Taylor Swift is getting real about the double standards of love.
Upon the release of her re-recorded 1989 (Taylor’s Version) — which hit shelves on Friday, October 27 — Swift dropped an additional five bonus songs “from the vault” for fans to enjoy. In one of the never before heard tracks, titled “Slut! (Taylor’s Version),” the Grammy winner seemingly details having to “pay the price” of being a woman in love — an obstacle her partner doesn’t have to face.
“But if I’m all dressed up / They might as well be lookin’ at us / And if they call me a slut / You know it might be worth it for once,” she sings in the chorus. “And if I’m gonna be drunk / I might as well be drunk in love.”
In the second verse, Swift notes the complicated dichotomy of falling for someone in the spotlight, singing, “Send the code, he’s waitin’ there / The sticks and stones they throw froze mid-air / Everyone wants him / That was my crime / The wrong place at the right time / And I break down, then he’s pullin’ me in / In a world of boys, he’s a gentleman.”
Taylor Swift can’t come to the phone … she’s too busy giving advice! It’s a known fact that the pop star is a successful singer, writing lyrics that inspire her fans all over the world. But, she’s also full of wisdom — even when she’s not belting out tunes. The Grammy-winning artist was named the […]
Swift’s dating life has been the subject of public scrutiny for years, with the singer often getting candid about being judged for her past romances — especially in her early 20s.
“When I was 23 and people were just kind of reducing me to, like, kind of making slideshows of my dating life and putting people in there that I’d sat next to at a party once,” Swift explained during an October 2019 interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s Beats 1, adding that the commentary around her relationships is nothing more than a way to “slut-shame” and devalue her songwriting.
“I don’t think people understand how easy it is to infer that someone who’s a female artist or a female in our industry is somehow doing something wrong by wanting love, wanting money, wanting success,” she continued. “Women are not allowed to want those things the way that men are allowed to want them.”
Success is certainly something Swift has found. 1989 — which originally dropped in October 2014 — quickly became a critical success upon its release. The record, which marked her official debut in the pop world, was her first collaboration with producer Jack Antonoff and featured a synth-heavy, 80s-inspired sound different from her past work. In 2016, Swift scored her second Album of the Year Grammy win for 1989, which went nine times platinum.
“I want to say to all the young women out there: There are going to be people along the way who try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame,” she said during her Grammy’s acceptance speech. “But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday, when you get where you’re going, you will look around and you will know — it was you, and the people who love you, who put you there. And that will be the greatest feeling in the world.”
While Swift never “names names” in her music, many fans believe that most of 1989’s tracklist is inspired by her relationship with Harry Styles, with songs like “Out of the Woods” and “Style” containing lyrics that hint at the pair’s brief romance. The musicians were first linked in 2012 before calling it quits in January 2013.
Swift announced 1989 (Taylor’s Version) during her final Los Angeles Eras Tour show in August. Swift revealed her plans to revisit the albums in 2019 after her masters were bought by Scooter Braun in an acquisition with her former label, Big Machine Records. Braun later sold the masters for $300 million to a private equity company.
“I’ve spoken a lot about why I’m remaking my first six albums, but the way I’ve chosen to do this will hopefully help illuminate where I’m coming from,” Swift wrote via Instagram in February 2021. “Artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work.”