Taylor Swift’s album 1989 marked a significant shift in her musical style, embracing a pop sound and leaving behind her country roots. Released in 2014, the album became a massive success, filled with catchy tunes and, as always, deeply personal lyrics. For years, fans have speculated about the inspirations behind these iconic tracks, particularly focusing on which songs are about her highly publicized relationship with Harry Styles. Let’s dive into the evidence and unravel the stories behind some of the most talked-about songs on 1989.
Blank Space: Embracing the Narrative
“Blank Space” is a satirical take on Taylor Swift’s media portrayal as a serial dater. However, the origins of a key lyric might hint at a more specific inspiration. Swift herself mentioned, “I was on a boat once and I came up with the line ‘so its going to be forever, or its going to go down in flames’ and I didn’t use it for about a year until I was writing Blank Space and I was like ‘OH!’” This boat trip could very well refer to her highly publicized cruise with Harry Styles in the British Virgin Islands, which unfortunately ended in a breakup. This connection suggests that while “Blank Space” is broadly about her public image, it might have been sparked by personal experiences from that relationship.
Wish You Would: A Tale of Missed Connections
“Wish You Would” delves into the lingering feelings after a breakup and the awkwardness of post-relationship encounters. Rolling Stone explicitly mentioned, “There’s ‘I Wish You Would,’ about an ex who bought a house two blocks from hers (whom she implies was Styles)”. Taylor herself further elaborated in a voice memo included in the deluxe edition of 1989, describing it as being “about this guy who’s like, he’s driving down the street at the middle of the night and he passes his ex-girlfriend’s house and it’s like, he thinks she hate him, but she’s still in love with him, very dramatic.”
Adding more detail at a listening party, Taylor shared a poignant anecdote: “taylor wrote that after a couple of months after her and harry broke up, and they decided to become friends again, and she said this was the first time she had become friends with an ex to the point where they were comfortable enough to talk about why the relationship didnt work out. and he said how, after they broke up, he bought a house literally one road adjacent to hers. and every day he would drive home, and accidentally turn into her street, and told her how he just wanted to stop at her house and see her, but he never did. and she said this song is about while he was in the car making the decision to get out the car and see her, she was sitting in her bedroom, wishing he would make the move and go back to her and just pitch up at her house.”
The lyrics themselves, “We’re a crooked love in a straight line down,” echo a sentiment Taylor expressed about another song, “Style,” which is widely acknowledged to be about Harry Styles: “I talk about in another song on the record a crooked love, which is kind of like never quite synced up right.” This lyrical connection further strengthens the link between “Wish You Would” and Harry Styles. Notably, Harry Styles’ song “Perfect,” often speculated to be about Taylor, includes the line “And if you like midnight driving with the windows down,” which mirrors Taylor’s lyric in “Wish You Would”: “Windows down, you pass my street, the memories start.” These lyrical parallels suggest a mutual reflection on their relationship experiences.
All You Had To Do Was Stay: A Swift Studio Session After the Split
The timeline of events surrounding “All You Had To Do Was Stay” strongly suggests its connection to the breakup with Harry Styles. Taylor tweeted “Back In the studio” just days after her split with Styles. She later confirmed on Tumblr that she penned “All You Had To Do Was Stay” during that very studio session. The song’s theme of frustration with a partner who was emotionally unavailable aligns with the rumored reasons for their breakup, making it a likely candidate to be about Styles.
How You Get The Girl: An Instruction Manual for Reconciliation
“How You Get The Girl” is described as an instruction manual for winning back a lost love. While seemingly more general, Taylor’s comments hint at a personal inspiration, possibly linked to Harry Styles. She mentioned at a secret session that the song is “about how a guy broke up with his girlfriend because he is afraid of how in love he is and he wants to experience the world and date around but then he realizes what he lost and came back for it six months too late; also she said her friends’ boyfriends come and ask her from help when they do this kind of thing, and she says to follow the steps of this song.”
In a GLAM interview, she elaborated, “’How You Get The Girl’ is a song about how, you know, when we’re young, which most of my friends and most of my peers are, a lot of the time you’ll take for granted a really good relationship and let go of it and go out into the world and then realise you want it back, and this song is kind of an instruction manual for a guy who has broken up with his girlfriend and let six months go by and the lengths he’ll need to go to to get her back.” The “six months too late” detail and the overall theme of a guy realizing his mistake could be interpreted as reflecting a dynamic similar to her relationship with Styles, even if indirectly.
This Love: Timing and Letting Go
“This Love” stands out as the oldest song on 1989, with linear notes describing it with the phrase “Timing is a funny thing”. Interestingly, around the same time, Harry Styles reportedly wrote a song called “I Love You” containing the lyric “Maybe if I got my timing right, I wouldn’t end up alone.” This timing coincidence and thematic overlap are hard to ignore.
Taylor described “This Love” at a secret session as being “about how she was kinda with someone who wasn’t ready so they split up but they ended up back together.” In a GLAM magazine interview, she further explained, “’This Love’ is a song that I wrote fairly early on in this process, and it was the first time I started experimenting with different vocal recording styles… It’s about kind an experience I had where if you truly care about someone and you know they’re not ready to be in a relationship you will let them go, and it sucks to be the one has to let something go and cut someone loose when you don’t want to, but I think you have to be selfless in relationships when you know that it’s not the right time, and if you make that decision and that person is supposed to be in your life they’ll come back, and this was the way that I felt when that came back around.” The song’s mature perspective on love, loss, and eventual reconciliation aligns with the on-again, off-again nature of her relationship with Styles as perceived by the public.
Clean: Finding Freedom and Moving On
“Clean” is a powerful anthem about overcoming heartbreak and addiction, co-written with Imogen Heap. Taylor revealed in an Elle magazine interview the specific moment of inspiration: “Shake It Off” and “Clean” were the last two things we wrote for the record, so it shows you where I ended up mentally. “Clean” I wrote as I was walking out of Liberty in London. Someone I used to date—it hit me that I’d been in the same city as him for two weeks and I hadn’t thought about it. When it did hit me, it was like, Oh, I hope he’s doing well.”
At a secret session, she added, “co-written with Imogen Heap (written when she was in London for the Red Tour and she went to her house which is two hours outside of London and is a single castle turret in the middle of this town with lots of horses and small town) and anyways it is about when she was in London and realized her ex was also there but she didn’t feel the usual sense of uneasiness and instead she felt fine and this is what this song is about”. Given that Harry Styles is British and resides in London, the location detail strongly points towards him.
Further strengthening this connection, Harry Styles’ song “Olivia,” also speculated to be about Taylor, contains lyrics that seem to reference “Clean.” Styles sings, “This isn’t the stain of a red wine, I’m bleeding love,” potentially echoing Taylor’s line, “You’re all over me like a wine-stained dress I can’t wear anymore.” Similarly, Styles’ “The summertime and the butterflies all belong to your creation” could be a response to Taylor’s “When the flowers that we’d grown together died of thirst, when the butterflies turned to dust that covered my whole room.” These lyrical echoes suggest a dialogue between the two artists through their music, reflecting on the same past relationship.
In Conclusion:
While Taylor Swift has never explicitly confirmed that all these 1989 songs are definitively about Harry Styles, the evidence from interviews, song anecdotes, lyrical connections, and timelines strongly suggests a significant influence. 1989 became an album that not only redefined Taylor Swift’s career but also offered a fascinating glimpse into a highly scrutinized relationship, leaving fans to continue to decode the personal stories woven into her pop masterpieces.
