August 2019

Lover, Taylor Swift’s seventh album, is first and foremost an album about love. Not the dramatic cheating kind from Should’ve Said No, not the high school kind from You Belong With Me, not even the passionate kind from Dress. No, this album is about a marriage love, a rest of your life love.

The album strikes several chords with me. In my own life, marriage season has begun. Part of this can be attributed to friend groups who are Catholic, Mormon or otherwise come from communities where early marriage is par for the course. But part of it is a natural easing into your mid 20’s, where some friends make an early leap into the rest of their lives. (The average age for marriage in America is 27.8 for women and 29.8 for men).

I attended the wedding of one of my best friends from high school this August. We’re 23 years old and not all that far removed from the days we would jam out to High School Musical in sweatpants and hang out in Dairy Queen parking lots. It’s a crazy feeling to see that same person walk out of a temple in a white gown and with this guy next to her – her husband. That’s a rest of your life decision for a rest of your life love. And it’s this love that Taylor Swift sings about on Lover.

While love is the primary focus of the album, Swift does up her voice on political and social issues. In The Man, Swift tackles the sexism she and many others have faced. In You Need to Calm Down, Swift deftly calls out people who hate gay people and tend to yell about it. In Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince, Swift uses a familiar high school allegory to address her political concerns. These statements all feel very 2019. Pop music ought to reflect the culture of the moment and Taylor Swift has done just that with Lover.

For a whole chunk of folks who are currently aged 20-35, Taylor Swift is a generational singer. We’ve grown up on her. Fifteen‘s advice was there for me before I turned 15. I was in high school when You Belong With Me seemed to define where I was at with boys. Shake it Off came out my freshman year of college and then later got lip dubbed by a fraternity on YouTube. At each step of the way, Swift – 6 years my senior, has seemingly sung about all the things I’m about to go through. If Lover is any indication, the future looks bright.

– theMonthlyJamm | September 3, 2019