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Taylor Swift · S5 E5
The Grammy That Didn't Come
Losing Album of the Year to Daft Punk's Random Access Memories and what it means for the next two years.
On January 26, 2014, Taylor Swift sits in the audience at the Staples Center and watches Daft Punk win Album of the Year for Random Access Memories. Red, her most ambitious album, goes home without the one trophy that matters.
"Style" -- Taylor Swift, official music video (2015). Dark, cinematic, and dripping with pop confidence. There is not a trace of country anywhere in this video or this production. "Style" is what the Grammy loss produces: Taylor stops hedging and makes the sleekest, most unambiguous pop record she can.
Style
Produced by Max Martin, Shellback, and Ali Payami, the production references 1980s new wave: a pulsing synth bass, a clean guitar riff, and a drum machine that owes more to Duran Duran than to Nashville. Listen for the guitar riff that opens the song and never fully disappears, weaving in and out like a memory you cannot let go of. There is nothing like this on Red.
TAP TO REVEAL: What rule does Taylor impose on herself after the Grammy loss?
The Numbers
The Lucky One (Taylor's Version)
A song about a celebrity who has everything and walks away from all of it. Taylor writes it about someone else, but after the Grammy loss, it reads like prophecy: what does winning even mean when the one award you wanted most goes to someone else?
The Lucky One, Taylor Swift (2012)
Read the lyrics while you listen. Taylor writes about fame as a trap disguised as a prize, and in the context of the Grammy loss, every line reads like a warning she is writing to herself.
After Red lost Album of the Year, Taylor imposed a rule on her next album sessions. What was it?
The Grammy loss points Taylor toward pure pop, but the relationship that gives 1989 its emotional fuel is already underway. Next: Harry Styles, and the anxiety spiral that produces "Out of the Woods."
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