Essay Sample about Taylor Swift's "folklore"

“I’ve been having a hard time adjusting"didn’t we all feel the same when the global pandemic hit us a while back in 2020. Taylor Alison Swift released her eighth studio album “folklore” on 24th July, the same year as the need of the hour. This quarantine album went on to a become a commercial and critical blockbuster for Swift, earning the album of the year Grammy Award and topping the Billboard 200 albums chart for eight nonconsecutive weeks. 

The surprise sixteen track album is produced by Swift’s longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff and the National’s Aaron Dessner. In true Taylor Swift fashion it is almost entirely written by her, apart from the two writing credits for the writer under the pseudonym William Bowery, who later was revealed to be Swift’s long time significant other, actor Joe Alwyn. 

Unlike Swift’s other albums with highly produced pop singles and tracks, with the producers Jack and Aaron she swims through intricate classical and folk instrumentation largely influenced by the gridded logic of electronic music on this album. The overall effect is eerie, gutting and nostalgic. 

Staying true to it’s name “folklore”, this album is a collection of songs and stories that started with the imagery and visuals that popped into swift’s head during isolation. These images grew faces and names and became characters of Swift’s universe. The characters range from an exiled man walking the bluffs of a land that is not his own, wondering how it all went so terribly, terribly wrong to a seventeen-year-old standing on a porch learning to apologize. Swift has told these stories in a whimsical and melancholic way that makes her stand out from her peers in the music industry. 

Cardigan, the lead single of this album has a legacy of its own, this song revolves around a story of three teenagers Betty, James and Augustine and it's likely from the perspective of Betty, the girl with her head in the clouds. Swift’s descriptive lyricism is in full display in ‘Cardigan’ and so is one of her most underrated skills- her singing performance. This track also references the story of Wendy and Peter from J. M Barrie’s “Peter Pan” in the line “tried to change the ending / Peter losing Wendy”.

In the folklore (deluxe version) bonus track ‘the lakes’ Swift showcases the poetic side of her. In this track she pays homage to the great romantic poets of the late 1700s and their expressive sensibility. ‘The lakes’ is a beautiful song that brilliantly showcases Taylor Swift’s song writing ability. It is whimsical and yet dramatic, with a melancholic longing that doubles perfectly with her literary allusions. She also references the great poet William Wordsworth with her incredible word play in the line “tell me what are my words worth”. 

Taylor’s versatility can clearly be seen in the track ‘Epiphany’ in which she starts singing from the perspective of her late grandfather, a soldier who fought in the World War 2 attending to a comrade bleeding out but by verse two, she’s singing from somewhere else, a 2020 medical ward of plastic sheaths and labored breathing. Swift writes with the care and empathy that feel almost saintly. The soldier and the medical worker, burdened by horror, “get only 20 minutes to sleep” and yet dream “of some epiphany- just one single glimpse of relief” which is not described, and we are expected to dream it for ourselves. 

Classified under the ‘indie-folk’ genre ‘Folklore’ is truly a breath of fresh air in this generation of Hip-Hop, Rap and R’n’B. With “Folklore” Ms. Swift earned an entire set of new audience to her discography including me. Folklore was a triumph of wistful, escapist, melancholy music. It served as a comfort in the time of such global uncertainty. With this album Swift proved that her music is here to stay even for further centuries. 

 “I’ve been having a hard time adjusting didn’t we all feel the same when the global pandemic hit us a while back in 2020. Taylor Alison Swift released her eighth studio album “folklore” on 24th July, the same year as the need of the hour. This quarantine album went on to a become a commercial and critical blockbuster for Swift, earning the album of the year Grammy Award and topping the Billboard 200 albums chart for eight nonconsecutive weeks. 

The surprise sixteen track album is produced by Swift’s longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff and the National’s Aaron Dessner. In true Taylor Swift fashion it is almost entirely written by her, apart from the two writing credits for the writer under the pseudonym William Bowery, who later was revealed to be Swift’s long time significant other, actor Joe Alwyn. 

Unlike Swift’s other albums with highly produced pop singles and tracks, with the producers Jack and Aaron she swims through intricate classical and folk instrumentation largely influenced by the guided logic of electronic music on this album. The overall effect is eerie, gutting and nostalgic. 

Staying true to it’s name “folklore”, this album is a collection of songs and stories that started with the imagery and visuals that popped into swift’s head during isolation. These images grew faces and names and became characters of Swift’s universe. The characters range from an exiled man walking the bluffs of a land that is not his own, wondering how it all went so terribly, terribly wrong to a seventeen-year-old standing on a porch learning to apologize. Swift has told these stories in a whimsical and melancholic way that makes her stand out from her peers in the music industry. 

Cardigan, the lead single of this album has a legacy of its own, this song revolves around a story of three teenagers Betty, James and Augustine and it is likely from the perspective of Betty, the girl with her head in the clouds. Swift’s descriptive lyricism is in full display in ‘Cardigan’ and so is one of her most underrated skills- her singing performance. This track also references the story of Wendy and Peter from J. M Barrie’s “Peter Pan” in the line “tried to change the ending / Peter losing Wendy”.

In the folklore (deluxe version) bonus track ‘the lakes’ Swift showcases the poetic side of her. In this track she pays homage to the great romantic poets of the late 1700s and their expressive sensibility. ‘The lakes’ is a beautiful song that brilliantly showcases Taylor Swift’s song writing ability. It is whimsical and yet dramatic, with a melancholic longing that doubles perfectly with her literary allusions. She also references the great poet William Wordsworth with her incredible word play in the line “tell me what are my words worth”. 

Taylor’s versatility can clearly be seen in the track ‘Epiphany’ in which she starts singing from the perspective of her late grandfather, a soldier who fought in the World War 2 attending to a comrade bleeding out but by verse two, she’s singing from somewhere else, a 2020 medical ward of plastic sheaths and labored breathing. Swift writes with the care and empathy that feel almost saintly. The soldier and the medical worker, burdened by horror, “get only 20 minutes to sleep” and yet of dream “of dome epiphany- just one single glimpse of relief” which is not described, and we are expected to dream it for ourselves”. 

Classified under the ‘indie-folk’ genre ‘Folklore’ is truly a breath of fresh air in this generation of Hip-Hop, Rap and R’n’B. With “Folklore” Ms. Swift earned an entire set of new audience to her discography including me. Folklore was a triumph of wistful, escapist, melancholy music. It served as a comfort in the time of such global uncertainty. With this album Swift proved that her music is here to stay even for further centuries.