReaction.[[/note]]
5	** {{WebVideo/Todd In The Shadows}} offered another interpretation of the song "Mean," particularly the line "Someday I'll be big enough so you can't hit me." He interprets the line as Taylor believing that once she was super-famous, nobody would be critical of her and she'd never be hurt again, which he points out is unrealistic.
6	** A lot of people think "Gorgeous" is about a woman, pointing out the lack of male pronouns, as well as the narrator's [[{{Tsundere}} behavior]] towards her love interest making more sense if you think she's gay or bi, and in the closet.
7	** A common interpretation of "Ivy" is that the woman in the song is having an affair with another woman.
8	** Given the shift to first-person near the end of "How You Get The Girl", one could assume that the song is sung from the perspective of a woman who wants her ex-lover to take her back in the manner described in the song.
9	** WebVideo/SpectrumPulse states in [[http://www.spectrum-pulse.ca/2017/11/album-review-reputation-by-taylor-swift.html?m=1 his review]] of ''reputation'' that the shift from country to pop since ''Red'' and ''1989'' has caused Swift to lose control of her artistic image and while trying to be a role model without establishing clearly a core set of ideas, "at best she became representative of a [[DramaQueen catty]], [[CantTakeCriticism thin-skinned]] ControlFreak of an artist, or at worst like [[PlayingTheVictimCard the projection of white female victimhood]], or [[MistakenForRacist a projection of far-right leaning authoritarianism]]".
10	** How you interpret "Renegade" will severely impact how sympathetic the narrator and her subject is. Further debate is how much sympathy is intended for both sides
11	*** Is the narrator a loving partner but is struggling with the weight of supporting an unwell subject? Or is she entitled and spoiled to expect so much of him when he can't give her what she needs and wants?
12	*** The subject is stated to be mentally unwell so how badly he treats the narrator is subjected to debate due to his illness and how much is his own personality.
13	* AngstAversion: Some Swift songs delve into some decidedly serious subject matter to the point that some fans feel they are too sad to listen to repeatedly.
14	** ''Taylor Swift'': "Tied Together With A Smile" for its description of intense self-image issues.
15	** ''Speak Now'': "Dear John" for its disturbing description of gaslighting and power imbalance.
16	** ''Red (Taylor's Version)''
17	*** "Ronan" for its sad origin and subject matter, namely being a charity single for the titular boy's family and cancer research.
18	*** "Forever Winter" is about realizing someone who you are close with struggle with their mental health and desperately pleading them to not "[[DrivenToSuicide go]]".
19	** ''Lover'': "Soon You'll Get Better" is about Taylor's mother's battle with cancer.
20	** ''folklore'':
21	*** "this is me trying" is inspired by experience of an addict and / or person with mental illness and how they keep trying just to do very normal things.
22	*** "epiphany" is about her grandfather's time in World War II and how it compares to the experience of frontline doctors and nurses during the pandemic.
23	** ''evermore'': "marjorie" is a GriefSong about her grandmother and how Taylor lost her before she could really appreciate what a great person she was.
24	** ''Midnights'':
25	*** "Bigger Than The Whole Sky" is about a loss of someone who is extremely important despite their short time together and how the narrator struggles to move on from this loss. The depth of grief it conveys led many fans to initially interpret the song as being about a miscarriage.
26	*** "Would've Could've Should've" is an intense song about the anger and grief over an extremely unhealthy relationship with an older man and how it still haunts the narrator years after.
27	* AudienceAlienatingEra: The late 2010s was not a great time for Swift's public image both as a celebrity and an artist, mainly due to her [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity inescapable publicity in the media]] in the wake of ''1989'' and its massive success. When ''reputation'' came out, many fans and critics were disappointed in its "trend-chasing" electronic/hip-hop inspired production and her focus on responding to the press and her personal rivals, which many at this point were just exhausted of hearing about. While still the best selling album of the year, its performance was a notable step-down from ''1989'', and it took until the album's fourth single (the much more personal and relatable "Delicate") for the album to produce a truly sustained hit. Some see the era as stretching further into 2019, with the middling reviews received for ''Lover'' lead singles "ME!" and "You Need to Calm Down" and its further diminished performance when compared to its predecessor. In Swift's ''Miss Americana'' documentary released at the same time, she even went as far as to state that she was past her commercial peak as she entered into her 30s. The very next year, however, ''folklore'''s raving critical reception led to a reappraisal of Swift's entire discography right in time for her "Taylor's Version" rerecordings, combining with the monstrous success of ''Midnights'' and The Eras Tour launching her right back to the peak of the pop music mountain.
28	* AwardSnub:
29	** Swifties are still bitter to this day that "Safe & Sound" was not eligible for the Oscar due to the filmmaker not putting the song in the movie until the closing credits.
30	** "Only the Young" from ''Miss Americana'', despite making the full eligible song list, didn't even make the Academy’s shortlist.
31	* BestKnownForTheFanservice: The Eras tour has made "Vigilante Shit" quickly become known as "the song where Taylor gave a lap dance" as choreography.
32	* BrokenBase:
33	** She has fans who will only listen to her first two albums (since they are more "pure country" than the others), fans who will only listen to her first ''three'' albums, fans who like all of her music in equal measures, and fans who prefer her current pop style over her former country style, and those who just like whatever album they first listened to and grew up with.
34	** The Spotify debacle has proved to be extraordinary divisive, whether it's just Taylor and the record label asserting their right to distribute and market her music the way she pleases, or a money-grubbing move trying to milk every dollar possible from the album's popularity (Even though artists like Ed Sheeran wound up making over four ''million'' pounds from Spotify at one point) and one that encourages even more internet piracy. Taylor essentially blackmailing iTunes by threatening to pull her music from there was also seen as an attempt to shake a few more pennies out of the bank. All that said, in June 2017, Taylor's entire back catalog was finally put back on streaming services, ostensibly to celebrate ''1989'' selling ten million copies (though it's worthy of note that this happened on the same night that Music/KatyPerry's ''Witness'' album dropped).
35	** Somewhat ironically, given her later pro-LGBTQ activism and support of the Democratic Party, Taylor faced some backlash after the 2016 US presidential election for not using her clout as a hugely successful female celebrity to endorse Hillary Clinton, with some even going so far as to [[{{Misblamed}} blame Clinton's surprising defeat on Taylor's lack of an endorsement for her.]]
36	** Her appearance on the cover of ''Time'' in 2017 as one of "The Silence Breakers" as part of the rise against sexual harassment (along with Ashley Judd, Susan Fowler, Adama Iwu, Isabel Pascual, and one other victim whose identity was intentionally hidden with only one of her elbows visible) resulted in a ''lot'' of debates on what forms of sexual assault "actually count" as sexual assault and/or if Swift should be in the cover and the article at all considering her massive celebrity status comparatively to the other Silence Breakers. There's three camps in this discussion: People who thinks she deserve to be on the cover for the lawsuit inspire more people to speak up, those who think that she shouldn't be in the cover and the article at all or [[TakeAThirdOption people who think while she is still important, her spot on the cover should have been for another person in the article]] (most notably Creator/TerryCrews, Music/{{Kesha}} and Tarana Burke).
37	** ''reputation'' is likely the most base-breaking thing she's put out. She spent a good chunk of the album dabbling in the darker, moodier pop sounds of the day ("Ready For It?" for example). That, coupled with the mining of her much-publicized tabloid drama, made the album a bit much for many listeners, though there were still plenty of diehards who were way into it. The base is still pretty broken from this.
38	** The second verse of "You Need to Calm Down" has divided fans due to its bold LGBT support. While many agree she had good intentions and that it maybe came off a little awkward, others view it as a cheap cash-in on Pride Month (when it was released) that inappropriately equates homophobic persecution to the online hate Swift has sung about being the target of many times, as the other verses are about her own experience and the pettiness of online culture in general.
39	* CoveredUp:
40	** Not many people realize that "Untouchable" from ''Fearless: Platinum Edition'' is actually a cover of a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7N9maXOPU0 song]] by the Nashville ''rock band'' Luna Halo.
41	** Back during her "Love Story" phase, she did a live cover of "A Sorta Fairytale" by Music/ToriAmos. Showing a recording of it to a Toriphile is likely to induce a rage-filled rant.
42	** And then there's her cover of "Last Christmas" by Wham!, which is so wildly different in instrumentation and tempo that it might as well be a different song.
43	* CriticProof: Although none of her albums have ever been straight-up savaged, Taylor's shift in genre from more "wholesome" country to aggressive pop was divisive, to say the least. Her response? To openly mock her perceived "haters" and become increasingly more popular, turning her criticism into another chart-topping song.
44	-->'''Taylor Swift:''' I'm sorry. The old Taylor can't come to the phone right now. Why? Oh! Cause she's dead.
45	* CrossesTheLineTwice: "Blank Space". The abuse Taylor('s character) heaps upon her boyfriend [[MoodWhiplash alternates between serious and hilarious]] until it gets to the point that it's ''only'' hilarious.
46	* DracoInLeatherPants: A lot of people like to apply this to the AlphaBitch in the "You Belong With Me" video, painting her as a DesignatedVillain that's entirely justified in being abusive to her boyfriend for talking to another girl. And the protagonist is not simply a random girl; she's said to be his childhood friend, suggesting that the girlfriend's jealousy is down to her own insecurities. Whatever the situation, she still openly flirts with other guys at the football game and presumably wouldn't drive her boyfriend to seek comfort in the other girl if she wasn't abusive in the first place.
47	* EndingFatigue:
48	** A majority of critics agree that while ''Lover'' is a good album, the last third of it is significantly weaker and should have been cut, with the only standout is "Soon You'll Get Better".
49	** The [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition Platinum Edition]] of ''Fearless'' already featured five additional bonus tracks that didn't make the original cut ''and'' a piano version of "Forever and Always"; perhaps to avert the fatigue, these generally more forgettable tracks were all placed at the ''start'' of the now 79-minute album. However, when Taylor [[UpdatedRerelease re-recorded]] the album over a decade later, she not only included all of these songs, she added on "Today Was A Fairytale", six ''more'' unreleased tracks, ''and'' a remix of "Love Story", with all of the "bonus" content now left off at the end of a nearly two-hour-long album.
50	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
51	** The Swifties just can't get enough of Olivia and Meredith, Taylor's cats. Unsurprisingly, neither can Taylor. When she adopted a new kitten named Benjamin after filming the music video for "ME!", the fanbase started fawning over him, too.
52	** Taylor is known for saving some tracks that are massively beloved by critics and fans for deluxe versions of the albums. Most prominent examples include "The Moment I Knew" from ''Red'', "New Romantics" from ''1989'' (which was released as a single), "the lakes" from ''folklore'', "right where you left me" from ''evermore'' and most of the bonus tracks from the 3 AM version of ''Midnights'', especially "The Great War", "Bigger than the Whole Sky", and "Would've Could've Should've".
53	** Her cameo in the song "Crazier" from ''Series/HannahMontana The Movie'' and soundtrack is widely praised by critics, some of whom says it made the film star Miley Cyrus seems bland by comparision. The other song she wrote for the soundtrack "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home'' is also well-received too.
54	** "Three Sad Virgins" - her parody song from Saturday Night Live guest appearance has fans admit that it is ridiculously catchy and would stream it if it is available.
55	** After Laith Ashley - the actor who portrayed the lead love interest from the "Lavender Haze" music video, confirmed that there are multiple different queer people in the background of the partying scene music videos, LGBT fans have been rewatching and "claiming" different people from the scene as their own.
56	** Despite being only listed as a feature on "Renegade", many critics and listeners agree that her singing and writing is the best part of the song, as well as one of the best songs from the album.
57	** "All of the Girls You Loved Before" starts its life as a leak demo from ''Lover'', but its popularity with fans is probably the reason why she later released as a bonus track. The song amassed an extremely high streaming count despite almost no promotion and not being on the Eras tour setlist.
58	** "Hits Different" and "You're Losing Me" instantly became fan favorites when they were released on ''Midnights'' despite only being Deluxe Bonus tracks and neither track being available on streaming platforms until 6 months after their respective release dates on physical media.
59	* EvenBetterSequel:
60	** ''Speak Now''. To quote one reviewer:
61	--->Swift's third album, ''Speak Now'', is roughly twice as good as 2008's ''Fearless'', which was roughly twice as good as her 2006 debut.
62	** ''Red'' and especially ''1989'' were seen as impressive and successful swings at pop superstardom. The latter impressed even such hard-to-please critics as ''Pitchfork'', though such publications have since largely turned against these projects in hindsight.
63	** Many critics and fans have called ''folklore'' Taylor's best album to date, due in part to album's [[DarkerAndEdgier subdued nature]], [[NewSoundAlbum unconventional music stylings]] compared to her previous works, and narrative songwriting.
64	* FandomEnragingMisconception: Saying she "only writes songs about breakups" is sure to draw the ire of fans, who will be quick to point out that, 1) plenty of other artists write songs about breakups, and no one seems to mind when ''they'' do it, 2) the joke is old and tired, and 3) it's simply not true. (She has ''plenty'' of {{Breakup Song}}s, yes, but a quick glance at her discography proves it's far from her only topic.)
65	* FandomRivalry:
66	** Newer {{country music}} fans who would like to see their genre have a return to public prominence if it means shedding some old bonds, versus traditional country music fans who would like to see her head on a stake. Taylor's clean sweep of the [=CMAs=] and [=AMAs=] in the fall of 2009, combined with the outpouring of support from the Music/KanyeWest incident and a critically praised ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' hosting, have led to a massive backlash from the country music community at Taylor's media oversaturation.
67	** In a similar vein, her fans don't exactly get along with fans of Music/KanyeWest, Music/MileyCyrus, Music/CarrieUnderwood, Kellie Pickler, Music/{{Adele}}, Music/LadyGaga or Music/KatyPerry, the latter especially because of "Bad Blood" and her fans have demonized Perry as a result.
68	** After the 2014 Grammys, they're gunning on Music/DaftPunk.
69	** Of ''all bands'' out there, the metal band Music/{{tool}}, due to them going head to head on the ''Billboard'' 200 with ''Lover'' and ''Fear Inoculum'' fighting for the #1 spot. It became a shocker for Swift fans when ''Fear Inoculum'' took over the spot, invoking a bizarre rivalry between Swift and a ''metal band''.
70	* FanonDiscontinuity: Some fans would like to forget that she has made an attempt to switch from country music to pop music, and some fans who prefer the original recording albums would like to ignore her re-recorded ''Taylor's Version'' albums.
71	* FanNickname: T-Swizzle mainly originated from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl00E4bdnQg this]] video, and it stuck in some circles. Tay-Tay is another popular one.
72	* FoeYayShipping: The music video for "Bad Blood" opens with Arsyn betraying Catastrophe (Swift), and the rest of the video is Catastrophe planning revenge on Arsyn. Despite this, a lot of fans ship Arsyn and Catastrophe together, with its [=AO3=] tag being mostly Arsyn/Catastrophe fics. The fact that the song is often mistaken for a break up song doesn't help; neither does Arsyn being played by Swift's real life friend Music/SelenaGomez.
73	* FriendlyFandoms:
74	** With all the rivalry, one artist that most fans of Taylor seems to get along with is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelsea_Ballerini Kelsea Ballerini]] as most of her work [[FollowTheLeader sounds like Taylor's early albums]] as well as the two are friendly to each other.
75	** Taylor's and Music/{{BTS}}'s fandom are friendly toward each other since BTS are unabashedly huge fans of Taylor. For her part, Taylor is one of the few Western artist who consistently interacts with them and respects their artistry.
76	** You can see the Civil War fans crying tears of joy when "Safe and Sound (Taylor's Version)" is released as both of the group members are featured on the song, given that both of them broke up and have not been seen together in a decade.
77	** Outside of music, Swifties are generally friendly with Kansas City Chiefs fans, especially after Taylor started dating star player Travis Kelce. The relationship resulted in many Swifties adopting the Chiefs as their preferred NFL team and most established Chiefs fans welcomed them with open arms.
78	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
79	** She's more popular in Litherland, Formby and Southport than anywhere else! A big name there, almost to Creator/DavidHasselhoff proportions.
80	** She's the most popular Western artist in China, to the point that she is one of the few to have an official Weibo (the Chinese version of Twitter) account.
81	** While in the US ''Speak Now'' is usually overshadowed by the monstrous success of ''Fearless'' and ''Red'', this album is absolutely beloved in South Korea, with many Korean idols stating this is their favourite album and are frequently requested by their fans to cover songs from the album. This can be attributed to the Speak Now tour being the first (and so far ''only'') time she visited the country.
82	* GirlShowGhetto: While she has been breaking out of this mould with both her business savvy and crossover appeal, she still gets a sizable amount of criticism for writing songs that are aimed directly at young women.
83	* GrowingTheBeard: Let's face it; the more pop she got, the more Beard she grew (the apex of this, of course, being ''1989''). Unless you ask a country fan, who'll feel ''very'' strongly toward the opposite. ''Red'' is commonly seen as the turning point when it became Taylor's most positively reviewed album yet. Not that she was ever "panned" by critics (she did, after all, already win an "Album Of The Year" Grammy in 2010 for ''Fearless''), but the album helped gain her respect even from critics who previously dismissed her music as immature and generic.
84	** A lot of people who still viewed her as a pop artist whose music was ultimately nothing more than catchy dancing material changed their tune during her ''Lover'' era, which saw more reflective and pensive musical styles as well as far more willingness on Taylor's part to speak her mind.
85	** "Folklore" and "Evermore" marked another genre shift, this time from pop to [=folk/alternative=]. This shift was well received even outside her normal fanbase, with many critics and audiences praising her songwriting abilities and reconsidering their opinions of her as a generic pop singer.
86	* HarsherInHindsight:
87	** Taylor's crush Andrew Harwick from "Teardrops on My Guitar" [[https://www.vulture.com/2015/12/taylor-swift-drew-hardwick-child-abuse.html was arrested]] [[https://radaronline.com/videos/taylor-swift-crush-andrew-hardwick-abuses-baby/ and convicted for child abuse]] in 2015 along with his wife. Especially harsh with the lyrics about how "perfect" and nice he is.
88	** "Half of My Heart" considered that she and John had a real relationship and he treated her very badly, as the song suggests. Compare Mayer's "Half of my Heart" ("Half of my heart is a shotgun wedding to a bride with a paper ring/And half of my heart is the part of a man who's never truly loved anything") to Swift's "Dear John" ("Well, maybe it’s me/And my blind optimism to blame/maybe it’s you and your sick need/To give love and take it away").
89	** "Mean" becomes downright painful to listen to when considering the whole Kanye West/Kim Kardashian incident and the groping DJ lawsuit. Especially lyrics like "Someday I'll be big enough so you can't hit me." As pointed out by WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows, this line became especially ironic after the release of "Anti-Hero," where Taylor targets herself.
90	** "Tied Together With A Smile" after Taylor Swift spoke about her struggle with anorexia in ''Miss Americana''.
91	** All the reference to Taylor's grandmother Marjorie Finlay in the "Wildest Dream" music video because much more painful when "Marjorie" revealed that she has a lot of angst regarding her grandmother's death after discovering old keepsakes of hers during the Covid lockdown.
92	** "The Lucky One" is about her lamenting the cost of fame, about how female singers are especially replaceable and deciding whether or not the publicity is worth it. Come ''reputation'' as well as ''folklore'' and ''evermore'' this became a major theme and relaying her own experience of the song came true.
93	* HeartwarmingInHindsight: "Bad Blood" and "Look What You Made Me Do", both hinted to be jabs towards her then-former friend Music/KatyPerry becomes this as she and Perry reconciled in late 2018 and the latter appeared in her music video for "You Need to Calm Down".
94	* HilariousInHindsight:
95	** Her first single was called "Music/TimMcgraw", she would later sing a duet with him called "Highway Don't Care".
96	** Also, "Welcome To New York" probably makes the chorus of "Mean" a whole lot funnier (and [[TakeThat biting]]) than Taylor initially intended.
97	** This is either hilarious or harsh, but "Look What You Made Me Do", which contains the line "Cause [the old Taylor Swift] is dead", was released when Taylor Swift was still 27 years old. There exists a list called Club 27, which mentions many celebrities who died at age 27. In short, the old Taylor Swift has joined Club 27.
98	** The popular [[https://giphy.com/gifs/cat-taylor-swift-mash-up-dUiGqPAtdpbEY gif]] [[AnimalMotifs comparing her to a cat]] became this when she was cast as Bombalurina in the [[Film/{{Cats}} film adaptation]] of ''Theatre/{{Cats}}'' in 2019.
99	** Similarly, the line "I'll be the actress starring in your bad dreams" is this in light of the infamous UnintentionalUncannyValley of the film's CG that undoubtedly gave many bad dreams.
100	** Given her bitter war for her masters with Big Machine Records, it is absolutely hilarious that shortly after releasing ''evermore'', she was featured prominently and promoting the lead single "Renegade" for ''Big'' Red ''Machine'''s second album ''How Long You Think It's Gonna Last?''.
101	** "Fearless" has the lyrics "And I don't know why / But with you I'd dance in a storm / In my best dress / Fearless". During a few dates of her "Eras" tour in 2023, Taylor faced some extreme weather in outdoor venues - the show went on, so she did in fact end up dancing in high end dresses in the middle of storms.
102	** "You Belong With Me" has her sing the line "She wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts" to compare herself and a more fashionable romantic rival. Her own changing image makes this a funny line in hindsight, but it's perhaps best exemplified with "Style", where the lyric "And I've got that good girl faith and a tight little skirt" paints ''her'' as the prettier, more fashionably-dressed one.
103	** The chorus of "Fifteen" has the lyric "But in your life, you'll do things greater than / Dating the boy on the football team". In 2023, while she was in the midst of her highly successful Eras Tour, Swift began dating NFL player Travis Kelce.
104	* HollywoodHomely:
105	** In the "You Belong With Me" video, she dons a pair of glasses and braids her hair in order to play the "ugly" girl.
106	** In the "Bejeweled" music video she wear a "disheveled" hairstyle (that looks similar to her self-styled hair during the 2020 folk albums era) and no make up look as Cinderella ''before'' the makeover.
107	* HoYay: There is a substantial subset of fans, known as "Gaylors", who believe that she is a closeted lesbian or at least bisexual, and use various lyrics and other elements of her music and image to support that case.
108	** "Bad Blood" sounds like a breakup song, but WordOfGod says it's about a female friend. Throw in the fact that in the video she was betrayed by a girl (played by Music/SelenaGomez) and it's tough not to hear it as sounding like a slighted lover with boatloads of LesYay.
109	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCjdnpm04j4 This performance of "Style"]] from the 2014 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show features:
110	*** A hand-in-hand power couple entrance from Taylor and Karlie Kloss.
111	*** A song about a sub rosa relationship.
112	*** Taylor overtly checking out and occasionally flirting with the models, and the models eating it up.
113	** The themes of secrecy and fear of exposure on ''Reputation'' were honed in on by a number of LGBT fans.
114	** At one point on the ''reputation'' tour, Taylor performed a song with [[FanNickname Lesbian Jesus]] herself, Music/HayleyKiyoko. The song they chose? Hayley's "Curious," which is explicitly about a complicated relationship between two women. Many people noted that it seemed like they were singing the song to each other. Watch the video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX9G5a3uuwY here]].
115	** "False God" namedrops the very gay West Village neighborhood of New York City.
116	** "betty" and its CreatorDrivenSuccessor "dorothea" are songs sung to an explicit female love interest. Swift has explained that they are part of a wider story in the album and written from a male character's perspective, but that hasn't stopped stopped anyone.
117	* HypeBacklash: For a period in the late 2010s, following the release of ''1989'', she was ''everywhere'', well beyond the point of overexposure. Enough that Swift herself has acknowledged it, saying [[http://www.cbsnews.com/news/taylor-swift-i-think-people-might-need-a-break-from-me/ "I think people may need a break from me"]] in regards to her planned 2016 sabbatical. She moved to London for about a year where she lived pretty much anonymously due to the UK’s strict paparazzi laws. With her becoming just as publicized in the early 2020s, the hype backlash returned as well.
118	* IKnewIt: During The Eras Tour, fans made a game out of guessing correctly the surprise songs she would sing at specific nights, correctly guessing she would highlight certain songs when her collaborators on them (that she is still on friendly term with) released new material ("Snow on the Beach" on the day Music/LanaDelRey released her new album ''Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd'', "Coney Island" when Music/TheNational released ''First Two Pages of Frankenstein''). Other notable instances were guessing "High Infidelity" and "Last Kiss" would be played during the April 29th and July 8th show respectively (dates specifically mentioned in the songs), adding "Nothing New" to the setlist (either as a surprise song or a part of the regular rotation) whenever Music/PhoebeBridgers is one of her opening acts, performing "The Best Day" during the show on Mother's Day and performing "seven" during the stop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (a location mentioned in the song).
119	* LGBTFanbase: Taylor has a rather large gay male fanbase, but she has an even larger fanbase among teenage girls who like girls, being the oft-cited first crush of many. "You Need To Calm Down" is, in part, a love letter to her LGBT fans, while “betty” and later its CreatorDrivenSuccessor "dorothea" was adopted as a lesbian anthem within hours of the release of ''folklore'' and ''evermore''. Her LGBT fans (especially the Trans portion) screams with huge joy when it was revealed she casted trans model Laith Ashley as the love interest for the "Lavender Haze" music video.
120	* MagnificentBitch: "[[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IEPomqor2A8 no body, no crime]]" feat. Music/{{Haim}} from ''Music/{{evermore\|2020}}'': The unnamed narrator helps her friend Este by revealing that Este's husband is cheating on her. Not long after, the narrator takes intense notice when Este's husband kills Este and then begins to move on with his mistress with no evidence pointing to him whatsoever. This results in the narrator killing Este's husband in the house, cleaning it perfectly to get rid of all evidence and disposing of his body out in the water by means of boat. The narrator avoids all other suspicion thanks to an alibi from Este's sister and her husband's mistress caught with "a big life insurance policy".
121	* MemeticBadass: Andrea Swift, Taylor's mom, to most of the fanbase. The Swifties all love and respect Mama Swift... and they all agree that she is the last person they'd want to piss off. "Soon You'll Get Better" is about Andrea's cancer struggles.
122	* MemeticMutation: [[Memes/TaylorSwift 1, 2, 3, let's go bitch!]]
123	* {{Narm}}:
124	** The chorus for "You're Not Sorry," with the way she practically ''whines'' the song's title.
125	** The ending of the video for "Out of the Woods", which removes any chance to think about the symbolism of the video by immediately explaining it.
126	** "Look What You Made Me Do" is Taylor's most frightening song to date... until you get to the chorus which is sampled from [[SarcasmMode the scariest of all songs]], "I'm Too Sexy (For My Shirt)". There's also the fact that her look in the video just screams "trying too hard". [[WebVideo/TheMusicVideoShow The Music Video Show]] looks at the video for [[https://youtu.be/3RSQMFIPAp4 an episode.]]
127	** The "because she's [[ThatWomanIsDead dead]]" bit from "Look What You Made Me Do" is up there with [[Series/{{Riverdale}} Jughead's "I'm A Weirdo" speech]] for on-the-nose edginess.
128	--->'''''WebVideo/TheMusicVideoShow'':''' She's busy buying a phone that isn't 30 years out of date.
129	** The line "Hey, kids! Spelling is fun!" from "ME!" sounds more appropriate for a preschool than it does a pop song.
130	** The entirely of "You Need to Calm Down" was heavily criticized as clueless and performative due to her equating homophobia and systemic discrimination to... her getting hate on the Internet and proclaiming that systemic homophobia as "Shade never made anyone less gay".
131	** "Paris" has this gem of a lyric: "Sit quiet by my side in the shade / And not the kind that's thrown / I mean, the kind under where a tree has grown" that sound extremely clunky and out of place in such a fast and carefree song.
132	* NarmCharm:
133	** Dancing during Kendrick Lamar's performance of "m.A.A.d city" (a high tempo song about gang culture in Compton) is both kind of endearing and was very, very ridiculous.
134	** There are those that think the "Bad Blood" music video is totally ridiculous. There are others that think it's ''so'' ridiculous, it circles right back around into being ''awesome''.
135	** There are a few people who admit that, despite the narminess, the above mentioned "because she's dead" line from "Look What You Made Me Do" is [[NightmareFuel frighteningly effective]].
136	** The extremely heavy amount of religious reference in "Would've, Could've, Should've" might came off as heavy handed to listeners, but Taylor's strong writing and extremely emotional delivery make them work and building to the extremely TearJerker line: "Give me back my girlhood / It was. Mine. FIRST!".
137	* NeverLiveItDown: Her [[{{Pun}} reputation]] among people who are not fans is that she only writes [[BreakupSong Break-Up Songs]] about her exes. While she obviously has several in her catalog, it is far and away not the bulk of her music, and she has transitioned further and further away from them since around ''Music/NineteenEightyNine''.
138	* NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity: The news of Taylor's break up with her long-term boyfriend and sometime collaborator Joe Alwyn in 2023 has caused many songs from her post-2017 catalogue received a major boost in streaming despite none of them are singles, have any promotions and the news was broke on a holiday weekend. Most of them are the songs most explicitly stated (or widely agreed) to be inspired by him ("Call It What You Want", "New Years Day", "King of My Heart", "Dress", "Cornelia Street", "Daylight", "London Boy", "peace", "invisible string", "the lakes", "gold rush", "long story short", "Sweet Nothing", "Paris", "The Great War", "Glitch") along with some notable BreakUpSong ("the 1", "hoax", "champagne problems", "happiness", "right where you left me")
139	* OlderThanTheyThink:
140	** The "Taylor" guitars that Swift plays in concert are not a custom brand--rather, it's a previously existing brand dating to 1974 which has been used by [[Music/RedHotChiliPeppers John Frusciante]], [[Music/FleetwoodMac Lindsey Buckingham]], and Music/NeilYoung among others.
141	** Taylor was by far the most popular artist on the Big Machine label, but she was not the first artist to have a hit on it--Jack Ingram hit #1 with the Big Machine-released "Wherever You Are" a few months before Taylor's debut single, and Danielle Peck had a couple minor singles on it too. Still, by the time she left the label in 2018, she was bringing in about 80% of its revenue.
142	** Fans were shocked by her dark sound and lyrical content on ''reputation'' were met with fans from her country albums day who points out that Taylor have always had songs that harshly criticized people she think did her wrong like "Dear John" and "Mean".
143	* PanderingToTheBase:
144	** She's been accused of this by some fans after ''Fearless'', which, in stark contrast to her first album (which, for the most part, was quite mature but still well-liked by listeners of all ages), is more decidedly geared towards teenagers. Let it not be ignored that the ''small'' majority of her first album's sales were from the teenage crowd.
145	** Promotion of ''Red'' did little to appeal to fans of her earlier, more country-inspired, work. ''All three'' of her poppy Max Martin collaborations were released as singles, with only one more traditionally "country" song, "Begin Again", thrown in for good measure.
146	** Some people suspect the rap verse in "Shake It Off" is just a corporate thing meant to appeal to the modern crowd- hell, some people accuse ''the whole song'' of being pandering to audiences who only like synthetic music.
147	** A lot of critics and fans have accused her of compromising her songwriting for accessibility and profit after transitioning to pop since ''Red'', which is why ''folklore'' and ''evermore'' were such a pleasant surprise since they were very obviously not made with marketability in mind.
148	* PeripheryDemographic:
149	** Some of the older generation of country music singers, including at least two of Music/TheOakRidgeBoys, have stated that they enjoy Taylor because of how well she knows her target audience.
150	** She has ''many'' middle and senior aged fans, probably for the exact same reason.
151	** [[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ae5x8a/cant-shake-it-off-how-taylor-swift-became-a-nazi-idol She was very popular among Neo-Nazis and alt-right types]] due to being an attractive Caucausian female artist with a GirlNextDoor image and them perceiving her silence on her political beliefs to mean she was conservative. This seems to have gone away after Swift [[https://www.instagram.com/p/BopoXpYnCes/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link publicly came out]] to support Democrat candidates in the 2018 midterm elections (specifically for house and senate). Although she had also been quietly threatening legal action against a few websites that had been saying she was their Aryan princess for a while before she stated her political beliefs. She probably lost the few holdouts once she released the single “You Need To Calm Down “ which is her most politically charged song ever. She’s explicitly supporting LGBT rights (made more clear in the lyric video) and calling out toxic online masculinity.
152	** When ''folklore'' and ''evermore'' released, she gained an entirely new audience of middle-aged male indie rock fans, who'd probably never even listened to albums such as ''Speak Now'' and ''1989''.
153	* RemadeAndImproved: A lot of listeners agree that many of her ''Taylor's Version'' are significantly better than the original due to her matured vocals and some tweaks to the production. Notable songs include "Change" from ''Fearless'', "The Last Time" and "Girl At Home" from ''Red''.
154	* RetroactiveRecognition:
155	** Swift [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOlOdyruTbo&ab_channel=ClassicSports Performing the National Anthem]] at the 2006 Thanksgiving Classic between the Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins.
156	** Creator/DominicSherwood as the love interest in the music video for "Style" for fans of ''Series/{{Shadowhunters}}'', where he plays the male lead.
157	* RonTheDeathEater: On the flip-side to DracoInLeatherPants, the protagonist of "You Belong With Me" is sometimes painted as an obsessive stalker. Never mind that she and the guy were already childhood friends and it was him who looked to her for comfort after fights with his girlfriend - while she does have a crush and wish they could be together, she respects that he's in a relationship and cares more about the fact that his girlfriend is abusive than him not being with her. She doesn't actually make a move on him until after he's broken up with the girlfriend.
158	* SacredCow: While Taylor's fanbase is widely adoring, it's also so massive that, no matter ''which'' songs of hers you dislike, you're bound to find at least a few fans who will agree with you. However, there are some major exceptions.
159	** "Music/AllTooWell" is so revered by both fans and critics that disliking it is practically heresy in the fanbase. If you're willing to tell a group of fans you hate it, you're braver than most.
160	** "Ronan" was written to raise money for cancer research, and was written about and named for a real child who died from it. The boy's mother is even credited as a cowriter because most of the lyrics are adapted from her blog. Due to the tragic reason it was written and the fact that all proceeds from the song and its rerecording goes to Ronan's mother, you either say you like the song or you say ''nothing''.
161	** To a lesser extent, "Soon You'll Get Better" is sometimes treated as this for similar reasons, as it's written about Taylor's mother's battles with cancer. While it's not as universally exempt as "Ronan," many fans consider it to be in poor taste to rank or critique it because it's about such a vulnerable aspect of Taylor's real life.
162	* [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct She Really Can Act]]:
163	** Good-girl sweetheart Taylor Swift does a rather good job portraying an insane PsychoExGirlfriend in the video for "Blank Space".
164	** Swift has shown surprising acting range in her few movie roles. Many critics called her one of the highlights in the SoBadItsGood movie version of ''Film/{{Cats}}''.
165	* SuspiciouslySimilarSong:
166	** "Blank Space" sounds quite a bit like Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love."
167	** The delivery of the verses in "...Ready For It?" off ''reputation'' bears a striking similarity to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys "Empire State of Mind" in rhythm and tone.
168	** "Shake it Off" sounds very similar to Music/OutKast's "Hey Ya!"
169	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks:
170	** Many critics responded this way to her career arc as she [[ItsPopularNowItSucks shifted more into pop music]], accusing her of sacrificing the authenticity and relatability of her earlier projects for either more generic songs or ones that got ''too'' specific about the details of her multi-millionaire celebrity lifestyle.
171	** One of her songs which didn't make it onto an album, "I'd Lie", had a very similar chorus melody to "GirlNextDoor" by Saving Jane (which ironically, had the exact same premise as "You Belong With Me"), so for later live performances of it she had to sing it in a very odd key.
172	** Her acoustic cover of "September" by Earth, Wind, & Fire has been criticized for not accurately reflecting the style of the original. Ironically, it does represent something of a throwback to ''her'' original sound.
173	** Not all of the "Taylor's Version" songs were received as warmly as the original, particularly those from early albums whose tone and content fit more with a woman in her early 20s than one in her 30s. Notable examples are "You Belong With Me" from ''Fearless'', "22" and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" from ''Red'' and "Style" from ''1989''.
174	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: ''The Eras Tour'' is supposed to be a celebration of her music up to 2022, but the DemotedToExtra treatment of ''Speak Now'' and the debut album (the former only has one song in the permanent setlist while the latter has ''none'' at all) has left quite a few numbers of fans unhappy, particularly with all FreezeFrameBonus foreshadowing ''Speak Now'' has received for the ''Midnights'' release cycle. Of course, given that both albums are still owned by Big Machine at the time of the tour and their content is not as mainstream as ''1989'' and ''reputation'', this can be a case of PragmaticAdaptation. She finally added an extra song from ''Speak Now'' to the permanent setlist after the release of the rerecord.
175	* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Her performance in the infamous ''{{Film/Cats}}'' movie. She was praised as one of the few highlights of it, with the MovieBonusSong she helped write "Beautiful Ghosts" even getting Grammy and Golden Globe nominations.
176	* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The music video for "ME!" is just ''gorgeous'', with exquisite sets and dreamlike visuals.
177	* UnexpectedCharacter: ''Nobody'' expected Taylor to drop ''folklore'' a year after ''Lover'', not to mention the fact the album was an extreme left turn from her previous pop style. Fewer still were expecting her to drop ''another'' album just a few months afterwards.
178	* UnintentionallySympathetic: The cheerleader from the "You Belong With Me" video. She could be a nice girl, just frustrated with Taylor flirting with her boyfriend. However, it should be noted that the cheerleader also flirts with another guy while she's still dating her boyfriend.
179	* VindicatedByHistory: ''Red'' received mostly positive, though not glowing, reviews upon its 2012 release and spawned a number of hit singles (most notably "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"). Roughly eight years later, it found itself near the top of many "Best Of Decade" lists, was given a retrospective 5-star rating by [=AllMusic=] and is now (along with ''1989'' - arguably her big critical breakthrough upon release) considered to be one of the greatest albums of the 2010s, mostly on the strength and praise of the songs that ''weren't'' the big singles.
180	* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical:
181	** The main love interest in the "willow" (and retroactively "cardigan") music video is an Asian man. Some Swifties have interpreted that this is a symbolic gesture to fight back against the anti-Asian sentiment that has risen in the US during the early days of the COVID-19 Pandemic, with some pointing out that this is the second love interest of color appeared in her music video after Lover's titular track.
182	** The love interest for the "Lavender Haze" music video is a Trans Man - which many fans interpret as symbolic protest for the increasingly transphobic legislation and public sentiment in the United States during the early 2020s.
183	* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: In the video for "Blank Space", Taylor's character spins around an [[TemptingApple apple]] and takes a bite, with the next shot being her boyfriend spitting it out.
184	%%Please don't add any more asides about Taylor Swift's relationships.%%
185	* WinBackTheCrowd: The general reaction from critics every time Swift switches her style seems to reflect this. Her move from country to '80s-influenced pop since ''1989'' gained Swift a lot of respect from critics who viewed it as her embracing her strengths, especially when news came out that she did so against the wish of her label. Once some began to tire of that era of her sound, ''folklore'' and ''evermore'' had her remaining critics praising her for the albums' even greater maturity and sophistication. Those two albums finally put her back in everyone's good graces after a lot of them have accused her of compromising her writing ability for commercial success since ''Red''.

Context YMMV / TaylorSwift