DON’T WRITE ANY MORE MUSIC, TAYLOR SWIFT!
by Crazier
Dear Taylor Swift:
This is an open letter from a fan, desperately begging you not to write any more music.
It wasn’t so bad at first. Your first album was a surprise to me, a breath of fresh air that I didn’t fully expect. I got it in the first place because I discovered “Crazier” on the Hannah Montana album and thought it was the most amazing country-style song I had ever heard. I was curious to hear more, but I was not at all a country music fan, so I was a little skeptical that I would necessarily enjoy your entire album. I might have listened to the whole album and then cheerfully gone on to something else … except that there was this one song, “Teardrops On My Guitar,” that somehow really captured my attention. I’ve heard hundreds of songs about lost love, but there was just something about the way it was expressed here. The lyrics were specific, the emotions tangible, the heartbreak real. I’ve never experienced that kind of heartbreak myself, but I felt I had a window into it just through one song. I started listening to it all the time. It was truly “the song in the car I keep singing, don’t know why I do.”
Then I got Fearless. Suddenly there was a whole album of songs I wanted to listen to all the time. Most of your songs, of course, were about romantic love: “You Belong With Me”, “Love Story”, “Hey Stephen” – each one drew me in by the concreteness of the emotions, dragging me along on your roller coaster ride through the delights and frustrations of romance.
But that’s not all the album is about. You wrote a song about the love between parent and child: “The Best Day,” which made me cry when I heard it, because it made me realize that my own daughters will be grown up someday and I hope that they remember their time with me fondly. It was months before I could even listen to it again because I was afraid of the reaction it caused.
And you wrote “Fifteen,” which I think is truly the most inspirational song on the whole album. I think there may be no line with more implied hope in it than the line, "I've found time can heal most anything and you just might find who you're supposed to be." It points to how we all have the potential to aspire to be something more than we are now -- especially at 15, of course, but really at any time in our lives. That is the most hopeful message I think you could give a person, and is just one example of the love you show every day towards your fans.
I should have known better than to continue. I should have been careful not to get drawn in any more than I already had. But I went ahead and got Speak Now. Maybe I was hoping I wouldn’t like it. I’ve come across many artists who can put out one or two great albums, but can’t carry the momentum beyond that. There was no way, I figured, that you could ever put out something that could top Fearless. Surely I was safe.
What I discovered is that your songwriting had become even crisper, more mature, more developed, even better when you wrote at 20 than when you were 16. Speak Now wasn’t about high school at all anymore. It had grown-up emotions and thoughts, and was something that my 41-year old mind could relate to directly. I have come to believe that there is nothing more important we can do in this life than to love and to be loved, and I think you must feel the same, because your lyrics are an enduring celebration of love -- not just romantic love, but in all its many forms. I listened to “Enchanted,” and when the band breaks out and you get to the line, “This night is sparkling, don’t you let it go,” it’s like the heavens open up, basking me in the electric thrill of new infatuation. I listened to “Last Kiss,” and the despair of lost love permeates through every cell in my body. I listened to “Long Live,” and the love you have for your band and for your fans shines out like light chasing away the darkness.
Then there was “Mean.” I didn’t even realize it the first time I heard it, but I think it may be the most significant song on the album. Of course we all knew it was about bullies, but I think I finally really understood it only when the video came out. The scene of the little girl clapping for you alone in the theater brought tears to my eyes, even though you never see the end of her story. It doesn’t really matter because what you gave her in the video was not a resolution; what you gave her was the gift of hope, the hope that someday her present troubles would be overcome. It is the hope we all need to continue through all our trials and bullies in our lives, and it is a potent, empowering gift to give.
And the gift of that hope, expressed in that song, is something you give to millions of Swifties every day. You can hear it in the Speak Now World Tour CD. They sing along to “Mean” more clearly than any other in the whole concert. It is their anthem. It is as if you took each one by the hand, and gently said, “You can’t face your bullies by yourself? That’s OK. We’ll face them together. All of us.” The kind of hope expressed in songs like “Mean” and “Fifteen” unite us Swifties together, and show us every day what the real power of love can be.
So, Taylor Swift, I must implore you to stop. Please don’t come out with another album. Please don’t write any more music. It is hard to imagine, but I might like your next album even better than Speak Now, and I’m not sure if I will be able to handle it if I do. Because I don’t think I can stand to cry any more, to smile any more, to laugh any more, and to hope and love any more, than I have already. So for my sake – for all our sakes – please don’t continue.
Your fan,
Crazier
P.S. However … if you are planning to put the next album out anyway, could you please hurry up? The other Swifties and I can’t wait.
credits to crazier of vh1.
