How Taylor Swift Channels Heartbreak Into Music

How Taylor Swift Channels Heartbreak Into Music

Revenge may be a dish best served cold. But in the case of singer Taylor Swift, it's even sweeter when served up as the subject of one of her many smash hits.


Over the weekend news broke that Taylor's longest relationship to date, with British actor Joe Alwyn, has ended after six years. The split has left Swifties (as her devoted fans are known) wondering two things.


First, what could have gone wrong? And second, if it is all over, how long before Alwyn finds himself the subject of one of Taylor's break-up songs, where she reveals personal, and often unflattering, details of their time together?


So prolific are her digs in songs that spotting them and matching them to the victim has become a favourite pastime of Swifties.

Joe Jonas


July 2008 - October 2008 


She may have dated boy band member Joe Jonas for only three months but teenage Taylor was furious when, as she revealed on The Ellen Show, the cad dumped her by phone.


Song: Forever And Always.


Lyrics: Oh, I stare at the phone, he still hasn't called / And then you feel so low you can't feel nothing at all / And you flashback to when we said forever and always.


Was I out of line? / Did I say something way too honest, made you run and hide / Like a scared little boy.


She didn't stop there either. Mr Perfectly Fine is also said to be about Joe: 'Hello Mr Casually Cruel, Mr Everything revolves around you.'


Revenge Rating: 4/5


Taylor Lautner


Autumn 2009 - December 2009 


Taylor enjoyed another brief teenage relationship after she met Twilight star and heart-throb Taylor Lautner when they played high school sweethearts in the film Valentine's Day.


She ended the relationship in December 2009, and the song Back To December is widely thought to be about Lautner.


This time, unusually, Taylor seems to be accepting the blame for the break-up. Asked in a 2016 interview what he thought about the song, Lautner shrugged and said: 'That's what she does.'


Song: Back To December.


Lyrics: You gave me roses and I left them there to die / So this is me swallowin' my pride / Standin' in front of you sayin' I'm sorry for that night / And I go back to December all the time.


Revenge Rating: 1/5


John Mayer 


December 2009 - February 2010 


After ending his relationship with Jennifer Aniston, singer John Mayer had a rebound fling with a teenage Taylor — something he would bitterly regret after she wrote Dear John, one of her angriest songs to date.


Referring to herself throughout as 'the girl in the dress', Taylor accuses him of making her cry, misleading her and playing mind games.


Mayer later said he didn't deserve such vitriol and that she should have warned him about the song's release.


'It really humiliated me at a time when I'd already been dressed down,' he said. 'How would you feel if at the lowest you've ever been, someone kicked you even lower?'


Song: Dear John.


Lyrics: Dear John, I see it all now, it was wrong / Don't you think nineteen's too young / To be played by your dark, twisted games, when I loved you so?


Another verse says: Well maybe it's me and my blind optimism to blame / Maybe it's you and your sick need to give love then take it away / And you'll add my name to your long list of traitors who don't understand / And I'll look back and regret how I ignored when they said 'run as fast as you can.'


Revenge Rating: 5/5


Jake Gyllenhaal


October 2010 - January 2011 


It was Gwyneth Paltrow and her then husband, Coldplay's Chris Martin, who played matchmaker when they invited Taylor and actor Jake Gyllenhaal to dinner at their home in London.


They were famously photographed with their arms wrapped around one another on Thanksgiving, only for things to turn sour a few weeks later when Gyllenhaal supposedly blindsided Taylor by dumping her.


As a result, many tracks on her 2012 album, Red, are said to be about him, including The Moment I Knew, about Gyllenhaal missing her 21st birthday party.


Song: The Moment I Knew.


Lyrics: And it was like slow motion / Standing there in my party dress / In red lipstick / With no one to impress / And they're all laughing / As I'm looking around the room / But there was one thing missing / And that was the moment I knew.


Revenge Rating: 3/5


Harry Styles 


November 2012 - January 2013 


Taylor broke a million One Direction fans' hearts when she went public with her relationship with pop star Harry Styles when the pair were pictured walking hand in hand in Central Park.


But within three months 'Haylor' (as they became collectively known) was over.


Taylor confirmed that one of her most famous songs — I Knew You Were Trouble — was about Harry after performing it at the Brits two months following their split, saying: 'It's not hard to access that emotion when the person the song is directed at is standing by the side of the stage watching.'


Song: I Knew You Were Trouble.


Lyrics: No apologies/ He'll never see you cry / Pretends he doesn't know / That he's the reason why / You're drowning . . . And I heard you moved on / From whispers on the street / A new notch in your belt / Is all I'll ever be.


Revenge Rating: 4/5


 

Disclaimer: This is part of a story published originally by The Daily Mail. To read the full version click here.