Her Ever-Growing Songwriting Skills

The thing I admire most about Taylor Swift is her ability to tell stories in her music. She not only gives her music great sound, but also backs it up with either joyful or heartbreaking lyrics. Her music is relatable and most of the time emotional. Swift also creates stories and characters especially in her two latest albums, Folklore and Evermore. This inspires me to write my own creative writing stories. From her music, I learned that stories did not have to stem from only love or heartbreak. Instead, you can focus on specific parts of a relationship or discuss a specific conflict that may occur in one. It makes the music or stories less stereotypical and much more compelling. When I write, I remember how Taylor Swift writes her songs. I focus on small stories and build it with details and emotions. My favorite thing about her songwriting is her ability to create characters in songs. She first did this in Mary’s Song from her Debut album. It told the story of a young girl growing up and growing old and falling in love with her childhood best friend. She had a few characters in her albums after that but we did not see it much until her two recent albums. She created many characters such as Betty, James, Dorothea, Augustine, and Inez and gave each of them stories of their own. This shows Swift is not afraid of changing the way she writes songs and I admire her for that.

Folklore surprised released in July of 2020. This is where we first see her telling fictional stories in her music.

Evermore also surprised released in December of 2020. The fictional storytelling continues!