Taylor Swift’s “folklore”: A Modern Day Depiction of Romantic Literature
This was originally written as my second term finals exam for a course called “Academic Writing 101”. We had to write a research paper with the topics of either linguistics, literature, or language teachings, in a minimum of 5 pages with single spacing ( yeah..). I chose this topic very last minute because let’s face it, I can’t do stuff without first being pumped by the anxiety and adrenaline of missing a deadline — but even from the very start I knew I was going to write about literature and I have a weird fascination with the Romantic period. This is my first attempt at an actual “research” paper, and I emphasize that this is my second term assignment, therefore if there is any flaw and stupidity they are an honest mistake, but do enjoy!
Abstract
This research paper aims to analyze and identify the lyrics written in Taylor Swift’s eighth studio album, folklore, as a modern-day depiction and homage to the romantic-style literature era. In this context, the Romantic literature era is defined as it is originally in its glory days; which is the literary movement that began in the late 18th century to early 19th century and focuses on the celebration of common occurrences and heavy imageries of nature. The study does so by analyzing the lyrics of each track in the album and assigning it to the criteria and characteristics of Romantic literature. It also focuses on defining Romanticism as an era, a movement, and a style applicable in current literature.
Introduction
Though she is a well-known musician, Taylor Swift has also been credited heavily for her exceptional songwriting skills. In June of 2021, she received the Songwriter Icon Award at The National Music Publishers’ Association’s (NMPA), proving the public’s acknowledgment of her skill. Her eighth studio album folklore is a product of Covid-19 quarantine. It was released on the 24th of July 2020, approximately six months into the pandemic. Before the pandemic, Swift had just released her seventh studio album, Lover, in August of 2019, which is less than a year from folklore’s release. It changed Swift’s usual habit of having a two to three years gap between each album release, in which she would usually hold a world tour concert and album release events like going to interviews, talk shows, and promote the albums worldwide. The album’s announcement was a surprise even for her fans, which is where it got its nickname of being a surprise album. Not only a surprise release for the fans and the entire world, but folklore also shows a shift in Swift’s music genre from her newfound pop style for the past few years to a more organic-sounding folk music that has a lot of acoustic and simple instrumentals. The album has in total 17 tracks, including a bonus track, and an hour and seven minutes length as a whole.
The lyrics in this album contain a lot of imageries of nature, common stories that are written so eloquently that it sounds grander than how it actually is, it celebrates the simplistic nature of mundane feelings and talks about appreciating moments of silence and being in isolation. These characteristics are identic of a specific era in literature called the Romantic era, which took place in the late 18th century to early 19th century. This era itself can be seen as a reaction against its predecessor: the Enlightenment movement, and its core beliefs are opposing the concept of rationalism and physical or worldly materialism as a whole. There are indications that I believe will prove that folklore can be considered a modern-day depiction of Romantic literature. Specifically in the bonus track of the album called “the lakes” which sprinkles some names and places that are heavily associated with the Romantic era.
Therefore, my research questions would be: What would be the definition of romantic-era literature, both then in its original glory days and now in current times? How do the lyrics in folklore by Taylor Swift relate to the romantic era style of literature and its characteristics? Can folklore be considered a product of the romantic literature genre despite it being a current, modern-day production? I will use this opportunity of writing my research paper as a way to answer them.
Methodology
The data this research will be based on is of the albums’ lyrics themselves, I will dissect the aspects of said lyrics that can answer my research questions. This method will be supported by reading relevant articles written about the album, especially those that contain a direct interview with Swift, reading what Swift personally said about the album on her social media and others. I will read through the lyrics instead of only listening to the songs, to make sure that I am purely researching the written lyrics and not overshadowing them by the musical aspects. In addition, I will also read previous studies of the Romantic period in literature and its effects on current literature and find the concrete definition and characteristics of the era. After defining Romanticism, another method of assigning the tracks in folklore to each main characteristic and key features of the Romanticism style/period will be used to further support answering the research questions.
Results and Discussions
The Romantic Period in Literature
Romanticism begins roughly at the start of the French Revolution, in 1789, and it finished around 1850. At that time, the Industrial Revolution was another aspect of the political climate that was bridging society to a new era. The Industrial Revolution changed economies that had been based on agriculture and handicrafts into a large-scale industry-based economy, with mechanized manufacturing and the factory system. This led to Europe, specifically, witnessing big changes in their society as bigger and busier cities were made to accommodate the change in the economy. The world is everchanging but this was an important moment in history where things were shifting into making a difference. And during these revolutions, the philosophical belief called The Enlightenment was born as well. Philosopher Immanuel Kant identifies enlightenment with the process of undertaking to think for oneself, to employ and rely on one’s intellectual capacities in determining what to believe and how to act (Kant, 1781). Enlightenment thinkers in Britain, France, and throughout Europe challenged traditional authority and embraced the agenda that humanity could be improved through rational change.
Alas, Romanticism was born out of a reaction against the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment. In simplicity, Romanticism is best understood as a reaction to the birth of the modern world. To be romantic is to have sympathy for madness and to hold an almost vengeful attitude towards rationality, science, and logic. It captures a quintessential romantic interest in the limits of reason and the power of the irrational over human’s fragile minds. To be romantic is to take the side of nature, against industry and rationalization. In his BBC documentary, biographer Peter Ackroyd defines Romanticism as “the story of Man’s escape from the shackles of commerce and industry to the freedom of nature. In a time where the world was becoming increasingly mechanized, the Romantics sought an intense relationship with the natural world. In so doing, they would revolutionize our perception of life itself.” (Ackroyd, 2006).
The Romantics challenge the scientific sociological outlook on life that was promoted during the Enlightenment. In particular, the Romantics disagreed with the Enlightenment values of progress and rationality, especially progress as defined by technological advancement and urbanization. Romanticism is characterized by its emphasis on emotion, the purity of childhood, the glorification of the past, and the critique of progress. As discussed, romanticism was a movement away from the objective truth of science, towards the most objective truth of art. And perhaps one of the most prominent figures of the Romantic period is the poet William Wordsworth. In December of 1799, he and his sister, Dorothy, put down their roots on the Lake District where Wordsworth would write some of the most well-known poetry in English literature. His poetry glamorizes something that was not encouraged at the time of the French revolution, which is the beauty of nature. Most of his works included the vivid descriptions of nature, flowers, the sky and its clouds, and though it was unconventional at the time they will eventually come to the appreciation of Europeans. His works are the essence of the Romantic movement itself, he denies the industrial movement and the makings of big cities and celebrates his love for the simple life. At the moment when huge chunks of Britain are being covered in the gigantic new cities that are prospering Europe, Wordsworth’s winter central romantic poetry speaks up for nature and simplicity. The Lake District would eventually be a residential place for, not only Wordsworth, but the other Lakes Poets; Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey.
To make matters clear, Romanticism isn’t a specific era that placed itself in between chunks of time, but it can be considered more like a niche movement that rebels against the other movements happening simultaneously at the same time as them. Though it can be separated into its period, Romanticism is a concept that transcends the time it originally happened and evolves itself into a style in literature, art, and music that precedes itself into modern times. If anything, the concept of Romanticism is a theme more prevalent than ever in any kind of creative outlet. Modern Romanticism as a concept made simple could be considered as a literary work that has the characteristics of the Romantic period literature and follows its essence and conveys the message of the original era. The music industry as of now thrives off Romanticism with its constant production of love songs or heartbreak songs that enables the exaggeration of the pain of it all. Although Romanticism does not come from the concept of romance or love, it celebrates them.
“folklore” and Romanticism
In 2015, The Rolling Stone lists Taylor Swift as one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Amongst the 100 artists listed, Swift ranked on the 97th spot and made the title one of the youngest artists on the list. As a musician, Swift has an extensive discography in which she had switched styles and genres repeatedly and it has become one of the ways she proved to the public her talents. But often the change did not receive well by the people who consume her music. An example of this was when she made an obvious and daring shift from country to pop by releasing her fifth album 1989 that has tones of 80s synth-pop, a complete contrast to four preceding albums that were heavily rooted in country music. But when Swift shifts her gear again by making an album that has been described as a folk or even an alternative album, it not only shocked fans but the general public that was not even a part of her demographic. Attracting the people outside of her usual devoted fan, folklore was a changing point in Swift’s career and one that will forever change her image in the general public and lead to the first time her skills are universally acknowledged.
The surprise release and shift in her music genre aren’t the only things that made folklore stands out from Swift’s past discography. As aforementioned above, Swift has always been credited with her songwriting skills, and that skill is especially shown in this album. In her previous works, her lyrics have always been authentic in telling her own stories, she always uses an emotional and intimate approach to write about her relationships, triumphs, and heartbreaks in such a way that it sounds autobiographical. She is notorious for being the “serial dater” that dates men to write breakup songs about them, and she has also been derogatorily referred to as being too emotional and personal in her works. In folklore, however, she uses an approach that she doesn’t often visit. Like the title suggests, the album’s song lyrics each tell a story that isn’t necessarily from Swift’s own life, almost like stories that are passed around through generations that will eventually be folktales told during kids’ bedtimes. Alan Dundes defines “folklore” as an autobiographical ethnography — that is, it is a people’s description of themselves. As a study, Dundes also described folklore as a way of seeing another culture from the inside out instead of from the outside in. This definition is reflective of Swift’s intention for this album to be a compilation of stories that don’t belong to her told through her perspective and words.
folklore’s Narration; an Interest in the Common Man and Nature, and Celebration of Common Feelings, Melancholy, and Isolation
In the album release announcement, Swift wrote in all of her social media accounts: “I found myself not only writing my own stories, but also writing about or from the perspective of people I’ve never met, people I’ve known, or those I wish I hadn’t”. The track in this album that directly tells a story from her narrative about a person that she has never personally met is track 3 called “the last great american dynasty”. The lyric tells the story of one Rebekah Harkness, an American composer who was the previous owner of the house in Rhode Island Swift had bought in 2013 and lived in since. This song is the first one in the album that can be immediately noticed of its reminiscence to the romantic style, it is shown in the simplicity in which she tells the story:
“Rebekah rode up on the afternoon train, it was sunny
Her saltbox house on the coast took her mind off St. Louis
Bill was the heir to the Standard Oil name, and money
And the town said, “How did a middle class divorcée do it?”
Right in the first verse, her narrative is direct. It is absent of flowery language and unnecessary adding of her own opinion, it is simply a retelling of Rebekah Harkness and her life. The lyrics also have imageries of nature and her surroundings, especially in the bridge before the last verse:
“They say she was seen on occasion
Pacing the rocks staring out at the midnight sea”.
On the first track, Swift began to paint the album’s atmosphere with the same, simple storytelling narration in the song called “the 1”. The lyric tells the story of a person remembering their past lover and wishing that they had been the one they had ended up with. In songs where she is actually telling a story, the lyrics have structure and flow to it like a plot of a story, and often these songs are the ones with the simpler language. Other tracks of this characteristic are the tracks that make up what would eventually be known as the “Teenage Love Triangle”, which are the tracks “cardigan” (track 2), “betty” (track 14), and “august” (track 8). Even more fitting to the character of a story told in the style of romanticism, the three songs’ narrator each tells their point of view of the story in different timelines of their lives. Each of these songs uses simple language, a narrative that isn’t long-winded and sprinkled with overly poetic description. A poet from the Romantic period that pioneered this style of poetry, which has also been previously mentioned, is William Wordsworth. He enjoyed writing emotional imageries in an elegant behavior that is accessible to everyone, a language that can be universally appreciated and felt.
And this album is undoubtedly an indirect homage to images of nature, and of simply describing the surroundings that she (Swift) or the narrator of the song sees. In the track “invisible string”, Swift writes about her relationship with her long-term boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. In this song, she painted a picture of her young self reading books in the green grass of Centennial Park and a younger Alwyn wearing a teal-colored shirt when he worked at the yogurt shop and how this eventually connects:
“Gold was the color of the leaves
When I showed you around Centennial Park —
Hell was the journey but it brought me heaven”.
She used this description of nature as a vehicle and a tool so the listener can have a visualization of the story. These references to nature are scattered all around the albums with tracks like “august” talking about the sea and a beach house with the lyric “salt air, and the rust on your door,” and especially in the track titled “peace” that is jam-packed with nature references:
“But I’m a fire, and I’ll keep your brittle heart warm
If your cascade ocean wave blues come —
I’d give you my sunshine, give you my best
But the rain is always gonna come if you’re standing with me,”
Another key aspect of Romanticism is the celebration of common feelings, melancholy, and isolation or in other words making mundane feelings seem grander than how it is. This appreciation stems from the revolutions that were happening in the era of this period where it creates big changes and busier cities. The Romantics believed in the simple life, the life in the countryside where things are quiet and there is plenty of time to enjoy the beauty of nature. The themes of isolation in Romanticism are especially fitting in folklore from its creation during the Covid-19 pandemic quarantine. Swift and her other collaborators; Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner, Justin Vernon, and William Bowery all worked remotely in self-isolation by sending each other lyrics and melodies back to back. This is also probably the reason behind the themes of nature and isolation, along with themes of sadness and melancholy. This is especially shown in track 13 titled “epiphany” which tells a story about living in a cruel world and finding a small window to sleep so they can find an epiphany or a peaceful dream. Here, Swift connects the story of her Grandfather as a soldier in World War II fighting in the Guadalcanal to the story of healthcare workers fighting the Covid-19 pandemic
There are some tracks in this album that specifically deals with the celebration of melancholic stories. The track titled “exile” where she sang with Bon Iver’s lead singer, Justin Vernon is a track about an end of a relationship that is unbearably painful that the two people of that relationship feels like they are in exile or isolated from each other. In track 9 titled “this is me trying”, Swift wrote from the perspective of an alcoholic that puts off the decision to drive off a cliff and end their own life. Here, Swift uses vivid descriptions of the alcoholic’s struggle and the lesson they eventually took from their decision not to die. Another track titled “mirrorball” Swift writes about comparing herself to a reflective mirrorball or a disco ball as a metaphor that she entertains others by reflecting other people’s personalities and gets shattered as glass does when her heart is broken. The overall sound of this song itself is a tell to the gloomy nature of the lyric, but Swift wrote this song about a feeling that is so human and one that we often do not notice about ourselves into a melancholic ode. This track is similar to track 5 titled “my tears ricochet” where she uses pathetic fallacy (the attribution of human feelings and responses to inanimate things or animals, especially in art and literature) of her tears ricocheting (to rebound one or more times off a surface) like how a bullet would from the height of grieve that she is in after a betrayal by a close friend. This track is also written almost like in the perspective of a ghost attending its funeral and watches as their enemy attends as well, this track is such a fitting track for Romanticism style.
Bonus Track: the lakes and The Exaltation of the Ordinary
In the bonus track that was released a few weeks after the album titled “the lakes”, Swift directly references and took inspiration from aspects of the Romantic era. This is the track that first created the hypothesis that this album is a modern-day depiction of Romantic literature. Right from the title, it references the aforementioned Lake District in England where the famous Romantic-era poet, William Wordsworth, resides with his sister and fellow Lake Poets: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey. The overall meaning and narrative of this track is Swift’s desire to go off alone with her lover to the Lakes “where all the poets went to die” because she doesn’t feel like she belongs in the real world, the big cities with the people who hate her and paparazzi who does not give her privacy. Swift longs for the quiet life, and again with the nature imageries, she longs for —
“ — auroras and sad prose
I want to watch wisteria grow right over my bare feet, cause I haven’t moved in years
A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground, with no one around to tweet it,
While I bathe in cliffside pool with my calamitous love, insurmountable grief”
This is the definition and modern-day depiction of romantic literature, with its celebration of a simple, quiet life and description of nature. “the lakes” is an exaltation of the ordinary.
Can folklore be considered a product of the romantic literature genre despite it being a current, modern-day production?
It has been established that the Romantic era can also be a style that applies to the modern-day production of creativity. If a creative work is fitting to the characteristics and key features of the Romanticism style, it should be able to be considered as a Romantic literature genre. The album folklore by Taylor Swift fits all the criteria as had already been explained above.
Conclusion
To conclude everything that has been discussed and explained, folklore by Taylor Swift can indeed be considered a part of the Romantic literature genre. With its lyrics, Swift tells various stories from various characters and she uses the vivid imageries of nature as a vehicle to paint a visual picture of said stories. The tracks also have themes of melancholia, appreciation of being in isolation and finding peace in a simple life, and uncomplicated narrations about stories that celebrate the common feelings of love and heartbreaks. All of these are aspects of Romanticism and therefore make folklore fitting to be called a product of Romantic literature.
REFERENCES
Ackroyd, P. (Executive Producer). (2006). The Romantics Series [TV series]. BBC UK. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLwRXlSgiSQ
Billboard Staff. (2021, July 24). ‘It Started With Imagery’: Read Taylor Swift’s Primer For ‘Folklore’. Billboard. https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/9423740/read-taylor-swift-primer-folklore
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. (2021, February 02). Romanticism. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/Romanticism
Dundes, A. (2007). The Meaning of Folklore (S. J. Bronner, Ed.). Utah State University. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1077&context=usupress_pubs
Kansas State University. (1997). Immanuel Kant’s “What Is Enlightenment?” A Brief Introduction. K-State Edu. Retrieved 2021, from https://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english233/Kant-WIE-intro.htm
The Rolling Stones. (2015, August 13). 100 Greatest Song Writer of All Time. The Rolling Stones. Retrieved 2021, from https://www.rollingstone.com/interactive/lists-100-greatest-songwriters/#taylor-swift
