Some New Shit

evermore is Taylor Swift's most explicit album to date.1 To use my favorite euphemism for profanity, there is a lot of language: six out of the fifteen tracks display the "explicit" sticker. After a long career of mostly swear-free lyrics (with one notable exception on Reputation2), folklore3 drew a new line in the sand in terms of Swift's lyrical expression, with several songs including swears.4 Her pre-folklore lyrics, while not always exactly wholesome but rarely profane, might erroneously be read as an attempt to pacify pre-teen audiences, former record labels, or the conservative US country music scene. Swift stated in a recent interview5 that the decision was hers alone:

I always had these rules in my head and one of them was, You haven't done this before, so you can't ever do this. "Well, you've never had an explicit sticker, so you can't ever have an explicit sticker." But . . . if the storyline and the language match up and you end up saying the F-word, just go for it. [On these latest records] I wasn't adhering to any of the guidelines that I had placed on myself.

Swift emphasizes the use of swearing in telling stories: both her stories, and those of others. In the same interview, she employs the metaphor of using explicit language as opening the gate and running into the pasture for the first time.6 Now, deep in the folklorian woods, evermore continues in this vein.

The use of profanity in song lyrics is a stylistic choice, but this choice is not detached from the social and historical contexts of swearing. Swearing can be conceptualized linguistically as language that is considered taboo or that breaks certain rules of politeness. But what is classified as offensive language and how this language is perceived in certain environments relates closely to class, race, gender, education, sexuality, concepts of moral purity, and broader language ideologies. (See for example Tony McEnery's linguistic work on swearing in English7).

Swift has spoken candidly in her Miss Americana8) documentary about the constant pressure to be a "nice girl," a shining beacon of what I would argue is a construct of a white, middle-class, heterosexual, Christian, North American young woman: polite, demure, considerate; articulate yet reserved. Women in the public sphere are criticized for not making others feel comfortable, even if, as Jessica Valenti has pointed out, "perhaps there's a reason we're not feeling so nice."9  As Swift tells us, reflecting on years of internalizing these messages, "A nice girl smiles and waves and says thank you. A nice girl doesn't make people feel uncomfortable with her views."10 By extension, then, a nice girl doesn't make people feel uncomfortable with her language.

The stories of evermore, however, are not necessarily tales that can be told without recourse to a rich, unfiltered vocabulary (although my mother might disagree). Some examples of swearing in evermore may seem on the surface to be nonchalant or almost throwaway, but are anything but. In "tolerate it," which is about making an effort for someone who cannot or will not see your worth, Swift sings:

I wait by the door like I'm just a kid
Use my best colors for your portrait
Lay the table with the fancy shit
And watch you tolerate it11

The "fancy shit," then, is not only a colloquial way of referring practically to the best silverware, but can also symbolize the unequal efforts made in a relationship. A similar use of "shit" can be found in the depiction of a failing relationship in "happiness," with the lyrics:

Honey, when I'm above the trees
I see this for what it is
But now I'm right down in it, all the years I've given
Is just shit we're dividin' up12

The complex feelings surrounding this ambivalent relationship are pragmatically reduced to physical items that need to be redistributed at its end. "Fancy things" or "things we're dividin' up" might not have quite the same effect on the listener.

My favorite example of explicit language on evermore comes from "champagne problems," where the swearing relates to the reaction from a man's family and friends on his would-be fiancée turning down a marriage proposal:

"She would've made such a lovely bride
What a shame she's fucked in the head," they said13

These lyrics recall folklore's "the last great american dynasty," where bystanders comment on what they perceive to be a woman's unexpected or deviant behavior ("And the town said / 'How did a middle-class divorcée do it?'"14). Although the "fucked in the head" lyric could be referring (unhelpfully) to diagnosable mental illness, it could also denote the reaction of mainstream society when women say no and when they refuse to accept their role in conventional narratives (especially around being a "nice girl").

evermore, then, as folklore's sibling, continues to show us Swift as very much "on some new shit."15 evermore's use of explicit language does two main things. Firstly, the increased use of swearing could represent Swift becoming a freer, truer version of herself — not only as an artist, but also as a person. As she says at the end of Miss Americana,16 she is grappling with internalized misogyny and trying to shift her identity away from the "nice girl" persona: no longer apologizing for having opinions or for being too loud in her own house that she bought with her own money.

Secondly, coming after an almost-equally-explicit folklore, evermore solidifies this new form of expression for Swift: she is unfettered by her previous linguistic chains. Along with a host of other linguistic tools,17 explicit language has been added to Swift's ever-increasing repertoire. Through evermore and folklore, Swift moves away from her previously diaristic lyrics18 about her own life and onto telling a collection of fictional and nonfictional tales.19 Swearing is a part of these new lyrical narratives; not just a one-off in folklore, but a story to be continued through evermore and beyond. evermore's explicit content, therefore, consolidates the work of a newer, less linguistically-repressed Swift — even if those former borders were of her own construction.

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Helen Ringrow (@HelenRingrow)is Senior Lecturer in Communication Studies and Applied Linguistics at the University of Portsmouth, UK. She is the author of The Language of Cosmetics Advertising (Palgrave, 2016) and co-editor of Contemporary Media Stylistics (Bloomsbury, 2020). Her current research focuses on the discourse of online religious communities.

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