Swifties and music bloggers have been speculating about Taylor Swift’s impending album for months. On Friday, at the stroke of midnight, she originally put out an album when she was 19 called “Speak Now.” As part of her intensive labor project to rerecord her music and make herself the owner, she rereleased the album. The entire point of “Taylor’s Version” is that a random business guy puts money in Swift’s pocket; it’s a streaming version where the songs are perfect duplicates of the originals, aside from the bonus tracks.
On the bed, she is more recognized for her actions. Prior to delivering this attack, Swift refers to her as “not a saint,” an “actress,” singing about a girl who has taken away her romantic interest in the song titled “Better Than Revenge,” Track 10 of Speak Now. However, many anticipated that a change would occur.
Is patriarchy really “not very sex-shaming for another woman”? She cautioned Vulture and Rolling Stone that the altered line on the new version of the track might now indeed have a different meaning. “He was like a moth to the flame,” she held the matches. It has found a new place.
I’ll admit, it’s a beautifully crafted and inventive line of poetry that skillfully shifts the focus aside to slut-shaming, while still maintaining the original rhythm and flow of the song.
Taylor Swift has been working against herself, shaking her finger at a magical and musical eraser. In time, she slipped back, changing the line, but she should have kept the original mattress. I think she should still think I’m a certified sex-positive Swiftie and a women’s college alum. I hate it… Still.
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Arky” in the song title, she snarks about her romantic rival’s “snarky” in the song title, dressed all in pastels, the little snotty family. Now, let’s not say, “Speak Now is not a mature album.”
Is there anything more teenage than a short fling’s recalling, much drama, much devastation, and entitlement? This scorching track of a relationship lasted only three months, but it felt like so much longer. The tone of this tween’s own is much closer to that of a misbehaving child, even though she’s talking to someone who’s supposed to be her mom. It’s a pretty funny juxtaposition. “How’s it going now?” She asks, standing in the corner, ready to start her revenge herself.
She is a genius when it comes to lyrical talent. Now she is speaking on it. I’m now in a sad and empty town, but I don’t shine like fireworks anymore. You caught my attention before you took your matches and started a fire. She’s sharp enough to see through it all and find her own way. However, she’s still wounded from the girls he left before her, in the same shambles. In Taylor Swift’s album, “Speak Now,” every track is an emotional masterpiece and the centerpiece of her remarkable and tumultuous romance with an ex-lover who is much older. Although she has improved as a songwriter and benefited from collaborations, she still holds onto the creative lyrics she wrote when she was just 13 years old. The earlier successes of her career were not solely the product of her co-writers, but rather her own talent. It’s a paradox that she was jilted as a teen girl, but now she is a very mature adult. That’s what makes “Speak Now” so special.
Fans are well aware of a lot of details about her work. There might even be a campaign to cancel Swift for preserving the biting, puritanical message. There is a risk that Swifties, who cheer on lyrics that are a bit misogynistic, would be cheering on a newer line that is immature in sentiment: “Better Than Revenge.” Of course, there are merits to editing out the immature sentiment.
In 2010, during the sleepovers I participated in, the majority of middle school students would harshly criticize those who stole boyfriends, which I would consider a relatively tame remark. Furthermore, you can sense her youthful contentment in uttering something she knows is inappropriate; there is a satisfying bitterness embedded in the original lyrics and their victorious delivery. Like a repugnant prehistoric insect trapped in amber, allowing the unpleasant and unkind thoughts of a teenager to persist, there is value in that, I believe.
After facing criticism online, she directed a music video and included an image of a scale displaying the word “FAT” just last year. Even in this edited version, the song “ME!” Is extremely cringeworthy. Her fans found it so embarrassing that she decided to remove a joyful lyric – “spelling is fun!” – From the 2019 single. On TikTok, a funny 17-second audio compilation, loved by queer Swifties, including myself, still includes a part of that silly line. She eliminated a homophobic lyric from the 2006 track “Picture to Burn,” despite it contradicting her original artistic vision. Swift has developed a tendency to align with public opinion.
Why would you incentivize your fans to listen to a different version of that song? Paul Larisha at Rolling Stone pointed out that by changing the lyrics and releasing a new version, you are undermining the greater endeavor of reclaiming her career. However, this process has also allowed her writing skills to grow and improve significantly. In trying to move past the vitriol, she feels like she is simply trying to get ahead, just like in the infamous mattress lyric case.
I certainly wouldn’t love if Taylor Swift wrote a new song shaming a woman for her sexual habits, even if she’s evolved, grown up, and obviously changed her perception thereof (or embraced some pseudo-liberal politics). The rerecordings aren’t new music creating about “Taylor’s Version” (Better Than Revenge), but she’s clearly evolved.
If we’re just a little too screechy in our singalong of the chorus, we might be able to sneak back to the original lyrics. So, why don’t you scooch a little closer and share a headphone with me? There are a few vindictive lines in this song, delivered with the same mean-spirited fun as the original version. Even without the invocation of a bed, I could still delight in the childish villainy when I first heard track 13. And this morning, on my bike commute into my grown-up job, I could still blaze through the opening guitars of “Taylor’s Revenge Than Better” (the song’s original version) in spite of it all. Sure, it’s a little immature of me to get upset about one line in a song.
To learn more about Taylor Swift’s maturing process, tune in to Slate’s 2021 analysis of her accomplishments on The Waves podcast.