Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free
Taylor Swift subtly addressed her ongoing conflict with Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta during her American Music Awards performance last night.
The singer/songwriter began her multiple performances on the show with a rendition of “The Man”, a track from her latest album Lover , in which she sings about being treated differently if she were a man.
“I’m so sick of running as fast as I can / Wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man,” she sung, in a shirt-dress decorated in titles of her albums.
“And I’m so sick of them coming at me again,” she continued. “‘Cause if I was a man, then I’d be the man.”
Swift’s outfit, a long white shirt decorated in the titles of her past albums, also appeared to emphasise the title of her 2010 record Speak Now .
Show all 20 1 /20Taylor Swift's 20 best songs Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 20) “Wildest Dreams” This song is sadly marred by the controversy that surrounded its accompanying video (its references to films such as Out of Africa drew accusations that it presented a “white colonialist fantasy”.) The track itself is a dreamy, lush soundscape filled with breathless sighs and dramatic pauses that recall Swift’s fellow old Hollywood obsessive, Lana Del Rey.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 19) “Paper Rings” A pop-punk song! Swift is at her most energetic on a song that has more than a hint of Toni Basil’s “Mickey”, from the hand-clapping beat to the distorted scuzz added to her vocals.
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 18) “Style” Until “Dress” appeared on Reputation, “Style” was Swift’s most bold and sensuous song, driven by a pulsing beat and an urgent electric guitar riff. It plays on the idea that it’s easy to leave someone but a lot harder to stay away, especially if your lover has that “James Dean daydream look in [their] eye”.
Vevo
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 17) “Back to December” This was a first for Swift, who apologises to an ex who treated her perfectly, while she perhaps didn’t value the relationship as much. It’s a noteworthy song simply to point out that Swift, who has faced multiple accusations of “using” her relationships to drag her ex-boyfriends, is more than capable of self-criticism.
Vevo
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 16) “Love Story” A Swift classic about star-crossed lovers, inspired by (what else?) Romeo and Juliet. This is a country pop song is a prime example of Swift’s skill as a story teller – one who understands the power of a forbidden romance.
Vevo
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 15) “Out of the Woods” Swift emulates Bruce Springsteen on this Eighties synth-pop “get in the car and go” epic, which lasts not a second too long and ends so abruptly that it leaves you gasping to catch your breath.
Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 14) “I Did Something Bad” One of the most underrated songs on Reputation has Swift embracing the role of villain after years of being accused of using men as a songwriting tool, along with the fallout from her feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. There’s so much more bite on this track than “Blank Space”, despite the similar themes – here she is merciless upon learning a man has used her name, or spent her money, behind her back.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 13) "Lover" A tender Sixties-style acoustic ballad that shows Swift experimenting with rhythm and meter in a way that’s impressively bold this far into her career.
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for ABA
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 12) “Tim McGraw” There’s something very moving about Swift opening her first album with a song that intertwines the old and the new. Nashville is notoriously unkind to female country artists, particularly young ones, so you can’t help but admire a then-16-year-old Swift, who offered a profound respect to one of her biggest inspirations on her debut single.
Vevo
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 11) “Dress” This song is essentially one big, lustful sigh: Swift seems to delight in a secret romance where she “only bought this dress so you could take it off” and quite literally pants with anticipation.
Getty Images for TAS
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 10) “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince” At first, you could mistake this for a love song. It is, in a way - Swift's most political song to date addresses her heartbreak over America as she witnesses it in turmoil. She takes classic themes from her earliest work - white knights, red roses, princesses and high-school prom - and spins all of it into a metaphor for a perceived loss of innocence following the 2016 general election. Add the subliminal cheerleader chant - "GO! FIGHT! Win!", and this makes for one of Swift's best songs of her career.
Getty
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 9) “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” While Red signalled Swift’s full-blown transition into pop music, she couldn’t resist putting the odd country twang on songs such as “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”, which mocks an ex for being snobbish about his “indie record label that’s much cooler than mine”. The most spectacular is really the beginning of the song, where she delivers an astounded “what?” upon being told the guy needs space: “We hadn’t seen each other in a month.”
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 8) “Dear John” John Mayer lashed out over this song in 2012, clearly upset after Swift alluded that it was about their past relationship. He called it “cheap songwriting” in reference to using their personal lives for material – whatever you think of that, it’s features of her best vocal performances and brilliant songwriting – right down to the Mayer-ism of that wavering electric guitar line. Then there are the lyrics themselves: “You are an expert at sorry/ And keeping lines blurry/ And never impressed by me acing your tests/ All the girls that you’ve run dry/ Have tired, lifeless eyes/ ’Cause you burned them out.” Medic!
Taylor Swift. Credit: Getty
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 7) “Delicate” One of Swift’s greatest talents as a songwriter is to encapsulate those small moments, often in a new relationship, that you as a listener cannot. Her skittishness on “Delicate”, about the danger of rushing into something, of sharing too much of yourself too soon with someone you’re still getting to know, is all too palpable as the beat switches up like a nervous heart.
(Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for TIME)
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 6) “Call It What You Want” The lyrics here are more open and willingly vulnerable than anything Swift had done before; that line on the chorus where she sings: “My baby’s fly like a jet stream/ high above the whole scene/ loves me like I’m brand new” hits hard. The song appears on Reputation, released after Swift’s lengthy hiatus from the spotlight, and its lyrics speak of a person blissfully content in her relationship – to the point that the outside world is just white noise. It includes some of her finest lyrics, too, with superb references to those castles of old crumbling “overnight” and nods to her Anglophilia (“my baby’s fit like a daydream”).
Getty Images
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 5) “Our Song” “Mean” is beaten only by “Our Song” as Swift’s most “country” release, helped a lot by her endearing portrait of “the slam of screen doors” and driving along country lanes listening to the radio. Swift is a master of the meta-narrative, so her making a song about a song based on sounds from real-life is all kinds of perfect.
YouTube/screengrab
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 4) “Getaway Car” On “Getaway Car” Swift channels one of her friend and producer Jack Antonoff’s favourites – Kate Bush – as she belts that epic “go, go, go!”, while the song in its entirety recalls Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” – cellos and violins enhancing the drama.
Getty Images for NARAS
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 3) “Blank Space” “Blank Space” was a real moment for Swift, where she turned all of the tabloid gossip, all of the malicious scrutiny around her love life, back on the world with a wink and a nod. “Got a long list of ex-lovers/ They’ll tell you I’m insane,” she trills on the chorus, throwing out punchline after punchline until the exquisite: “You’ll come back, each time you leave/ ‘cos darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream.”
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 2) "Afterglow" Against a similar soundscape to "Wildest Dreams", Swift is at her most confessional as she explains how her own insecurities can lead to self-destruction in a relationship – and pleads with her lover to be patient with her. “It’s all me, in my head," she sings. "I’m the one who burned us down/ But it’s not what I meant/ Sorry that I hurt you.”
Taylor Swift's 20 best songs 1) “All Too Well” Swift’s mastery of storytelling has never been better than on this, a standout song not just from Red, but of her career to date. It’s the slow-build from those bittersweet memories of “dancing in the refrigerator light” to a devastating, stadium-sized anthem that leads to her delivering arguably her best-ever line – with one of her best vocal performances: “You call me up again just to break me like a promise/ So casually cruel in the name of being honest.”
Rex
Swift claimed this month (15 November) that Braun and Scott Borchetta, the owner of her former label Big Machine, had blocked her from performing her old hits at the AMAs , where she was due to collect the Artist of the Decade award. Braun and Borchetta denied the claims.
Swift previously condemned the men for acquiring her back catalogue earlier this year in a deal worth a reported $300m . Swift explained that she was “sad and grossed out” by the sale, which granted both men ownership of her early master recordings.
“My musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it,” Swift said at the time. She has said that she intends to re-record and re-release her first six albums, to regain control of her masters.
This weekend (23 November), Braun appealed to Swift to tell her fans to stop sending him death threats .
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies