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The Pop Agenda of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”
When Taylor broke up with country
Taylor Swift made her entrance into pop boldly, although she had been plotting it for years. On her country records, pop sensibilities shine through, even on the most bluegrass tunes.
Swift did something very smart on her third record Speak Now: she stepped back. On the third album, many breakout artists make the mistake of over-capitalizing on the sound that made them successful on the second record. This strategy may guarantee success for the third album but will burn out by the fourth. (See: Katy Perry’s Witness.) There’s a reason fans refer to the “fourth album curse.” But by reinventing herself, Taylor Swift avoided it.
“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” is a pop song. We should have seen that coming after Fearless did so well. But Swift is smart. Just because the world saw her pop sensibilities on a country record didn’t mean she was going to milk them for all they were worth. Not right away, at least.
Swift’s third album Speak Now was not as commercially successful as its predecessor Fearless. It has sold six million copies, compared to Fearless’ ten million. Variation in the success of records (no matter their objective success) marks an artist playing the long game. Swift sees her commercial…
