If it hasn’t already been established that 2023 is the Year of Taylor Swift, the world will presumably stop once again when she releases Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) on July 7.
Despite its relative lack of awards fare and chart-topping singles, Swift’s third album, Speak Now, is perhaps the most significant one in her extensive catalog. Released in 2010, it’s the first and only album Swift penned entirely herself after critics questioned her songwriter bona fides. More importantly, it marked her transition from an acclaimed country singer to a mainstream celebrity, thanks to her high-profile dating life (thus beginning her heavily mocked tradition of not-so-subtly targeting her famous exes in her songs).
That last point is already making the album’s upcoming re-release somewhat fraught, as Speak Now is rife with confessional lyrics alluding to celebrities like John Mayer. During her Eras Tour concert in Minneapolis last weekend, the singer pleaded with fans to stop harassing the presumed subject of Speak Now’s fifth track, “Dear John,” before performing the piercing tell-off ballad live for the first time since 2012.
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Maybe it was the frenzy surrounding her recent fling with provocative singer Matty Healy that has Swift finally setting boundaries between fans and the celebrities who were once in her orbit. Historically, the Grammy winner has stayed silent during instances of harassment and doxxing from her overzealous fanbase—when she’s not siccing them onto people herself. The last time Swift was criticized for not intervening in their online behavior was by her ex Jake Gyllenhaal after last year’s viral re-recording of “All Too Well,” which she wrote about their months-long relationship.
It’ll be especially fascinating to watch how Swift navigates fans’ reactions to certain songs on Speak Now (TV) given the original album’s rich lore and notably messy material. One can already imagine hundreds of TikToks educating—or re-educating—the public on the album’s juicy backstories, dredging up tabloid fodder you thought was ancient history. Whether Swift will downplay those years-old feuds or lean into the drama is anyone’s guess. (I’m betting on the latter.)
For now, let’s dig into some of the key players who will inevitably be thrust back into the zeitgeist in the wake of Speak Now (TV)—and who may want to mute their social media comments come July 7.
John Mayer
Swift’s message in Minneapolis presumably had to do with Swifties’ online attacks against Mayer when he appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast last December. Ostensibly because of the revelatory nature of the show, fans assumed Mayer would dish on his relationship with Swift, which he did not. Nevertheless, they subsequently began criticizing him on Twitter, accusing him of being predatory toward Swift, who he dated between 2009 and 2010, when he was 32 and she was 19.
In “Dear John,” Swift questions her older paramour about their age gap, singing, “Don’t you think I was too young to be messed with?” However, on last year’s Midnights bonus track “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” she has some newer insight on the brief affair: “And I damn sure never would’ve danced with the devil / At 19 / And the God’s honest truth is that the pain was heaven.” We’ll see whether fans will actually listen to Swift when she says, “I’m 33 years old, I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19,” or whether they’ll continue piling on Mayer.
Taylor Lautner
The Twilight actor, who dated Swift in 2009, has made it known several times that he has nothing to worry about regarding the impending re-recording of “Back to December,” which is rumored to be about him. By all means, he’s probably right, as it’s the rare song where Swift regrets her treatment of an ex, and not vice versa.
When asked in a Today interview whether he was prepared to deal with the inevitable scrutiny from Speak Now (TV), Lautner said he “[felt] safe” and was “praying for John” instead. After his comments went viral, he capitalized on the attention by making a lame TikTok where he jokingly says a prayer for Mayer. Still, 12 years is a lot of time to reflect, and he might not want to jinx himself so publicly.
Camilla Belle
One of the biggest question marks surrounding the album is the diss track “Better Than Revenge,” which supposedly targets actress Camilla Belle. The 10,000 BC star became entangled in a messy love triangle when she started dating Swift’s ex Joe Jonas after appearing in the Jonas Brothers’ “Lovebug” music video. In “Better Than Revenge,” the pop star furiously vows to take vengeance on an “actress” who “stole” her former lover. The song hasn’t aged well; it has a notably misogynistic tone, as Swift insults the unnamed woman’s “ever-present frown” and sings the blatantly slut-shaming lyric, “She’s better known for the things she does on the mattress.”
Given Swift’s public declarations of feminism over the years and her outspokenness about being slut-shamed by the media, it’ll be interesting to see if she revisits the song from an apologetic standpoint or simply chalks up her ruthlessness to immaturity.
The writer who criticized her Grammy performance
“Mean” could easily be applied directly to Swifties and their online antics, but the actual inspiration for the anti-bullying song, according to Swift herself, is a music critic who negatively reviewed her 2010 Grammy duet with Stevie Nicks.
“The things that were said about me by this dude just floored me and leveled me,” Swift said in a 60 Minutes interview. In a video preview of “Mean”, she went on a long screed, differentiating “constructive criticism” and “professional criticism” from “just being mean.” Many listeners have since pointed to music critic Bob Lefsetz, who slammed her vocal performance at the Grammys on his website, writing that she “can’t sing.” He even made a post addressing the accusations and lambasting the song’s lyrics, which include the pointed lines, “Drunk and grumbling on about how I can’t sing / But all you are is mean.”
Kanye West
Despite how feisty much of Speak Now is (see above), Swift took a softer approach on “Innocent” while addressing Kanye West, who had infamously interrupted her VMA acceptance speech the year prior. She’s said on record that the song is dedicated to Ye, as she felt it was important to “write a song to him” as opposed to one “about him.” And while “Innocent” is forgiving and sympathetic at first blush, it’s also totally infantilizing, with lyrics like “Wasn’t it easier during your lunchbox days?” and “32 and still growing up.”
Nevertheless, West has proven to be anything but “innocent” over the subsequent years, going full MAGA, harassing his ex-wife Kim Kardashian on social media, and making antisemitic statements. Out of all the re-recorded songs on Speak Now (TV), this one will definitely need some kind of addendum.
