These days, you’ve likely heard the name Taylor Swift about a thousand times. Even people living under the proverbial rock know about her. She’s the star songwriter who breaks touring records and shows up to support her boo at NFL football games. She’s the red-lipsticked, dark eye-shadowed celebrity who blends hard work with affable charm. She also just released her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department.
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Still, though, there are people who say they don’t like her music. People who slough off her talent and her releases and say she’s not their cup of tea. In the end, that’s fine. But here, we wanted to equip you with a collection of songs to share with those types of folks, those people who say they aren’t fans of the award-winner. So, below are three songs for people who say they don’t like Taylor Swift.
[RELATED: Behind the Meaning of Taylor Swift’s Plea to a Higher Power, “The Prophecy”]
“Bad Blood”
Released on Taylor Swift’s 2014 album 1989, this is certainly one of the artist’s catchiest songs and, perhaps more than that, one of her more dramatic. Who doesn’t like a good rivalry? And that’s what this track has in spades. Not only that but a remix of the song, below, features the Pulitzer Prize-winning lyricist Kendrick Lamar. As for the original, the subject matter is about a falling out. Betrayal. And in today’s world of social media division, losing friends seems to be more and more the norm. Well, now we have the soundtrack for it. “Bad Blood” is a song that will live in the pit of your stomach after a single spin. And on it, Swift sings,
‘Cause baby, now we got bad blood
You know it used to be mad love
So take a look what you’ve done
‘Cause baby, now we got bad blood (hey!)
Now we got problems
And I don’t think we can solve ’em
You made a really deep cut
And baby, now we got bad blood (hey!)
“Anti-Hero”
Released on Swift’s 2022 album Midnights, this song showcases not only her knack for catchy writing and charming delivery but Swift’s self-aware side. Along with being a pop star, she also seems to be one of the sharpest people traversing in the zeitgeist today. She is well-researched and studied about how culture works and showing herself off as, at least in some lights, an anti-hero is genius. And wrapping the idea up in a hit single is incendiary. She sings,
Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby
And I’m a monster on the hill
Too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city
Pierced through the heart, but never killed
Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism
Like some kind of congressman? (Tale as old as time)
I wake up screaming from dreaming
One day I’ll watch as you’re leaving
And life will lose all its meaning
(For the last time)
“Shake It Off”
Also from 1989, this song was Swift’s first giant success. More than the other two songs on this list, this track is a quintessential pop hit. The track is also a self-aware depiction of Swift, singing self-deprecating lyrics about how she can’t keep a boyfriend or stays out too late. If you take the poison out of other people’s lips, then you’ve won. And if there’s one thing for sure, Swift knows how to win. And who doesn’t love a winner? On the bubbly, bouncy track she sings,
I stay out too late
Got nothing in my brain
That’s what people say, mm-mm
That’s what people say, mm-mm
I go on too many dates
But I can’t make ’em stay
At least that’s what people say, mm-mm
That’s what people say, mm-mm
But I keep cruisin’
Can’t stop, won’t stop movin’
It’s like I got this music in my mind
Sayin’ it’s gonna be alright
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