Taylor Swift: A reflection in black and white
Taylor Swift recently gained ownership of her original masters. That’s years of pictures, videos, songs, and memories, the entirety of her life’s work. In a letter addressed to fans, she shared the joy of finally reclaiming those pieces of her life. While I could wax poetic about the different imagery she’s used in her writing (and I have), this post will focus on a specific symbol and how its usage matured with her.
A little imagery goes a long way
It’s no secret, Taylor has written songs about her experiences and feelings for like, ever. In her earliest albums, she shares how music has a part in her best and worst moments. When she’s ready to process it all, she puts her pen to work. Taylor scribbles love notes and stories and speeches on paper, the perfect medium for any artist.
Paper is a versatile metaphor and is easy to connect with. Who hasn’t ripped, folded, or crumpled one? These near universal reactions make her feeling incredibly accessible. Paper thin plans are flimsy but lethal in their incompleteness. Paper cuts are stinging, relatable wounds; unbearable if there are a thousand of them. Put enough paper together and you have the pages of a book, maybe even a diary. This collection of paper is lovingly filled with the reflections and imagination of its writer.
All Too Well: I'm a crumpled up piece of paper lying here
Sad, Beautiful, Tragic: Long handwritten note, deep in your pocket
Death by a Thousand Cuts: Paper cut stings from our paper thin plans
When Taylor experiences different kinds of relationships, this imagery matures as a metaphor. She’s devastated when she’s discarded as easily as crumpled paper. Handwritten notes at the bottom of her pocket suggest buried emotions; the same note in a locket could be a precious secret. Thrown out speeches are unsaid words to plead her case. Pages with dust on them suggest neglect. Ripped out pages of a diary suggests a memory she doesn’t want to keep. For love stories, the couple should have same goals… Otherwise they’ll be on different pages of the same story, or writing diverging ones. The last page of a book represents the conclusion of a love story… a page she hopes will never be written or read.
Enchanted
This is me praying that
This was the very first page
Not where the story line endsHoly Ground
And I guess we fell apart in the usual way
And the story's got dust on every pageSuburban Legends
You'd be more than a chapter in my old diaries
With the pages ripped outNew Year’s Day
Don't read the last page
But I stay when it's hard, or it's wrong, or we're making mistakesCornelia Street
We were a fresh page on the desk
Filling in the blanks as we goDeath by a Thousand Cuts
But if the story's over
Why am I still writing pages?tolerate it
I made you my temple, my mural, my sky
Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your liferight where you left me: Pages turn and stick to each other
Paris
Privacy sign on the door
And on my page and on the whole worldYou’re On Your Own, Kid
'Cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned
The Manuscript
While there are a few definitions for manuscript, the consensus seemed to be that it’s an original, drafted work—most often by pen and sometimes by type. It’s a deeply personal creation with scratches and scribbles its writer has edited and curated.
The song itself is a wistful drive down memory lane. Taylor reflects on eras of her life and how each deeply impacted her in different ways. As the bridge swells, she shares how she writes what she knows. When the tears fall with the score, The Eras Tour comes to mind. She shed blood, sweat, and tears for the tour and performed through her own heartbreak. And each night, an attentive audience sang their own heartbreak with her.
The Manuscript is every page she’s ever scribbled on, tossed out, turned over, and ripped out. It’s the collection of her heartaches and heartbreaks. It’s an account of all she’s ever loved and who she’s ever been. It’s the only evidence she has of a relationship that exists outside of the public eye. She has written that love story’s last page. As the last song of her latest album, she’s finally clean.
A printed reputation and a handwritten account
When Taylor announced ownership of her entire catalog, she also mentioned she had not finished rerecording reputation, an album made during her retreat from the celebrity circus. Her most recent album is The Tortured Poets Department, the perfect foil to that period. It written at a time where each move she made was magnified, dissected, and critiqued under the cruel lens of fame—and she challenged it.
reputation’s album cover is iconic, with Taylor looking at her viewer directly. Printed over her face is typed text, similar to what you would see in a newspaper or tabloid. The stories about her at the time were shaped by the media, even though they literally did not see her for a year. They created a narrative where she was as terrible and dishonest as all her detractors gleefully hoped she would be. At the same time, Taylor was recording a love story far from the public eye.
In 2023 and a handful of albums later, Taylor would go through another firestorm: her breakup with her long-term lover, and a rebound many found distasteful. Taylor (2023’s version) is different than Taylor (2016’s version). She’s stronger and better equipped to deal with the criticism and backlash.
When Taylor debuted The Tortured Poets Department set, the crowd went wild. Her white dress was adorned with her lyrics, written by her own hand. The personal touch of her script demonstrates her vulnerability alongside the scathing truth. To complement this, the various album covers of this era are intimate, black and white portraits—a stark contrast to the defiance of reputation. In this era, Taylor is on the world’s stage, and with an ever captive audience, she shapes the narrative on her own terms.
Written in black and white
Reputation bore the black of a tarnished image; The Tortured Poets Department is a white page, unburdened by the same expectations. One is stamped with the bold, formal text of publication print and the other uses typed text and scrawling cursive. They bookend her long-term relationship, her reaction to the media frenzy, and represent the growth she’s experienced. In The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor’s words are a weapon and a shield. She doesn’t let the media, or fans, write her story. Instead, she confesses [her] truth in swooping, sloping letters even as her own health and happiness is in decline.
For as much as the songs are about how she’s loved, these stories are also about another relationship Taylor has largely concealed from the public eye: the one with herself. She’s not the same Taylor in 2016, and she’s let everyone know. She’s messier and madder. We don’t know all of who she is after 31 songs. But after 11 albums, it certainly feels like it. Her confessional, diaristic lyrics help listeners connect to her and each other.
Despite her fatalistic dreaming and scheming, The Manuscript still has the signature optimism of all her ending tracks. The pages of her story have been lovingly collected into the albums she shares with us now. She may reread the manuscript, revisit her past loves, and her former selves. Her songs may underscore our best moments and guide us through worst heartbreaks. She definitely owns the rights to all her music, but this art belongs to us now. Music transforms when we create our own meanings, memories, and stories. She knows that it’s a privilege to still be a part of her fans’ most precious and intimate moments, especially after all these years.
Taylor didn’t know it all at 15, but she knows it now: that is what it was all for.