For me, Taylor Swift’s music has been a huge part of my music journey. Specifically her album Folklore. Folklore was the first album of hers that I truly listened to. It made me feel understood and like what I was feeling was normal.
Folklore takes the listener through a fake love triangle between three teenagers, Betty, James, and Augustine. There are three specific songs that resonate with each character. The song “August” is from Augustine’s perspective. Augustine and James spent the whole summer together, but it comes to Augustine’s surprise that James has a girlfriend, Betty. Augustine thought she and James had true “summer love,” but to James it was “just a summer thing.” When James tries going back to Betty when summer is over, Augustine realizes that James never really was hers, despite spending so much time together.
The song “Betty,” from James’ perspective, is an apology song to Betty. Although James knows what he did was wrong, he tends to blame everybody else but himself. James blames Betty for dancing with someone else at a dance, and he blames Augustine for picking him up. He also places blame on his age, saying that he is “only seventeen” and he “doesn’t know anything.” In the end, Betty does end up taking James back at her start of the school year party.
The song “Cardigan” is from adult Betty’s perspective. Betty and James’ relationship is long over and this song captivates Betty reflecting on their relationship. Throughout the song Betty mentions things that would’ve fixed their relationship, “to kiss in cars and downtown bars.” By saying this, Betty is claiming that if they did more normal couple things, their relationship would have been saved. Betty also said she “feels like an old cardigan under someone’s bed,” which means she feels she was used for all she was worth then she was forgotten about. She also states that James “drew stars around her scars” but now she’s “bleeding.” James made Betty feel beautiful for the hard things she had been through in her life but when he did what he did to her he reopened those scars and made them worse.
I think this album is beautifully written and the story behind three fictional teenagers is really captivating. The way Taylor Swift writes gives so much emotion to her words. She adds a lot of deep meaning to what she sings and says things in a more complex way than other songwriters. For example, in her song “my tears ricochet,” she writes “Even on my worst day, did I deserve babe, all the hell you gave me.” This song is about the betrayal that Taylor felt when she found out her previous record label sold her first six albums. In this lyric, she is saying that it felt like hell to find out that she did now own any of her songs that she spent over ten years making.
Another thing I really enjoy about this album is deciphering what the songs are about and what certain lyrics mean. It keeps the album interesting and it brings out more emotion the more you know. Overall, I think this is an album that a lot of people, especially teenagers, would enjoy.
