Taylor Swift finally has her lasting “Love Story.”
On Aug. 26, Swift announced her engagement to Travis Kelce. It seems every Taylor Swift fan (including myself) went into a frenzy, texting all of their friends, feeling an unhealthy amount of happiness for a couple they don’t actually know and scrutinizing the post for clues about the upcoming album.
When the dust settled, I wondered: What if we never get another iconic Taylor Swift heartbreak song?
When thinking of Swift, you may immediately think of “breakup songs,” and you wouldn’t be wrong, as there is an ample selection of those in her discography. However, she also has beautifully harrowing songs on other topics.
For example, “Ronan,” which is a song about Ronan Thompson, the son of the blogger, Maya Thompson, who passed away from cancer before his fourth birthday. Or “Bigger Than the Whole Sky,” which some people interpret to be about losing a loved one or having a miscarriage.
In Swift’s eighth album, “Folklore,” she also proved that she could create fictional worlds with just as much depth and lyrical integrity as her songs that are primarily influenced by her own life. The songs “Betty,” “August,” and “Cardigan” tell the story of a high school love triangle. The three songs lay out a rudimentary plot, giving us the perspective of the ex-girlfriend, the boy and “the other woman,” but its simplicity creates relatability, forming an enduring thread of connection between her and the listener.
Notably, Swift has released multiple albums while in a relationship with Joe Alwyn, including “Reputation,” “Folklore” and “Evermore.”
While there aren’t many breakup songs in these albums, there are songs that could be interpreted as breakup songs, such as “My Tears Ricochet,” which is allegedly about Scott Borchetta, the record executive who sold her master recordings to Scooter Braun.
At her most basic, Swift is seen as an artist who writes good breakup songs. I don’t think she needs to regurgitate or rehash any of these breakups to appease surface-level fans. Swift will likely continue to carry these developmental memories — of that one high school boyfriend, getting cheated on or falling in and out of love. The shift may be as simple as using new impressions of these experiences to create new fictional storylines.
Essentially, I don’t suspect there to be any shortage of heartbreaking songs in her albums to come. In the “New Heights” podcast, she mentions that every song is drawn from personal experience. I don’t think all of her heartbreaking experiences will evaporate just because she’s getting married.
Long-time fans have seen her music and writing evolve throughout her career, and there will certainly be differences in the new albums, as there always are. Still, her talent isn’t dependent on only writing heartbreak songs.
If it turns out she never writes another sad song again, then there are always the heartbreak songs from the past eleven albums to turn to.
