Taylor Swift Talks Songwriting

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Cultural phenomenon. Global sensation. Generational icon. Each of these accurately describes Taylor Swift, but they hardly scratch the surface. Since her debut album in 2006, the Pennsylvania-bred musician has dominated the world of professional entertainment. Nearly 18 years later, Swift is now one of the most influential entertainers of all time.

Still only 34 years of age, the Nashville based songbird has sold over 200 million albums in her career. She was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2023. In February of 2024, Taylor won the Grammy for Album of the Year a record fourth time. As Billboard Magazine executive director Jason Lipshutz puts it, “There’s no one better than Taylor Swift. Whether that’s on the radio, with streaming, ticket sales or just cultural impact.”   

Unfortunately, Swift’s unparalleled popularity has done her abilities a disservice. She is so famous that her talent gets lost in the fray. Before any of the arena tours or blockbuster movies, Taylor was a songwriter, and that is still where her heart resides. “Songwriting has always been the number one thing,” she says. “If I didn’t write, I wouldn’t sing.” The following comments from Taylor Swift illustrate her methodologies concerning songwriting and help explain why she is one of the best to ever do it.

“The most personal process”

“For me, creating music is the most personal process. I’m not thinking about all those people singing the words to the music. I’m not thinking about if it will get played on the radio. When I’m writing a song, all I’m thinking about is the person that I’m writing it about. And what they’re going to think when they hear it. To me, that’s just always been my process. I just keep it very one on one. Very personal between me and whatever muse has come into my life and inspired it.”  

“True and honest”

“Sometimes a string of words just ensnares me, and I can’t focus on anything until it’s been recorded or written down…The more it seems like a journal entry the better. The more it seems like an open letter the better. The more true and honest and real it gets the better.”  

“My favorite part”

“The ideas are my favorite part of everything that I do. That moment where you’re like, ‘oh, I know what it’s called’. Or you’re like, ‘I know what the hook is now’…A hook is often talked about in songwriting. It can be one of the most powerful parts of a song. A lot of the time, if somebody only knows a little bit of a song, it’s the hook.”

“The songwriting is still the same”

“It can get complicated on every other level. But the songwriting is still the same uncomplicated process it was when I was 12 years old writing songs in my room.”   

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“Then I just delete it”   

“Writing just kind of happens to me. Like, no matter where I am, four in the morning or in the middle of a conversation. I’ll just get an idea and I’ll just have to record it into my cell phone so that I don’t forget it. I record it onto the phone, and I come back to it later and see if I want to expand it into a whole song. Or if it’s just stupid and I thought I had a good idea, but I didn’t, then I just delete it.”  

“I have favorite words”

“Writing songs is a calling and getting to call it your career makes you very lucky. You have to be grateful every day for it, and all the people who thought your words might be worth listening to…I have favorite words, like ‘elegies’ and ‘epiphany’ and ‘divorcée’. Just words that I think sound beautiful, and I have lists and lists of them.”  

“A good song stays with you”

“[Songs] can defy logic or time. A good song transports you to your truest feelings and translates those feelings for you. A good song stays with you even when people or feelings don’t.”   

“The unpredictability of it”

“I could get an idea in my head that just kind of sticks out as, like, that could be a hook. That could be a pre-chorus. That’s like a first line. Sometimes it’s lyrical, sometimes it’s got a fragment of melody attached to it. And the unpredictability of it is what makes me continue to fall in love with songwriting over and over again.”

“Capitalize on the excitement”

“I kind of write in real time. I write these moments in time. The songs are written when I’m feeling what it is I’m discussing in the song. It’s all sort of done when it’s happening… I kind of have to capitalize on the excitement of me getting that idea and see it all the way through. Or else I’ll leave it behind and I’ll just assume it wasn’t good enough.”

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