Unless you’ve been living under a rock this past week, you have undoubtedly heard that Taylor Swift released Red (Taylor’s Version) this past Friday. This release has brought up some mixed feelings from the public. Some see the importance of Swift owning her own music and releasing tracks that did not make the cut the first time, Some, however, see these songs as being almost identical to the original and do not see why she re-released them. This is an issue that most Swifties feel very strongly about, but that’s an argument for a different day. Today, I will be discussing the most iconic track from Red, “All Too Well.”
As a twelve-year Swiftie, I have a confession to make…I did not like Red when it came out the first time. To be fair, I was eleven when it came out. I got into Taylor Swift with her Speak Now album, which is still my favorite to this day. As a younger kid, I liked the whole fairytale/high school romance vibe that many of her songs had on her earlier albums, so that was what I had gotten used to and expected from her. The release of Red threw a wrench into that for me. She was starting her transition from country to pop and I will admit that I struggled with that a little bit at first. I got the Red album CD for my birthday when it came out and I eagerly listened to it, only to discover that the vibe felt completely different from Speak Now. I liked every album that came after, but I never felt like I was able to connect with Red when I first heard it.
Fast forward about eight years, and I entered a flirtationship/situationship/talking stage (whatever we call those nowadays) with a person who somehow managed to be a bigger Taylor Swift fan than I was. This person introduced me to the sheer amazingness that is “All Too Well.” I had only heard the song a couple of times prior to that and did not even remember what it sounded like. One night, we were driving and she put it on. Immediately, I completely understood the obsession every Swiftie has with this song. As a side note, when this situationship inevitably ended in a trainwreck, I listened to “All Too Well” every single night, letting myself fully experience the same pain that Taylor Swift sings about, even though what I experienced was not comparable to her experience in any way. I think that’s the beauty of Taylor Swift’s music, I feel like I can take any experience and find a song to relate it to. The comparisons can be a little dramatic sometimes, but that is okay, the important thing is feeling like someone else knows how you’re feeling.
As with Taylor Swift’s entire career, “All Too Well” receives a lot of criticism from the public. Many point out that she is continuing to drag a certain unnamed actor (Jake Gyllenhaal) through the mud years after their three-month relationship ended, and call her dramatic for doing so. People say that she should learn to move on from relationships more gracefully and not dwell on them and dramatize them for publicity. I disagree with this. She wrote the song while in pain, which she had every right to. The song is still making headlines today because fans connect with it. Different relationships will invoke different emotions in people, some bounce back quickly after a relationship and others take months or even years to get over someone. Both of these are perfectly acceptable because we all experience pain in different ways. Many people find that they feel exactly how Taylor Swift felt after her relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal, and these are the people she wrote the song for. She did not write for the Jake Gyllenhaals of the world, those are the people who are supposed to dislike it because it shows what their actions look like on the receiving end. The song is meant for long showers and being curled up in bed while you’re trying to heal from the pain you’ve experienced at the hands of someone who cared less than you did. “All Too Well”, while an amazing roast of Jake Gyllenhaal, is less of a focus on a particular relationship and more about the universal experience of a relationship ending because we’ve all been there. We have all had the rug pulled out from under us while we felt happy and safe with someone. That is why after nine years, “All Too Well” still remains a fan favorite among all Swifties.