Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans mult… Read Full Bio ↴Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her narrative songwriting, which is often inspired by her personal life, has received widespread media coverage and critical praise.

Born in West Reading, Pennsylvania, Swift relocated to Nashville, Tennessee in 2004 to pursue a career in country music. She broke into the country music scene with her eponymous self-titled debut studio album, Taylor Swift in 2006, which included the singles "Teardrops on My Guitar" and "Our Song". Swift also released the holiday album, Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, later titled as The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection in October 2007.

Swift rose to mainstream prominence with her sophomore studio album, Fearless (2008), a country pop record with crossover appeal. Aided by the top-five singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", Fearless was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Swift's third studio album, Speak Now (2010), blended country pop with elements of rock and featured the top-ten singles "Mine" and "Back to December".

Drawing inspiration from various pop, rock, and electronic genres, Swift's fourth studio album Red (2012) saw her transcending her country roots. She completely moved to pop with her synth-pop fifth studio album, 1989 (2014), and expanded the electropop sound on her next two studio albums, reputation (2017) and Lover (2019), which respectively embraced urban and retro styles. The four albums spawned a string of international top-five singles, including "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", "I Knew You Were Trouble", "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", "Bad Blood", "Look What You Made Me Do", "ME! (feat. Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco)", "You Need to Calm Down", and "Lover".

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Swift experimented with folk and alternative rock on her eighth and ninth studio albums, folklore and evermore (both 2020), whose lead singles "cardigan" and "willow" topped charts around the world. She also released the critically acclaimed documentaries Miss Americana and Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions that year. Swift's tenth studio album, Midnights (2022), marked her triumphant return to pop after two folk albums. The album set the record for biggest first day and first week ever on Spotify, spawned the hits Anti-Hero and Lavender Haze, and sold over 1.5 million copies in its first week becoming not only the biggest debut of the decade but also Swift's biggest debut ever. She would make history by becoming the first artist to occupy the entire top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 with tracks from Midnights.

Additionally, Swift began re-recording her back catalog in November 2020 as a result of a publicized dispute with talent manager Scooter Braun and her former label Big Machine, regarding the acquisition of the masters of her back catalog. In April 2021, Swift released a re-recorded issue of her 2008 album Fearless, titled Fearless (Taylor's Version). It debuted at number one in the US. Swift continued releasing re-recorded versions of her back catalog in November, 2021 with the release of Red (Taylor's Version), a 30 track re-issue of her 2012 critical smash. The album debuted at #1 in the US, spawned the #1 hit All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault), and broke the record at the time for biggest first day for a female album on Spotify. Red (Taylor's Version) was a critical and commercial hit, and proved that Swift's ambitious plan to re-record her first 6 albums was well worth it.

Along with the release of Red (Taylor's Version) came All Too Well: The Short Film (2021), Swift's filmmaking debut. The 15 minute romantic drama was based on the lyrical content from Swift's 2012 fan favorite "All Too Well" starring Sadie Sink and Dylan O'Brien. It had a limited theatrical release in major cities, and Swift held special screenings of the film throughout 2022 at various film festivals. In December, 2022 Taylor announced that she would be making her feature directorial debut with Oscar-winning studio Searchlight Pictures.

Following the release of Midnights, Swift would embark on her first tour in five years, The Eras Tour.

Swift has released several songs for film soundtracks. She co-wrote two songs for the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack— "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" and "Crazier", and contributed two songs to the Valentine's Day soundtrack, including the single "Today Was a Fairytale", which was her first number one on the Canadian Hot 100, and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. She also contributed two original songs to The Hunger Games soundtrack album: "Safe & Sound - from The Hunger Games Soundtrack", co-written and recorded with The Civil Wars and T-Bone Burnett, and "Eyes Open". "Safe & Sound" won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. In 2013, Swift recorded "Sweeter than Fiction", a song she wrote and produced with Jack Antonoff for the One Chance film soundtrack, which received a Best Original Song nomination at the 71st Golden Globe Awards. Swift and English singer Zayn Malik, mononymously known as Zayn, released a single together, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever", for the soundtrack of the film Fifty Shades Darker (2017). She also recorded an original song called "Beautiful Ghosts", which she wrote with Andrew Lloyd Webber for the Cats's soundtrack (2019). In 2020, Swift's documentary Miss Americana featured the song "Only the Young" which was written after the 2018 United States elections. In 2022, she released an original song titled "Carolina" for Where The Crawdads Sing (2022) inspired by the novel written by Delia Owens.

With sales of over 200 million records worldwide, Swift is a best-selling music artist. Her accolades include 12 Grammy Awards (including three Album of the Year wins), two Brit Awards (including a Global Icon award), an Emmy Award, 28 [https://guinnessworldrecords.com/]Guinness World Records, 32 American Music Awards (the most wins by an artist), and 23 Billboard Music Awards (the most wins by a woman). She ranked eighth on Billboard's Greatest of All Time Artists Chart (2019) and was listed on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time (2015). Swift has been included in various power rankings, such as Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world (2010, 2015 and 2019) and Forbes Celebrity 100 (placing first in 2016 and 2019). She was named Woman of the Decade (2010s) by Billboard and Artist of the Decade (2010s) by the American Music Awards.

Dear John
Taylor Swift Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Interesting Facts ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Long were the nights when
My days once revolved around you
Counting my footsteps
Praying the floor won't fall through again
And my mother accused me of losing my mind
But I swore I was fine
You paint me a blue sky
And go back and turn it to rain

And I lived in your chess game
But you changed the rules every day
Wondering which version of you I might get on the phone tonight
Well, I stopped picking up and this song is to let you know why

Dear John, I see it all now that you're gone
Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?
The girl in the dress, cried the whole way home
I should've known

Well, maybe it's me
And my blind optimism to blame
Or maybe it's you and your sick need
To give love then take it away
And you'll add my name to your long list of traitors
Who don't understand
And I'll look back and regret how I ignored when they said
"Run as fast as you can"

Dear John, I see it all now that you're gone
Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?
The girl in the dress, cried the whole way home
Dear John, I see it all now, it was wrong
Don't you think nineteen's too young
To be played by your dark, twisted games when I loved you so?
I should've known

You are an expert at sorry and keeping the lines blurry
Never impressed by me acing your tests
All the girls that you've run dry have tired lifeless eyes
'Cause you burned them out
But I took your matches before fire could catch me
So don't look now
I'm shining like fireworks over your sad empty town
Oh, oh

Dear John, I see it all now that you're gone
Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?
The girl in the dress, cried the whole way home
I see it all now that you're gone
Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?
The girl in the dress wrote you a song
You should've known

You should've known

Don't you think I was too young?
You should've known

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to "Dear John" by Taylor Swift speak to the emotional turmoil of a young woman who has been hurt by a manipulative and emotionally abusive ex-lover. The song was written about her relationship with John Mayer, which lasted for a brief period in late 2009 and early 2010. The song is a testament to Swift's ability to capture the raw emotions of heartbreak and channel them into powerful lyrics that resonate with her audience.

The opening lines set the tone of the song - the singer is lamenting the fact that her life used to revolve around her ex-lover. She would count her footsteps, afraid that the floor would cave in at any moment. Her mother begins to worry about her mental state but she insists that everything is fine. In this part of the song, Swift uses vivid imagery to convey the sense of instability and insecurity that she feels in the relationship.

The chorus is a scathing rebuke of her ex-lover, John. She accuses him of taking advantage of her youth and naivety. She sings that she "should have known" better than to trust him. In the second verse, Swift takes some of the blame for the relationship's downfall, wondering if her "blind optimism" was to blame. But she also lays into John, accusing him of being manipulative and emotionally unstable.

Overall, "Dear John" is a powerful song about heartbreak and emotional abuse. Swift's lyrics are raw and honest, and her message is one of empowerment - that even in the face of heartache and pain, it's possible to take back control and emerge stronger than ever.

Here are some interesting facts about the song:

Interesting Facts
Note: This section uses generative AI, which can be inaccurate.

Line by Line Meaning

Long were the nights when my days once revolved around you
I used to spend every waking moment with you and my nights were long without you

Counting my footsteps, Praying the floor won't fall through, again
I was so anxious around you that I counted my steps and prayed the ground wouldn't collapse beneath me

My mother accused me of losing my mind, But I swore I was fine, you paint me a blue sky And go back and turn it to rain
Even though my mother thought I was going crazy being with you, I ignored it because you would make me feel happy and then ruin it by making me feel sad

And I lived in your chess game, But you changed the rules every day
My life with you was like being a pawn in a game of chess where the rules constantly changed, leaving me unsure of what to do or expect

Wondering which version of you I might get on the phone Tonight, well I stopped picking up, and this song is to let you know why
I never knew which version of you I'd get when I spoke to you on the phone, but eventually I stopped answering completely and wrote this song to explain why

Dear John, I see it all now that you're gone Don't you think I was too young to be messed with? The girl in the dress, cried the whole way home, I should've known
Now that we're apart, I see clearly how you messed with my emotions and hurt me unfairly. I was just a young girl in love with you, and I should've known better

Well maybe it's me and my blind optimism to blame Maybe it's you and your sick need to give love then take it away
Maybe I'm partly to blame for believing in you so much, or maybe it's your twisted way of giving love just to take it away that's the problem

And you'll add my name to your long list of traitors who don't understand And I'll look back and regret how I ignored when they said "run as fast as you can"
You'll probably label me as one of your many traitors who didn't understand you, but I'll regret ignoring others who warned me to stay away from you

You are an expert at sorry, And keeping the lines blurry Never impressed by me acing your tests
You're good at apologizing when you hurt me, but you never made it clear where we stood which left me unsure. You didn't care that I did well and passed your tests

All the girls that you've run dry Have tired, lifeless eyes 'Cause you burned them out
All of the other girls you've been with are emotionally drained and tired because you've used up all their emotions

But I took your matches before fire could catch me, So don't look now, I'm shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town
I left you before you could hurt me again, and now I'm thriving without you. You can't hurt me anymore, and I'm living my life to the fullest without you

I see it all now that you're gone Don't you think I was too young to be messed with? The girl in the dress wrote you a song You should've known, you should've known Don't you think I was too young? You should've known
Now that you're out of my life, I see how you took advantage of my youth and innocence. I wrote this song for you, and you should've realized that I was too young and vulnerable to be treated the way you treated me

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Taylor Swift

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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