Sunday, October 24, 2010

An Open Diary

It's always the poems that are about real-life events that keep us interested. They leave us wanting to dive deeper into the people's lives and learn more about them. Gwendolyn Brooks blesses us with so many wonderful poems. One poem, "We Real Cool," is about people she encounters in her work. They skip school to play pool, drink, and do other similar things. Why is this poem so interesting? Of course it's because of it's unique style, but it's also because of it's "this actually took place" sort of feeling. As soon as we think about that, the poem becomes 10 times more interesting. What happened to the "Seven at the Golden Shovel?" Did they die? What are they up to now? We immediately begin to wonder about what else is going on in their lives.
Well, the same goes with songs. For some reason, this analysis made me think about Taylor Swift- pop sensation, 20 year old millionaire, Grammy winner, etc. As I was reading Parade magazine, I noticed that the main spread was all about Taylor Swift and her new album and even her views on marriage. In the first paragraph-BOOM- why are her songs so popular? They're about events that have actually taken place in her life.
"I like to make songs that are really detailed, really honest."
So what inspires Taylor Swift to write songs? Her love life and relationships are what inspires her. In her new album Speak Now, Taylor writes the song, Back to December, about a guy she used to date. According to Taylor, “Guys get what they deserve in my songs, and if they deserve an apology, they should get one. There was someone who was absolutely wonderful to me and I dropped the ball, and I needed to say all that.” In Back to December, that's exactly what she does. In another song, she even sings about the time Kanye West interrupted her acceptance speech. With all her other lyrics, what she loves most is "you can say exactly what you mean, or you can use a metaphor and make it a little bit of a code to crack" as well as have people "wonder a little bit who they're about."
Taylor Swift's songs leave people coming back for more. They're so personal that people hope the next song is just a continuation of the last, allowing them to further expand their knowledge of her life. Her life is an open diary.
What really happened between her and Joe Jonas? Were her and Taylor Lautner really an item? Was she ever in love? All you have to do is listen to her songs to find out.

"You are the best thing, that's ever been mine."

Until we meet again,
xoxo Brunette

5 comments:

Donald Bradley said...

Jess!!!!!!! This is such a great blog post. Well to begin with i love taylor swift to and her new album "Speak Now". I have had to have read this blog post a few times because not only is it such a good blog post, but it gives information about taylor swift's inspirations for her songs (which i never knew of) and also relates it back to poetry. This post gave me some background knowledge about how she creates all of these great songs and is very creative. I enjoy the video that is posted here as well. Overall great blog post, i love it and great job!

Zack said...

Jess, I love this blog post. The reason why I choose this one was because, well i don't LOVE T-Swift, but I do love her lyrics and her style. I agree with Donald about stuff I never knew about T-Swift. Maybe I'll like her a little more now. I love how you connect Swift to the poet of the week, I love it!!
GREAT JOB JESS !!!!

Ginger said...

I love this post so much, Jess. By far my favorite! =]

permitpat17 said...

You have to love T-Swift. Good job on this post; I really like how you went into detail about the thought process behind inspiration for music / poetry, because what is music besides poetry without words. Needless to say, your writing skills impressed me a lot, and you made it seem more like a conversation than a reading, which is REALLY good. Once again, great job.

Jess said...

Thank you everyone!! :) You're all so nice!