New York, New York – Taylor Swift opened up about her fans’ “weird” tendencies when it comes to dissecting her songs, often in the hopes of uncovering her muse’s identity.
As one of the New York Times’ 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters, the 36-year-old pop star gave an interview to the outlet detailing her songwriting process.
Her diaristic writing style has seen Swift capture her most poignant experiences of falling in and out of love, but given her place in the spotlight, fans often try to piece together who might have broken her heart using her own lyrics.
The Grammy winner told the Times that some Swifties take this to “extreme places.”
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“There’s people who are gonna try to, like, do detective work, figure out the details – who is that about? What is this?” she continued.
Though she knows this is often a natural inclination for fans, she admitted it gets “a bit weird” for her “when people act like it’s a paternity test.”
“Like, ‘This song’s about that person.’ Because I’m like, ‘That dude didn’t write the song, I did.’ But that’s part of it,” Swift said.
After a highly publicized breakup, Swift’s next songs are often intensely dissected by her fans online, and whatever the singer does divulge is then projected onto whoever they believe she was writing about.
Her exes have had varying reactions to work, but Swift made it clear in the interview that she stands by her confessional lyrics as a form of artistic expression.
Swift hit back at the criticism – most often employed against female songwriters – that these kinds of lyrics are just the musicians “being messy”.
“There’s a difference between art and going and ranting on an Instagram live,” she said.
“This is a song – this takes craft, this takes skill, this takes expertise.”
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The Opalite artist also made it clear that while she wants her fanbase to enjoy her work, outside validation isn’t the driving force behind her art.
“There it goes. Hope you like it,” she said of releasing new music. “And if you don’t now, hope you do in five years, and if you never do, then I was doing it for me anyway.”
