Speak Now by Taylor Swift

Speak Now by Taylor Swift, Big Machine Records, 2010
ASIN: B004927I50

Plot Summary and Critical Evaluation

Her music a mix between country and pop, Taylor Swift once again enchants listeners in her third album, Speak Now. Like its predecessors, Taylor Swift and Fearless, Swift’s latest album speaks to a wide audience including the vulnerable, who need to hear Swift’s empowering words the most. In fact, one of the best parts of Swift’s album is her song Mean. In it, listeners get a glimpse into a woman’s relationship with a physically and emotionally abusive man: “You, with your words like knives/And swords and weapons that you use against me,/You, have knocked me off my feet again,/Got me feeling like I’m nothing”. And yet, despite this woman’s terrible situation she manages to remain strong in her personal identity as Taylor sings, “But the cycle ends right now,/You can’t lead me down that road,/You don’t know, what you don’t know/Someday, I’ll be living in a big old city,…/ Someday, I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me”. While Mean is perhaps the most powerful song in the album, Swift has plenty of others that are equally as enjoyable. Known for her witty wordplay, Swift does not fail to disappoint as she describes an arrogant bride’s dress as “a gown shaped like a pastry” and a cautious girl’s transformation from “a careless man’s careful daughter” to a rebel. And, even when her songs do not contain her well-known clever phrases, they manage to convey so much emotion that the listener is liable to find tears streaming down their face. For example, in Back to December listeners cannot help pitying both the singer and the object of her affection when she sings about her regret over leaving her former lover: “We small talk, work and the weather/Your guard is up, and I know why/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…And realized I loved you in the fall/And then the cold came, the dark days/When fear crept into my mind/You gave me all your love, and all I gave you was goodbye… I'd go back in time and change it, but I can't/So if the chain is on your door, I understand”. These lyrics, like so many of Swift’s, are utterly heart-wrenching. In fact, they are exactly what one remembers, feels, experiences when they face the regret of breaking up. Indeed, many listeners, especially teens will be able to relate to Swift’s songs as she sings about broken hearts, falling in love, and revenge in her latest album Speak Now.

Reader’s Annotation

Taylor Swift sings about love and lost in her third album, Speak Now.

About the Artist

As Taylor Swift writes on her website, “Hi, I'm Taylor. I've been alive for 21 years now, and I finally have my own kitchen. I'm very excited about this, and generally excited by anything else that falls into the "cute" or "cozy" categories. I learned to play guitar when I was twelve from this guy named Ronnie who came over to fix my parents' computer. I like quilts. But that's probably because I'm always freezing cold. I LOVE Nashville. That's where I live, when I'm lucky enough to be there…My lucky number always has been and always will be 13. It pops up in front of me in the most obvious and undeniable ways, but only when something good is about to happen…I love bright colors and things that make reality seem more whimsical than it is. I have a collection of ribbons and headbands, and I love them all the same. I over-think and over-plan and over-organize. I've been like this since I was a baby, before I was gigantically tall and over-talkative.

… I write songs about my adventures and misadventures, most of which concern love. Love is a tricky business. But if it wasn't, I wouldn't be so enthralled with it. Lately I've come to a wonderful realization that makes me even more fascinated by it: I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to love. No one does! There's no pattern to it, except that it happens to all of us, of course. I can't plan for it. I can't predict how it'll end up. Because love is unpredictable and it's frustrating and it's tragic and it's beautiful. And even though there's no way to feel like I'm an expert at it, it's worth writing songs about -- more than anything else I've ever experienced in my life” (Swift, 2010).

Swift, T. (2010) My story. Retrieved from http://www.taylorswift.com/mylife

Genre

Country, Country pop

Curriculum Ties

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Booktalk Ideas

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Why Was This Included?

I decided to include Taylor Swift in my blog because she became a popular artist while she was still a teen. As such, I believe that many of her songs speak directly to teens. I chose to feature Speak Now because it is her latest album.