Hi everyone! My name is Radhika Nair, and if there is one thing you should know about me, it’s that I am a huge Swiftie. On this blog, I will be providing commentary on Taylor Swift’s albums and will also be analyzing specific songs and explaining what I believe to be the underlying meaning behind some of her songs. 

     It took me a while to decide on which album to talk about first. I thought about having my blog posts be in the order of my favorite to my least favorite albums, but quickly realized that format would not allow everyone to see Taylor’s growth as a singer-songwriter (also there is no way I could choose a favorite album, much less a “least favorite”). So, I decided to start from Taylor Swift’s self-titled debut album – the beginning of her journey. 

     Most of the writing for this album took place during her freshman year of high school. Everyday while high school kids would stay back at school to participate in extracurricular activities, clubs and sports, Taylor would make the commute from her high school to the studio to work on her album. Her debut album was released on October 24th, 2006 and consisted of eleven songs. A few of my favorite songs on this album are: Should’ve Said No, Picture to Burn, Our Song, Tim McGraw, and Teardrops on My Guitar. 

     In both Should’ve Said No and Picture to Burn, Taylor uses a vengeful and bitter tone towards the antagonist subject of the song. My favorite part of Should’ve Said No is the last line of the pre chorus leading to the Chorus where the rhythm of the song and the lyrics match up so perfectly, that you can predict what Taylor is going to say next, even if you have never heard the song before. The line goes “It was a moment of weakness and you said yes; You should’ve said, ‘No’; You should’ve gone home; You should’ve thought twice ‘fore you let it all go.” The repetition of her usage of the words “should” and “shouldn’t” shows the antagonist of the song how easy it could have been to avoid all of their problems if he had simply said no and had gone home. Whereas Taylor expresses her disappointment in Should’ve said No, in Picture to Burn, she expresses raw and unfiltered rage towards her ex. She sets the tone for the entire song by calling her ex a narcissist in the first two lines of the verse. She then goes on a rant in the chorus saying that she hates “that stupid old pickup truck” that he never let her drive, and, additionally (since insulting his car and his personality was not enough) she calls him a “redneck who is really bad at lying” just for good measure. She then also goes on to call him “wasted time” and nonchalantly adds that as far as she’s concerned he is just “another picture to burn”. The song is filled to the brim with not to subtle digs at her ex, but my favorite part of the song has got to be the part where she blatantly threatens him through a beautiful play on words when she says “And if you come around saying sorry to me; My daddy’s gonna show you how sorry you’ll be”. 

     Similar to the fast paced-ness of Picture to Burn and Should’ve said No, Our Song has an enthusiastic energy to it as well. Taylor wrote this song for her high school talent show, where she revealed that the inspiration for the song was that she was dating a guy and they did not have “a song,” so she went ahead and wrote one for them (you know, casually, as one does in this type of situation). Unlike songs that most couples have, Taylor says that their song consists of the compilation of sounds and memories that they hold near and dear to their heart such as the sounds from sneaking out their bedroom window to meet each other at night, or talking slowly through their phones without waking up their parents. I love the happiness and joy that just exudes from this song and I think it is almost impossible not to smile when you hear it. 

   Tim McGraw and Teardrops on my Guitar are very different compared to the previous three songs, as these songs are about having to let go of people you love. Tim McGraw, the lead single off of the album starts and ends with what I think is one of the most beautiful lines in the album. Taylor says, “He said the way my blue eyes shined; Put those Georgia stars to shame that night; I said, “That’s a lie”. I just love this line so much because it paints such a beautiful picture in your mind. The entire song has such an intimate and “hopelessly in love” feel to it, that you almost forget that it is a breakup song. However, what differentiates Tim McGraw from the rest of her breakup songs on the album is that she is looking back on their shared memories with a smile and realizes that although their time together had come to an end, they will always have something beautiful to look back on. Teardrops on my Guitar is another song that I really like on this album because Taylor’s personality in this song is very different compared to the rest of the songs. In all of the other songs, Taylor was in charge of her emotions and telling the people she loved how she felt about their relationship. There is a radical change in persona in this song which is evident from the very beginning when she says “Drew looks at me, I fake a smile so he won’t see”. Unlike the other songs where she isn’t shy to speak her mind, in this song she is silently suffering from unrequited love. She talks about how she “can’t breathe” when he walks by and how he is “flawless and perfect,” but also how he only sees her as a friend and tells her about the girl that he is actually in love with. Instead of telling him how she feels, she just explains that he is the reason for the teardrops on her guitar. I think this is one of the most vulnerable lines in her entire album, because for Taylor, songwriting is her way of getting out the emotions she is experiencing in her life, and through this song she shares that Drew is the reason she is sad. 

     After analyzing this amazing album, I believe what separated Taylor from other country artists of the time from the very beginning of her career was her style of writing. Even in her debut album, the level of songwriting you hear is not something you would expect from a freshman in high school. However, she is able to incorporate her high school experiences with her ability to articulate shared feelings of pain, heartbreak, and young love to create songs that resonated with younger audiences, thereby bringing country music to a whole new generation.