Ride or die Swifties have been with Taylor throughout all of her eras and haircuts. Here are a few things from each of her albums that we’ve learned over the past 11 years:
Taylor Swift
This debut rocketed then 17-year-old Taylor into the country music community’s radar.
Unrequited love? Canceled. Oh Drew, will you ever return Taylor’s affection? What this album taught younger us – If a boy doesn’t give you attention, don’t waste your time giving him attention.
Being a teenage girl is hard!!! From “A Place in this World” to “The Outside” to “Invisible,” being a young girl growing up and dealing with the struggles that come with that is not a piece of cake.
Country accents are easy to fake. Taylor is from Pennsylvania and has since lost the accent she managed to adopt after her family moved to Nashville.
Fearless
Taylor successfully avoided the “sophomore slump” most artists suffer from on her second album.
Joe Jonas sucks. Remember when he broke up with Taylor in a 30 second phone conversation? Jerk. She taught us that if someone doesn’t want to be with us, then let them go. And if you can’t… well then write a song about them.
Fifteen can feel like a lifetime. It’s amazing how this song specifically about her freshman year is applicable to, like, every year of school, because there will always be older guys trying to take advantage of younger girls. “In your life you’ll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team” is an important message for young girls.
Our parents are SO important. “The Best Day” never fails to make us emotional. Andrea and Scott raised a strong young woman who wrote a cry-worthy song about them.
“To me, “FEARLESS” is not the absence of fear. It’s not being completely unafraid. To me, FEARLESS is having fears. FEARLESS is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, FEARLESS is living in spite of those things that scare you to death.” -Taylor Swift
Speak Now
This is the only album where every single song was only written by Taylor herself.
Use your voice. This album’s title serves to remind us that we can’t get anything if we don’t ask for it. Go tell him you love him. Go break up a wedding. Go tell John Mayer that he’s a piece of crap. Just speak now!!!
You can still be innocent. Even after Kanye West interrupted her acceptance speak on that dark VMA’s day, Taylor Swift wrote him the song Innocent. You can still be innocent. Even though Taylor and Kanye dragged out the whole drama for S E V E N more years and counting, this song can still serve as a reminder to forgive those even if you don’t think they deserve forgiveness.
Real life can be magical. “Enchanted” makes us believe that one day we’ll lock eyes with “The One” and just know. This nearly six-minute long song is one of Taylor’s best ballads ever, and her pleas of “please don’t be in love with someone else” get us in the heart, every time.
Growing up is scary. On this album and in Wal-Mart commercials heard around the nation, “Never Grow Up” is a soft song about growing up, and the fear Taylor felt being alone for the first time in her new apartment, realizing she was all alone without her family for the first time.
Red
If colors are emotions, Red goes through the whole rainbow.
Never date a Sagittarius. TWIN FIRE SIGNS. FOUR BLUE EYES. Okay, maybe this one is more to do with Jake Gyllenhaal than Sagittarius men, but… it hasn’t been disproved by Taylor Swift. This album taught us that even if you’re in love with someone, sometimes you have to let them go.
It’s okay to change genres. With this album, Taylor crossed from country-pop to pop. Bangers like “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and “I Knew You Were Trouble” were as bubblegum pop as they get.
Quit trying to be something you’re not. So Taylor isn’t the country bumpkin that she originally tried to convince us she was, and that’s okay.
Duets are in. “The Last Time” with Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody and “Everything Has Changed” with Ed Sheeran make Red the album with the most duets of any Taylor album.
1989
Winner of the 2016 Grammy for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album.
Positivity doesn’t hurt anyone. While the haters hate hate hate, it’s only themselves they’re hurting. On this album, Taylor chooses to ignore the haters with the dance-worthy lead single, “Shake It Off.” Other songs like “How You Get The Girl” and “Style” keep up the upbeat theme of the anthem.
We all have our petty moments. Four words: “Blank Space” & “Bad Blood”.
Love is a drug. As Taylor writes in “Clean” and later proclaims on Reputation, love is a drug to her and sometimes you need to go to rehab.
Who you are is who you choose to be. This album was a complete 360 from anything that Taylor had released before. It was pop. It was slightly empowered. It was about our angel, Harry Styles. It was about a rebirth from her baby country music days into a full-fledged pop star.
Reputation
Taylor’s latest album continues to make waves on the charts and in our hearts.
Taylor Swift has sex. And she’s 27 so that’s fine. As we learned in songs like “Dress” and “…So It Goes,” Taylor is no longer the pure angel she has always portrayed herself to be in her music, but we all have to grow up one day.
If you’re a bad person, embrace it! Taylor no longer cares about making the world think she has a squeaky-clean reputation. She embraces that she’s flawed and sometimes does bad things.
Real love is worth it. Everyone wants to be able to write about love like Taylor writes about her love, Joe Alwyn. After five albums of heartbreak and loneliness, Taylor shows us that The One can erase the bad taste that love has left in your mouth.
The “Old Taylor” isn’t dead. “New Year’s Day” proves it.
Cover photo found here.
Gifs courtesy of giphy.