6 minute readrundown
Taylor Swift spoke about songwriting in a 30-minute interview with The New York Times. He touched on a wide range of topics, including fan theories and how he feels about the criticism he receives. He also talked about why music needs more male confessional musicians and how his songwriting has evolved as he’s gotten older.
Taylor Swift spoke at length about her songwriting in her first major interview of the year with The New York Times.
In the 30-minute video, the singer explores her discography and details her songwriting process. She’s also candid about what she accepts about being a public figure, how criticism influences her best music, and what she thinks about fans’ analysis of her lyrics.
There was a lot to gain from the discussion. Here are some of her most thought-provoking quotes.
Swift on becoming a public figure
While discussing “Mirror Ball,” Swift spoke about her feelings about being in the spotlight and her acceptance of the attention that artists like her receive.
“As someone who’s in the public eye, I really started to realize that you’re a mirror,” she said. “You’re a mirror to your fans, to the media, to people on the internet, or just random people. People who don’t even really care about your music, but they know who you are. How they feel about themselves, and their lives are projected by how they perceive you.” Being a public person making art is a mirror ball, and that’s part of the reason I’ve been able to stay disciplined about myself through all of this. Knowing that, I’m really aware of that dynamic to a certain extent, but I’m still endlessly fascinated by people, the human experience, why people are the way they are, and how they feel.
She talked about how she decided to make a “shockingly vulnerable confession” in her song, recalling the lyrics from “Mirror Ball”: “I was never a natural. All I do is try, try, try.”
“At first you said that, and I remember writing it and thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is what it’s like, is this what you’re trying to say?'” she recalled. “And I thought, ‘Actually, I feel like a lot of people feel that way.'” When a line feels too true, it always overrides my discomfort. Because I actually think nothing is too true. ”
Swift’s songwriting confessions and why more male artists should be doing it
Swift began talking about the treatment of herself and other women over the past decade, then laid out why having more male confessionals is a good thing for everyone.
“The 2010s were a time when we didn’t need women in the entertainment industry…we’ll talk about that later,” she joked. “We’re all still kind of dragging our feet from that, and I think there’s a much healthier conversation now of, ‘There’s a difference between art and going on Instagram Live and ranting.'” There’s a difference. This is a song. This requires skill. This requires skill. This requires specialized knowledge. ”
She then talked about why she’s so excited about Sombre’s songwriting, calling herself a “huge fan.”
“His lyrics are very confessional,” she said, and one of them is, “‘I don’t want to show the eyes of a girl I can’t forget to other boys’ children.'” are you kidding? Having a male artist say something like that is really good for the cause of giving women something to say – if there’s a way to make confessional songwriting a little more something that people don’t think of as… dirty. ”
She expanded on the scoop, saying, “Are rap beefs dirty or confessional? Let’s make it a conversation about music instead of just attacking female artists. And I think the more male artists that are dirty, emotionally complex, confessional, or upset, the happier I’ll be.”
Swift talks about how her songwriting has evolved over time
The singer detailed the changes in his songwriting over the past few years. “All I can tell you is that as I’ve grown, the intensity of the no-pun ‘message-in-a-bottle’ nature of my songwriting has changed and turned into something else,” she said. “Before, I was like, ‘I can’t express how I feel to people, so I’ll write it in this song.’ And that was really important to me at the time. It’s also important when you’re in your early 20s and there’s someone you’re not supposed to talk to and you don’t want to call them because it’s bad for you and it’s harmful, so you just write that in a song and it’s like a way of self-control or self-preservation or something. But with the Folklore album and things like that, it wasn’t really a reaction to public life and the intrusions that come with it. It was really just a desire to challenge myself as a writer.”
How Swift feels about fans speculating what her songs are about
Towards the end of the interview, Swift talked about her fan base, touched on her fan traditions, and reflected on the way some fans analyze her music.
“They like emotional songs to be track five,” she said. “There are special things like that, but at the same time, there are so many things like that now, which is great, but some people in my fan base take things to a very extreme direction, and there’s nothing I can do about that. There are people who are doing detective work and trying to figure out the details: ‘Who is this about? What is this?’ What feels a little strange to me is when people act like it’s some kind of paternity test, like, ‘This song is about that person.’ Because I think, “That person didn’t write the song.” i did it. ‘But that’s part of it. You have to hold fast to your perception of your art and your relationship to it. And you just have to say, “That’s OK” (blast). I hope you like it. If I didn’t do it now, I’d do it in five years, and if I never did it, I was doing it for myself anyway. ”
How criticism inspired Swift’s best art
Swift doesn’t read all the comments, but some about her have inspired great songs. “Criticism is a big motivator for me,” she said. “That was a big jumping off point, like a creative writing prompt or something. There are a lot of songs in my career that wouldn’t have existed. For example, ‘Blank Space’ wouldn’t have existed if people hadn’t said, ‘Here’s a slideshow of all her boyfriends.'” And ‘Anti-Hero’ is still a song that I’m very proud of. For example, if people didn’t criticize every aspect of my personality that they have a problem with, the song wouldn’t exist. ”
She shared the advice she gives other new artists and songwriters on how to deal with noise. “I was like, ‘Why am I reading your comments? There’s too much of it. Just like that, there’s too much unfocused criticism,'” she said. “But I kind of think, ‘This is part of it. Don’t let this stop you from writing or editing yourself or anything. If it’s an interesting point to you, that’s a gift to be able to write something. Maybe you won’t write anything that day. Maybe it wasn’t. But God, don’t go to the notes app and write about it. Don’t respond to the trolls in the comments. That’s not what we want you to do.
Read her full interview here.
