Love Story (Taylor Swift song)
"Love Story" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released as the lead single from her second studio album, Fearless, on September 15, 2008, by Big Machine Records. Inspired by a boy who was unpopular with her family and friends, Swift wrote the song using William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet as a reference point. The lyrics narrate a troubled romance that ends with a marriage proposal, contrary to Shakespeare's tragic conclusion. Produced by Swift and Nathan Chapman, the midtempo country pop song includes a key change after the bridge and uses acoustic instruments including banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and guitar.
"Love Story"
At the time of the song's release, music critics praised the production but deemed the literary references ineffective. In retrospect, critics have considered it one of Swift's best singles. "Love Story" peaked atop the chart in Australia, where it was certified thirteen-times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), and reached the top five on charts in Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, and the UK. In the U.S., the single peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the first country song to reach number one on the Mainstream Top 40. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified it eight-times platinum. "Love Story" has sold over six million copies in the U.S. and 18 million copies worldwide.
Trey Fanjoy directed the accompanying music video, which stars Swift and Justin Gaston as lovers in a prior era. Drawing from historical periods such as the Renaissance and the Regency era, it won Video of the Year at both the Country Music Association Awards and CMT Music Awards in 2009. The song became a staple in Swift's live concerts and has been a part of the set lists in all of her headlining tours from the Fearless Tour (2009–2010) to the Eras Tour (2023–2024). Following a 2019 dispute regarding the ownership of Swift's back catalog, she re-recorded the song and released it as "Love Story (Taylor's Version)" in February 2021. The re-recorded track topped the Hot Country Songs chart and made Swift the second artist after Dolly Parton to reach number one with both the original and re-recorded versions of a song.
Production and release[edit]
After finishing writing, Swift recorded a rough demo of "Love Story" within 15 minutes the next day.[10] She recorded the song's album version in March 2008 with the producer Nathan Chapman at Blackbird Studios in Nashville.[17] For her vocals, Chapman tried different microphones until Swift came across an Avantone CV-12 multi-pattern tube microphone that was built by the country-music artist Ray Kennedy, with whom she worked on Taylor Swift. After growing fond of the Avantone CV-12 upon testing her vocals, Swift used it to record "Love Story" and other songs. She sang the song live backed by her band, who were playing acoustic guitar, bass guitar, and drums. Chapman played other instruments, including nine acoustic guitars, and he overdubbed them on the track; he also recorded background vocals.[17] The engineer Chad Carlson recorded the track using Pro Tools and Justin Niebank mixed it using a Solid State Logic 9080 K series console and Genelec 1032 studio monitors.[17] Drew Bollman and Richard Edgeler assisted in the mixing process.[18]
"Love Story", along with the rest of Fearless, was mastered by Hank Williams at MasterMix Studios in Nashville.[18] The track uses country-music instruments such as banjo and fiddle. Big Machine Records released it to U.S. country radio as Fearless's lead single on September 15, 2008.[17][19] Chapman mixed another version of "Love Story" for pop radio; he edited Niebank's mix using Apple Logic and muted the acoustic instruments such as banjo and fiddle.[17] The pop-radio version has an opening beat that was generated using Apple Logic's Ultrabeat, and the electric guitars were created with Amplitube Stomp I/O.[17] Rolling Stone's Keith Harris described the electric guitars as "suitably gargantuan" and louder than those on the country-radio version.[20] Big Machine in partnership with Republic Records released "Love Story" to U.S. pop radio on October 14, 2008.[21] In the UK, "Love Story" was released on March 2, 2009, a week prior to the UK release of Fearless. Music Week reported that the UK edition was "remixed for European ears".[22]
Music and lyrics[edit]
"Love Story" is a midtempo country pop song[23][24] that is driven by acoustic instruments including banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and guitar.[25] Jon Bream from the Star Tribune described the single as "pure pop with a minimalist vibe" that suits both country and pop radio.[23] According to The New York Times, despite the banjo and fiddle, the song could "easily be an emo rocker".[26] Swift's vocals have a slight twang.[27] The mix and master, according to Billboard's Kristen He, are loud and "dynamically flat ... [and are] designed to burst out of FM radio speakers".[25]
The lyrics of "Love Story" narrate a troubled romance between two characters, drawing from the lead characters in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.[28] According to psychologist Katie Barclay, the song explores feelings of love in the contexts of pain and joy.[29] "Love Story", save for the final refrain, is narrated from Juliet's perspective.[1][30] In the verses, Juliet tells the story of hers and Romeo's challenged courtship, of which her father disapproves.[31] The first verse introduces Juliet in a scene, "We were both young when I first saw you / I close my eyes and the flashback starts, I'm standing there / On a balcony in summer air", which references the balcony scene in Act II, scene ii of Shakespeare's play.[1] In the refrains, which alter slightly as the song progresses to accompany the narrative, Juliet pleads for her love interest to appear, "Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone / I'll be waiting / All there's left to do is run."[29][30]
In the second verse, Juliet meets Romeo again in a garden and learns he must leave town because of her father's disapproval.[10] Their relationship encounters difficulties, "'Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter", referencing Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850).[32] According to media-and-film scholar Iris H. Tuan, Hawthrone's "scarlet letter" imagery represents the female protagonist Hester Prynne's sin and adultery, whereas Swift's use symbolizes the forbidden love between Romeo and Juliet.[32] Juliet pleads, "This love is difficult, but it's real", which Swift said was her favorite lyric in the song.[33]
After the bridge, with accelerated drums and the harmonization of melody and vocals, the final refrain incorporates a key change up a whole step.[34] The final refrain is narrated from Romeo's perspective and tells of his marriage proposal to Juliet after he has sought her father's approval, "I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress."[35] Whereas Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet are secretly married without their parents' approval and both commit suicide, the characters in "Love Story" depart from that ending.[36] According to Tuan, by projecting her feelings and fantasy on a Romeo and Juliet-inspired narrative, Swift created a song that strongly resonates with an audience of teenage girls and young women.[37] Journalist Deborah Evans Price of Billboard agreed but also said "one doesn't have to be a lovestruck teen" to enjoy the song's emotional engagement.[38]
Critical reception[edit]
Blender included "Love Story" at number 73 on its 2008 year-end list,[39] and The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll placed it at number 48.[40] In Fearless reviews, many critics complimented the production; Sean Daly from the St. Petersburg Times,[41] Rob Sheffield from Blender[42] and Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic selected the track as an album highlight.[43] Deborah Evans Price of Billboard praised the "swirling, dreamy" production and said Swift's success in the country-music market "could only gain momentum".[38] Others including The Boston Globe's James Reed[30] and USA Today's Elysa Gardner deemed "Love Story" an example of Swift's songwriting abilities at a young age; the latter appreciated the song for earnestly portraying teenage feelings "rather than [being] a mouthpiece for a bunch of older pros' collective notion of adolescent yearning".[44]
Some critics were more reserved in their praise and took issue with the literary references. In a four-stars-out-of-five rating of the song for the BBC, Fraser McAlpine deemed the Shakespearean reference not as sophisticated as its premise and the lyrics generic, but he praised the production and wrote, "It's great to see a big pop song being used as a method of direct story telling."[28] The musicologist James E. Perone commented: "the melodic hooks are strong enough to overcome the predictability of the lyrics."[45] Jon Bream from the Star Tribune deemed the single inferior to Swift's debut country-music single "Tim McGraw" (2006) but commended the production as catchy.[23] In a Slant Magazine review, Jonathan Keefe was impressed by Swift's melodic songwriting for creating "massive pop hooks" but found the references to Romeo and Juliet "point-missing" and The Scarlet Letter "inexplicable". Keefe deemed the lyrics lacking in creativity and disapproved of Swift's "clipped phrasing" in the refrain.[46]
In a retrospective review, the English-language professor Robert N. Watson deemed "Love Story" evidence of Swift's status as "the twenty-first-century's most popular songwriter of failed love affairs", specifically due to the Shakespearean narrative.[47] Critics have rated "Love Story" high in rankings of Swift's songs; these include Hannah Mylrea from NME (2020), who ranked it fifth out of 160 songs,[48] Jane Song from Paste (2020), 13th out of 158,[49] and Nate Jones from Vulture (2023), 11th out of 214.[50] In another ranking of Swift's select 100 tracks for The Independent, Roisin O'Connor placed "Love Story" at number 15 and said it showcases Swift as a songwriter who "understands the power of a forbidden romance".[51] Alexis Petridis from The Guardian placed it second, behind "Blank Space" (2014), on his 2019 ranking of Swift's 44 singles. He said of the literary references: "[If] the references to Shakespeare and Hawthorn seem clumsy, they are clumsy in a believably teenage way."[52] The song was included on best-of lists including Taste of Country's Top 100 Country Songs (2016),[53] Time Out's 35 Best Country Songs of All Time (2022),[54] and Billboard's Top 50 Country Love Songs of All Time (2022).[24]
Awards and nominations[edit]
"Love Story" won Song of the Year at the Country Awards in 2009 and Pop Awards in 2010, both of which were held by Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) to honor the year's most-performed songs on U.S. radio and television.[99] It marked Swift's second consecutive Song of the Year win at the BMI Country Awards, following "Teardrops on My Guitar" in 2008.[100] Swift, who was 20, was the youngest songwriter to win Song of the Year at the BMI Pop Awards.[101] At the Australian APRA Awards, "Love Story" was nominated for International Work of the Year.[102]
It received nominations at the People's Choice Awards (Favorite Country Song, which went to Carrie Underwood's "Last Name"),[103] Nickelodeon Australian Kids' Choice Awards (Favorite Song, which went to the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow"),[104] and Teen Choice Awards (Choice Love Song, which went to David Archuleta's "Crush").[105][106] The music video was nominated for Video of the Year at the 45th Academy of Country Music Awards, but it lost to Brad Paisley's "Waitin' on a Woman" (2008).[107][108] At the 2009 CMT Music Awards, it won Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year.[109] It also won Music Video of the Year at the 43rd Country Music Association Awards[110] and Favorite International Video at the Philippine Myx Music Awards 2010.[111]
Credits adapted from Fearless album liner notes:[18]