Taylor Swift in Santa Clara, California, in 2023.

Supply: Steve Jurvetson / Wikimedia Commons

Many songs from Taylor Swift’s in depth music catalogue make use of remembering, piecing collectively reminiscences and telling tales from previous expertise. This has served her effectively. Maybe a few of her music goes a bit additional, conjuring the Platonic notion of recollection, an try and nourish oneself on important perception and reality throughout the marrow of reminiscences and previous expertise.

But Danish thinker Soren Kierkegaard related “recollection” with motionlessness, contrasting it together with his notion of repetition, characterised by fixed movement and passionate dedication in the direction of an moral future. Kierkegaard’s “repetition” includes transferring past recollection.

In response to Kierkegaard’s perspective, repetition will not be solely a way to authenticity but additionally a solution to counteract societally pushed inauthenticity by fostering real individuality and spirit via repeated moral decisions and actions. That is in distinction to recollection, which is primarily aesthetic.

Remembering Yesterday

In in style music, recollection is ubiquitous.

Paul McCartney acting on the Acquired Again tour in Orlando, Florida, in 2022.

Supply: Matthew Hoobin / Wikimedia Commons

Take “Yesterday,” written by Paul McCartney. The lyrics replicate on a previous love and the eager for less complicated instances. “Why she needed to go I do not know. She would not say. I mentioned one thing incorrect. Now I lengthy for yesterday.”

It is among the many hottest songs of all time.

“Yesterday” mourns a loss, making a musical shrine. McCartney is not sure of the track’s origins. He meant the phrases to be “lady lyrics” fictionalizing love misplaced, however lately puzzled whether or not he had unconsciously penned reminiscences of his mom, who died when he was fourteen (Muldoon, 2024), providing a poignant reframe. Both means, it’s reminiscence laced with sentiment and remorse.

Repetition is extra existential engagement than memory.

Has Swift’s Music Grow to be Extra Brave?

Taylor Swift acting at Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, in 2007.

Supply: Brian Cantoni / Wikimedia Commons

Early songs from Swift’s 2006 self-titled debut album provide prime examples of a wistful outlook—”Tim McGraw,” “Chilly as You,” and “Ought to’ve Mentioned No.” Then on her 2008 Fearless album, “Fearless,” “Love Story,” and “You Belong with Me” every persist in memorialization of previous relationships or different experiences, usually with a nostalgic tone, reminiscing about particular moments or emotions. Equally, “Again to December” (album: Converse Now, 2010) expresses remorse and longing.

Nostalgia and remorse are highly effective emotional experiences, but fall in need of considering one’s place on the planet, wresting that means from loss, or embracing new life.

However then we encounter “Lengthy Stay” (album: Converse Now, 2010), a triumphant anthem celebrating shared experiences and overcoming obstacles. Along with immortalizing late-night drives and friendships cast in fireplace, it’s a victory march towards life’s struggles. Swift sings, “Lengthy dwell all of the mountains we moved, I had the time of my life preventing dragons with you.” This recollection isn’t simply wanting again. It is an affirmation of life. Right here Swift transforms reminiscences into sources of power, a refined however necessary shift.

Taylor Swift performing throughout Tremendous Saturday Evening in Houston, Texas, in 2017.

Supply: makaiyla willis / Wikimedia Commons

Think about this melancholic acknowledgement of self-doubt in “All Too Properly” (album: Crimson, 2012): “Time will not fly, it is like I am paralyzed by it, I would prefer to be my previous self once more, however I am nonetheless looking for it.” Right here, even within the wreckage of reminiscences, Swift elicits power.

In “Out of the Woods” (album: 1989, 2014), Swift’s protagonist sprints via a metaphorical forest, coronary heart pounding, looking for escape, evoking themes of introspection and going through struggles. Bushes whisper secrets and techniques—tangled relationships, doubts, fears. The frantic tempo and vivid imagery seize a way of urgency. The track portrays a personality bravely confronting interior demons and looking for to emerge from a tumultuous emotional panorama, a journey in the direction of higher self-understanding, development, and finally discovering a means.

Taylor Swift performing throughout Tremendous Saturday Evening in Houston, Texas, in 2017.

Supply: makaiyla willis / Wikimedia Commons

“New Yr’s Day” (album: Popularity, 2017) unfolds with Swift’s piano inviting reflection. Kierkegaard believed repetition empowers us to be totally current and courageously ahead wanting. Right here, as a yr turns, we discover solace in extraordinary magic and anticipation. The track isn’t about grand fireworks; it’s concerning the quiet spark—shared moments. Quite than a mere backward look, it’s seeing life’s confetti as each aftermath and promise.

Swift’s vulnerability blooms in her introspective observe, “The Archer” (album: Lover, 2019). The archer goals at her personal coronary heart, dissecting patterns. Kierkegaard’s “illness unto dying” resonates. The bridge—“All of the king’s horses, all of the king’s males”—weaves fractured fairy tales and evokes emotional wounds. However Swift isn’t ready for rescue; she’s stitching herself.

Transformative Dialogue With Ourselves

Swift extracts self-assurance via emotional poetry—”And you may intention for my coronary heart, go for blood, however you’ll nonetheless miss me in your bones” (Swift, “My Tears Ricochet,” album: Folklore, 2020). Even so, songs drenched in recounting lose area for deeper, extra consequential reflection.

Earlier albums like Fearless (2008) offered a extra essentialist view of affection and relationships, whereas Evermore (2020), for instance, evokes existential emotions and themes, prompting listeners to show the lens inward and ponder deeper life questions and feelings.

Taylor Swift Eras Tour in Arlington, Texas, in 2023

Supply: Ronald Woan / Wikimedia Commons

“Anti-Hero” (album: Midnights, 2022) delves into complexities of self-image and the wrestle to reconcile one’s perceived flaws with a want for authenticity—”It is me, hello, I am the issue, it is me.” Grappling with questions of id, goal, and the human situation, Swift invitations listeners to interact in a transformative dialogue with themselves.

A few of Swift’s latest work bears a hanging resemblance to Kierkegaard’s technique of oblique communication, incorporating ambiguity, paradox, and persona, forcing listeners to actively uncover that means for themselves. There’s a deep private and emotional resonance in her artwork for therefore many, in order that they wait with bated breath to listen to what comes subsequent fromThe Tortured Poets Division.

Kierkegaard (1843b) journaled, “It’s actually true what philosophy tells us, that life have to be understood backwards. However with this, one forgets the second proposition, that it have to be lived forwards.”