Delicate (Taylor Swift song)
"Delicate" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her sixth studio album, Reputation (2017). Swift wrote the song with the producers Max Martin and Shellback. Inspired by events surrounding Swift's celebrity and personal life, the lyrics depicts a narrator's vulnerability when she ponders if her reputation would affect the blossoming romance. "Delicate" is an electropop and synth-pop ballad that features vocals manipulated with a vocoder. Its production incorporates dense synthesizers and beats that evoke tropical house and dancehall.
"Delicate"
March 12, 2018
- MXM (Los Angeles, California and Stockholm, Sweden)
3:52
- Taylor Swift
- Max Martin
- Shellback
- Max Martin
- Shellback
The song's music video, directed by Joseph Kahn and filmed in Los Angeles, premiered on March 11, 2018, at the iHeartRadio Music Awards. In the video, after becoming invisible upon receiving a mysterious note, Swift dances barefoot through public places, and ultimately becomes visible again after dancing in a pouring rain. Critics interpreted the video as Swift's autobiographical reference to her personal life, as she had retreated herself from the press while promoting Reputation. A day following the video's release, Big Machine and Republic Records released "Delicate" as Reputation's fourth pop-radio single.
"Delicate" received widespread acclaim from music critics, who praised Swift's songwriting and the song's mellower production compared to the album's overarching brash sound. It featured in 2018 year-end lists by Billboard, Slant Magazine, and Rolling Stone. A sleeper hit in the United States, "Delicate" peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped Billboard's airplay charts: Mainstream Top 40, Adult Contemporary, and Adult Pop Songs. It was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The single peaked within the top 40 of singles charts in Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Norway, and received platinum certifications in Australia and Brazil.
Background[edit]
The American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift released her fifth studio album, 1989, in October 2014. 1989's synth-pop production transformed Swift's sound and image from country-oriented to mainstream pop.[1] The album was a commercial success, selling over five million copies in the United States within one year, and spawning three Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles.[2] The BBC asserted that the success solidified Swift's status as a global pop star.[3]
Swift was a target of tabloid gossip during the promotion of 1989.[4] Her "America's Sweetheart" reputation, a result of her wholesome and innocent image, was blemished from publicized short-lived relationships and disputes with other celebrities, including a dispute with the rapper Kanye West and the media personality Kim Kardashian.[5][6] Swift became increasingly reticent on social media, having previously maintained an active presence with a large following, and avoided interactions with the press amidst the tumultuous affairs.[7] She conceived her sixth studio album, Reputation, as an answer to the media commotion surrounding her celebrity.[8]
Production and composition[edit]
Swift wrote "Delicate" with its producers, Max Martin and Shellback.[9] It was engineered by Sam Holland and Michael Ilbert at MXM Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, and Los Angeles, California.[9] The song was mixed by Şerban Ghenea at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and it was mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound Studios in New York.[9]
Swift conceived "Delicate" as a confession to a prospective lover and described the song—the fifth track on Reputation—as the album's "first point of vulnerability".[10] The preceding four tracks are about Swift's flippant disinterest in her perceived reputation, which is the recurring theme throughout the album. On "Delicate", she begins to reveal her inner vulnerability.[7] Swift explained the song's meaning during an album release party with iHeartRadio: although she could feign disinterest in others' opinions about her, things became complicated "when you meet somebody that you really want in your life", which prompted her to wonder, "Could something fake like your reputation affect something real, like someone getting to know you?"[10] To create a sound that reflects the lyrics' vulnerable sentiment, Martin and Shellback manipulated Swift's vocals with a vocoder, which Swift thought sounded "really emotional, vulnerable, and ... sad but beautiful". This vocoder effect is recurring on subsequent Reputation tracks.[10]
"Delicate" is a mellow ballad driven by dense synthesizers.[11][12] Music critics described the genre as electropop[13][14] or synth-pop.[15] As with the rest of Reputation, the track incorporates urban styles: it features a Caribbean-inflected sound[16] showcased through the rhythmic vocal delivery[12] and the beats that evoke tropical house[13][17] and dancehall.[18] At the beginning of the song, Swift's character tells her lover that, because her reputation has "never been worse", he "must like [her] for [herself]".[19] Critic Carl Wilson from Slate interpreted this part as Swift's revelation on her public image: after the media gossip, she achieved a "liberation" that allowed her to "make her private life her own at last".[20] She shares intimate moments with her love interest at a dive bar "on the East Side".[11][21] Throughout the song, Swift goes through her inner monolog about whether what she does would affect this blossoming romance and how much her feelings would be reciprocated, over a muted pulse: "Is it cool that I said all that? Is it too soon to do this yet? 'Cause I know that it's delicate."[11][22] Though she feigns confidence and tries to control her inner self-awareness, she admits: "I pretend you're mine all the damn time."[23] In the refrain, a high-pitched voice echoes the title "Delicate" back to Swift's lyrics.[17]
Release[edit]
The music video of "Delicate" premiered at the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Awards on March 11.[24] Following the video's premiere, Big Machine and Republic Records released the song to US hot adult contemporary radio stations on March 12,[25] and US contemporary hit radio on March 13, as Reputation's fourth pop radio single.[26][note 1] Swift released another music video for the song—shot in a vertical format—exclusively on Spotify for users in the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Latin America, on March 30, 2018.[29] It was available on YouTube for audiences worldwide on May 15.[30] In Europe, "Delicate" was available for digital download in Germany on March 12,[31] and to Italian and UK radio stations on April 20, 2018.[32][33]
As part of the Spotify Singles series, Swift recorded a stripped-down version of "Delicate" using acoustic guitars in place of the original version's synthesizers.[34] The version was released alongside Swift's cover of Earth, Wind & Fire's "September" as a two-track extended play (EP) on April 13, 2018, by Spotify.[35] Two official remixes supported "Delicate": one by Sawyr and Ryan Tedder, available on May 25,[36] and the other by Seeb, available on June 8, 2018.[37]
Critical reception[edit]
Music critics lauded Swift's songwriting on "Delicate". Roisin O'Connor of The Independent described the song as an example of Swift's "most honest and direct songwriting".[38] AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine similarly praised Swift's portrayal of vulnerability as "a necessary exercise" for her to mature as a singer-songwriter.[49] Ann Powers writing for NPR called "Delicate" one of Reputation's "most memorable tracks", and described it as a reminder of Swift's songwriting talents in creating personal and relatable songs about her generation's "fashion choices, modes of gossip, dating habits and dreams of a comfortable middle-class life".[50] To explain this viewpoint, Powers highlighted the lyrics mentioning Swift's love interest in Nike shoes: "In 21st-century America, 'Nikes' is as evocative a word as 'heartache' or 'promise.' Swift understands the heart that beats beneath the brand name."[50]
Other critics highlighted the song's mellower production and vulnerable sentiment, in contrast to Reputation's heavy electronic production and themes about drama and vengeance. Troy Smith from The Plain Dealer called it one of the album's better songs because "Swift keeps the mood light".[51] For Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine, the song's blending "scathing self-critique with effervescent pop" offers an enjoyable moment that contrasts with the album's dominant "tired, repetitive EDM tricks".[52] Clash editor Shahzaib Hussain criticized Reputation as a pretentious album with excessive lyrics about fame, but praised "Delicate" as one of the tracks that offer emotional honesty.[53] On a less enthusiastic side, Spin's Jordan Sargent wrote that even though the song is one of Reputation's most honest, it is still "unshackled" from the album's recurring themes of drama and vengeance. Sargent, however, noted that production-wise, it contains an "ethereal lusciousness" that hints at "new paths for her to travel".[54]
Retrospectively, critics have considered "Delicate" one of Swift's strongest songs. Paste's Jane Song,[55] NME's Hannah Mylrae,[56] and Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield all lauded the song's depiction of vulnerability in terms of both lyrics and music, specifically through the vocoder effects.[23] Sheffield ranked it first on his list of the best songs of 2017: "At heart, 'Delicate' is a story about a girl in her room, hearing an electro-beat that lures her to go seek some scandalous adventures in the city lights. In other words, the story of pop music."[57] He ranked "Delicate" fourth on his 2021 ranking of all the 199 songs in Swift's discography.[58] The song featured on 2018 year-end lists by Slant Magazine (9th),[59] Rolling Stone (12th),[15] and Billboard (35th).[60] "Delicate" was one of the award-winning songs at the BMI Pop Awards (2019),[61] and the ASCAP Awards (2019 and 2020).[62][63]
Commercial performance[edit]
"Delicate" was a sleeper hit in the United States.[64][65] Upon its single release in March 2018, it entered at number 84 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 32 on the Pop Songs chart.[27] By May, the single entered the top 40 of the Hot 100, fueled by gains in airplay, giving Swift her 56th top-40 entry. In doing so, it extended Swift's record as the woman with the most Hot 100 top-40 entries.[66] In its sixteenth charting week by July, "Delicate" rose to the Hot 100's top 20, driven primarily by strong airplay.[67][68] It was the second single from Reputation to enter the top 10 of Billboard's Radio Songs chart (peaking at number two), after the lead single "Look What You Made Me Do".[69][70] A radio-driven hit, "Delicate" peaked atop the Pop Songs chart[71] and was Reputation's first number-one single on the Adult Pop Songs[72] and Adult Contemporary charts.[73] It was the most successful radio single from Reputation.[67]
"Delicate" peaked at number 12 and spent 35 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the longest-charting single from Reputation.[74] The single was one of the 10 most successful songs on US airplay of 2018, culminating 2.509 billion radio audience impressions.[75][note 2] It was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which denotes two million units consisted of sales and on-demand streaming.[77] Philip Cosores from Uproxx claimed that the single was Reputation's biggest hit, surpassing the Hot 100 number one "Look What You Made Me Do", which "found a place in cultural ubiquity, but ... felt more like an obligation than an outright choice".[78] Writing for Billboard, Andrew Unterberger described the chart success of "Delicate" as a "turnaround in momentum" for Swift during the Reputation era. While the preceding singles did not chart more than 20 weeks, "Delicate" continued to grow, especially in airplay, and got "bigger the longer audiences have spent with it". Unterberger attributed the single's success to its vulnerable sentiment and production, a departure from the "outwardly vindictive" sentiments of its preceding singles, which proved that "[the audience] too still like Taylor for Taylor".[67]
"Delicate" peaked within the top 20 on singles charts of Iceland (3),[79] Honduras (11),[80] Malaysia (14),[81] the Czech Republic (19),[82] and Canada (20).[83] It was a top-40 chart entry in Greece,[84] Hungary,[85] Ireland,[86] New Zealand,[87] Norway (where it was certified gold),[88] and Australia (where it was certified five-times platinum).[89] The single was certified platinum in Brazil,[90] Portugal,[91] and the United Kingdom,[92] where it charted outside the top 40.[93][94]
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Reputation.[9]