Corrigan’s Editorial Note: Brianna Moore wrote this essay in my Reading Globally & Locally course at the University of Tampa. I found it to be an excellent example of how deep reading transcends books and articles and applies to other sorts of texts, including music and lyrics.
One of the most meaningful albums I’ve listened to would have to be Taylor Swift’s folklore. The first time I heard the album, I wasn’t a big fan of it. However, the more I listened to it, the more I really heard the lyrics and started to connect to it. Most of the first few times after I started to like it, I would play it in my car with the music turned all the way up, and I would read the lyrics off my phone. Before long, I knew the words to every single song. As I listened to them, I would try to put the meanings together in my head, or I would see other people’s interpretations on Tiktok or other places and relate them back to mine. I also watched a documentary called folklore: the long pond studio sessions where she talks about what the songs mean to her, and then, she plays them. I would compare her reasoning of the lyrics to the meaning I put behind the lyrics.
Once I started understanding what Swift was trying to say in the songs, I knew I could relate to them. For example, the song this is me trying. I really took a liking to this song because I related to this one in particular. I was having a difficult time in high school suffering from bipolar disorder, and in the song, one of the lines that really got me was, “They told me all of my cages were mental / So I got wasted like all my potential.” I really like this line because at the time, I was having really bad episodes which caused me to stop studying and made it harder to keep up with my social life. It felt like all of the potential I had was gone because I was trying so hard just to keep up with my mental health that I wasn’t focusing as much on my school work or friends. I also really liked the song the lakes. Not because I particularly relate to it, but because the lyrics and music are so peaceful. I really like the imagery behind it, too. I even drew what I picture whenever I listen to it. I know I’m not the best artist, but I tried to show the Windermere Peaks with someone crying while leaning on a Wisteria vine on a gloomy, but not rainy, day. They probably brought a book, too, but never read it.
I remember at one point, when I got bored in class, I would write down the lyrics from memory and try to analyze the meaning behind them. One of my favorite songs is mirrorball because I feel like it has so much more meaning than what is on the surface. It’s a song about people pleasers, but also trying to make sure that one person sees you. At the top, I wrote down what she said about the song and also a couple short translations of what the song could be about. I used a few different colored pens for different things, too. I used pink for connections to other songs, blue for a few repetitions, navy and orange for other little notes and meanings. As you can see, I marked up the page a lot compared to how I usually markup texts.
Once I really got into the album, I would force my former roommate to listen to my favorite song from it, which would change almost every week. We even watched Swift’s documentary. As we were watching it, we would pause after each song and discuss the meaning the song had to us or analyze it together. For example, the song betty is from a boy’s perspective trying to apologize for having an affair. We talked about how even though he’s trying to apologize, he never fully takes blame; he blames it on other factors like age or the other girl. We also talked about how all the songs had connections. In almost every song, it seems like there is a reference to another song in the album. Like in mirrorball, one of the lines says “I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try,” which could be a reference to this is me trying. We listened to each other’s translations of the song and made a new meaning for ourselves.
I still have questions that have yet to be answered. I feel like it’s important that none of the songs or even the name of the album is capitalized like all her albums before. Why is that? Why do all of the songs have connections to other songs when she hasn’t done that before? I try my best to answer these questions myself, but some I just don’t have the answer to.
I usually don’t enjoy marking up texts or trying to analyze them, but for some reason Taylor Swift’s songs are the exception. I go through a lot of processes to help me understand the lyrics. I’d even say this is the most I’ve ever analyzed any kind of text, and I will probably continue to put new meanings behind the album the more I listen to it. And I will listen to it more.
Corrigan Literary Review 