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.

Mean
Taylor Swift Lyrics

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

You, with your words like knives
And swords and weapons that you use against me
You have knocked me off my feet again
Got me feeling like a nothing
You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard
Callin' me out when I'm wounded
You, pickin' on the weaker man

Well, you can take me down
With just one single blow
But you don't know what you don't know

Someday, I'll be livin' in a big old city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?

You, with your switching sides
And your wildfire lies and your humiliation
You have pointed out my flaws again
As if I don't already see them
I walk with my head down
Tryna block you out 'cause I'll never impress you
I just wanna feel okay again

I'll bet you got pushed around
Somebody made you cold
But the cycle ends right now
'Cause you can't lead me down that road
And you don't know what you don't know

Someday, I'll be livin' in a big old city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?

And I can see you years from now in a bar talkin' over a football game
With that same big loud opinion, but nobody's listening
Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things
Drunk and grumbling on about how I can't sing

But all you are is mean
All you are is mean
And a liar, and pathetic
And alone in life and mean
And mean, and mean, and mean

But someday, I'll be livin' in a big old city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean, yeah
Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
(Why you gotta be so mean?)
Someday, I'll be livin' in a big old city (why you gotta be so mean?)
And all you're ever gonna be is mean (why you gotta be so mean?)
Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me (why you gotta be so mean?)

And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Taylor Swift's "Mean" convey her feelings of being bullied and belittled by someone who enjoys tearing her down with their words. In the first verse, she describes the person's words as "knives" and "weapons" that knock her down and make her feel like "nothing." The second verse adds "humiliation" to the mix, illustrating how this person takes pleasure in pointing out her flaws.

Despite the hurtful words, Swift also has a sense of resilience in the chorus. She sings about how someday she'll be living in a big city, and the person who is mean to her will still be mean, while she'll have moved on to bigger and better things. The line "someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me" is especially powerful, because it's both a literal and metaphorical statement.

The final verse imagines the future, with Swift seeing this person in a bar, still holding onto their bitterness and anger, while she's moved forward with her life. The repeated use of the word "mean" emphasizes how this person's meanness defines them and how Swift refuses to let it define her.

Interesting facts about the song:
Interesting Facts
Note: This section uses generative AI, which can be inaccurate.

Line by Line Meaning

You, with your words like knives
You hurt me with your words so sharp

And swords and weapons that you use against me
You use your words against me like weapons

You have knocked me off my feet again
You have hurt me deeply once again

Got me feeling like a nothing
You make me feel worthless

You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard
Your voice irritates me

Callin' me out when I'm wounded
You target me when I'm already hurting

You, pickin' on the weaker man
You bully and victimize someone who is weaker than you

Well, you can take me down
You have the power to bring me down

With just one single blow
You can hurt me with just one action

But you don't know what you don't know
You don't understand the ramifications of your actions

Someday, I'll be livin' in a big old city
One day, I'll be living my dream of living in a big city

And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Your behavior will never change, you will always be mean

Someday, I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
I will become strong enough so that your hurtful actions will no longer affect me

Why you gotta be so mean?
Why do you have to be so hurtful?

You, with your switching sides
You change your opinion and allegiance frequently

And your wildfire lies and your humiliation
You spread lies and publicly humiliate me

You have pointed out my flaws again
You have brought my flaws to my attention once more

As if I don't already see them
As if I'm not already aware of my shortcomings

I walk with my head down
I'm walking with my head down in shame

Tryna block you out 'cause I'll never impress you
I'm trying to ignore you because I know I can never impress you

I just wanna feel okay again
I just want to feel good about myself again

I'll bet you got pushed around
I think someone must have mistreated you in the past

Somebody made you cold
Someone made you unfeeling and cruel

But the cycle ends right now
But I'm refusing to let the cycle of hurt continue

'Cause you can't lead me down that road
Because I won't follow you down that path of hurt anymore

And you don't know what you don't know
You don't understand the impact of your past traumas on your present behavior

And I can see you years from now in a bar talkin' over a football game
I can picture you as an older adult still harboring the same anger and bitterness

With that same big loud opinion, but nobody's listening
You still preach your opinions but nobody cares to listen anymore

Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things
You'll be aged and still holding on to old grudges

Drunk and grumbling on about how I can't sing
You'll be intoxicated and still trying to insult me by saying I can't sing

But all you are is mean
Your cruelty defines you as a person

And a liar, and pathetic
You are also a dishonest and sad person

And alone in life and mean
You'll end up living a lonely life because of your mean and hurtful behavior

And mean, and mean, and mean
Your behavior will always be consistently mean

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Taylor Alison Swift

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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