Music Nostalgia: 13 Years of Taylor Swift
13 years ago today, I was 14 years old. I was young, just beginning to learn how to navigate through my teenage years. I was just boarding the rollercoaster of my young adult life, one that would later take me through various ups and downs. But I didn’t know that then. I was only 14.
13 years ago today, Taylor Swift also released her debut self-titled album. I still remember listening through those songs, memorizing the words to Tim McGraw and blasting Teardrops on My Guitar over and over and over again, thinking about who my “Drew” was. It was one of the first albums I remember listening to and connecting with.
Just a 16-year-old girl sharing her diary with the world… She felt like a best friend in a way: genuine, relatable, and there for you when you needed her. Each song striking a different emotion; each song helping you through a tough time. I am so glad to have grown up in the Taylor Swift era. I am so glad that the soundtrack of life that she created through her ups and downs was also the soundtrack of mine too.
13 years later, I still feel that no one does music and songwriting quite like Taylor Swift. She has a way of writing feelings into a relatable stories. She has a way of making you capture and remember your moments, almost like she’s actually singing about them on your behalf. Her discography was important to me at 14, but I still feel she is relatable as ever 13 years later.
And that’s 13 years of hard media attention and scrutiny. 13 years of people telling her she’s fake. 13 years of people calling her out for “serial dating”. 13 years of people telling her she’s just another spoiled celebrity who cares only about herself. She’s had an impressive 13 years in the spotlight. Not everyone could endure what she has endured and still be the same humble, grateful, still genuine, and still relatable human being after all of it.
I really admire her hard work, perseverance, and humility. I admire that she has been able to remain true to herself despite all the criticisms she’s been served. If you watch videos of her connecting with her fans at 16 and then you watch videos of her connecting with her fans at 29, you realize she’s still the same person who appreciates the people who have helped her rise to the highest rankings in pop music.
With that being said, let’s talk about the last 13 years of Taylor Swift’s music! I loved Taylor Swift as a country music singer, but I really, really like her as a pop singer. If I had to pick my favorite album right now, I think I’d choose 1989, followed by Lover, reputation, Speak Now, Red, Fearless, and then the self-titled Taylor Swift. Keep scrolling to see my top song choices and lyrics on each album.
Leave a comment below and let me know your favorite songs!
Taylor Swift, 2006
Teardrops on My Guitar
Tim McGraw
Cold As You
Invisible
This album quite obviously reminds me of my 14, 15, and 16-year-old self, as I mentioned above. I love the lyrics of Teardrops on My Guitar:
“Drew looks at me,
I fake a smile so he won’t see,
What I want, what I need,
And everything that we should be”
We’ve all been there, wanting something we can’t have. Begging for attention but not getting any attention. Wishing for the guy but not getting the guy.
Fearless, 2008
Fearless
You Belong With Me
Forever & Always
Breathe
Why can’t you see that you belong with me? The anthem of the end of 2008 and early 2009 for me. It’s kind of like Teardrops on My Guitar — a sort of wishful, playful thinking that maybe someday that guy you’ve been crushing on will finally recognize you:
“But she wears short skirts
I wear T-shirts
She’s cheer captain
And I’m on the bleachers
Dreaming about the day when you wake up
And find that what you’re looking for has been here the whole time”
But one of my favorite lyrics from this album come from Breathe, which I’ve always thought was an under-appreciated track on the album:
“I see your face in my mind as I drive away
’Cause none of us thought it was gonna end that way
People are people,
And sometimes we change our minds
But it’s killing me to see you go after all this time
Music starts playin’ like the end of a sad movie,
It’s the kinda ending you don’t really wanna see
’Cause it’s tragedy and it’ll only bring you down,
Now I don’t know what to be without you around ”
Speak Now, 2010
Back To December
Haunted
Last Kiss
The Story Of Us
I still have a hard time comprehending that she wrote this entire album by herself. She was 20 when she released it, which puts her into her late teens when she wrote it. I can’t even fathom that level of talent and ability. From Speak Now, one of my favorite lyrics comes from Last Kiss — a lyric that describes that feeling of thinking about something after it’s gone:
“So I’ll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep
And I feel you forget me like I used to feel you breathe
And I keep up with our old friends just to ask them how you are
Hope it’s nice where you are”
Back to December also puts you in your feelings:
“Because the last time you saw me
Is still burned in the back of your mind
You gave me roses and I left them there to die”
Red, 2012
All Too Well
22
Red
The Last Time
22 is my anthem. I might not be literally feeling 22 anymore, but I am very much still feeling 22. Every time I listen to that song, it reminds me of being young, having fun, and laughing off the hard times with friends. I remember a lot of criticism accompanied with the release of this song… people calling her immature for releasing it. All I have to say about that is that I’m 27 and I still feel like the words of the song speak my language. Plus, “NOT A LOT GOING ON AT THE MOMENT” is the story of my life.
But then there’s All Too Well. Literally the best written Taylor Swift song of all time. A whole story in and of itself:
“Maybe we got lost in translation, maybe I asked for too much
But maybe this thing was a masterpiece ‘til you tore it all up
Running scared, I was there, I remember it all too well
Hey, you call me up again just to break me like a promise
So casually cruel in the name of being honest
I’m a crumpled up piece of paper lying here
’Cause I remember it all, all, all too well
Time won’t fly, it’s like I’m paralyzed by it
I’d like to be my old self again, but I’m still trying to find it”
1989, 2014
Style
Blank Space
All You Had To Do Was Stay
Clean
This is my favorite album to listen to (front to back). The song Blank Space is top tier and the entire vibe of the album is pop perfection.
My favorite lyrics from this album come from Clean. The beginning of the song:
“The drought was the very worst
When the flowers that we’d grown together died of thirst”
And then the chorus:
“Rain came pouring down when I was drowning
That’s when I could finally breathe
And by morning, gone was any trace of you, I think I am finally clean”
reputation, 2017
Dancing With Our Hands Tied
I Did Something Bad
Getaway Car
Gorgeous
I love that she released this album. Perfectly timed. Perfectly angry with a side of fresh, new beginnings (hello, Delicate). Whatever you do, watch the stadium tour concert on Netflix! One of my favorite lyrics from this album comes from I Did Something Bad. This lyric resonates with life — especially in today’s cancel culture:
“They’re burning all the witches, even if you aren’t one
They got their pitchforks and proof
Their receipts and reasons”
Lover, 2019
I Think He Knows
Lover
Cruel Summer
The Man
I absolutely love the top nine tracks (I Forgot That You Existed through Death By A Thousand Cuts). One of my favorite lyrics on this album comes from Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince:
“The whole school is rolling fake dice
You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes”
And don’t forget the iconic Cruel Summer:
“And I scream, “For whatever it’s worth
I love you, ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?””
And then The Man, such an important song:
“I’m so sick of running
As fast as I can
Wondering if I’d get there quicker
If I was a man
And I’m so sick of them
Coming at me again
’Cause if I was a man
Then I’d be the man”