Creating the perfect soundtrack for a break-up, featuring a plethora of songs for our every mood for a rollercoaster of emotions can be incredibly healing! No matter how we're feeling, crafting a mix with an equal balance of upbeat dance tunes for us to groove to during the positive moments and those emotional power-ballads for when all we need is a good cry-fest, can do wonders to mend a broken heart!
Country-pop crossover extraordinaire and unofficial expert on feelings, Taylor Swift, and former boyband heartthrob-turned-style icon and breakout solo star Harry Styles, know a thing or two about experiencing a myriad of emotions and taking those personal experiences and turning them into smash-hit songs with remarkably relatable lyrics, with both songwriters possessing a razor-sharp sense of insight into the human heart and mind.
Now, take two extremely intuitive songwriters and incorporate a dash of romance into the mix; Way back in the year 2012, while one celebrity couple dynamo called it quits, another pair came together and began dating. Not only did celebrity and popular culture have a new power couple on the block to admire, but multiple catchy pop music masterpieces were also later inspired by Harry Styles and Taylor Swift's brief-but-beautiful romance!
When Styles Met Swift: Inside Their Flirtatious Fling
Swift and Styles' short courtship certainly had the storybook elements akin to one of Swift's hit songs. Two different people who were indirectly linked together through monstrously successful careers came together, charmed one another, and their relationship blossomed with the help of, and presence of, many intricate and tiny details that would eventually be woven together in many of Swift's future tunes.
The pair's beginnings were marked by elements of romantic imagery Swift is fond of; a piece of jewelry played a big role in kickstarting Swift and Styles' relationship! An airplane necklace, which, according to Republicworld.com, both Swift and Styles were fond of, would serve as sort of a foundation for their relationship.
Swift's songwriting has always relied heavily on imagery and she frequently slips in references from everything to inanimate objects to actual locations. When she began taking her relationship with Styles to the next level in 2012, she was fresh off of the release of her fourth album, Red.
Like her love of using imagery through lyrics, Swift has always remained fond of marking her album releases through "eras," encouraging fans to create and associate certain aesthetics with her records. Red could be easily be interpreted as a 'transitional period' in both Swift's professional and personal life; the record also contained a fan-favorite, also known for being one of her most well-known tracks featuring a strong sense of storytelling, All Too Well.
All Too Well's lyrics detailed the elements and stages of a relationship from beginning to end through objects and stories of location: an element that would turn out to be a common factor in Swift's year-long relationship with Styles. As she proved with the beau who was the subject of the track, Jake Gyllenhall, Swift was able to draw deep connections strong enough to strengthen and carry the songs inspired by her relationships, and elements of her relationship simultaneously.
A New Soundtrack And Dancing To Harry's Beat
Swift's love of and strong use of imagery relating to her love life didn't stop with Red; Styles went on to have an influence in her songwriting as she moved into the era for her next album, 1989. 1989 was a notable title in Swift's discography not only for her notable transition from the country music she became known for, into a more pop and radio-friendly direction but for having tracks that were long rumored to be about Styles.
The fourth track on 1989, called Out Of The Woods contained more intricate references to her relationship with Styles than the other track on the record appropriately titled Style.
Out Of The Woods contained references to an experience Swift and Styles shared where Styles sustained an injury after he and Swift went on a date where the duo rode snowmobiles together, which resulted in the duo having to go to the hospital.
On a deeper and overarching thematic level, Swift explored the mature outlook relating to relationships where she acknowledged the idea they aren't always going to operate at a fairytale level like her beloved earlier single Love Story detailed. The song's subject acknowledged the advantages of living in the moment during a relationship instead of looking into the future and living life around the possibilities related to the relationship.
Shifting the perspective of relationships to being aware it may have an expiration date perhaps made room for Swift to write one of her most memorable singles, the eighth track on Red, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, which was also widely remembered to be about Styles. The track brings the idea forward that the relationship wasn't so easy.
The decline of Swift and Styles' relationship came rapidly and its ending reflected the theme Swift illustrated in Out Of The Woods; The direction in which a relationship goes can be the complete opposite of how we thought and wanted the romance to unfold.
Styles was much quieter in terms of discussing their relationship but eventually came around to the idea of discussing it publicly. The closest fans might get to know exactly why Styles and Swift ended their relationship, could be discerned from Styles' statement which he delivered in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine via InStyle, "[The relationship] was a learning experience for sure," adding that the now-infamous photos of he and Swift taking a walk in the park in New York City, made his 18-year-old self long for the experience to be a "Normal date."
Like the memorable saying goes "Life imitates art." Nearly a decade after their break-up, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift's relationship could be remembered as a reflection of the countless themes she has so candidly detailed through her body of work, many of which never go out of style.