To both die-hards and casual fans alike, it’s no surprise that Taylor Swift draws heavily from her personal life in her songwriting. Even more than that, she’s open about it! Most of the time, Taylor doesn’t even have to rely on the media to get her messages out: For anyone who has ever sat down with the lyric booklet in the front cover of one of her CDs, you know she adds hidden messages within the song lyrics via inconsistently capitalized letters, giving fans more information about the songs.
As a writer myself, I have an endless amount of respect for Taylor because of her openness regarding her writing. For people who write for a wider audience than just themselves, there is so much pressure for the writing produced to be versatile and applicable to everyone. It’s a scary thing to bear your heart and soul for other people to then apply to their own lives. In a way, it erases your story to make room for everyone else’s. Most people receive writing through personal interpretation. It is a brave thing to put your life on the table and let people grab it as their own.
Of course, this has never stopped Taylor Swift. She started her trend of leaving hidden messages for fans with her debut album, “Taylor Swift.” (So presumably, she went into this career thinking, “I’m going to be here for a long time.” Cheers to that!)
Complete lists of these messages can be found online if you google, “Taylor Swift [album title] messages decoded.” In keeping with the theme of outsiders attaching their own meanings to creative works, here are a couple of my favorites off each album:
"Taylor Swift" 2006
“A Place in This World” — I found it
“Should’ve Said No” — Sam Sam Sam Sam
" Fearless" 2008
“Fearless” — I loved you before I met you
“Fifteen” — I cried while recording this
"Speak Now" 2010
“Sparks Fly” — Portland Oregon
“Long Live” — For you
"Red" 2012
“State of Grace” — I love you doesn’t count after goodbye
“Treacherous” — Won’t stop till it’s over
"1989" 2014
“Out of the Woods” — They loved each other recklessly
“Clean” — She lost him but she found herself and somehow that was everything
Sometimes, Taylor uses her hidden messages as little wink-nudge dedications, and sometimes, this makes the songs’ dedicatees painfully obvious. The message for “Back to December” was just a simple “Tay,” “Enchanted” was “Adam,” “22” was “Ashley Dianna Claire Serena,” and “Starlight” was “For Ethel.” She also offers up small explanations of inspiration in the form of personal details, seen most frequently throughout the album “Red.”
In the song “Red,” Taylor’s only message is “SAG.” In “All Too Well,” it is “Maple lattes.” “Everything Has Changed” is “Hyannis Port.”
It’s not a shocker to discover that “Back to December” was written for Taylor Lautner, “Enchanted” for Adam Young, “22” for Taylor’s best friends, and “Starlight” for Ethel Kennedy. For anyone who has ever picked up a “People” magazine, you know how the media is overwhelmingly obsessed with celebrities’ love lives, especially Taylor Swift. However, by being open with her fans about who has these kinds of impacts in her life—crushes, ex-boyfriends, family, friends; large enough impacts that they trickle from her personal into her creative life—she uses all this media attention to interact with the people who read the tabloids and listen to her music.
If you google “Maple lattes,” the first results are paparazzi pictures of Taylor Swift and Jake Gyllenhaal cozying up on a walk and a 2010 article from “People” magazine (shocker) about their coffee date in New York. Of course, Taylor and her crew would have known about this press before "Red" dropped, and certainly they considered the implications of leaving a hidden message spelling out the very specific drink Taylor and Jake Gyllenhaal allegedly ordered while together. The thing is, Taylor doesn’t let this stop her from hiding little tidbits of information in her lyric booklets that expand upon what the press has already published. She doesn’t let it stop her from interacting with her fans in a way that makes them feel closer to her. Like a friend whispering a secret in your ear, Taylor Swift offers up paparazzi gossip about herself to people who know where to look.
No one except Taylor knows how many of the anecdotes and tiny details in her songs are things that actually happened or existed. Maybe she draws from her imagination as much as from her own life. The fact of the matter is that for so many of her songs, the overall meaning is presented as something very personal to her. Her hidden messages only further expand on these meanings. Regardless, with five albums and a now-household name in the music industry, Taylor Swift thus far has not ceased to offer glimpses into her personal life. It is easy to think of celebrities as semi-divine enigmas. But her honesty and openness make Taylor Swift touchable, and in a world where people will morph anything they like to fit their own emotions. Openness, as previously stated, is such a brave thing.
The message hidden in the song “White Horse” is “All I ever wanted was the truth.” I can’t speak for anyone else, but maybe this is why Taylor’s little clues resonate with me so much. After all, isn’t truth what we’re ultimately searching for in this world? And in such a little way, across the chasm between Hollywood and the general public, Taylor Swift gives a bit of that truth to her fans.
When I first discovered these messages, it was just a couple months after “1989” was released and I stumbled upon a Tumblr post about Taylor Swift’s dedication to her fans. Reading through the post, out of all the thoughts swimming around in my head, the loudest one was, “I can’t wait to see what she does next.”
