Fans Were Shocked To Find Out They Were Wrong About This Taylor Swift Song After All

April 2024 · 7 minute read

Highlights

Taylor Swift is known for writing songs about personal events in her life and breaking records held by the likes of The Beatles by doing so. While doing so generally puts a negative spotlight on those whom she has been in a relationship with, it also is part of what makes Swift's fans so loyal to her because the Lavender Haze singer is not afraid to shy away from sharing intimate moments of her life in her music.

The fact that many of Swift's songs are written about past flames has Swifties on alert when new music is released to find Easter eggs in songs to determine who they are about. More often than not, the astute fans are able to figure out who it is that Swift is singing about and that person becomes the topic of social media conversation that is eaten up with a spoon.

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There are times, however, when the sleuthing goes awry and a song is not about anyone that Swift has been involved with. When this happens, Swift fans shake it off. But, with one particular song, fans were shocked to learn that they were wrong about who the lyrics were about when Swift herself explained where the inspiration came from.

Taylor Swift's Song Inspiration Comes From All Kinds Of Places

While most of Swift's songs revolve around the relationships that she has been in, that is not the only topic that she will broach when trying to work through her emotions, good or bad. As such, those who have romantically, professionally, or personally wronged Swift are all fair game for her lyrics.

However, so are those whom she loves and adores, which helps to paint a very clear portrait of what is happening in Swift's life at the time of the album release.

One of the longest-lasting feuds that Swift had was with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. The feud started when Swift won an MTV Video Music Award and West took the stage ranting that Beyoncé should have won instead.

The feud lasted so long because West would apologize for his actions, act like any and all issues between himself and Swift were squashed, and then do something else to hurt the Snow on the Beach singer. As such, the feud and the ultimate dismissal of West and Kardashian were documented in many songs, some of which include Look What You Made Me Do, The Man, I Forgot That You Existed, Call It What You Want, and This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things.

While songs like Back to December are a way for Swift to make amends to those she hurt, in this case, Taylor Lautner, others are written to decimate those who hurt Swift. In the instance of Dear John, that was John Mayer.

What was interesting about the Swift/Mayer romance was that it was not well publicized and brief. However, fans got first-hand knowledge about how Mayer treated Swift when she released Dear John, turning fans of both artists against Mayer.

The lyrics, "Don't you think nineteen is too young / To be played by your dark twisted games / When I loved you so?," in addition to “Don't you think I was too young to be messed with? / The girl in the dress, cried the whole way home / I should've known," were all directed at Mayer.

For his part, Mayer stated that he should not have been singled out and even denied that what Swift sang about was true.

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"I didn't deserve it. I'm pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that," Mayer explained. "It was a really lousy thing for her to do."

Other celebrities that Swift has written songs about include Katy Perry, whom there was a long-standing feud with, Jake Gyllenhaal, Harry Styles, Calvin Harris, Joe Alwyn, and more. While some songs were getting revenge via music, others were love songs.

All the songs, however, helped fans to better understand Swift. This is why when she revealed that You Belong With Me was not a song about her life, fans were shocked.

Taylor Swift Shared The Story That Inspired 'You Belong With Me'

When Swift released You Belong With Me in 2008, many assumed that the song was written about someone in her life that Swift wished would have chosen her over another girl. At the time, the Anti-Hero singer was 19 years old, which would have been a perfect topic for Swift to sing about and for fans to relate to. However, the song's origin was much simpler and had nothing to do with Swift's personal life but a friend's instead.

"I was walking past one of my guy friends and he was on the phone with his girlfriend. She was yelling at him really loudly in the phone," Swift explained.

"I mean, I could hear her yelling at him from across the room and she was on the phone. It's terrible. I felt so bad for him, 'cause I was like, 'Don't be with her. She's mean to you. Like she's being ridiculously mean.' It was because he didn't call her back in 10 minutes, he called her back in 15 minutes. Crazy..."

Swift went on to say, "So I walked past and I started humming to myself, I started singing in my head, 'You're on the phone with your girlfriend, she's upset,' and I was like, 'That could be something'."

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While this explanation makes perfect sense for the song, many who became privy to this explanation recently seemed shocked that the song was not a "pick me" girl song instead, as had been believed for well over a decade.

Commenters Were Shocked Taylor Swift Wasn't Actually A 'Pick Me' Girl

After the release of You Belong With Me 15 years ago, Swifties thought that the song revolved around unrequited love as a teenager. More recently, however, some of Swift's fans thought that the song was a "pick me" girl song or a song where one girl goes out of her way to ensure a boy that she is interested in that she is different from all other girls he has ever met, a fact that has been proven to not be true but did not stop many from arguing the point regardless.

"She's implying that she's better than the other girl. That's what makes her a pick me," one fan wrote of the YouTube clip.

Another user stated, "You do realize this song was written because the girl he was with was toxic, not the other way around, right?? She’s not saying that she’s better, she’s saying that she worried about him being in an unhealthy relationship."

"I love it how she takes inspiration from stories existing outside then gives us a combination of fiction plus personal mixed song," a third fan said.

This last comment is spot on, according to other users. This is because songs such as Marjorie, Betty, The Archer, August, and other songs are written based on an idea Swift has that may include bits of her personal life.

As such, while fans may want to believe that all the songs Swift writes are based on her personal life, they are not. Like any good songwriter, the smallest of things can spark an idea and for Swift, those ideas turn to musical gold.

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