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These are the interviews that made me love her as a teen 💖🫶🏼💖

Taylor Swift: 'My Confidence Is Easy To Shake'

By NPR Staff November 2, 2012 (x)

Taylor Swift's fourth studio album, Red, sold 1.2 million copies in its first week — the highest first-week sales total in a decade.

I think what I've learned recently is that it's not ... heartbreak that inspires my songs. It's not love that inspires my songs. It's individual people that come into my life. I've had relationships with people that were really substantial and meant a lot to me, but I couldn't write a song about that person for some reason. Then again, you'll meet someone that comes into your life for two weeks and you write an entire record about them.

The idea was based on this experience I had with someone who was kind of this unreliable guy. You never know when he's going to leave, you never know when he's going to come back, but he always does come back. And she's wondering whether to let him in, and he just wants her to give him another chance, but she doesn't know if he's going to break her heart again. It's a really fragile emotion you're dealing with when you want to love someone, but you don't know if it's smart to.

Once touted as a teen idol and a genre sensation, Taylor Swift is neither of those things today: At 22, she has become one of the biggest commercial forces in all of pop music. Her latest album, Red, sold 1.2 million copies in its first week — the highest such sales total in a decade. She spoke with NPR's Guy Raz about success, setbacks and why, in a career that began at 14, so many of her songs have dealt in love and heartbreak. Hear the radio version at the audio link on this page, and read more of their conversation below.

GUY RAZ: You quote the poet Pablo Neruda right on the first page of the liner notes. The line is, "Love is so short, forgetting is so long." And it seems like that line sort of sets the theme for this record.

TAYLOR SWIFT: It really does. When I read that line, I absolutely connected to it. I felt like my favorite writers have almost musical hooks in their work, whether it's poetry or a hook at the end of a chapter that makes you want to read the next one. And I think that my favorite writers definitely have something musical about what they do, in saying something so relatable and universal and so simple.

You write the vast majority of your songs, and a lot of your themes are about love or love lost and heartbreak. I sometimes wonder whether you date a lot of jerks.

[Laughs.] I've written all my songs on every single one of my records, and that's what's been fun about looking back. My first album is the diary of when I was 14, 15, 16. My second album, Fearless, was from 16 to 18, and so on, and so on. So you have my life being recorded in journal entries from these two-year periods of my life since I was 16. I like to write about love and love lost because I feel like there are so many different subcategories of emotions that you can possibly delve into. I've never missed two people the same way — it's always different for me. I've never fallen in love with someone and had the same exact kind of feeling come over me. So I think that there are all these different mixtures of emotions that go into individual feelings that you feel for individual people. And, yeah, most of the time it doesn't work out.

That's the thing with love: It's going to be wrong until it's right. So you experience these different shades of wrong, and you miss the good things about those people, and you regret not seeing the red flags for the bad things about those people, but it's all a learning process. And being 22, you're kind of in a crash course with love and life and lessons and learning the hard way, and thankfully, I've been able to write about those emotions as they've affected me.

Is there a line that you won't cross when it comes to writing about how you feel?

I don't think that I've ever experienced that line before.

So it's really you speaking in your lyrics?

Yeah. I've always written songs the same way. You learn different tricks — you learn craft, you learn structure, all that — as you go. Since I was 12, I would get an idea, and that idea is either a fragment of melody and lyric mixed in, [or] maybe it's a hook. Maybe it's the first line of a song. Maybe it's a background vocal part or something, but it's like the first piece of a puzzle. And my job in writing the song and completing it is filling in all the rest of the pieces and figuring out where they go. The reason why I keep doing it is because it's like a message in a bottle. You can put this message in a bottle, throw it out into the ocean, and maybe someday, the person that you wrote that song about is going to hear it and understand exactly how you felt. I think that's what keeps drawing me to songwriting: the spontaneity of how you can get an idea at 4 in the morning or while walking through the airport, and also the fact that it's conveying a message to someone that's more real than what you had the courage to say in person.

In the liner notes, some of the letters in the lyrics are capitalized, and your fans know what that's about. These are clues for them to kind of piece things together. Do you see your lyrics as a way for you to directly communicate with your fans?

The first thing that I think about when I'm writing my lyrics is directly communicating with the person the song is about. I think what I've learned recently is that it's not ... heartbreak that inspires my songs. It's not love that inspires my songs. It's individual people that come into my life. I've had relationships with people that were really substantial and meant a lot to me, but I couldn't write a song about that person for some reason. Then again, you'll meet someone that comes into your life for two weeks and you write an entire record about them. When I first started writing songs, I was always scared that my songs were too personal — like, if I put someone's name in a song, people won't relate to it as much. But what I saw happening was, if I let my fans into my life and my feelings and what I'm going through — my vulnerabilities, my fears, my insecurities — it turns out they have all those things, too, and it kind of connects us.

A lot of people know you were a talented singer as a kid, but you actually experienced setbacks for many years before you made it, right?

I started out with community theater, like local theater. I loved being on stage. I loved telling a story through words and music. I actually ended up going to auditions in New York for Broadway stuff. I didn't make it there. What I ended up coming back to is, I always was just so obsessed with the storytelling in country music. Shania Twain, Faith Hill, The Dixie Chicks — I was so taken in by their songs. So I started singing their songs at karaoke contests and singing every single weekend at something, trying out singing the national anthem here or there. When I was 12, I started playing guitar and writing my own songs, and that's when it became something I could never stop thinking about. It went into overdrive. I was always singing at some coffeehouse or some singer-songwriter night or this festival or that festival. It just became everything to me when I was about 12, and that's when I started really pressuring my parents to move to Nashville.

What motivated you? Were you just convinced you were going to make it?

No, actually. I was never convinced I was going to make it. And I look back — my mom and I reminisce about this all the time because we had no idea what we were doing. My parents bought books on what the music industry was like. They had no idea what the music industry entailed and what was involved with it. [Something that was] said to me early on was, "Teenagers don't listen to country music. That's not the audience. The audience is a 35-year-old housewife. ... How are you going to relate to those women when you're 16 years old? You should come back when you're in your 20s." And I kept thinking, "But I love country music, and I'm a teenager! There have to be more kids out there like me."

How do you deal with setbacks now? A few years ago, you were criticized by a few critics for a performance at the Grammy Awards. Did that shake your confidence?

Absolutely. My confidence is easy to shake. I am very well aware of all of my flaws. I am aware of all the insecurities that I have. I have a lot of voices in my head constantly telling me I can't do it. I've dealt with that my whole life. And getting up there on stage thousands of times, you're going to have off nights. And when you have an off night in front of that many people, and it's pointed out in such a public way, yeah, that gets to you. I feel like, as a songwriter, I can't develop thick skin. I cannot put up protective walls, because it's my job to feel things.

The kind of magical way that criticism has helped me is that that's another thing that I put into my music. I ended up writing a song called "Mean" about that experience, and about this one particular guy who would not get off my case about it. To stand up at the Grammys two years later, to sing that song and get a standing ovation for it, and to win two Grammys for that particular song, I think was the most gratifying experience I've ever had in my life.

There's one song on the new album called "The Last Time," which you sing with Gary Lightbody of the band Snow Patrol, that's particularly heartbreaking. Where does that come from? You have this bright, upbeat personality and this charisma that's been written about so much, and yet there's a lot of pain in what you write about.

The idea was based on this experience I had with someone who was kind of this unreliable guy. You never know when he's going to leave, you never know when he's going to come back, but he always does come back. My visual for this song is, there's a guy on his knees sitting on the ground outside of a door. And on the other side of the door is his girlfriend, who he keeps on leaving — and he keeps coming back to her, but then he leaves again. He's saying, "This is the last time I'm going to do this to you." And she's saying, "This is the last time I'm asking you this: Don't do this again." And she's wondering whether to let him in, and he just wants her to give him another chance, but she doesn't know if he's going to break her heart again. It's a really fragile emotion you're dealing with when you want to love someone, but you don't know if it's smart to.

This is an election weekend, and I know that the day you turned 18, you registered to vote. You've also said that you want to wait to take public positions on issues; that you want to feel comfortable enough to defend them. Are you there yet?

No, I'm not. I think at 22, I'm still gathering information about who I am as a person. I look at a lot of people's interviews on their lives, [and] I talk to a lot of people who are older than me — I have a great respect for gray hair. A lot of people tell me that when they were 22, they thought they had it all figured out, but they didn't. Just when I start to think that I know how I feel about something, I learn something else that changes my mind. I just feel like I don't have enough wisdom about myself as a person yet to go out there and say to 20 million followers on Twitter, and these people on Facebook, and whoever else is reading whatever interview I do, "Vote for this person." I know who I'm going to vote for, but I don't think that it's important for me to say it, because it will influence people one way or another. And I just want to make sure that every public decision I make is an educated one.

For most people, the time to make mistakes is when you're 22. Do you feel like, because of your public persona, you can't?

I do think about it. There's not really one day that goes by that my life isn't documented somewhere. I live in a world where I know for a fact that my grandkids will get to Google what I wore today. It's a strange dilemma because it puts an amount of pressure on your every move that other 22-year-olds don't necessarily have to think about. In the grand scheme of things, I'm living a life. ... I know I'm going to make mistakes. I'm just going to try to handle those mistakes as a good person. The perception of you is going to change daily when you do what I do, but I just want to end up knowing in my heart that I did that right thing and tried my best, and if you mess up, hopefully it teaches you something.

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Pleasing being so cheeky (again)...🫧

Pleasing posted on January 3rd (1/3 🤭)

and Ashley Avignone's birthday post on December 29th, while at Chez Margaux restaurant on December 28th

But what really links these two pictures is the word MARGAUX

Margaux, means PEARL, and Pleasing's polish is definitely pearled

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2024: Year in review ↳ prints

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🩷🥹🩵

Taylor & Harry, we miss you 😢 😭

I miss haylor so bad I feel like crying

It’s ok, they never go out of style, they come back to be there, never quite buried, they are coming right back, at the back door, they meet in the hallway, at the door hoping they will come around, because you know for him it’s always her and for her it’s always him, so just say when she’d play again.

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In the END GAME MV Taylor has a red scooter CAGED or behind bars

Singing under a streetlight with a bicycle next to her,

wearing a varsity jacket with

58 ... EH, also 13

embroidered on the LEFT arm (Harry's tattoo sleeve, most specifically his SHIP tattoo)

The music video shows different groups of people counting down to the New Year at MIDNIGHT

1:58 → 1 : EH, Edward Harry

Also a lyric in Speak Now, Wonderland, Sweeter Than Fiction, ...Ready For It?, and ME!

Listen I love Harry and I love haylor but Harry was a little shit at that time. You don't kiss your friends goodbye on the lips, doesn't matter if you're in a relationship or not. And she had a boyfriend? That's fucked up. Maybe she had a crush on Harry and Harry was just a horny teenager and they were both drunk and didn't think their little kiss would get caught on camera. It does look like she initiated it and maybe Harry didn't want to pull away rudely because there's no reason if he's "single" but I doubt he minded much. But she fucking had boyfriend???? God! And she went to his hotel room late at night and they went bars. Why the fuck would you do that when you have a bf and Harry knows there's gonna be camera following him and news gets out. He was really stupid trying to have both. Chase two girls lose the one kinda situation.

Taylor did forgive him so I guess it wasn't much but it didn't work very well either. I think she probably told him that they should be friends or something which is why Harry looks so sad in that interview. Or he did something else that made her not be with him for the moment. Which is why Liam says that he doesn't do very well for himself. He fucked up with Taylor.

Also this is unrelated but I saw in one of Ed's old tour videos Harry was there with him talking to fan on her stepmoms phone and he called the stepmom hot. I think that was around june-july I'm not sure. He's such a flirt

If there is a villian in this story to me it is the Paparazzi, Simon Runting, who took the photo TBH, he's been accused of stalking Lorde, took a photo of Rhiannon through a hotel window and synonymous with a landmark privacy case after taking photos of a politicians twin babies.

For Harry and Emma, agreed it's totally not OK to kiss a friend on the mouth goodbye when you have another partner. Considering how fast a paparazzi's camera is for there to be one photo where he lifted his arm makes it seem fleeting at most.

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Didn’t Harry tweet about a kiss after that story too?

He did! He tweeted Temper Traps Sweet Disposition, the same line that Taylor had as arm lyrics in 2011. I think this was directed to Taylor not Emma Ostilly. Later in 2012 he had them tattooed on the anniversary of Taylor’s arm lyrics and Taylor said this was her favourite romantic song.

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have you seen LK’s post? He was very chatty but seemed weird to me, like he was upset, saying the poem was about an ex friend that he currently dislikes…. Needless to say that he even added a TTPD lyric into the mix … could he be referring to TS?

Posted at 2:45pm London time and the comments are !!

The poem (and comments) are about the end of a once close relationship, LK is writing about someone he held close, feels he made sacrifices for but it was one sided. The rhyme scheme and structure is very similar to Harry’s songs and LK says its original.

Who laughs at your jokes?

LK asks if someone feels seen by others, even when it’s not returned. It evokes twin flames to me.

Who breathes in all your smoke?

Taking on someone else’s burdens, even when it hurts you. Quietly absorbing their struggles. This reminds me of the invisible smoke in the archer, clearing the air I breathed in the smoke in daylight and smell of smoke hung around this long in cardigan

Who toughs out the rainfall? Who gets themselves soaked?

Enduring hardships alongside someone, even at a personal cost. Loyalty that leaves you exposed. This is very HYGTG coded, and clean, sparks fly, Taylor uses this metaphor a lot in songs about real love and sacrifice.

Who weathers your storms?

Shielding someone from the worst parts of life, taking on their chaos as your own. Self sabotage mode, Throwing spikes down on the road anyone? ‘An my words shoot to kill when I’m mad, I have a lot of regrets about that’ from this is me trying.

Who knows when you perform?

A deep, quiet understanding of someone. Seeing through the mask they wear for others. It’s a pretty close reference to ‘the only one who knows which smiles I’m faking’ in tis the damn season.

Who gives up their kindling to make sure you’re warm?

The ultimate sacrifice—giving away the parts of yourself you need to survive, just to keep them comfortable. This reminds me of story of my life “I drive all night to keep her warm” a similar theme of unreciprocated devotion.

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Overall It’s about the cost of care—the kind of love that drains you when it’s not mutual. The repetition of “Who” feels like a plea, a reflection on what it means to give so much and receive so little.

In the comments LK responded to someone who brought up TTPD/loml with the line “who else is gonna decide you” with a similar idea that there is no one else who gets LK like this person. Poor LK, too much holiday feeling I think. In the comments he ruefully says it’s fine he won’t act and it’s long gone. Whenever he’s referring to clearly matters to him and I hope it isn’t as done as he’s saying. Or more correctly I hope they make amends.

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I don't understand the fake glasses look. Does she want him to be more like yb?

He’s worn glasses before, they may be for eyesight.

The Tribeca Hat seems more like a stunt wear to me - Taylor in the Stella man jacket, her side piece in glasses, Tribeca hat and iridescent slacks is really giving director and himbo. Welcome to Taylor is a director of very serious piece you are all excited to see on Disney+ era.

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Harry Styles 2020 Variety Hitmaker of the Year

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First time 1D asked about Taylor

Sugarscape on 24 November 2011 (x) asked about women in the US and mentioned Taylor, the whole band fell silent and Harry stared at the band not camera. Niall blushed and meekly said Demi Lovato.

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Merry Swiftmas! 🫶🏼🎄🎁

18 years ago today, Taylor Swift via MySpace!

(On December 24, 2006)

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I wonder if she took Space Boy? 🪐

3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

🚀

6 years ago today, a signed copy of 1989 by Taylor Swift was launched in a time capsule into space!

(On December 16, 2018)

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how did harry get his ching scar

Harry’s chin scar, and the story behind it, seems to be falling through the cracks as part of the education new Harries receive. I won’t stand for it! It’s a thrilling tale.

Harry was vacationing with Taylor Swift in Utah in December 2012. Here they are enjoying that ski resort life:

What happened on their trip is largely known because of Taylor’s song Out of the Woods. She discusses it in a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone :

When Harry got back to the UK from their trip, he first hid his chin at the airport and then showed off his big bandage during Christmas celebrations :

His Tweet acknowledging the injury:

So in summary, Harry crashed a snowmobile that he was riding with Taylor Swift in 2012, got 20 stitches in his chin, and was left “with a nasty scar”. Personally, I love the scar. It is a humbling reminder that Harry is a terrible driver and Haylor was real 😂.

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On 21 December 2012 skiing in Park City, Utah and dinner at Grappa.

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Harry in NY on Taylor Birthday 👀

I know. Probably to visit the Columbia Headquarters, he was seen there a few months before Harry’s House’s release. But !!!! at the timing and Taylor being MIA on her birthday.

I would *love* to know where she was and who else was in NY.

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So much of the Anthology feels like a continuation of Midnights, but with a production similar to Folklore/Evermore.

Very much on the folklore/evermore production, Aaron dessner worked on 66%/88% of them and the anthology is very much a return to that, compared to the original TTPD which was mostly Jack the Anthology has more of Aaron’s work on it .

Midnights: 4 songs of 21 Till Dawn version of midnights (19%)

Original TTPD Album: Aaron Dessner worked on 4 out of 16 songs (25%).

Additional Songs in The Anthology: He worked on 10 out of 15 additional songs (67%).

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On 18 December 2012 Taylor accompanied Harry to get his ship tattoo at Shamrock Tattoo in LA, they were mobbed by fans and paparazzi