Maren Morris’ “DREAMSICLE” Isn’t the Album You Think It Is — and the Surprise Twist Is Exactly Why People Can’t Stop Talking. ML
The country star’s new album touches on all her life changes in her genre-bending, brazen style. Morris details how she found beauty in pain, and how it resulted in a post-divorce album that’ll make you dance instead of cry.
Maren Morris can’t fathom writing an album of breakup songs.
“There’s artists that do that so well, their brand is being morose. That’s cool, I f—ing love it,” she tells GRAMMY.com. “But I can’t emotionally handle that every night on stage. Yes, I’ll tackle some hard s— in the show and on a record, but I want to be performing this in a way that’s healthy for me every night.”
It was easy to assume that the GRAMMY-winning country star would take the sad song route on her fourth album, D R E A M S I C L E, which arrived May 9. Morris filed for divorce from fellow country singer/songwriter Ryan Hurd in October 2023, ending an eight-year relationship that coincided with her rise to stardom. But the resulting project hardly dwells on a breakup; instead, it sees Morris finding the beauty in life’s unexpected changes.
“I turn rain into rainbows/ Turn pain into potential” are the first words she delivers on opener “lemonade,” a thumping anthem that sets the tone for the set’s 14 tracks. Even the album’s most tender track, “this is how a woman leaves,” is similarly imbued with a sense of empowerment and release that indicates Morris is on the other side of heartbreak.
The hopeful tone of D R E A M S I C L E is also the result of Morris coming into her own. Along with enduring a public divorce, she came out as bisexual in June 2024. All the while, she was facing the aftermath of a 2023 interview misconstruing her comments about leaving country music. D R E A M S I C L E addresses all of that — whether lyrically on songs like “push me over” and “i hope i never fall in love,” or musically with ’80s-inspired synths on “crying in the car” and grungy guitars on “people still show up.”
No matter how different Morris may feel or be perceived, D R E A M S I C L E is reminiscent of the strong-willed, boundary-pushing girl from her 2016 debut, HERO. This time around, rather than introducing her narrative, she’s reclaiming it.
“This album is really courageous, and even if you didn’t know about my divorce, or my relationship with the mainstream industry of country music, I think that you’ll listen to this album and be like, Holy s—, you can tell this person’s been through a lot, but they’re making me laugh, and they’re making me cry, and dance,” she says. “It’s just so many layers of every emotion.”
Below, in her own words, Morris details the life lessons that inspired D R E A M S I C L E — and helped her become “the most secure version of myself.”
The following has been edited for clarity and brevity.
It was intentional to be like, I want to give myself the time to write a record that is not just steeped in this immediate loss aftermath. I want to give myself the time to grow and have fun again, laugh again, be a bit of a mess. I want to give myself the time to experience that and then write it.
By the end [of the album process], I was like, Thank God this isn’t a breakup record. I just didn’t feel like putting that out. I didn’t feel that way by the end, that I was just a girl going through a divorce or a breakup. I became so many new things in the healing period.
This record is more about the aftermath of what happens after a huge, tectonic shift in your emotional life and your personal life, and that felt a lot more interesting to me than it just being a record about a breakup. It was like, How do you pull yourself out of the pits of hell? And yes, you have to do it by yourself in some ways… And with the help of my friends and family and co-writers, I was starting to see a very lean version of my heart, and there was just no filler.
The writing is reflecting that. It’s not avoiding the topic of loss or grief in the relationship space, but it’s just not dwelling on it too long. It’s like, Yes, that s— happened, and it was hard. But also, here’s what happened next.
Kicking [the album] off with something that wasn’t too intimate or self reflective — [“lemonade”] is, but it’s in a really bombastic way — I wanted the listener to start with that song [and] be like, Whoa… I thought this was going to be a bunch of self-reflective love and loss songs. I think there’s room for that, and I have those in me, and I’ve put them in this album, but I do think starting [with “lemonade”] was my way of saying, You thought you knew what this was going to sound like, didn’t you?
It’s definitely a shift of focus, because so much of my life living in Nashville has been in that relationship. Also, we were collaborators on all of my records past. You know, when you’re married to another songwriter, you go home and you play them the demo of what you did that day. So it wasn’t just losing a partner in a family sense, but also, a creative partner.
After everything ended and I was on this other side of the healing path, I had to really ask myself, Do I think what I do is good? And my answers were, Yes, I do believe in myself, and I always have. But your ego takes a hit — everything takes a hit when you go through something as colossal as divorce, and of course, your music is going to be a mirror of whatever you’re going through at the time.
Without slinging arrows at another person — even if I’m allowing myself to be upset or angry — I have to be able to heal in the only way that I know how, or at least the main way I know how, which is writing about it. I have other portals of catharsis at this point, but I just had to really say, I can do all of this without any outside opinion.
That was a really empowering moment for me. And even though this album has songs on it that were written during my relationship and the aftermath, the fairest depiction of what happened was to give the full scope of those three years… and just stand by your work.
Cathartic is always the word I’ve used with “cut!” [and “crying in the car”]. I think [they’re about] the beauty of the breakdown and just knowing that we should be allowed to express our anger, and grief, and happy, manic tears all in one go. I guess that’s just a place I easily go to. I know how to blow a gasket in the privacy of my own home or car, and I’ll move on, and then on to the next one. Like, business b— [Laughs.] I think that was the mentality of those songs.
But with songs like “grand bouquet,” Jack Antonoff [was] like, “I don’t want you to over sing this vocal, almost whisper it” when I was doing the booth takes. That was really helpful for me, because I was learning about my voice in a way that I hadn’t used quite to that extent — like, the least extent.
It’s really hard to be vulnerable, even as a vocalist, and not having to prove yourself through volume or runs. Allowing it to be almost whispered is quite haunting. I think that’s what makes the lyrics, but also the vocal performance of “grand bouquet” extremely vulnerable. You don’t have to add a lot of flash or shine to it.
When I speak about this album not shying away from grief, those are the moments. You can have a good cry to several songs on this record, but a few of them you can dance while crying.
Obviously I’ve been open about my divorce and how it shifted a lot of the themes of this record on an emotional level, but also on a musical level.
I was in such a fragile state that I was in a place of [wanting] to write with people that I trust, and know me, and I’m comfortable with, and I did that — I worked with Julia Michaels, Laura Veltz, Jimmy Robbins. But then I also kind of was in this space of wanting to scare myself and get into rooms with strangers and whose music I love. I think that really helped me wake up out of my grief, and start becoming more risky with things I was saying, lyrically or [with] vocal arrangements.
This is the most producers I’ve had on a record. I started writing this in early 2023 when I was still married, and still kind of in this country space only. And then a lot of shifts happened. New producers were getting new emotions out of me.
I’m so excited that I got to work with the people I worked with on this project, and also have all of it represented in one cohesive album. I’m coming from the world of you have one producer, maybe two, so I think I just had to give myself the permission of, like, It’s going to be fine. People are going to listen to this and know this is a Maren record, no matter what.
When you listen to the record top to bottom, it’s sonically ambitious, but also familiar of what my prior work has sounded like, just taking a step further — or many steps further. I truly laid myself bare in a way that I didn’t know was achievable. I can say that proudly.
I probably had a different prompt for every single session happening over three years. Some days I’d be like, I want to write something soulful and rootsy, like Americana, and the next day is like, Give me all the synthesizers in the studio. I think it depended on the studio and the collaborators that day.
I always want to come into the session with an idea, whether it’s a musical idea, or something that I was listening to that I’m inspired by, or a title or a concept lyrically. I feel like all my records have that theme, but this one is certainly me stretching beyond balance I didn’t know I could. It’s an exciting place to be in, and it feels liberating to be in that space creatively.
I’ve always been able to explore genre. Back when I released “My Church,” our follow-up single was “80s Mercedes” — those songs could not have been more opposite, but they were written by the same two people, produced by busbee. Out the gate I wanted to demonstrate to whoever was listening that I don’t just do this one thing, but my vocal is the anchor for all of it.
It was so freeing to write and release [“push me over”]. Everything I’ve been through the last few years, and every move forward, has felt rebellious, in a way of, like, This is scary. This is s— that I don’t think I would have had the courage to do three years ago. It almost feels like I’m jumping out of the airplane and hope the parachute deploys.
It feels really nice to be in this place of self-love and acceptance and knowing that I don’t feel shame or have to hide anything, or dim any part of myself anymore. And I think that my music is reflective of that.
When I listen to “lemonade,” and that being the first song on this album, and then I go back to HERO, and that album started with “Sugar.” There was some weird paralleling going on. Back then, I was so confident, almost arrogant, because there was no bar set or person to please except for myself. And I think in some ways, it took me 10 years to find the more wise version of that confidence — and it being true confidence out of strife and trauma and being a mother, and all the things that the me during the HERO phase hadn’t experienced yet. But that kind of freedom has been revisited and rekindled.
With both [2019’s] GIRL and Humble Quest, I was just riddled with anxiety — and not in my talent or myself, but how it would be perceived, and not letting anyone down. And I feel like, with D R E A M S I C L E, it’s like, I can’t keep doing this to my mental health. I just have to remember why I love doing this and not have it be attached to an industry, a partner, a producer.
I was getting somewhere with Humble Quest, but I was still in that deep discomfort of searching through the dark. And now, because of a lot of life changes, with [D R E A M S I C L E], it’s like, Okay, you’re out of the woods and the hard lessons are behind you. Or at least, that’s what my astrologist has told me. We’ll see.
There’s a moment in the second verse in “dreamsicle,” I’m like, “Will I ever enjoy anything while I’m standing in it?”
Naming the album that was about the practice of being present and enjoying your successes as they’re coming… And now I really have to be [present] because I have my 5-year-old, and he teaches me every day to snap out of it and be there for him. And that’s been amazing for me, because it takes me out of myself. But yeah, everything that I’ve done has really been for my own joy and happiness and well-being. And if this is a happy person, I will be a better mother. And music just happens to be the conduit for me to do these things.
I’m the most secure version of myself. You know, I’m 35, and there’s just a beauty of your 30s, which is just like, you stop giving a s— about people’s opinions. You care way more about your own, and that’s so coveted and so fortunate to get to a place like that. I wouldn’t rewind and do things over, because something led here for a meaning or a reason.
Even if it’s [something] mediocre, I’ll feel it all. I’ve survived a lot more than I thought I could. So I’m glad that this album sort of documented the healing period and the grief period. I’m excited to get back in the writing room and just keep going. I want to keep the faucet running.
Songbook: An Era-By-Era Breakdown Of Taylor Swift’s Journey From Country Starlet To Pop Phenomenon
Upon the arrival of Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ take a deep dive into her discography and see how each album helped her become the genre-shifting superstar she is today.
Editor’s note: This story was updated on Oct. 6, 2025 to reflect the release of The Life of a Showgirl.
The world now knows Taylor Swift as a global pop superstar, but back in 2006, she was just a doe-eyed country prodigy. Since then, she’s released 12 studio albums, re-recorded four as “Taylor’s Version,” and cultivated one of the most feverish fan bases in music. Oh, and she’s also won 14 GRAMMY Awards, including four for Album Of The Year — the most ever won by an artist.
Swift has become one of music’s most notable shapeshifters by refusing to limit herself to one genre, moving between country, pop, folk, and beyond. A once-in-a-lifetime generational storyteller, one could argue that she is music’s modern-day maverick, constantly evolving both her music and the culture around her.
Every album era has seen Swift reinvent herself over and over, which has helped pave the way for artists to explore other musical avenues. In turn, Swift hasn’t just become one of the biggest artists of all time — she’s changed pop music altogether.
To celebrate Taylor Swift’s newest era with The Life of a Showgirl, GRAMMY.com looks back on all of her albums (Taylor’s Versions not included) and how each era shaped her remarkable career.
Taylor Swift: Finding Her Place In Music
In a genre dominated by men, the odds were already stacked against Swift when she first broke into country music as a teenage female artist. The thing that differentiated her from other writers — and still does to this day — is her songwriting. She didn’t want to be just “another girl singer” and knew writing her own songs would be what set her apart.
Written throughout her adolescence, Taylor Swift was recorded at the end of 2005 and finalized by the time Swift finished her freshman year of high school. Serving as a snapshot of Swift’s life and teenhood, she avoided songwriting stereotypes typically found in country music. Instead, she wanted to capture the years of her life while they still represented what she was going through, writing about what she was observing and experiencing, from love and friendship to feeling like an outsider.
As a songwriter, Taylor Swift set the tone for what would be expected of her future recordings — all songs were written by her, some solely and others with one or two co-writers. One writer in particular, Liz Rose, applauded Swift’s songwriting capabilities, stating that she was more of an “editor” for the songs because Swift already had such a distinct vision.
The album’s lead single, “Tim McGraw,” an acoustic country ballad inspired by Swift knowing her relationship was going to end, represents an intricate part of Swift’s songwriting process; meticulously picking apart her emotions to better understand them. With its follow-up, “Our Song” — which spent six consecutive weeks on the top of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart — she became the youngest person to solely write and sing a No. 1 country single; she also became the first female solo artist in country music to write or co-write every song on an album.
Although Swift’s eponymous debut is underappreciated now — even lacking its own set on Swift’s Eras Tour — Taylor Swift‘s forthcoming rerecording is arguably the most anticipated by fans, who are eager to hear the songs with the singer’s current and more refined vocals. Still, for fans who haven’t properly explored Taylor Swift, it’s easy to tie together Swift’s earlier work to her current discography.
On the track “A Place In This World,” a song she wrote when she was just 13, Swift sings about not fitting in and trying to find her path. While her songwriting has developed and matured, feeling like an outsider and carving her own path is a theme she still writes about now, as seen on Midnights‘ “You’re On Your Own, Kid.”
Even as a new country artist, critics claimed that she “mastered” the genre while subsequently ushering it to a new era — one that would soon see Swift dabble in country-pop.
Fearless: Creating A Different Kind Of Fairytale
If Taylor Swift was the soundtrack to navigating the early stages of teenhood, Fearless is Swift’s coming-of-age record. More than its predecessor, Fearless blurs the line between country and pop thanks to crossover hits like “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me,” yet still keeps the confessional attributes known in country songwriting.
Most of Fearless is Swift coming to terms with what she believed love to be. On the album’s liner notes, Swift says Fearless is about “living in spite” of the things that scare you, like falling in love again despite being hurt before or walking away and letting go. The 2008 version of Taylor wanted to “believe in love stories and prince charmings and happily ever after,” whereas in Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) liner notes, she looks back on the album as a diary where she was learning “tiny lessons” every time there was a “new crack in the facade of the fairytale ending she’d been shown in the movies.”
Much of Fearless also sees Swift being reflective and nostalgic about adolescence, like in “Never Grow Up” and “Fifteen.” Still wistful and romantic, the album explores Swift’s hopes for love, as heard in the album’s lead single “Love Story,” which was one instance where she was “dramatizing” observations instead of actually experiencing them herself.
Unlike the slow-burn of Taylor Swift, Fearless went straight to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and stayed there for eight consecutive weeks. It won Swift’s first Album Of The Year GRAMMY in 2010, at the time making her the youngest person to win the accolade at age 20. To date, it has sold 7.2 million copies in America alone. It might not be the romantic tale Swift dreamed of growing up, but her sophomore album signalled that bigger things were to come.
Speak Now: Proving Her Songwriting Prowess
Everything that happened after the success of Fearless pushed Swift from country music’s best-kept secret to a mainstream star. But this meant that she faced more publicity and criticism, from naysayers who nitpicked her songwriting and vocals to the infamous Kanye West incident at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
For the first time since becoming an artist, she was forced to reckon with the concept of celebrity and how turning into one — whether she wanted it or not — informed her own writing and perception of herself. No longer was she the girl writing songs like “Fifteen” in her bedroom — now she was working through becoming a highly publicized figure. Speak Now is the answer to those growing pains.
Along with having more eyes on her, Swift also felt pressured to maintain her persona as a perfect young female role model amid a time when her peers like Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato were attempting to rebrand to be more mature and sexier. During her NYU commencement speech in 2022, she reflected on this era of her life as one of intense fear that she could make a mistake and face lasting consequences, so the songs were masked in metaphors rather than directly addressing adult themes in her music. But that also resulted in some of her most poignant lyrics to date.
Writing the entire album herself, Swift used Speak Now to prove her songwriting prowess to those who questioned her capabilities. Much like her previous two albums, Swift included songs that were both inspired by her own life and being a fly on the wall. The album’s title track pulled from the saying, “Speak now or forever hold your peace,” inspired by a friend’s ex-boyfriend getting engaged; meanwhile, “Mean” was everything Swift wanted to say to a critic who was continuously harsh about her vocals.
Retrospective and reflective, Speak Now is an album about the speeches she could’ve, would’ve and should’ve said. From addressing the aforementioned VMA incident in the forgiving “Innocent” to a toxic relationship in “Dear John,” Speak Now also hinted that her rose-colored glasses were cracked, but Swift (and her songwriting) was only becoming stronger because of it.
Red: Coming Into Her Own
Highly regarded as Swift’s magnum opus, Red sees the singer shed the fairytale dresses and the girl-next-door persona to craft a body of work that has now been deemed as her first “adult” record. On Red, Swift focused on emotions evoked from a hot-and-cold relationship, one that forced her to experience “intense love, intense frustration, jealousy and confusion” — all feelings that she’d describe as “red.”
Unlike most of her previous writing that had been inspired by happy endings and fairytales, Red explores the lingering pain and loss that can embed itself within despite trying your hardest to let go. In her liner notes, she references Pablo Neruda’s poem “Tonight I Can Write,” stating that “Love is so short, forgetting is so long” is the overarching theme for the album. She plays with time — speeding it up in “Starlight,” dabbling in the past in “All Too Well,” and reframing it in “State of Grace” — to better understand her experiences.
After releasing country-pop records, Red toed the line between genres more than ever before. Swift leaned further into the full pop territory by working with esteemed producers Max Martin and Shellback for the dubstep-leaning track “I Knew You Were Trouble,” the punchy lead single “We Are Never Getting Back Together,” and the bouncy anthem “22.” But even when the pop power players weren’t involved, her country stylings still leaned more pop across the album, as further evidenced with the racing deep cut “Holy Ground” and the echoing title track.
The slight change of direction became polarizing for critics and fans alike. Following the more country-influenced Speak Now, some critics and fans found the pop songs on Red were too pop and the lyrics were too repetitive, possibly indicating that she might be selling out. If that wasn’t enough, Red became an era where Swift’s personal life went from speculation to tabloid fodder, with misogynistic headlines and diluting her work to just “writing about her exes.” It’s an era that would eventually inspire many tracks on Red‘s successor, 1989, like “Blank Space” and “Shake It Off.”
Commercially, Red debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and sold 1.2 million copies in its first week, becoming the fastest-selling country album and making Swift the first female artist to have three consecutive albums spend six or more weeks at the top of the chart. The impact of Red extended beyond its own success, too. Often mentioned as a record that inspired a generation of artists from Troye Sivan to Conan Gray, Swift’s confessional, soul-bearing authenticity set a new standard for straightforward pop music.
1989: Reinventing Into A Pop Genius
The night Red lost the GRAMMY for Album Of The Year in 2014, Swift decided that her next album would be a full-on pop record. After years of identifying as a country artist and flirting with pop, Swift departed her roots to reinvent herself, no matter what her then-label or critics had to say. And in true Swiftian fashion, turning into a pop artist didn’t just prove her genre-shapeshifting capabilities — it further solidified her as an artist who is at her best when she freely creates to her desires and refuses to adhere to anyone.
1989 was lauded by critics for its infectious synth-pop that was reminiscent of the 1980s, yet still had a contemporary sound. Swift opted to lean more into radio-friendly hits, which resulted in songs like “Style,” “Wildest Dreams,” “Blank Space,” and “Shake It Off,” all of which became singles. And where some might trade a hit or two at the expense of their artistic integrity, Swift didn’t falter — instead, her lyrics were just as heartfelt and intimate as they were on prior albums.
After exploring pop-leaning sonics she first found with Red, Swift worked with Martin and Shellback again on most of 1989. This reinvention brought new (and very important) collaborators as well. Swift’s now-frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff credits her as the first person to take a chance on him as a producer with “I Wish You Would” and “Out Of The Woods”; both tracks exemplified how future Antonoff-produced songs would sound on albums like reputation, Lover and Midnights.
At the time, 1989 became Swift’s best-selling album to date. It sold nearly 1.3 million copies within release week in the U.S., debuting atop the Billboard 200 and reigning for 11 non-consecutive weeks. The album also earned Swift several awards — including her second Album Of The Year GRAMMY, which made her the first female artist to ever win the award twice.
Following the release of 1989, Swift became a cultural juggernaut, and the album has had an omnipresence in music since. Swift didn’t just normalize blending genres, but proved that you can create a sound that is uniquely yours by doing so. In turn, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa and more pop stars have refused to conform or stick to what they’ve done prior.
reputation: Killing The Old Taylor
For years, Swift was on a strict two-year cycle — she’d release an album one year, tour the next, and then release a new album the following year. But following the heightened scrutiny and highly publicized tabloid drama that followed the end of the 1989 era, Swift completely disappeared for a year. She stayed away from public appearances, didn’t do any press, and missed the album schedule fans became accustomed to. It wasn’t until summer 2017 when she returned from her media (and social media) blackout to unveil the fitting title for her new album: reputation.
Born as a response to the naysayers and name-callers, reputation follows Swift shedding her public image — which includes the pressure to be perfect, the drama, and the criticism — by declaring, “There will be no further explanation. There will just be reputation.” Leaning on the same tongue-in-cheek songwriting techniques she used while penning “Blank Space,” Swift wrote from the mindset of how the public perceived her.
When Swift released the lead single “Look What You Made Me Do,” a song she initially wrote as a poem about not trusting specific people, many assumed the album would center on vengeance and drama. Although Swift said that the album has its vindictive moments — even declaring that the “old Taylor” is dead on the bridge of “Look What You Made Me Do” — it’s a vulnerable record for her. Swift described reputation as a bait-and-switch; at their core, the songs are about finding love in the darkest moments.
Swift still remained in the pop lane with reputation, largely leaning on Antonoff and the Martin/Shellback team. The sound almost mirrored the scrutiny Swift faced in the years prior — booming electropop beats, maximalist production and pulsing synthesizers dominate, particularly on “End Game,” “I Did Something Bad,” and “Ready For It…?” But the “old Taylor” isn’t entirely gone on songs like “Call It What You Want,” “So It Goes…” and “New Year’s Day,” where she lets her guard down to write earnest love odes.
Even after Swift spent some time away from the spotlight, the public didn’t immediately gravitate toward her return. And even despite matching the 1.2 million first-week sales of her previous releases, some concluded that the album was her first commercial failure when compared to 1989. With time, though, it became clear that the response to reputation became muddled with the public’s overall perception of her at the time — some even claimed that Swift was ahead of her time with the album’s overall sound.
For her 2023 TIME Person of the Year profile, Swift described reputation as a “goth-punk moment of female rage at being gaslit by an entire social structure.” For years, she felt the pressure to be “America’s Sweetheart” and to never step out of line. Writing reputation became a lifeline following the events that catalyzed it — a way to shed the so-called snakeskin and make peace with however the public wanted to view her.
Lover: Stepping Into The Daylight
After finding love amongst chaos with reputation, Swift was learning to deal with the anxiety and fear of losing her partner — became a major theme of another aptly titled album, Lover. Both sonically and visually, Lover was a complete change from reputation. After touring reputation, Swift found that her fans saw her as “a flesh-and-blood human being,” inspiring her to be “brave enough to be vulnerable” because her fans were along with her. Stepping away from the dark and antagonistic themes around reputation encouraged Swift to step into the light and be playful with her work on Lover.
Swift also found a new sense of creativity within this new mindset, one where she aimed to still embed playful themes in her songwriting but with less snark than that of “Blank Space” and “Look What You Made Me Do.” Leaning into Lover being a “love letter to love,” Swift explored every aspect of it. Tracks like “Paper Rings” and “London Boy” exude a whimsical energy, even if they center on more serious themes like marriage and commitment. Other songs, including “Death By A Thousand Cuts” and “Cornelia Street,” are Swift at her most vulnerable, reflecting on a love lost and grappling with the extreme worry that comes when you could potentially lose someone.
Looking at Lover retrospectively, it’s an album that almost symbolizes a bookend in her discography. She was playful yet poignant, picking apart her past lyrics and feelings and looking at them with the perspective of someone who was once on top of the world, hit rock bottom, and survived in spite of it. This evolution is mentioned throughout Lover, particularly in a direct callback to 2012’s Red, “Daylight,” which sees her describe her love as “golden” rather than “burning red.”
Lover also marked the first time Swift divulged into politics and societal issues, like campaigning against Donald Trump, releasing the Pride-infused “You Need To Calm Down,” and feeling disillusioned by the political climate with “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince.” Swift’s documentary Miss Americana explores this change further, discussing how she regrets not being vocal about politics and issues prior, in addition to opening up about her body image issues and mental health struggles.
Lover became Swift’s sixth No. 1 album in America, making her the first female artist to achieve the feat. But Lover was more than any accolades could reflect — it was Swift’s transitional album in many ways, notably marking the first album that she owned entirely herself following leaving Big Machine Records for Republic Records in 2018.
folklore: Looking Beyond Her Personal Stories
After the pandemic started and Swift cancelled her Lover Fest, she spent the early stages of quarantine reading and watching a myriad of films. Without exactly setting out to create an album, she began dreaming of fictional stories and characters with various narrative arcs, allowing her imagination to run free. The result became folklore, 2020’s surprise archetypal quarantine album.
Crafting a world with characters like the folklore love triangle between those in “betty” and “august,” as well as Rebekah Harkness from “the last great american dynasty” (who once lived in Swift’s Rhode Island mansion), was Swift’s way of venturing outside her typical autobiographical style of writing. She’d see visceral images in her mind — from battleships to tree swings to mirrored disco balls — and turned them into stories, sometimes weaving in her own personal narrative throughout, or taking on a narrator role and speaking from the perspective of someone she had never met.
She worked remotely with two producers — again working with her right-hand man Jack Antonoff, and first-time collaborator Aaron Dessner from The National. Some songs, like “peace,” were recorded in just one take, capturing the essence and fragility in the song’s story, whereas the lyrics for the sun-drenched “august” were penned on the spot as Swift was in her makeshift home studio in Los Angeles.
Another aspect that separated folklore from her previous work was the obvious decision not to create hits made for radio play, so much so that Dessner claimed that she made an anti-pop record at a time when radio wanted clear “bops.” Sonically, it ventured into genres Swift hadn’t explored much outside of a few folkier tracks on Lover. Rather than relying on mostly electronic elements, Swift, Antonoff and Dessner weaved in soft pianos, ethereal strings, and plucky guitars.
folklore‘s impact on the zeitgeist at a time where everyone was stuck at home helped shape people’s quarantine experience. Fans rejoiced at having songs to comfort them during difficult times, and artists like Maya Hawke, Gracie Abrams, and Sabrina Carpenter credit folklore for inspiring them to create and be even more emotionally honest in their songwriting. After its release, folklore became the best-selling album of 2020 after selling 1.2 million records. At the 2021 GRAMMYs, folklore took home Album Of The Year, making her the fourth artist in history to win three times in the Category.
evermore: Embracing Experimentation
It was exciting enough for Swifties to experience one surprise album drop from Swift, an artist who typically has an entire album campaign calculated. So when evermore was released just six months after folklore, fans were in shock.
Like its (literally) folklorian sister, evermore was a surprise release at the end of 2020, marking the first time Swift didn’t have distinct “eras” between albums. She felt like there was something “different” with folklore, stating in a social media post that making it was less like she was “departing” and more like she was “returning” to the next stage of her discography. In turn, the album served as a similar escape for Swift as folklore did.
Bridging together the same wistful and nostalgic themes as heard on its predecessor, evermore sees Swift venture even further into escapism. She explores more stories and characters, some based in fiction like “dorothea,” and some real, like “marjorie,” written in dedication to Swift’s grandmother.
Evermore follows folklore‘s inclusion of natural imagery and motifs, like landscapes, skies, ivy, and celestial elements. In contrast to the fairytale motifs and happy endings of Fearless, evermore saw Swift become fixated on “unhappy” endings — stories of failed marriages (“happiness”), lifeless relationships (“tolerate it”), and one-time flings (“’tis the damn season”).
Sonically, evermore is a slight departure from its sister record; where folklore relies on more alt-leaning and indie-tinged sounds, evermore takes the sonics from all of Swift’s past records — from pop to country to indie rock — and features all of them on one album. Country songs like “cowboy like me” and “no body, no crime” reaches back to Swift’s earlier work in narrative building, seamlessly crafting a three-party story with ease. “Closure” is a “skittering” track that has the same energy as tracks like Lover‘s “I Forgot That You Existed,” whereas the ballad “champagne problems” is thematically reminiscent of Swift’s Speak Now track “Back To December” where she takes responsibility for her lover’s heartache.
Working mostly with Dessner on evermore, Swift was emboldened to continue creating and opted to embrace whatever came naturally to them rather than limiting themselves to a sound. Swift felt a “quiet conclusion” after finishing up evermore, describing that it was more about grappling with endings of all “sizes and shapes,” and the record represented a chapter closing. Even so, its poetic lyricism and mystical storytelling cleverly foreshadowed what was to come with subsequent albums, particularly The Tortured Poets Department.
Midnights: Encapsulating Her Artistic Magic
After coming out of the folklorian woods following folklore and evermore, fans and critics alike were intrigued to see what direction Swift would take on her next studio album. On Midnights, Swift leaves behind indie folk sounds and returns to the pop production of 1989 and Lover.
Her most conceptual album to date, Midnights charts 13 sleepless nights and explores five themes, from self-hatred and revenge to “what if” fantasies, falling in love, and falling apart. They are the things that keep her up at night, like the self-critiquing in “Anti-Hero,” her rise to fame in “You’re on Your Own, Kid,” and the anxiety of falling in love again in “Labyrinth.” Similarly to Swift’s cheeky songwriting style that sees her create caricatures of herself in songs like “Blank Space” and “Look What You Made Me Do,” she doubles down on claims she’s “calculated” on “Mastermind,” a song about devising a plan for her and her lover.
Although the album is a departure from the two pandemic sister albums, the overall creation process didn’t differ too much. In addition to working alongside Antonoff (and bringing Dessner in for the bonus-track-filled 3am Edition), Swift’s worldbuilding is still the throughline that connects Midnights and Swift’s recent albums, whether she’s dreaming of a Parisian escape in “Paris” or using war imagery as a metaphor for the struggle of love in “The Great War.”
Following the success with folklore and evermore, Swift’s intrigue was at a then-all-time high upon the release of Midnights. Along with breaking several streaming records — including becoming the first album to exceed 700 million global streams in a week — it was Swift’s 11th No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200, and was the highest-selling album of 2022 (and, remarkably, the second best-selling of 2023).
To say that Swift’s celebrity has become otherworldly since the release of Midnights would be an understatement. Celebrating her genre-defying and varied discography through The Eras Tour has resulted in old songs having a resurgence, new inside jokes and Easter eggs within the fandom, and a plethora of new listeners being exposed to Swift’s work.
As a result, there had arguably never been more excitement for a Taylor Swift album than for The Tortured Poets Department — especially because the announcement came on the heels of her lucky 13th GRAMMY win in February. Midnights helped further solidify Swift’s larger-than-life status at the finale of the 2024 GRAMMYs, too, as she became the only artist in history to win Album Of The Year four times.
The Tortured Poets Department: Delving Into A Grief-Stricken Poetic Odyssey
It’s been a while since Swift has penned a full-fledged breakup album. On The Tortured Poets Department, she navigates the five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance — after her long-term relationship ended. Taking a page from the release of folklore and evermore, she dropped a double album and announced The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology at 2 a.m. on release day. Throughout a total of 31 tracks, the prolific songwriter shelved the glittery pop radio-friendly tunes in favor of more subdued, synthy and heart-wrenching songs.
On Instagram, Swift described the album as a collection of poetic songs that reflect the “events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time,” Swift pulled out the fountain and quill pens to craft songs about the “tortured poets” in her life — sometimes musing about lovers, sometimes taking aim at villains, and sometimes pointing the finger at herself.
TTPD is also her most confessional album thus far. It pokes fun at so-called fans who overstep with her personal life (“But Daddy I Love Him”), says goodbye to a city that gave her a home (“So Long London”), and muses on how her own celebrity has stunted her growth (“Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?”). To help explain this chapter of her life, Swift brings together a myriad of collaborators — from Stevie Nicks as fellow poetess, to duets with Florence Welch and Post Malone — and leans on real and fictional characters, like Clara Bow, Peter Pan (“Peter”), and Patti Smith.
In the same post, Swift declared that once she’s confessed all of her saddest stories, she’s able to find freedom. Yet The Tortured Poets Department (and its accompanying 15-track anthology) spends much time reflecting: she toys with her own lore, self-referencing past songs from albums like 1989 and poems from her reputation era.
Fourteen years ago, Swift declared that she would never change, but she’ll never stay the same either. The Tortured Poets Department proves that in the throughline of Taylor Swift’s many artistic eras is a commitment to exploration and a love of autobiographical lyricism.
The Life of a Showgirl: Offering A Peek Behind The Curtain
After she wrapped the Eras Tour at the end of 2024, everyone had one question: what will Taylor do next?
Following such a monumental celebration of her career, it was only fitting for her to make another big move: reclaim her music. As Swift revealed on May 30, she bought back the master recordings of her first six albums, marking the first time she’s been in control of her entire discography.
“To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it,” she wrote in a letter posted to her website. In true Taylor fashion, there was an Easter egg hidden amid her gratitude-filled message: “thiiiiiiiiiiiis close,” twelve i’s hinting that her twelfth album was on the horizon.
Naturally, at 12:12 on Aug. 12, Swift announced TS12, The Life of a Showgirl. And on Aug. 13, she opened up about the concept and creation of the record on her now-fiancé Travis Kelce’s podcast, “New Heights.”
As she explained, she aimed to mimic the exact feelings she was experiencing both on and off stage during her groundbreaking Eras Tour. In turn, The Life of a Showgirl is a glitter gel pen album, meaning that it’s equal parts frivolous and fun, while still being wrapped in Swift’s signature storytelling; it’s apt that Swift chose to work with 1989 collaborators Max Martin and Shellback to recreate the same pop magic they did over 10 years ago.
“I would be playing three shows in a row, I’d have three days off. I’d fly to Sweden, go back to the tour, and I was pretty exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating,” she detailed on “New Heights.” “This album was about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during this tour, which was so exuberant and electric and vibrant.”
After the muted sonic tones of The Tortured Poets Department, The Life of a Showgirl is possibly Swift’s most jubilant album yet. She explores everything from the price of fame (“Elizabeth Taylor,” “CANCELLED!”) to finally feeling like she’s at peace in the relationship she’s in (“The Fate of Ophelia,” “WI$HLI$T”).
What is most apparent on the album, though, is just how much Swift embraces every aspect of who she is. Yes, she is still the same artist who wrote the fairytale-tinged record Fearless, crafted the indie pandemic escape that was folklore, and dove into the depths of her sadness on The Tortured Poets Department. But with The Life of a Showgirl, it’s clear she’s closing the chapter — or should we say era — of her life that was the catalyst to the new one she’s stepping into. She’s no longer anxious in love (“Eldest Daughter,” “Honey”) and for the first time, she owns all of her work and is in complete artistic control (“Father Figure”).
When she announced the album, she declared, “And baby, that’s showbiz for you.” No one knows that better than someone who has been through the ringer in the industry like Swift has. And yet, she has still come out the other side, sparkling, self-assured and ready to revel in a career built on resilience and reinvention — something only a true showgirl could achieve.
Get To Know Ink, The Hitmaking Songwriter For Beyoncé & Kendrick Ready To Take The Spotlight
After a big year of co-writing chart-topping hits, Ink showcases her own artistry with a new EP, ‘BIG BUSKIN’.’ Learn more about the GRAMMY-nominated singer/songwriter and her journey to stardom.
|GRAMMYs/Oct 3, 2025 – 03:22 am
Imagine cementing your place among icons before releasing your debut project. Ink doesn’t have to.
Born Atia Boggs, the Atlanta-raised singer/songwriter has become a go-to collaborator for the likes of Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, Justin Bieber, Kacey Musgraves, Lil Nas X, and Jennifer Lopez. And now, she’s stepping into the spotlight with BIG BUSKIN’. Out Oct. 3, the new EP will see Ink display her own star power, blending elements of country with hip-hop to create her unique genre-blending sound.
BIG BUSKIN’ — the title a tribute to her early days busking around her hometown — comes on the heels of a remarkable couple of years for Ink. After writing on Beyoncé’s GRAMMY-nominated RENAISSANCE, Ink returned for Bey’s Album Of The Year-winning COWBOY CARTER, co-writing its historic crossover hit “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM.” While that marked her first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Ink soon landed another thanks to “Luther,” Lamar’s latest smash with SZA that stayed at the top for a whopping 13 weeks.
“It’s just a different level of craftsmanship that they have,” Ink told Rolling Stone of Lamar and Beyoncé. “It alters my process and how I look at music.”
When it comes to her own project, Ink declares that it’s “definitely something special.” “[BIG BUSKIN’] showcases a lot of different parts of myself,” the three-time GRAMMY nominee shared in a statement. “Each chapter you’re going to get something new, and each story you’re going to get something true.”
As Ink releases her debut EP with Big Loud Records, learn more about the inspiration behind her genre-defying sound and why she’s earned Beyoncé’s praise as an “artist’s artist.”
She Has Always Known She’d Be A Star
Ink’s musical journey began when she taught herself guitar at a young age. Soon after, she began hitting the streets of Georgia to perform for anyone who’d be willing to listen. “I was playing for change, selling CDs, going straight to the people,” she shared in press materials for BIG BUSKIN’.
As she recalled to Rolling Stone, Ink busked outside of Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s show at the Georgia Dome in 2014 — not only a fateful situation, but one that displayed her confidence. “I wanted to go in there so bad, but [I thought,] ‘I hope they have fun, because when I go in there, it’s going to be my time.'”
Five years later, Ink doubled down on that manifestation upon seeing Beyoncé at the Roc Nation GRAMMY Week brunch in 2019. “I went up to her and said, ‘Hey, I just wanted to let you know, I’m going to be writing your next album,'” she told Billboard, “And she giggled and said, ‘What’s your name?’ We just hit it off.”
Her Genre-Blending Sound Is No Coincidence
Ink’s musical style is a melting pot shaped by her upbringing, deeply rooted in both her ethnic and social background. On BIG BUSKIN’, she weaves together elements of country, rock and hip-hop — genres that can be described as the soundtracks of her life.
The Germany-born, Georgia-raised artist is influenced by singer/songwriters like Babyface, Tony Henry, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Lauryn Hill, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. And with roots in the Cherokee and Blackfoot indigenous tribes, Ink’s diverse background has helped a unique identity all her own.
It was her deep connection to the South — specifically, through Houston rapper Trae Tha Truth — that truly shaped her musical identity. “He’s one of the reasons that I’m how I am today,” she shared in a press statement.
She also counts GRAMMY-winning singer/songwriter/producer James Fauntleroy — who has worked with the likes of Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake, and Rihanna — as a mentor, noting that he’s shown support since they became Facebook friends in the late 2000s. “[He gave me the confidence to say, ‘I can do this,'” she said to Billboard.
Now in her stride, Ink has even managed to blow Beyoncé’s mind with her wide-spanning talent. “[Beyoncé] told me that she didn’t understand how I was so consistent, because I’d always make different genres of music,” Ink recalled in a press statement. “She said, ‘You’re an artist’s artist,’ and that gave me a boost of confidence to stay on my path and stay true to my authentic self.”
This Isn’t Her First Rodeo
BIG BUSKIN’ will mark Ink’s official debut with Big Loud Records, but it won’t be the first time she’s released a project. The singer/songwriter previously released three albums independently: 2018’s Highlight Real, 2019’s Backstreets and 2021’s Imagine Not Knowing.
On Highlight Real, Ink tapped into more of her R&B sensibilities. With Backstreets, she incorporated her rock influences with acoustic and electric guitars. And on Imagine Not Knowing, she intertwined R&B stylings with hip-hop beats. Though none of the projects explored her country side, they each helped mold the innovative sound that has pushed her to the forefront today.
She’s Become A Secret Weapon For Superstars…
Ink has become one of the music industry’s trusty wordsmiths, co-writing songs for some of today’s leading artists. Things first took off for her in 2015, landing credits on tracks by Monica, Tamar Braxton, Rick Ross and Mary J. Blige, and Plies and Jacquees. From there, she scored cuts with several more R&B and rap stars, including Yo Gotti, Remy Ma, Chris Brown, Leon Bridges, and Paloma Mami.
While her biggest moments as a songwriter have come with Beyoncé’s “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Luther,” she landed more cuts with each of them, including Beyoncé’s “16 CARRIAGES” and Lamar’s other SZA collab on GNX, “Gloria.” But those two are far from the only major stars she’s written for in recent years: along with tracks by Lil Nas X, 21 Savage and Mariah the Scientist, Lay Bankz, and Latto, Ink co-wrote over 80 percent of Jennifer Lopez’s ninth studio album, This Is Me…Now.
…And A Sought-After Collaborator
As Ink became more renowned as a songwriter, more and more artists recognized her talents as a singer. Her first big feature came in 2019 with Chris Brown and Justin Bieber’s “Don’t Check on Me,” a song she co-wrote and co-produced; as she asserts, being asked to join as a featured artist was a major turning point in her career.
“It gave me so much exposure and another boost of confidence to have a superstar say, ‘Hey, we’re going to introduce you to the world,'” she told Billboard, adding, “that was one of the moments that led to the unstoppable train I’m on now.”
She’s also noted that her feature on Childish Gambino’s funky 2020 single “Psilocybae (Millennial Love)” was another moment that transcended her artistry in another light. And since then, she’s offered her vocal chops to NLE Choppa’s “Hear Me,” Leon Bridges‘ “Don’t Worry,” Zerb and The Chainsmokers’ “Addicted,” Lamar’s “Dodger Blue,” and BigXthaPlug’s “24/7,” among several others.
She’s Ready To Get The Party Started
As Ink began her countrified new chapter earlier this year, the multi-faceted artist released “Turquoise Cowboy.” While she has dubbed the anthemic track “a theme song for myself,” the singer/songwriter sees its toe-tapping follow-up, “Hoedown,” as a perfect depiction of the vibe she’s channeling with this new music.
“[Hoedown is] a good way to introduce me to the world,” she said in a press statement. “I like to dance, I like to get the party going, I like to keep the energy up.”
With a desire to make timeless music and a larger-than-life personality, Ink is ready to show the world her true self with BIG BUSKIN’ — and she’s excited to take listeners along for the ride. “I do music so that I can interact with humans and turn up the frequency of the universe,” she explains in a statement, “while showing people that this classic American music never left.”
9 Songs Taylor Swift Wrote About Being A ‘Showgirl’: “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart,” “Bejeweled” & More
As the pop queen enters her next era with ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ celebrate the new album by revisiting nine Taylor Swift tracks that touch on just that, from “The Lucky One” to “Clara Bow.”
|GRAMMYs/Sep 30, 2025 – 08:39 pm
It’s no secret that Taylor Swift puts on a show. The pop superstar has proven that time and time again, with her record-breaking, mind-blowing Eras Tour being the ultimate display of her showmanship. And now, she’s giving fans a glimpse of what life looked like once the glittery bodysuits came off and the final bow was taken with The Life of a Showgirl.
Due Oct. 3, Swift’s aptly titled new album represents everything she was experiencing behind the curtain while on The Eras Tour. The 14-time GRAMMY winner flew to Sweden in between shows to work alongside Red/1989 collaborators Max Martin and Shellback, capturing the excitement of her life on and off stage.
“This album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during this tour, which was so exuberant and electric and vibrant,” she explained upon announcing the project on the New Heights podcast in August. “It just comes from like the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life. That effervescence has come through on this record.”
The 12-track LP is far from Swift’s first time conceptualizing what it means to be a showgirl, though. Across her two-decade career, she has written about cautionary tales of trying to make it in a fickle industry (“The Lucky One,” “Nothing New”) and the resilience that comes from stepping on stage (“Bejeweled,” “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart”). Through it all, Swift has proven that, for her, “showgirl” isn’t a character or mask she takes off — it’s who she is at her core.
Ahead of the release of The Life of a Showgirl, here are nine songs where Swift steps into that role, exploring the triumphs and the tolls of a life spent on the stage.
“The Lucky One” (Red, 2012)
Swift was on the Australian leg of the Speak Now World Tour when she wrote “The Lucky One,” a song that’s long been rumored to be about Fleetwood Mac frontwoman Stevie Nicks. At the time, Swift was 22 and coming to terms with what it means to follow your dreams.
“It kind of expresses my greatest fear of having this not end up being fun anymore, having it end up being a scary place,” she explained in a track-by-track for Red. “Some people get there, some people end up there. It’s a story song, and it’s something I’m really proud of because it kind of goes to a place that I’m terrified of.”
On the track, Swift details a story of a star who pursued her dreams, had secrets exposed, and was replaced by “young things” when she fell from grace. When discussing the track, Swift spoke about these fears further. “There’s the microscope that’s always on you. The camera flashes, the fear that something you say will be taken the wrong way, and you’ll let your fans down,” she said. “There’s the fear that you’ll be walking down the street and your skirt will blow up and you’ll be in the news for three months.”
Swift’s heroine in the track trades in a life in the limelight for one that’s more secluded, something she says, “It took some time, but I understand it now/ ‘Cause now my name is up in lights/ But I think you got it right.” Still, Swift admits that the trade-off — singing her songs on stage — is worth every negative thing that comes with being a performer.
Looking back, “The Lucky One” precedes the same thoughts, fears and anxieties around fame that Swift would reckon with 12 years later on The Tortured Poets Department‘s “Clara Bow,” in which she name-drops Nicks (more on that song later). On the Eras Tour in Dublin in June 2024, Swift performed a mashup of “The Lucky One” and “Clara Bow” as a gift to Nicks, who was in attendance that night, further hinting at the alleged inspiration behind the track.
“mirrorball” (folklore, 2020)
Written amidst the pandemic, “mirrorball” encapsulates Swift’s anxieties around staying visible, being entertaining, and the pressure to be her shiniest, most sparkly self, despite the errors she’s made (“when I break, it’s in a million pieces”). She compares herself to a mirrorball, declaring that trying to be a performer is what is most important to her (“I’m still on that tightrope/ I’m still trying everything to get you laughing at me”).
According to her conversation with Jack Antonoff for the folklore: long pond studio sessions, she wrote “mirrorball” right after she found out her Lover Fest shows were cancelled (“And they called off the circus, burned the disco down/ When they sent home the horses and the rodeo clowns”). She began using songwriting and storytelling as a means to cope with no longer doing what she loves: performing. “mirrorball” became a metaphor for celebrity — having to shine for entertainment even when you’re broken — but Swift also wanted to show how people wear different masks for different situations.
On the very first show of The Eras Tour, the first surprise song Swift chose to perform was “mirrorball,” noting that the song represents the connection she has with her fans and how she longs for that connection when she’s off stage.
“marjorie” (evermore, 2020)
For Swift, the original showgirl was likely her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, who was an opera singer. The inspiration behind the evermore track “marjorie,” Marjorie passed away in 2013 when a 13-year-old Swift was on a trip to Nashville to meet with labels. Despite young Swift not having the perspective or understanding to ask her grandmother about her life and career as a singer (“I should’ve asked you questions
/ I should’ve asked you how to be”), she has expressed that her grandmother still visits her in her dreams.
“I’d open up my grandmother’s closet and she had beautiful dresses from the ’60s, I wish I’d asked her where she wore every single one of them,” Swift explained to Zane Lowe. “She was a singer and my mom would look at me so many times a year and say, ‘God, you’re just like her,’ when I’ll do some manners that I don’t recognize as being anyone other than mine.”
Swift’s mother found old vinyls of Marjorie singing, inspiring her to send them to producer Aaron Dessner, who was able to incorporate some of the vocals on the track. Even if Marjorie didn’t exactly get to experience her granddaughter becoming a bonafide showgirl, it’s clear she was integral to Swift following her own dreams.
“Nothing New” feat. Phoebe Bridgers (Red (Taylor’s Version), 2021)
A vault track on Red (Taylor’s Version), “Nothing New” was seemingly written in the same mindset as Red‘s “The Lucky One.” “Nothing New” is a reflection on the fear of losing relevance in the public eye when you’re no longer novel and how fleeting youth is when you’re famous.
Swift has spoken at length about Hollywood’s obsession with youth, even saying that she was surprised by the success of Midnights because, at 32, she was considered a “geriatric” pop star. She doubles down on this on “Nothing New,” writing “How long will it be cute/ All this crying in my room/ Whеn you can’t blame it on my youth.”
“Nothing New” also touches on the constant criticism young women — particularly young pop stars — experience when one is “soaring,” referencing getting struck down after being paraded around as an ingenue. On the bridge, Swift and Bridgers speak about a new, innocent star that is set to take their place (“She’ll know the way, and then she’ll say she got the map from me”) and having to accept that every performer will eventually be replaced. It’s a theme Swift also explores on “Clara Bow.”
“Midnight Rain” (Midnights, 2022)
It’s no secret that Swift always wanted to succeed, but fans don’t realize what she often had to give up to pursue her dreams. On “Midnight Rain,” Swift alludes to choosing her career over a relationship, exploring the tension between her ambition and the sacrifices she’s made for fame.
Throughout the track, Swift compares the simplicity of domestic life (“Picture perfect shiny family/ Holiday peppermint candy”) and what her life looks like as a public figure (“Full of cages, full of fences/ Pageant queens and big pretenders/ But for some, it was paradise.”) These motifs are nods to the classic “showgirl” archetype: a woman whose life is on the stage but is rarely private. Realizing that the life of a showgirl is not conducive to a typical domesticated life is a theme that other female songwriters, like her “Florida!!!” collaborator Florence Welch, have also explored in their work.
The showgirl concept is integral to “Midnight Rain” because Swift captures both the allure and the cost of being a performer for the masses. Her life, she admits, is tethered to the stage, always needing to dazzle regardless of the personal cost.
Although Swift has made peace with the relationship ending, she continues to reflect on the life she “gave away” and what she had to trade in order to be a showgirl. The outro further exemplifies this — “Sometimes we all get/ Just what we wanted … And he never thinks of me/ Except for when I’m on TV” — hinting that that connection wasn’t as important to her as her career.
“Bejeweled” (Midnights, 2022)
On “Bejeweled,” Swift shifts the spotlight back to herself after feeling overlooked. Like on “mirrorball,” which hints at the exhaustion one feels when needing to be entertaining all the time, “Bejeweled” is Swift choosing to perform as an act of defiance and resilience. The lyric “I can still make the whole place shimmer” is not just a playful flex, but Swift owning that performance is both her power and her armor.
The accompanying music video further emphasizes the showgirl concept. Swift, portrayed as Cinderella, is turned into a princess after being overlooked by her stepsisters. Like in “Midnight Rain,” Swift chooses herself over a partner, prioritizing her own independence.
The showgirl metaphor also comes through in lyrics like “You can try to change my mind/ But you might have to wait in line/ What’s a girl gonna do?/ A diamond’s gotta shine.” Swift acknowledges the expectation and inevitability of her life as a showgirl, and regardless of whoever tries to dim her light, she will always choose to shine. “Bejeweled” is Swift acknowledging that she can reclaim the stage for herself when she wishes to do so.
“Castles Crumbling” feat. Hayley Williams (Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), 2023)
Written during the Speak Now era and released as part of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), “Castles Crumbling” serves as a precursor to fears Swift would continue to explore on later songs. On Speak Now‘s “Long Live,” Swift uses fairytale imagery to demonstrate how her and her bandmates took on the world together (“How the kingdom lights shined just for me and you … I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you”), but on “Castles Crumbling,” similar motifs are used to show a reign that’s deteriorating.
The track is framed around Swift’s fear of losing the crowd’s adoration and praise (“They used to cheer when they saw my face/ Now, I fear I have fallen from grace,” a catastrophic blow to a performer whose identity is tied to entertaining, something she further expressed with “mirrorball.” “Castles Crumbling” sits in a grey space — what happens when your performance or music is not enough to keep an audience’s goodwill and that applause could end at any moment?
The song includes a feature from Paramore‘s Hayley Williams, who started her career around the same age as Swift. As “Castle’s Crumbling” alludes, they’re both aware that fame and attention is fleeting regardless of how hard you work (“My castle’s crumbling down/ You don’t wanna know me now”). “It’s about an experience that we’ve both shared growing up in the public eye,” Williams told Coup De Main in 2023. “I just feel very honored to get to sing about that feeling.”
“Clara Bow” (The Tortured Poets Department, 2024)
On “Clara Bow,” Swift looks back to the same motifs she initially explored on “The Lucky One” and “Nothing New,” once again trying to make sense of why Hollywood is so fickle with women in entertainment. On “Clara Bow,” she aims at an industry that wants to replace you just as fast as they embrace you.
“I used to sit in record labels trying to get a record deal when I was a little kid,” Swift said in a track-by-track with Amazon Music. “And they’d say, ‘You know, you remind us of’ and then they’d name an artist, and then they’d kind of say something disparaging about her, ‘But you’re this, you’re so much better in this way or that way.’ And that’s how we teach women to see themselves, as like, ‘You could be the new replacement for this woman who’s done something great before you.'”
For the song, Swift selected two women who were groundbreakers in their respective industries: the titular character Clara Bow, who was an actress who became famous in the silent film era, and Stevie Nicks. Swift called these women “archetypes of greatness” who are celebrated and then discarded. It’s why Swift has prioritized taking other female artists under her wing and on the road, including Gracie Abrams and Sabrina Carpenter — and it’s likely no coincidence that the latter is featured on The Life of a Showgirl‘s title track.
“I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” (The Tortured Poets Department, 2024)
In what is perhaps Swift’s most meta song, “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” displays her resilience while grappling with her conflating personal and private life. Similarly to The Life of a Showgirl, Swift wrote “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” while on The Eras Tour. Within the first few months of the tour, Swift seemed to be on top of the world as she was shattering records publicly, but privately, she was struggling with an intense heartache. This juxtaposition would eventually become the crux of “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart.”
On the punchy pop track, Swift is in true showgirl mode — touching on everything from faking a smile while performing to her Eras Tour outfits (“The lights refract sequined stars off her silhouette every night … in stilettos for miles”). She even included her click track as part of the lyrics: “I was grinning like I’m winning, I was hitting my marks/ ‘Cause I can do it with a broken heart (one, two, three, four).”
“I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” shows the same fear Swift expressed with “The Lucky One,” which is that her private life would eventually bleed into her public life. That duality and the “show must go on” mentality is the exact conceptualization behind Swift’s new album. And while “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” is the most pop-forward track on The Tortured Poets Department, Swift’s reunion with Max Martin and Shellback will seemingly mark a return to her more upbeat side — and in turn, The Life of a Showgirl will be as captivating as it is cathartic.
14 Rising Country Stars To Know Now: Hudson Westbrook, Elizabeth Nichols, Ole 60 & More
Between big-time tour slots and anticipated debut albums, several new country artists have seen breakthroughs in 2025. Get to know singer/songwriters like Waylon Wyatt and Hannah McFarland, and why they hint that the genre’s future is extremely bright.
|GRAMMYs/Sep 29, 2025 – 11:44 pm
Although country music is devoted to its traditions, new artists are its lifeblood — and right now, circulation is good.
As the genre continues to grow toward the mainstream and build its audience, its young guns are making some of the biggest waves. Ella Langley, Tucker Wetmore and Zach Top all scored No. 1 hits at country radio within a year of releasing their debut albums; Megan Moroney was crowned “Gen Z’s Country Queen” in her Rolling Stone cover story; and Tanner Adell and Reyna Roberts were featured on Beyoncé‘s GRAMMY-winning COWBOY CARTER. Plus, Ty Myers, Lanie Gardner and Kashus Culpepper have continued gaining momentum since being named to GRAMMY.com’s “Artists To Watch In 2025” list. Each of these acts have added to country’s stylistic diversity — either tapping into its roots, or pointing fearlessly forward.
Meanwhile, a whole new crop of newcomers released their debut projects in 2025, adding their own first chapter to the ever-growing country story. Those include artists like Preston Cooper with his Rust-Belt blowtorch of a vocal, and Dylan Gossett, whose songs of the highway lead a new generation of fans toward Texas country. Others like Zandi Holup make eccentric songwriter folk, opening up their uniquely creative soul, while INK draws a line from her work with Beyoncé, The Chainsmokers and Kendrick Lamar straight back to her Atlanta street-busking roots. And for the darkly delicate Karley Scott Collins, tenacious authenticity means playing almost every instrument on her just-released debut album, Flight Risk, which she co-produced.
Those head-turning fresh faces aren’t the only artists on country music’s cutting edge. Below, check out 14 buzzy startups who have had a promising 2025 — and hint where the genre may be going in the years ahead.
Cooper Alan
Thriving on a contemporary country mix of high-energy heart and magnetic personality (plus a little homespun humor), Cooper Alan has emerged as a pure entertainer in the classic sense — whether it’s on stage, in the studio, or on social media. A self-made star with an early reputation for country remixes and clever covers, he’s built a massive following of over 13 million through engaging online content, and is now in the process of translating that to an IRL crowd.
With a slew of scope-broadening singles and his debut album, Winston-Salem, slated for Nov. 7 — plus the launch of the Cooper Alan Foundation, which raised over $400,000 for mental health organizations in February, and the impending arrival of his first child — the past year has been all about growth.
“I hope this debut album speaks to the fans like it does to me. I think it covers a lot of life, love, family, and celebration,” Alan says. “It also hits on some tougher issues. All in all, it’s 100 percent me and as authentic as I can get. I already can’t wait to see more people at shows singing these songs next year.”
The Castellows
Echoing across time while still feeling fresh and forward-looking, The Castellows are often described as a “neo-traditional country music sister trio.” But that hefty descriptor complicates a sound that feels instinctual. Backed by a soft-yet-sturdy fusion of ’90s country and easygoing Americana — plus a touch of 1960s Laurel Canyon folk rock — their shimmering vocal blend features tight harmonies and a golden shine.
A homeschooled family who grew up on a farm, the singer/songwriters shared early tracks in 2023, broke through in 2024 with the Wyatt Flores collab “Sober Sundays,” and stepped to the next level in 2025. Matching their Stagecoach debut with an opening slot on tour with Thomas Rhett, their seven-track Homecoming EP staked out a rich and rooted sonic territory. Featuring an acoustic front-porch sound, baritone guitars, and melodies that flow like wind through hometown Georgia pines, the set matched delicate tales of growing up with the romance of the open road, which they took on their headlining The Homecoming Tour this fall.
“We really feel connected to those songs and we feel they speak to who we are,” the trio says of the Homecoming project. “Some of our favorite moments this year have been playing Fenway Park with Thomas Rhett, selling out the Georgia Theatre in Athens, playing some incredible festivals like Jazz Fest, Railbird and Stagecoach, kicking off our headlining tour with a sold-out show in the iconic Antone’s, and even putting on a charity show for our EP release party to raise money for the 4H organization. We still have so much more to do this fall and can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings!”
Mae Estes
With a throwback style rooted in organic twang, Mae Estes is proudly inspired by the decades before country’s crossover expansion, making her a new-school torchbearer for Nashville tradition. Blessed with a dynamic down-home vocal and insisting on classic instruments — that iconic combo of acoustic guitars, pedal steel, fiddle, and dobro — her songs capture the easy authenticity of real-deal country, with a fiery flare for honky-tonk heartbreak.
Moving from Hope, Ark. to Nashville in 2015, native has lived Music City’s “10-year town” metaphor. First garnering buzz for her 2022 single “Thinkin’ ‘Bout Cheatin’,” Estes signed with Big Machine Records in 2023 and has only continued gaining speed. Her self-titled debut EP with the label arrives Oct. 10, on the heels of a milestone year that saw her open for Luke Bryan, Carly Pearce and Brad Paisley; release a song with the late Jeannie Seely and Glen Campbell; and perform at the Grand Ole Opry multiple times, including a duet with Vince Gill.
“It’s so exciting to be in country music during such an expansive time for the genre!” Estes says. “I’m partial to today’s neo-traditional sounds, melding inspiration from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s with a modern flair. It’s been so special to share stages and become friends with some of the pioneers of my favorite music this year.”
Carter Faith
Heavily influenced by old-school icons like Tammy Wynette, Carter Faith brings the magical mystique of a down-home dream girl back to country music. Wielding a breathy Blue-Ridge vocal and a throwback sound, her work keeps one foot in the backwoods of her native North Carolina, while the other hits the proverbial red carpet.
Faith broke out with the silky smooth “Greener Pastures” in 2022 and drew acclaim with her 2024 EP, The Aftermath, which featured a collaboration with fellow vocal siren Alison Krauss. On Oct. 3, her debut album, Cherry Valley, will sweeten the story. Conceived as a step-by-step walk through her time in Nashville, old-school tendencies tap classic country, pop and even surf rock, as she struts through breakups, family drama and the long road to success.
In addition to her musical releases — which also included singing on Bon Iver‘s SABLE, fable track “AWARDS SEASON” — Faith also landed her first acting role with the forthcoming Netflix mystery thriller Heartland, in which she’ll play a missing musician. And following tour dates with Ella Langley, Carly Pearce and others, Faith joins Noah Cyrus on the road this fall, finishing 2025 strong with Marcus King and Kelsea Ballerini.
“I definitely feel like 2025 has been a breakthrough year for me. I have had so many pinch-me, full-circle moments, and I’m so grateful for that feeling,” Faith shares. “I got to sing at the Ryman [Auditorium], Nissan Stadium and in Australia. I feel like I’ve reached more people this year than ever before, and that means a lot to me … This year has definitely been life-changing, to say the least.”
Vincent Mason
Hailing from suburban Atlanta and tapping influences that range from Parker McCollum to John Mayer, Vincent Mason mixes gritty and slick with the best of them. His 2024 breakout single “Hell Is a Dance Floor” was a low-down banger racking up 160 million streams and an RIAA Gold certification, and he’s spent the last year on the gas — both headlining cross-country, and opening shows for his heroes.
All that and more drives his upcoming debut album, There I Go; out Nov. 7, the set captures the relentless, restless change of coming of age. Led by a brooding Southern drawl, his laid-back fusion of roots country and jangling Americana lands on the dark-and-vulnerable side, but comes with plenty of bright spots — like on the grooving “Painkiller,” and with the catchy vocal flow of “Wish You Well.”
“Selling out my first headline tour and being on the road with artists I’ve looked up to, like Parker McCollum, Riley Green and Jordan Davis, has made 2025 feel like a breakthrough year in becoming a legitimate touring act,” Mason says. “Life on the road also inspired the writing and recording of my debut album, There I Go. It feels like the success this year has been the result of a lot of little things we’ve been doing day in and day out over the last three years. Hopefully, we’ll be saying the same thing in a couple more years as things continue to grow.”
