Prologue
"These songs were once about my life. They are now about yours."
I was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on December 13, 1989.
In the world we live in, much is said about when we are born and when we die. Our birthday is celebrated every year to commemorate the very instant we came into the world. And a funeral is held to mark the day we leave it. But lately I've been wondering... what can be said of all the moments in between our birth and our death? The moments when we are reborn...
The debate over whether people change is an interesting one for me to observe because it seems like all I ever do is change. All I ever do is learn from my mistakes so I don't make the same ones again. Then I make new ones. I know people can change because it happens to me little by little every day. Every day I wake up as someone slightly new. Isn't it wild and intriguing and beautiful to think that every day we are new?
For the last few years, I've woken up every day not wanting, but needing to write a new style of music. I needed to change the way I told my stories and the way they sounded. I listened to a lot of music from the decade in which I was born and I listened to my intuition that it was a good thing to follow this gut feeling. I was also writing a different storyline than I'd ever told you before.
I wrote about moving to the loudest and brightest city in the world, the city I had always been overwhelmed by... until now. I think you have to know who you are and what you want in order to take on New York and all its blaring truth. I wrote about the thrill I got when I finally learned that love, to some extent, is just a game of cat and mouse. I wrote about looking back on a lost love and understanding that nothing good comes without loss and hardship and constant struggle. There is no "riding off into the sunset," like I used to imagine. We are never out of the woods, because we are always going to be fighting for something. I wrote about love that comes back to you just when you thought it was lost forever, and how some feelings never go out of style. I wrote about an important lesson I learned recently... that people can say whatever they want about me, but they can't make me lose my mind. I've learned how to shake things off.
I've told you my stories for years now. Some have been about coming of age. Some have been about coming undone. This is a story about coming into your own, and as a result... coming alive.
I hope you know that you've given me the courage to change. I hope you know that who you are is who you choose to be, and that whispers behind your back don't define you. You are the only person who gets to decide what you will be remembered for.
From the girl who said she would never cut her hair or move to New York or find happiness in a world where she is not in love...
Love, Taylor
Album Credits
Producers Ali Payami, Imogen Heap, Jack Antonoff, Mattman & Robin, Max Martin, Nathan Chapman, Noel Zancanella, Ryan Tedder, Shellback & Taylor Swift
Writers Ali Payami, Imogen Heap, Jack Antonoff, Max Martin, Ryan Tedder, Shellback & Taylor Swift
Acoustic Guitar Jack Antonoff, Ryan Tedder, Shellback & Taylor Swift
Additional Guitar Shellback
Additional Production Greg Kurstin
Additional Synths Noel Zancanella & Ryan Tedder
Assistant Programmer Noel Zancanella & Ryan Tedder
Assistant Recording Engineer Cory Bice, Eric Eylands, Matthew Tryba & Sam Holland
Background Vocals Imogen Heap, Jack Antonoff, Ryan Tedder, Shellback & Taylor Swift
Bass Jack Antonoff, Mattman & Robin, Nathan Chapman, Noel Zancanella & Shellback
Bass Guitar Shellback
Claps Max Martin, Shellback & Taylor Swift
Drum Programmer Max Martin, Noel Zancanella, Ryan Tedder & Shellback
Drums Imogen Heap, Jack Antonoff, Mattman & Robin, Nathan Chapman& Shellback
Editing Mattias Bylund
Electric Guitar Jack Antonoff, Nathan Chapman, Ryan Tedder & Shellback
Guitar Mattman & Robin, Niklas Ljungfelt & Shellback
Guitars Shellback
Heartbeat Taylor Swift
Juno Ryan Tedder
Keyboard Ali Payami, Greg Kurstin, Mattman & Robin, Max Martin & Shellback
Keyboards Imogen Heap, Jack Antonoff, Max Martin, Nathan Chapman & Shellback
Mastering Engineer Tom Coyne
Mbira Imogen Heap
Mixing Engineer John Hanes & Serban Ghenea
Percussion Imogen Heap, Mattman & Robin & Shellback
Piano Max Martin & Ryan Tedder
Pro Tools Engineer Peter Carlsson
Production Coordination Jason Campbell
Programmer Ali Payami, Imogen Heap, Mattman & Robin, Max Martin & Shellback
Recording Engineer Brendan Morawksi, Eric Eylands, Imogen Heap, Jack Antonoff, Laura Sisk, Matthew Tryba, Mattias Bylund, Michael Ilbert, Nathan Chapman, Ryan Tedder, Sam Holland & Smith Carlson
Saxophone Jonas Thander
Shouts Shellback & Taylor Swift
Stomps Shellback
Strings Arranger Mattias Bylund
Synthesizer Noel Zancanella
Trombone Magnus Wiklund
Trumpet Jonas Lindeborg
Vibraphone Imogen Heap
Video Direction Joseph Kahn
Video Director Joseph Kahn
Vocal Producer Max Martin
Vocals Taylor Swift