I began to like Taylor Swift’s music when I was in the fifth grade. My best friend was a huge fan and after listening to her for a while, I had grown an interest in her music. Since then, I have listened to all of her albums which have helped me through tough and happy times.
When I have gone through breakups, I have felt sad, angry, and sometimes confused. I have learned to cope with my breakups by listening to Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift’s breakup songs have gotten me through my breakups and the ones listed below seem to be the most effective for me.
- White Horse
The line, “this ain’t a fairytale I’m not the one you’ll sweep off her feet”, always kills me every time I listen to it because this line encapsulates the way I felt and it captures the rejection of being broken up with. When I listen to this song, it makes me feel as though I am accepting the true reality of going through a breakup. Furthermore, it made me accept everything and it made me feel like I wasn’t alone. Therefore, if you want to have a good cry and be vulnerable, this song is perfect for that.
2. Sad Beautiful Tragic
This song was about her parent’s divorce, causing the sentiment to be even more special. She didn’t perform this song on her Red tour until the very last performance. It was a song that didn’t have a happy ending like most of what the media shows. The lyric, “Distance, timing, breakdown, fighting, silence, the train runs off its tracks”, is powerful as it portrays how two people can be in love for an extended period of time, while they also begin to fall apart. Taylor singing about her parents’ breakup symbolizes the love lost when going through a breakup.
3. Clean
From the 1989 album, the song “Clean” has an excellent underlying meaning to it to get you through a breakup. When I was experiencing one of my breakups, the lyrics in the song hit me very deeply. I felt like I was able to reset and restart my life. The lyric that led me to feel this way is when Taylor Swift sings, “I think I am finally clean.” After my first breakup, the line from this song made me feel like even though the relationship was good, I felt like I had broken through the bad and now I can start fresh.
4. All Too Well
Originally, this song was supposed to be 10 minutes and during these ten minutes she adds more detail about her past relationship and you hear the emotion in her voice. Taylor sings about how all these happy memories from her relationship bring her pain. I can relate to this idea because when I think about a relationship from the past, all the memories I had with that person can be quite difficult and painful. It was difficult and painful for me because I had shared so many memories with that person and now I have to forget them because they remind me of the bad from the relationship. Listening to the song made it feel like I could see the story of the song fit together like puzzle pieces.
5. Picture to Burn
From the very first Taylor Swift album, we have the song “Picture To Burn”. A very iconic country breakup banger. Personally, this song makes me want to take revenge and it makes me feel so cool. This breakup song focuses on the power held within a woman’s hands and what can be done with it. It’s a good song and I have had moments where I belt out the song embracing the lyrics. The lyric, “you’re just another picture to burn,” makes me feel like it will get easier as you go on with life after. At one point this person that was in your life is going to be just another person in this world. This song is filled with lots of rage and always makes me want to bang my head up and down. In the music video, Taylor Swift licks spoons when she breaks into her ex’s house and when I saw that I wanted to be rebellious just like her and get my sweet revenge.
Overall, these songs have shaped who I am today and have made me a stronger person due to the emotion sung by Taylor and the meaning behind her lyrics. Taylor Swift has always had her way of portraying her feelings through writing songs and this can make many of her listeners resonate with her because she is saying exactly what I am feeling when I go through a breakup. A lot of her songs have powerful meanings behind them which make me relate because she is saying what I am feeling on the inside. Her music has always been a way to help me communicate how I felt during my breakups.