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Meggie Nguyen

Professor Lee

Writing 39B

4 December 2021

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) Review Companion Essay

As we were being told the different types of Rhetoric-in-Practice formats that we could

do for our project, I knew that I wanted to do an album review since I love listening to music.

Based on the topics that we have discussed in this class, I also had to think of ways I could

connect the songs of a certain album to what we have learned. Since I enjoyed reading about

fairy tales in our class, one of the first few albums that I could recall that had songs that

mentioned fairytales was Fearless by Taylor Swift. Then I had to decide between whether I

should review the original or the newly re-recorded version, however, I noticed that the

re-recording of that album included many more songs which opened up the possibilities of songs

that I could write about.

The purpose of my album review was to entertain and also inform readers about Taylor

Swift’s re-released album of Fearless while also persuading them to listen to the album. The

review first goes into the background of Taylor Swift and why she chose to re-record an album

that she already published. Then it also mentions the slight differences between her original and

her re-released version of the album. The review goes over the lyrical meaning behind a few

songs in her album while also tying to the themes that we learned throughout the class. Such

themes include comparing her songs to fairytales and describing how Swift uses Tolkien’s

escapism, eucatastrophe, and recovery in her songs. There is also an analysis of some of the song
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titles she used and an explanation of how they affected listeners’ expectations of the song and

how they described the contents of the song well without spoiling too much of it.

The demographics of Taylor Swift’s songs are usually teens and young adults and upon

further research, the demographics of Pitchfork also had a “majority of readers between the ages

of 18 and 34” (Kornhaber) which readers of my reviews would be of a similar age group. Being

a female artist herself, Taylor’s songs more likely appeal to women as her songs mention her

experiences with her exes, which women can more easily relate to in comparison to men. This

contrasts with Pitchfork’s audience where “men make up 82 percent of the site’s visitors”

(Kornhaber). Since Fearless was originally a Country and Pop album, this review would also

appeal to people interested in either of these genres. The demographics of my review are catered

to people of all age groups since most people tend to experience being in love and/or heartbreak

at least once in their life while also including the audience that Taylor attracts. There is also a

larger emphasis on the GenZ and GenY audience since most people from that generation grew up

hearing Taylor Swift on the radio and live in an era where technological advancement is at its

greatest. With the internet and technological devices becoming more widely available to all,

news outlets and review websites can be more accessible, and people are more likely to stumble

across an online review on an album when surfing the internet. Additionally, those interested in

reading album reviews or knowing more about music would be included in the psychographic.

The message in the review is to provide knowledge about the album while also

persuading them to listen to the album since they may be able to find a song in it that they like

and can possibly relate to. By bringing readers’ attention to how Taylor’s songs use escapism and

also follow some conventions found in fairytales, I hope to teach readers about the conventions

that Taylor herself uses in her songs. My message encourages readers to look at the deeper
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meaning behind her lyrics which they could hopefully apply to other songs later on as there

usually are hidden messages behind each song and thought-out conventions. Such conventions

she used were the meanings behind her word choices and title names, where she uses the words

“white horse” to describe her relationship with a boy when he contrasted the spiritual and

religious meaning of a white horse.

Those that read album reviews more likely want to learn more about the album itself

while also reading to see if it is worthwhile to listen to the album. So by writing about the

messages within Taylor’s songs and drawing readers’ attention to her elaborate word usage, it

can persuade readers to listen to her album in hopes of finding a song that they can resonate with.

By writing my review on an online platform, it would reach my targeted audience since many

GenY and GenZ people usually surf the web or scroll through news media. In order to mimic the

conventions of an album review, I researched a few websites that do reviews for music and

realized that I wanted to copy the style of Pitchfork as it is simplistic and the whole website is

dedicated to music and album reviews. I took note of how they introduced readers to the artist

and gave them background information and historical context about what caused the artist to

create that album. I follow most conventions that Pitchfork uses such as giving a brief summary

of what the song is about and including background information about the artist. However, my

analysis of the song tends to be lengthier and goes more in-depth with the explanations since I

also try to relate the songs to the themes of this class. I also followed the way that the lyrics are

quoted as they do not follow the usual conventions of MLA formatting and instead just embed

the lyrics into the article. The authors of Pitchfork tend to use a more informal style of writing

and tear apart each album and song that they review such as in their review on Andy Stott’s

Never the Right Time, where they describe “His affable name now seems like an accidental
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vestige of this transformation” (Howe). I did not copy this style since I was trying to educate

readers about the songs’ deeper purpose while keeping the information subjective and in a more

positive manner. In order to mimic the aesthetic style of the website, I included a picture of the

album as well as a rating for it and took a screenshot of the website banner. I then looked for

fonts that closely resembled the ones that they used on their website and also included a section

in the end if readers want to browse similar articles.

One of the struggles that I had while making this rhetorical project was deciding which

songs were most relevant to this course and making sure that I was able to back up my claims.

Originally, I was going to cover all the songs in the album but I realized that it would not be

time-friendly nor reader-friendly to discuss all twenty-six songs so I had to relisten to every song

in the album and choose which to use. Some songs were more obvious to use such as “Love

Story” and “Today Was a Fairytale” since the title explicitly has content related to this course

material while the other songs I had to do some closer listening to and research the meanings

behind them. After listening to “White Horse” I noticed how she contrasted her relationship to

that of a fairytale. Furthermore, I did research on the meaning behind what a white horse was

since I recalled that a lot of fairy tales specifically made princes ride on white horses. I then

learned that it resembled heroism and purity, which I tied the definition back to the song. While

listening to “We Were Happy” I noticed that it gave off very reminiscent vibes so I tied it to

Tolkien’s recovery since she leaves the relationship that she was in with gained knowledge and a

new outlook on life. Overall, I think that I was able to successfully convey my message to

readers while also reviewing the album.

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Works Cited

Blum, Dani. “Taylor Swift: Fearless (Taylor's Version).” Pitchfork, Pitchfork, 20 Apr. 2021,

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-fearless-taylors-version/.

Dhote, Tanvi. “Why Did Taylor Swift Re-Record Fearless? Here's All You Need to Know About

the New Album.” Republic World, Republic World, 10 Apr. 2021,

https://www.republicworld.com/entertainment-news/music/why-did-taylor-swift-re-recor

d-fearless-heres-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-album.html.

Howe, Brian. “Andy Stott: Never the Right Time.” Pitchfork, Pitchfork, 20 Apr. 2021,

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/andy-stott-never-the-right-time/.

Kornhaber, Spencer. “Why Conde Nast Wants Pitchfork's 'Millennial Male' Readers.” The

Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 13 Oct. 2015,

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/conde-nast-buys-pitchfork-fo

r-the-millennial-men/410341/.

Sisario, Ben. “Taylor Swift's Rerecorded 'Fearless' Is the Year's Biggest Debut So Far.” The New

York Times, The New York Times, 19 Apr. 2021,

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/arts/music/taylor-swift-fearless-taylors-version-bill

board-chart.html.

Stanton, Kristen M. “Horse Symbolism, Meanings & The Horse Spirit Animal.” UniGuide, 4

Oct. 2021, https://www.uniguide.com/horse-meaning-symbolism-spirit-animal-guide/.

Swift, Taylor. “Love Story.” Fearless (Taylor’s Version). Republic Records, 2021. CD.

Swift, Taylor. “Today Was a Fairytale.” Fearless (Taylor’s Version). Republic Records, 2021.

CD.
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Swift, Taylor. “We Were Happy.” Fearless (Taylor’s Version). Republic Records, 2021. CD.

Swift, Taylor. “White Horse.” Fearless (Taylor’s Version). Republic Records, 2021. CD.