Why Taylor Swift’s “1989” is About Harry Styles and Not Matty Healy

After the publication of The Tortured Poets Departmentsome Taylor Swift Fans speculate that her sixth studio album, 1989, could actually be approximate Matty Healy – and we fear that they may have lost track.

Dear Swifties, we appreciate your skills, but 1989 is and remains dedicated to Mr. Harry Styles (allegedly). Although it is understandable TTPD has caused many to re-evaluate some of Swift’s more recent work, including that of 2022 midnightIt just doesn’t make sense to rewrite history to make a shot so specific to Styles over someone else.

Before we delve into the reasons why it’s a no, here are the three things fans are trying to emphasize in this regard 1989. Many believe that the lyrics in “Style”, particularly “You’ve got that long hair slicked back / White T-shirt”, apply to Healy’s performance mood in 2014, while others believe that Swift’s silhouette in both “Style” and also appears in “Fortnight” – A TTPD The song is supposedly about Healy – music videos are a deliberate parallel. On a larger scale, some Swifties think because 1989 is about a delicate, recurring relationship – described, for example, in “OOTW”, “I Wish You Would” and “All You Had to Do Was Stay” – and has to go back to Healy since Swift and The frontman from 1975 met in know the same year the record was released.

Back to the question of why this is wrong. Starting with the most obvious evidence, Swift and Healy didn’t meet until a month later 1989 was published. The two first crossed paths in November 2014 when Swift attended a show by The 1975 with friends Ellie Goulding And Selena Gomez. Healy later said he met the pop star on the Australian radio show Shazam Top 20, where he admitted the duo swapped numbers.

As a testament to how time works, one of Swift’s singles on the album is literally titled “Style.” It uses a play on words to compare the duo’s on-again, off-again romance, which lasted from 2012 to 2014, to clothing and other fashion items that “never go out of style.”

Although Swift never actually names names in her songs – except for this one, right? – She also didn’t try to hide her inspiration for “Style” when she spoke about it in a 2014 interview with Rolling Stonetold the outlet, “We should have just called [the song]’I’m not even sorry.'”

Styles, for his part, wrote “Two Ghosts” in 2017, which many believe is a response to Swift’s track. “Same lips red / Same eyes blue / Same white shirt / Couple more tattoos,” he sings in the first verse, likely in response to Swift’s “I got that red lip classic thing that you like” and “You got that long hair, Slicked back white t-shirt text.

“Out of the Woods” is another 1989 Track that clearly belongs to Styles, as it references his and Swift’s infamous snowmobile accident, which resulted in both of them being hospitalized and Styles receiving “20 stitches.”

Although she didn’t mention Styles by name at the time, Swift later confirmed it Rolling Stone that the song was about the accident, and told the station that she was not injured in the incident, before correcting herself and saying, “Not that injured.” When asked why no one had ever provided information about the accident After revealing the accident, she added: “You know? What I found works even better than an NDA? Look someone in the eye and say, ‘Please don’t tell anyone about this.'”

When the music video for “OOTW” came out in 2015, Swift was seen lost in a snowy forest in a blue dress. The item was a reminder of her and Styles’ breakup in January 2013, when they broke up after a “heated argument” while vacationing in the Virgin Islands. Swift reportedly cut short her trip and headed home to Nashville to begin rehearsals for her Red tour and was photographed leaving the resort on a boat while donning a blue dress.

In the “OOTW” and “Style” videos, Swift is also seen wearing a paper airplane necklace that Styles gave her. The jewelry is mentioned in the “OOTW” lyric “Two Flying Paper Planes.”

Swift and Styles’ breakup on the beach also came back into play for Swift 1989 (Taylor’s version), which she released in October 2023 with a number of bonus Vault tracks. In “Is It Over Now?” Swift calls back several others 1989 Songs, singing, “Blue Dress / On a Boat”. The snowmobile accident also ties in with the text: “Red blood / white snow”.

“Now That We Don’t Talk,” another track 1989 (Taylor’s version)So does Styles, who hangs out on boats with his One Direction bandmates after their breakup, with the line: “Now I don’t have to pretend I like acid rock / Or that I like being on a mega yacht.” would be / With important men who…”Think important thoughts.”

Meanwhile, “Slut!” is about the idea of ​​being judged as a woman for a public romance while your man walks by. Swift and Styles were infamously photographed everywhere together, with Swift enduring a lot of trouble from One Direction fans.

“Send the code, it’s waiting there / The sticks and stones they throw froze in the air,” she sings in the second verse. “Everyone wants him, that was my crime / The wrong place at the right time.”

If Healy has had an on-and-off love affair with Swift since 2014, they certainly kept it a secret, but Swift has all but confirmed that was the case when it came to Styles. During an interview onThe morning show iIn December 2014, Swift confessed as much 1989, but “Style” in particular is about a romance that you can’t seem to get over. (Although it might have something to do with Swift having similar feelings toward Healy since things picked up in 2023, she would have to look into the future to talk about Healy then.)

“‘Style’ is actually about relationships that never really happen,” she explained. “There’s always that one person who you feel is interrupting your wedding and saying, ‘Don’t do it, we’re not over yet.’ I think everyone has that one person who kind of floats in and out of their life, and the narrative is never really over.”

Swift has addressed this concept, particularly in her other records folklore “The 1” and Midnight’ “Question,” which comes straight from “OOTW.” While Swift performed “Question” while dating Healy in May 2023 Epoch tour show, the song was probably originally written for Styles. Swift sings about a time her ex saw her in a “crowded room” with “some stupid guy,” which may be reminiscent of Styles performing on stage in 2017 billboard Awards and seeing Swift kiss his then-boyfriend Calvin Harris.

As for Styles himself, the musician has all but confirmed many of Swift’s statements 1989 Tracks are about him. When asked about his feelings about being the supposed subject of their music during a Google Hangout in 2014, he said, “We always say we write from personal experience, and I think everyone does.” So it would be hypocritical to say, “Oh, you can’t write songs.” And she’s really good, so they’re good songs. I’m really lucky in that regard.”

During one Rolling Stone In an interview three years later, Styles explained his thoughts, but noted that he couldn’t be sure the songs were 100 percent about him.

“I’ll be lucky if everything works out [we went through] “I helped create these songs,” he said. “That’s what gets into your heart. That’s the hardest thing to say and that’s the thing I talk about the least. This is the part that’s about the two people.”