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Taylor Swift · S3 E6
Joe Jonas
The 27-second phone call that ends the relationship — and becomes Forever & Always.
The phone call lasts twenty-seven seconds. Joe Jonas breaks up with Taylor Swift over the phone, and she times it because she cannot believe how fast it happens.
"The Story of Us" -- Taylor Swift, official music video (2011). Taylor in a library, surrounded by people going about their lives while she replays an entire failed relationship in her head. The song is widely believed to be about the awkwardness of seeing Joe Jonas at awards shows after the breakup.
The Story of Us
One of the most musically aggressive songs Taylor records up to this point. Nathan Chapman layers electric guitars that are almost rock in their distortion, and the drums drive forward with urgency that matches the lyric's frustration. This is the first time Taylor sounds genuinely angry on a record, not hurt, not sad, but annoyed at someone who won't even look at her. Listen for the bridge, where the production drops to almost nothing and Taylor delivers "this is looking like a contest of who can act like they care less" in a near-whisper. The restraint after all that noise is the most effective moment on the track.
TAP TO REVEAL: How do we know the phone call was exactly twenty-seven seconds?
“Some day I'm going to find somebody really, really great who's right for me. And he'll be wonderful. And when I look at that person, I won't even be able to remember the boy who broke up with me over the phone in twenty-seven seconds.”
— Taylor Swift, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, November 2008
The Songs
Bonus Listening
"Forever & Always" -- the song Taylor wrote and recorded in a rush after the twenty-seven-second phone call, squeezed onto Fearless at the last possible moment. The hidden message in the liner notes spells JOE. The vocal is raw, the production slightly rougher than the rest of the album, because there was no time to polish it. That roughness is the point.
"Forever & Always" was added to Fearless under unusual circumstances. What made its inclusion so last-minute?
Joe Jonas becomes a song, and the song reaches millions of people who have never met either of them. The machine that turns Taylor's personal life into public property is running at full speed, and the fans who power it are unlike anything the music industry has seen. Next: the early Swifties, MySpace, and how Taylor builds a direct relationship with her audience before anyone else thinks to try.
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