I have nowhere else to post this, but it's been eating away at my brain for the past few days.
So far, I’ve found two instances of AJR and Taylor Swift lyric parallels. I find them interesting because they work similarly and differently at once, and in different ways. One of them expresses different ideas with similar language, and the other expresses the same idea with different language. It makes me think that, in certain areas, AJR and Taylor Swift function as what I’m choosing to call “parallel lyricists” (maybe there’s an official term for this, but I don’t know it).
In my mind, the lyrical appeal of AJR is that they take abstract concepts or emotions that one might not be able to convey with words and state them in a blunt manner. Think of songs such as Karma, World's Smallest Violin, and Inertia. Basically, they take the complex and make it simple.
Taylor Swift, on the other hand, takes simpler (or at least commonly talked about and well-defined) concepts and ideas and conveys them with intricate language. This includes concepts of falling in love, breakups, heartbreak, and complicated romantic relationships. She takes the simple and makes it complex.
They follow different roads but in strikingly parallel ways.
So let’s analyze them under that lens.
Instance #1: Turning Out Pt. iii and Say Don’t Go
These lyrics, as seen above, are expressing different concepts with similar language. Both songs use the concept of "I'm yours and you're mine", a phrase related to romantic love between two partners, as a template for these lyrics.
Now, to be clear, when I say "different concepts", I'm specifically talking about the use of POV. The POV of the singer is different in these songs. In Turning Out Pt. iii, the singer is uncertain about committing to a romantic relationship, as in the previous two songs in the trilogy, they'd dealt with issues regarding love and how they didn't understand it. So because of that, the idea of yours and mine gets twisted, as while the narrator is only "half [theirs]" (not fully committing to the relationship), the significant other is "all [theirs]" (being fully committed).
In Say Don't Go, Taylor Swift expresses a very similar concept, but from the POV of someone who is fully committed to the relationship seeing that their partner is not. In this instance, there seems to be no uncertainty on the partner's part, given the definitive constraints of "not mine" as a phrase.
In essence, these examples show how language can be used as a mold to express different perspectives in familiar ways, thereby allowing the listener to understand them more easily.
Instance #2: Touchy Feely Fool and loml
These lyrics, on the other hand, express a similar concept with different language. This is a prime example of AJR and Taylor Swift's different lyrical styles.
Touchy Feely Fool discusses a toxic relationship. The singer is clearly bitter about how the relationship wounded them, taking jabs at the perpetrator. But they still find that they can't quite stop caring about them, and self-deprecate because of that.
This is a rather complex emotional cocktail, but AJR uses blunt, simple words to describe it. The lyric is straightforward, but conveys everything the song is about: the hurt, the resentment, the bitterness, the guilt, the desperation, and the hint of love.
In loml, Taylor Swift sings about a similarly failed relationship. The relationship is described as being both completely meaningless and entirely meaningful, a similarly complex sort of conflict as in Touchy Feely Fool. In the lyric, "dancing phantoms" are used to represent both outer judgment and Taylor's self-deprecation, thus being "secondhand-embarrassed". This metaphor and phrase encapsulate the same sort of feelings as Touchy Feely Fool did, feelings of shame and self-hatred. The use of "counterfeit" to describe the relationship also mirrors the concept of not wanting to "give a shit", as if something is fake, or counterfeit, then it doesn't matter. A fake or worthless relationship ending, something "counterfeit" being "dead", ideally shouldn't come with any feelings attached, and yet in this instance, it does. AJR deals with a similar dilemma, as a badly dissolved relationship still seems to leave its mark. Just because it was counterfeit and it is dead doesn't mean you don't still give a shit.
Thank you for indulging me. I think I could legitimately write a paper on this, provided I have enough examples, so if you find any other AJR and Taylor Swift lyric parallels, please send them my way!
