#it's inspired heavily by her previous breakups but it explores it through a fictionalized lens | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

taylorftparamore · 5 months

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i think it's interesting because "down bad" sounds like it could be about any breakup, and taylor specifically describes it as an "alien encounter" and fictional. i think this is proof that folkmore & midnights were the biggest lunge forward for her creativity as a storyteller - using foundational inspirations (reality) to create the bridge to fiction. taylor has written about other people's experiences before, heavily fictionalizing reality on debut ("mary's song") and further expunged upon the ekphrastic in "love story" but folkmore and midnights were the first time it was explicitly fictional/exploring her own past creations.

"down bad" and "the albatross" and "cassandra" all utilize previous songwriting techniques of fictionalizing reality and creating with motifs to literature.

#me at 8 am: time to get pretentious about taylor's songwriting #like i see folks treating ''down bad'' either as fiction or as reality #when the real crux of it is that it's both #it's inspired heavily by her previous breakups but it explores it through a fictionalized lens #it's like taylor realized at some point she could do what she did with ''mary's song'' and ''starlight'' but for HERSELF #and i think it's why her songwriting has improved further

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