“I wouldn’t marry me, either,” Taylor Swift sang — bitterly, it’s fair to say — just a few years ago. Remember when the world’s biggest pop superstar was writing about how she had been deemed Not Marriage Material?
You don’t? Most people probably wouldn’t. That particular line came in a heartbreaking but little-heard digital bonus track called “You’re Losing Me,” written in 2021 and released in 2023, that chronicled the desultory end of a long-time relationship… one that might have lasted, say, six years. She followed the lyric about marriage by referring to herself as “a pathological people pleaser” (sarcastically) “who only wanted you to see her” (no sarcasm, there).
The weekend of Swift’s wedding to Travis Kelce may not seem to everyone like the most appropriate occasion to dredge up the singer’s deep tracks, especially the most depressing ones. But recalling songs like these actually goes some way toward explaining why Swift fans are so jubilant over the nuptials. While broadcast media are busy snipping bits of “Love Story” and “Paper Rings” to use as cheerful bumper music for their wedding updates, Swifties come into this honeymoon period remembering all the times over the last 20 years when she referenced not tying a knot. In some songs she even seemed resigned to life having taken her in the opposite direction of a “marry me, Juliet” ending.
