Description
In 2019–2020, Taylor Swift recorded grief songs about family. “Soon You’ll Get Better” (2019) grieves her mother’s ongoing battle with cancer while the others memorialize her grandparents within separate, emotional contexts. A dramatization of her grandfather’s 1942 beach landing forms half of “epiphany” (2020), sharing lyrical dialogue with pandemic nurses in the other half who battle similar traumas. By contrast, Swift’s regrets about not appreciating her grandmother are voiced directly to her in “marjorie” (2020), using a second-person address comparable to her song for her mother. This presentation compares distinct approaches to grief in each song, examining Swift’s songwriting strategies for three narratives on bereavement: fear of abandonment, empathy with sacrifices of service, and apologetic regrets to a role model.Beginning with “Soon You’ll Get Better,” I reveal how its intertextual connections with Swift’s earlier works function like a time machine, situating her emotionally in youthful stages of parental care and vulnerability. Musically, these include close vocal harmonies with The [Dixie] Chicks, alongside banjos and fiddles, that recall Swift’s childhood emergence as a country artist. Lyrically, they allude to Swift’s childhood memories in “The Best Day” ([2008] 2021), an earlier song of gratitude for her mother. With “epiphany,” I turn to how Swift arranges separate historical contexts within verse-chorus form, weaving both around American mythologies of sacrificial service. The co-existing storylines have implications for her more controversial songs with plural narratives (Smialek 2021). Finally, I examine harmony in “marjorie” to show how minimal changes to a single chord progression create mood shifts throughout the narrative. In particular, it creates feelings of lift for a pivotal pre-chorus where Swift’s grandmother’s presence is strongest felt. By examining how grief is variously dramatized in Swift’s recent songs, my presentation contributes music-analytical insights into how a seasoned singer-songwriter processes bereavement in song.
| Period | 7 Jul 2025 |
|---|---|
| Event title | IASPM 23rd International Conference: Recording Popular Music |
| Event type | Conference |
| Conference number | 23 |
| Organiser | International Association for the Study of Popular Music |
| Location | Paris, FranceShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |