The Swifties love Taylor Swift so much, which we got to witness on a massive level during the Eras Tour, and her work has been acclaimed by many. However, with love comes hate, and the pop star (and her love life) has faced her fair share of it. As Taylor Swift sings, “the world moves on, another day, another drama, drama,” and she’s let that “drama” inspire her work. Specifically, she revealed two songs that simply “would not exist” if she didn’t face intense public scrutiny over the years.
Along with chatting about the delayed love for the Reputation album (which fans still talk about wanting the Taylor’s Version of), the lyric choice she made with “Our Song” and much, much more, Swift also got candid about criticism during her interview with The New York Times. Speaking about how the often negative discourse about her and her love life has inspired her work, the “Look What You Made Me Do” singer explained:
Criticism has been a huge fuel for me. It’s been a huge jumping-off point, like a creative writing prompt or something.
When she said this, I immediately thought of “Blank Space.” At this point, it’s well known that the song is based on the intense criticism Swift’s love life faced over the years. So, the pop star put on the persona the world had assigned to her while writing music, and we got the absolutely iconic 1989 track. Explaining all of that further, Swift said:
There are so many songs in my career that would not exist, like ‘Blank Space’ would not exist if I hadn’t had people being like, ‘Here’s a slideshow of all her boyfriends.’
Ultimately, “Blank Space” became one of Taylor Swift’s biggest hits, and it’s one of her best music videos, too. And we wouldn’t have gotten it if the singer didn’t stand up to the haters and turn the public’s intense scrutiny of who she was dating into a song.
That’s seemingly happened again over the years with certain songs. However, Swift specifically pointed to her Midnights track, “Anti-Hero,” as another example of criticism inspiring her to write a song that would later turn into a hit:
And then ‘Anti-Hero’ is a song that I’m so proud of still. Like, that song doesn’t exist if I don’t get criticized for every aspect of my personality that people have a problem with or whatever.
For a long time now, Swift’s love life and her personal life have been highly criticized and adored. Her fame is a double-edged sword in a lot of ways, and while negative rumors and speculation can’t be fun to see, it also can be very motivational and potentially successful.
Just watch the Eras Tour with a Disney+ subscription, and you’ll see the intense love fans have for songs like “Blank Space” and “Anti-Hero.” They are certified bangers and hits, with the 1989 track’s music video boasting 3.7 billion views while the Midnights’ video sits at 240 million.
Talk about turning lemons into lemonade. Swift went on to say that she tells artists not to read their comments and overthink criticism. However, she also said it can be a “gift” if a situation like this can inspire a song. As she’s proven, these kinds of massive and intense moments can become both great art and absolutely gigantic hits.
