Florida!!!
Florida!!!, the song Swift said she wrote with British group Florence + The Machine, is about “what happens when your life doesn’t fit or the choices you’ve made catch up to you”.
“I’m always watching (US television show) Dateline, people have these crimes that they commit, where they immediately skip town and go to, they go to Florida.
“They try to reinvent themselves, have a new identity, blend in. And I think when you go through a heartbreak, there’s a part of you that thinks, I want a new name, I want a new life, I don’t want anyone to know where I’ve been or know me at all.
“And so that was the jumping off point behind where would you go to reinvent yourself and blend in? Florida.”
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
Swift said her track titled Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? was a song she wrote alone, sitting at the piano when she felt “bitter” about the way society treats musicians.
“Being in the public eye since I was a young teenager, there’s a lot that that does to your perception of the world, your perception of yourself,” she said.
“The idea that the world has this sense of ownership and not just a right, but they feel they have a responsibility to judge you and to critique you and to weigh in. That can really toy with you.”
The US star said the concept of putting artists and creatives “through hell” is a consistent theme throughout the album.
“We love to watch artists in pain, often to the point where sometimes, as a society, we provoke that pain and we watch what happens – so there’s lines about feeling like I’ve been in the circus, those kind of metaphors, feeling like I’m sort of like a witch in a haunted house,” she said.
Clara Bow
The final song with an introduction from Swift is Clara Bow, which she describes as a “commentary on just what I’ve seen in the industry that I’ve been in over time”.
She continued: “I used to sit in record labels trying to get a record deal when I was a little kid. And they’d say, ‘You know, you remind us of’ and then they’d name an artist, and then they’d kind of say something disparaging about her, ‘But you’re this, you’re so much better in this way or that way’.
“And that’s how we kind of teach women to see themselves, as like you could be the new replacement for this woman who’s done something great before you.”
Swift said she “picked women who have done great things” to appear in the song.
She added: “Clara Bow was the first ‘it girl’. Stevie Nicks is an icon and an incredible example for anyone who wants to write songs and make music.”
The Tortured Poets Department became the first album in Spotify history to reach more than 300 million streams in a single day, while Swift also became the most-streamed artist in a single day on the platform when her record was released on April 19, according to the streaming service.
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
