The Fame Collection

A series of Taylor Swift Lyric Analysis Essays

Taylor Swift Collections

I’ve prepared some short posts for over the summer/Christmas break, exploring connected themes in Taylor Swift song lyrics. This is a fun little project for me, and I hope will be entertaining for you!

Fame Collection

Follow the link to a lyric video for each song. I’d recommend listening to each before reading if you’re not familiar with them already. Alternatively, have a read and see if it sparks your interest to check out some of the songs!

Clara Bow -

Nothing New -

The Lucky One -

Mirrorball -

If there is a topic Taylor Swift is equipped to write about, it is fame and what it does to a young girl growing up in the spotlight. This theme is woven throughout many of her songs, but there are a few in particular that focus attention on the transitory, fleeting nature of fame – of not knowing whose name will be up in lights next, or who they’ll be comparing you to, or what happens when you lose that sparkling new glow, and what it takes to keep all eyes on you.

Are we only biding time 'til I lose your attention?
And someone else lights up the room?
People love an ingenue

In each of these songs, Taylor is acknowledging this inescapable reality of the fame machine. It is not a matter of if there is a new star, a new bright young thing, but when, and how you will react when it happens.

I know someday I'm gonna meet her, it's a fever dream
The kind of radiance you only have at 17
She'll know the way, and then she'll say she got the map from me
I'll say I'm happy for her, then I'll cry myself to sleep

In an industry that shamelessly pits women against each other, it’s easy to believe every other up and coming star is a threat. You hold the crowd, the fame, the attention, the crown – of course you are afraid someone will take it from you.

"This town is fake but
You're the real thing
Breath of fresh air through smoke rings
Take the glory, give everything
Promise to be dazzling"

"The crown is stained but you're the real queen
Flesh and blood amongst war machines
You're the new god we're worshipping
Promise to be ... dazzling"

This is particularly poignant as Taylor has been someone in this industry that has worked hard to break these tropes and expectations, by befriending other women and promoting them – she has very deliberately had the majority of her opening acts on the international The Eras Tour go to smaller, female artists. The media though, continues to compare women instead of celebrate their collaboration, with many artists like Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Gracie Abrams and others being labelled the ‘next Taylor Swift’ despite huge differences in genre, lyrical approach, musical strengths and performance styles.

You look like Taylor Swift
In this light
We're loving it.
You've got edge
she never did

In Nothing New and Clara Bow the focus is very much on the reactions of those around the famous person, the public, the fans, the executives, and even other more personal relationships.

And your lover in the foyer doesn't even know you
And your secrets end up splashed on the news front page

These songs particularly explore the vulnerability and fear that comes with your whole life and career depending on the opinions of others. You end up performing, desperate to keep the attention and focus, because you need it to thrive, and to be able to keep doing what you love.

All I do is try, try, try
I'm still on that trapeze
I'm still trying everything
To keep you looking at me

But all performers must live with the fear of what happens when the lights go off, the show ends, and the crowds leave.

Lord, what will become of me
Once I've lost my novelty?

Mirrorball in particular has to wrestle with this reality. Written at a point in Taylor’s life when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and all her plans and shows and tours got cancelled, Taylor is pondering here what her role is as a performer if she can’t perform.

I know they said the end is near
But I'm still on my tallest tiptoes
Spinning in my highest heels, love
Shining just for you

She realises that so much of what she does is a mirroring, a reflection back to the fans who sing along and identity with the lyrics she writes.

Because I'm a mirrorball
I'm a mirrorball
I'll show you every version of yourself
Tonight

In many ways, Taylor’s pandemic songwriting continues to reflect her audience and what they are going through – instead of big pop numbers designed to be played in a stadium, Taylor released two indie folk albums with a more reflective tone, a quieter vibe and simpler production. Just like the rest of the world, Taylor was forced to slow down, and this comes through in her music (though I wish my slowing down looked as productive as Taylor’s).

Even though The Lucky One was written well before this time, it’s themes also reflect this slowing down, taking a step back, and evaluating the price and pace of fame. Taylor, like the muse of this song (widely believed to be Joni Mitchell), takes the focus back onto herself, and what she wants from her life and her experience of all this.

It was a few years later, I showed up here
And they still tell the legend of how you disappeared
How you took the money and your dignity and got the hell out
They say you bought a bunch of land somewhere
Chose the Rose Garden over Madison Square
And it took some time, but I understand it now

'Cause now my name is up in lights
But I think you got it right
Let me tell you now, you're the lucky one

While Taylor basks in the glow from her name being up in lights, she acknowledges that the muse of the song made the right choice in leaving it all behind for something more permanent – not investing her whole identity in the fleeting praise of the crowds.

In Clara Bow, the Taylor of the past who sang about her fears of being replaced, of being nothing new, or simply being a sparkling mirror that reflects her fans back to themselves, has moved on to understanding that this is all part of the cycle of fame, a process that she is choosing to participate in and benefit from.

Only when your girlish glow
Flickers just so
Do they let you know
It's hell on earth to be heavenly
Them's the breaks
They don't come gently

The breaks aren’t gentle, but they are the ones Taylor has chosen. Maybe one day she’ll choose to walk away from it all – take the money and get out. But this is her life, with the crowds and the fans and the impact on her personal relationships (which I will be exploring in a separate piece). It remains something she pursues, or at least the consequence of something she pursues. Taylor has always wanted and chased fame, though her relationship with the concept has certainly changed over time, just as the nature of fame has changed and shaped her.