Day 74: Context

Sometimes a little context can go a really long ways. Many people, myself included, are tempted by the "death of the author" approach when consuming art. After all, shouldn't a work of art make sense completely on it's own? I would say that it really depends on what you're trying to get from a piece of art, and some mediums are enriched by context much more than others.

Context is especially tricky for music and even more so for Taylor Swift's music. The massive amount of speculation as to which of her ex-boyfriends each song is about typically does more harm than good to actual analysis of the song, which is why I typically don't even mention it (that and I don't care). But for today's song, there's really no escaping that context makes the song better and is just flat out important to understand for this song. The song in question is Starlight from Taylor Swift's 2012 album Red.

"I met Bobby on the boardwalk, summer of '45
Picked me up late one night at the window,
We were seventeen and crazy, running wild, wild
Can't remember what song he was playing when we walked in
The night we snuck into a yacht club party
Pretending to be a duchess and a prince"

The details here are unusual for Taylor Swift. Mentioning a specific year and age doesn't happen often, so both in the first moments of the song is notable. The reason there are so many details here can be explained by knowing that this song was inspired by a photograph of Ethel and Robert Kennedy back in 1945 dancing. I'll even attach the photo below! Take a look!

Oh my

So yeah, Taylor saw this photo and wrote a whole song about it. Which really helps to explain some lines like this one!

"Ooh ooh we could get married
Have ten kids and teach them how to dream"

Taylor basically never mentions children in her music. The only other instance I can remember is in Mary's Song which was also written about real a real life couple that Taylor met.

I'm not one to criticize other people's songwriting techniques, but isn't it kinda weird to write a song about a living person without their knowledge? Maybe so, but believe it or not that's not what happened here. This is where it's difficult to avoid Taylor's man history, since she met Ethel Kennedy through her then boyfriend Conor Kennedy. To some this may seem like just an incidental detail but to me it adds a really important layer of context that changes how I see this song.

Having an audience in mind while creating art influences the work whether you like it or not. That's not to say it will make it worse, and in this case I think it provides a twist of flavor that makes it stand out. Writing a song about and for your boyfriend's grandma is certainly a bold move, I can't help but wonder how it was received.

Other than that fun story I don't have a ton to say about this song. It's a lot of fun, especially the chorus, but that's just standard Taylor Swift. There isn't a lot that makes it stand out among similar songs other than what have already said, but even that makes it much more memorable than most songs.

See you tomorrow,
-C