It is commonly agreed that Italian and French are languages of love, but in today’s pop culture world, Taylor Swift crafts the most relatable love language.
The best part of this pop star’s music is that her songs aren’t just about her former flames — they’re about all of us. No matter where you are on life’s emotional roller coaster, there is a Taylor Swift song to help you through it.
This Valentine’s Day is also Swiftmas. Which of this starlet’s songs really speaks to you?
“You Belong With Me” is the perfect song to play after attending a basketball game (that wasn’t against Duke) and imagining what it would be like to have a basketball player as your spouse. It would probably be fun, and you’d get a ton of Twitter followers, but you would also have to wonder about installing doors tall enough for your vertically-gifted husband or wife.
“Enchanted” exists for the time that cutie in your class asked if you wanted to be in a study group for your big exam. You thought about what a great story that’d be to tell your kids.
“The Story of Us” is for if the aforementioned cutie never talks to you again. At least you did well on the test?
“Love Story” is for those new couples who talk to each other all the time and can never figure out who will hang up first on the phone. That is sweet and everything, but those same couples also walk incredibly slowly next to each other and hog the entire sidewalk. To make matters worse, they are usually holding hands, so anyone stuck behind them either has to cool their jets or jump over them like a hurdle.
“All Too Well” is the “Marley & Me” of Taylor Swift songs. Everyone should listen to it, but no one should listen to it — it will eat you alive.
“Out of the Woods” is the perfect love song for your academic career. Swift sings about having a love that you are never comfortable with or sure about, and how painful that experience can be. Spoiler alert: no, you are never out of the woods. You go to U.Va.
Taylor Swift has said that “Blank Space” is less about her personal life and more about the media’s fictionalized creation of her. This song also holds, without a doubt, the lyrics most frequently used as captions for Instagram selfies. “Magic, madness, heaven, sin,” right? I am guilty of this, but you know what — be proud. Love yourself, or, more accurately, love the image of yourself that you’re projecting on the internet!
“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” is Taylor Swift’s most annoying song, which makes it most fitting for the person in your life that you want to quit but just can’t. Sing it as loudly as you want — it’s very catchy — but I bet you two will get back together anyway.
“Treacherous” is for the moments in your life when you order a Mellow Mushroom pizza and eat the entire thing.
“Style” is for your Tinder hook-up. However, most of this song is about cars.
“I Know Places” is another hook-up song, this time in the Alderman stacks.
“The Best Day” is a song Taylor Swift wrote about her family, and is perfect for out-of-staters who really miss their folks. Quit complaining, in-staters; you probably saw yours last weekend.
“22” is a song about friendship and nearing graduation. Luckily for you, though, your friendships and your time spent at U.Va. are as timeless as this sick beat.
Speaking of sick beats, “Shake it Off” is about the most important love story you have, your relationship with yourself. No matter what is going on in your love life, this is the best place to return. The haters are going to “hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, the players are going to play, play, play, play, play,” and you are going to be as great as you always have been. Get down with your bad self!
Lastly, “Thug Story,” featuring T. Pain, represents the actual greatest love in your life, Taylor Swift herself.
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