blaze-inthedark - Tumblr blog

blaze-inthedark · 2 months ago

Text

okay im missing ttpd's birthday by ONE DAY but bare with me okay i was speed running a ttpd drawing instead of a ttpd analysis but alas I AM HERE

todays subject of analysis will be one of my top songs on ttpd: down bad. the overarching theme of the song, as many have already pointed out, compares being love bombed to an alien abduction. taylor intricately weaves beautiful words, allegories, and pop culture references all into one fell swoop of a composition. now it's not the most poetic?? song off the album, and its one of my favorites because of the musical side of things. i don't usually delve into that part of analysis (mostly because idk wtf i'm talking about on that side of things) but for this song i do.

Did you really beam me up?/In a cloud of sparkling dust- since this is mostly just my analysis blog, i have yet to mention that im a HUGE star trek fan and when i heard this lyric a year ago, my life changed. both of my interests mishmashing together into one?? instant platinum record in my house. for those who don't know - "beaming up" is a phrased thats famously used in star trek that refers to characters or people transporting from one place to another. in the original series from the 1960s, captain kirk is famous for saying "beam me up, scotty." when he wants to be transported from one place to another. the "sparkling dust" taylor refers to is the effect that happens when this transportation takes place. it's a really pretty effect that's been kept standard throughout trek history.

it's important to note that beaming also has a very distinct and shrill sound in the show. (this is important for later!)

Just to do experiments on?/Tell me I was the chosen one/Showed me that this world is bigger than us/Then sent me back where I came from - the experiment line tells us that the person taylor's addressing (most likely matty healy, so i'll be referring to the subject of the song as him from now on) didn't exactly take their relationship seriously, treating it moreso as a fickle experiment. she details the intimate nature of their relationship - his experimentations with telling her grandiose things to make her feel secure and good with him, only to drop her off exactly where she started (which we can assume is heartbroken).

Now I'm down bad, cryin' at the gym/Everything comes out teenage petulance/"Fuck it if I can't have him"/"I might just die, it would make no difference" - from the first verse of the song, that has cosmic, stellar words and imagery interwoven in the lyrics, we get plopped down into the chorus, who's opening line puts us in a mundane and normal place. taylor uses the chorus to show us the shift in how matty treated her - from promises of stars and chosen ones, to something as mundane as going to the gym - and crying, no less. taylor goes from being enthralled, with promises and love whispered in her ear - to being heartbroken at the gym, petulantly whining and dramatically professing how distraught she is. (now that sounds harsh, but i dont mean it that way okay like me too girl) throughout this entire album, taylor herself tells us that she is an unreliable narrator - that her words are heavily influenced by her emotions while writing them, and that it's not a subjective state of mind. (and there's evidence for that i promise, but i'll go and stick to the evidence in this song for now). taylor knows that she's being unreasonable and childish about the situation - her words are laced with irony and dramaticism. her point is that the emotions behind the ordeal and the relationship are so intense, that her only method of expressing them is in a childish and petulant teenage way.

Did you take all my old clothes/Just to leave me here, naked and alone - i interpret this line as her "clothes" being the core values that she held close to herself. i think in these lines, shes saying that matty's experimentations and their relationship stripped her of everything she knew. when you look at their situationship lore, they were friends (at least) for just over 10 years - losing that bond, that constant someone who you could always turn to, and who you possibly have had on and off feelings for for 10+ years must feel like getting the floor ripped out from under you. thats supported when she describes being "naked and alone" - lost and incomplete without that consistent presence of a person she's held dear for so long.

okay we're getting to the bridge now - this is where that musical bit is gonna come in, so hear me out! (and maybe have spotify or your music player ready because i will be talking about the sounds behind the lyrics as well)

I loved your hostile takeovers/Encounters closer and closer/All your indecent exposures - when you love someone as much as taylor loved matty, and when you've known them and been involved with them for as long as they had been , you learn to love all the bad parts of a person as well. you learn to live with their brash and loud behavior (hostile takeovers); the push and pull they have on you, never quite committing to you and a future with you (encounters closer and closer); their indecent and problematic preformances for people (indecent exposures). you love them completely and wholly as a person, and you learn to love the parts that are ugly. when you're done, and finished, and the dust has settled, you look back and notice all the shitty stuff, and all the red flags - but when you're in denial, you still find some love in all of it. this whole song is taylor in the denial stage of the process of a breakup. she's fresh off of it, pushing through at the gym while crying, tossing everything about the other person in her head and wondering how it could've been different. if you look hard enough, you can find several stages of grief in the lyrics - anger, denial, sadness.

How dare you say that it's— she doesn't even finish the sentence. finishing the sentence, saying the small quick word: over - is an omission, an acceptance that it's finished, and that she's really lost that person that's been with her, in some way or another, for 10+ years. she doesn't want to let him go, and most importantly, can't accept that the relationship was an experiment to him.

How dare you think it's romantic/Leaving me safe and stranded - now WHIP OUT YOUR SPOTIFYS! OR APPLE MUSICS! remember when i talked about beaming up? (that was ages ago - sorry for all the blabbering after that lol! glad you're still here i promise we're almost at the end) i mentioned that beaming up has a distinct trilly/shrill sound. here's an example: https://youtu.be/F5W8ymktBYM (you only have to listen until 30seconds! this is the best example i could find, and the video is a minute long sorryyy) after you've listened to that, open up your music app and go to 2:47-2:51 in down bad. YOU WILL NOTICE THAT IT'S THE SAME SOUND (or the best recreation of it, because copyright, maybe?) my source for this is that i'm a gigantic trekkie and i've logged like 300 hours of watch time on this franchise, i KNOW these sounds like the back of my hand.

going back to the lyric part of it - she does use these sounds right after she talks about being dropped off on her planet, "safe and stranded." she circles back to the abduction metaphor, both with the lyrics and the sounds inside the music.

i hope this all made sense! this definitely isn't as well thought out as my previous post, and maybe it doesn't make sense at some points, but i wanted to go into something ttpd related and offer my own perspective on my thoughts behind the song. i did reference the genius analysis for this, and put my own spin on things! my next song will probably be something off of evermore or folklore! or maybe a secret wildcard,,, who knows wink wink

thanks for reading!! :D

#ttpd #taylor swift #1yearoftsttpd #song analysis #im so sorry if this doesnt make sense #lyric analysis.docx

6 notes · View notes

blaze-inthedark · 2 months ago

Text

ivy is such a multi-layered and beautiful song, in sound, momentum, in storytelling - like we know that taylor's works off of folklore and evermore are some of the best of her career when it comes to poetic storytelling, and ivy just hits the nail right on the head. exploring a taboo relationship between a wife and her lover, taylor's use of strong imagery conveys the deep set emotions intertwined in the lyrics themselves. on one hand, the speaker yearns for a real love with someone who knows them deeply, who will save them from the stale marriage she finds herself in - on the other hand, there's so much resentment and anger behind the words, particularly the final climax of the song, that the words seem to set fire to anyone in their path. in the first verse of the song, the speaker seems to know that the love she yearns for with her secret lover is tainted - she knows it's taboo and wrong, but she expresses that she can't help the newly kindled fire it's sparked in her. (Your touch brought forth an incandescent glow/Tarnished but so grand) The speaker describes how the pain of her marriage "fits in the palm" of her lover's hand - which possibly refers to her wedding ring, which is supported by the next line that speaks of promising it to another. (My pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand/Taking mine, but it’s been promised to another)

The next line in the chorus is: My house of stone, your ivy grows/and now I’m covered in you. I interpret the “house of stone” as a life that seems like an impenetrable fortress – no one can look in, only look out. it’s difficult to enter and explore, much less sneak inside. but houses of stone often have ivy-covered walls, long spindly vines that crawl their way up and force themselves between each brick. ahen they begin their affair and kindle their love, her lover's “ivy" (his influence, his being, him) is in every corner of her life, at her core – and soon, her rock-solid life is covered in his ivy.

these initial verses help us gain some perspective about the relationship between the speaker and her lover, and they give us insight about their relationship. despite some of the death imagery earlier in the song (with taylor using the words "widow", "stone" aka grave, "grieving") which make the listener think the speaker is a widow, and that her "affair" is more of her guilty conscience in romantically moving on so soon, the next verses change that.

He’s in the room/Your opal eyes are all I wish to see/He wants what’s only yours - tells us that the husband is well and alive, and that the two have been in the same room at times. the irony in these lyrics comes in the second half, where the speaker devotes herself completely, almost like shes promising herself to her lover whilst still being married to her husband. this continues to give us some backstory into the relationships between the characters - the next few verses is where the plot thickens gradually. while throughout the song we are still learning about the dynamics between all the characters, we begin to see deeper levels of each relationship as they swirl together with the music.

Clover blooms in the fields/Spring breaks loose, the time is near/What would he do if he found us out?/Crescent moon, coast is clear/Spring breaks loose, but so does fear - this is the first indication that the speaker seems to be having doubts about the nature of her relationship. She expresses fear of being caught, of her husband retaliating - the anxiety behind the relationship begins to come out for the first time in the song.

He’s gonna burn this house to the ground - relating back to the ivy line in the chorus, this line could be interpreted as the speaker building a new house - not one of stone, but a cabin of wood ( ka her secret life and love). a wooden cabin gives the impression of being cozy, recluse, and safe – yet flammable, and easy to destroy. the conviction and the genuine fear behind the words showcases the speakers anxieties on eventually being found out by her husband, and the fear that he will destroy her delicate new love.

the story comes to its peak at the bridge. i promise I'm almost done, and thanks for reading this far - get ready for this one since miss tay likes to destroy us with her bridges. this song is no different – the music builds, and coupled with the development of the story and the words of these lyrics, it’s clear that the speaker’s anger, anxiety, everything she's suppressed until now has reached an all-time high at this point in the song.

So yeah, it’s a fire/It’s a goddamn blaze in the dark/And you started it/You started it - i think there are two interpretations of this point in the song: one where the speaker is angry at her husband and one where the speaker is angry at herself.

the imagery of fire has been used before in the song: “He’s gonna burn this house to the ground” – like i said before, this is the anxiety that the speaker feels at the prospect of her husband discovering her affair, and burning her “house” (her life with her lover) down to the ground. in this section of the lyrics, it could be describing exactly that - her husband has discovered her affair, and has forbidden her to see her lover, effectively burning everything she loves in the process and confining her to live in their stone house. she’s retaliating with anger, fighting for the life she knows she wants and deserves – she blames her husband for not loving her enough, for making her seek out the love she wants in someone else’s arms.

she could also be referring to herself – blaming herself for starting the whole mess, insinuating that she’s the one who initiated the affair. Based on previous lines of the song, “In a faith forgotten land“, which tell us that the speaker abandoned her faith to her husband a long time ago. the bridge could be seen as the speaker blaming herself for setting her own life in flames, and for allowing herself to let it happen. the words in this verse spin of self-hatred and regret towards her own actions. it could be interpreted that her "spinelessness" and lack of accountability is what makes her lose her lover in the end – not her husband finding out, or her lover betraying her, but her hatred towards her own cowardice and lack of faith.

PERSONALLY, i think the second interpretation is more interesting - but idk!! if you're still here, thanks for reading my brain dump. this was originally written for a school assignment (i tweaked it for tumblr obvs) and it's my first serious taylor analysis ever. I've got lots of thoughts on her music, and maybe my next posts wont be this long (i did have most of this pre-written) so ya! oh and check out my art blog in. my pinned for some cool stuffs too :] k byeee!

#taylor swift #taylornation #song analysis #evermore #lyric analysis.docx

7 notes · View notes