Taylor Swift songs that aren’t about romance
With Valentine’s Day just a day away, chances are, you’ve probably heard at least one Taylor Swift song on the radio or added it back to your playlist rotation. We’re guilty as charged.
The Love Story singer is best known for her penmanship when it comes to romantic and breakup tracks. But her repertoire goes beyond lofty love songs. Here are 12 Taylor Swift songs from each era with lores that aren’t just about romance and heartbreak.
Table of Contents
- Taylor Swift songs that aren’t about romance
- 1. ‘Father Figure’ from The Life of A Showgirl
- 2. ‘Cassandra’ from The Tortured Poets Department
- 3. ‘Karma’ from Midnights
- 4. ‘no body, no crime’ from evermore
- 5. ‘the last great american dynasty’ from folklore
- 6. ‘Soon You’ll Get Better (feat. The Chicks)’ from Lover
- 7. ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ from reputation
- 8. ‘New Romantics’ from 1989
- 9. ‘Forever Winter’ from Red, Taylor’s Version
- 10. ‘Mean’ from Speak Now
- 11. ‘Breathe (feat Colbie Caillat)’ from Fearless
- 12. ‘The Outside’ from Taylor Swift
1. ‘Father Figure’ from The Life of A Showgirl
Betrayal from a former mentor
Image credit: Taylor Swift
Taylor’s latest 2025 album, The Life of a Showgirl, gives listeners a glimpse into her life as a performer. In the track Father Figure, she describes a father figure role, backed by a mafia-esque tune.
In this song, she sings of the betrayal and how she comes on top of it as she now plays the father figure or girlboss to her own music empire. This includes the freedom and control she has over her songwriting and music recordings, as well as being able to look after her Eras Tour concert crew members.
Image credit: @taylorerastour via Instagram
Most fans interpret the song to be from the point of view of her former mentor, Scott Borchetta, who also happens to be the founder of Big Machine Label Group. Scott infamously sold the ownership of most of her original musical recordings without her consent. The transaction included six of her studio albums sold to a former record executive, Scooter Braun, who then sold them to a private equity firm.
The transaction caused a legal dispute between both for years, with Taylor eventually obtaining complete ownership of her music in 2025.
2. ‘Cassandra’ from The Tortured Poets Department
Feeling unheard & silenced
Image credit: Taylor Swift via YouTube
Taylor’s track Cassandra uses the Greek myth of Cassandra of Troy as a metaphor for her own experiences of speaking truths that were ignored. In the song, she particularly references a feud between her, the rapper Kanye West, and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian, back in 2016.
Image credit: Los Angeles Times
Taylor’s account of events was dismissed by the public and media, only for facts to later emerge, leaving her feeling betrayed.
With lyrics that go, “Truth comes out, it’s quiet”, and her reputation, “set in flames”, behind her, the song delves into themes of disbelief, isolation, and the agony of invalidation, questioning whether anyone believes her.
3. ‘Karma’ from Midnights
What goes around comes around
Image credit: Taylor Swift via YouTube
“What goes around comes around” is a saying that fits neatly into Taylor’s Karma, as the song dives into finding peace and reward in one’s own good deeds.
Reflecting her swift rise from public scrutiny to new heights of fame, particularly in the midst of her feuds with Kanye West and Scooter Braun, Taylor sees karma as a protective force that will bring demise to her enemies, while she continues to thrive in her career.
Karma, as a song, is a testament that she’s still standing strong after facing public backlash, as the universe serves up sweet justice for her and payback for her foes.
4. ‘no body, no crime’ from evermore
A made-up murder mystery
Image credit: Beth Garrabrant
Murder mysteries and Taylor Swift are two things that you would never imagine coming together, but her song no body, no crime in her folk album, evermore, showcases her fictional storytelling prowess.
Image credit: Beth Garrabrant
Inspired by true crime podcasts, Taylor crafted a murder mystery ballad in which the narrator avenges her close friend, Este, after Este is killed by her unfaithful husband. The narrator then frames the husband’s mistress for the murder, playing on the notion that without a body, there is no crime.
The ballad, backed by country-style guitar instrumentals, tells a tale that empowers the narrator to take justice into their own hands.
5. ‘the last great american dynasty’ from folklore
The story of her Rhode Island holiday mansion
Image credit: Beth Garrabrant
True to the album’s name, Taylor writes tales that also include an interesting story of her $17.75 million dollar holiday mansion on Watch Hill, Rhode Island.
The song centres around American socialite Rebekah Harkness, who previously owned and lived at the Watch Hill mansion. Swift draws comparisons between Harkness’s scandalous, lavish lifestyle and her own experiences with fame, public criticism, and wild parties.
6. ‘Soon You’ll Get Better (feat. The Chicks)’ from Lover
A personal letter to her ailing mother
Image credit: Valheria Rocha
Given an album titled Lover and its pastel pink aesthetics, you might expect it to be filled with over-the-top romantic songs, but listeners may be surprised to find several tracks that explore themes beyond romantic love.
Taylor and her mother, Andrea Swift.
Image credit: @taylornation via Instagram
Soon You’ll Get Better is a prime example from Taylor’s portfolio of emotional songs that comes from a deeply personal experience. Taylor shared that the song is about her fear as a child to witness her mother’s long battle with cancer.
Listeners are exposed to the raw emotions of helplessness, denial, hope, and desire for normalcy when a loved one is facing a life-threatening health crisis. Taylor herself shared that this song is too difficult for her to perform live, given the emotional significance to her.
7. ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ from reputation
Transforming & reclaiming one’s identity
Image credit: Taylor Swift via YouTube
It caught many of us off guard when Taylor shed her sweetheart pop-star image and emerged as a force to be reckoned with in her reputation era. Her hit single, Look What You Made Me Do, cemented her unapologetic reinvention in the wake of intense public criticism.
In this track, Taylor declares that her old self is “dead” as she embraces a tougher, “don’t mess with me” mindset. The lyrics carry messages of vengeance, accountability, and reclaiming one’s control during a tumultuous time.
8. ‘New Romantics’ from 1989
Putting your heartbreak behind you
Image credit: @taylorswift via Instagram
With hit breakup anthems like Blank Space and Bad Blood on the 1989 album, her last track on the album ends with an upbeat generational anthem of being young, living in the big city, and putting your heartbreak behind you.
Image credit: Elite Daily
Rather than celebrating romance, New Romantics embodies the idea of the carefree, youthful spirit often found in friendships, as well as celebrates finding freedom outside of romantic relationships.
9. ‘Forever Winter’ from Red, Taylor’s Version
Grief with nowhere to go
Image credit: Taylor Swift
The grief of losing a loved one can be difficult to express, especially when you lose a close friend to depression. These themes are heavily portrayed in her vaulted track, Forever Winter.
While never explicitly shared, Swifties have pieced together the meaning behind the lyrics of her vaulted track. The song is highly rumoured to be about her deceased high school friend, Jeff Lang, who struggled with drug addiction and mental health issues.
Taylor Swift and Jeff Lang during their high school days.
Image credit: Today.com
He passed away two weeks after the release of her third studio album, Speak Now. The day after his funeral, Taylor attended the BMI Awards and dedicated the award she won to Jeff.
Taylor sings about her constant worry and stress over the actions of her friend. The passionate ballad describes her anxiety regarding a loved one who suffers from a mental illness, and her desperation about wanting to be a summer sun, a warm piece of light in their dark, wintry life.
10. ‘Mean’ from Speak Now
Standing up to bullies & critics
Image credit: Taylor Swift
Closer to Taylor’s country roots, Mean’s fiddle and mandolin instrumentals make for an empowering song to stand up to your meanest critics and bullies.
This upbeat track stands as Taylor’s anti-bullying anthem come true. She wrote the song to address cruel critics who questioned her singing, songwriting, and overall artistry.
Image credit: Taste Of Country
The song’s optimistic lyrics lean into overcoming negativity, finding strength in fake criticism, and most importantly, proving them wrong by achieving success, as she famously sings – “Someday I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me”.
11. ‘Breathe (feat Colbie Caillat)’ from Fearless
The inevitability of growing apart
Image credit: Mashable
Growing apart from friends is a natural part of life, and sometimes friendships fade simply because people move in different directions, without anyone being at fault. Taylor captures this feeling in her song, Breathe.
Image credit: Taylor Swift
The song vividly describes the painful realisation that some goodbyes are bound to happen, even if it feels like you won’t be able to breathe without them, embodying the difficulty of moving on when it isn’t anyone’s fault.
12. ‘The Outside’ from Taylor Swift
Being an outcast
Image credit: Taylor Swift
A shared experience is feeling like an outcast at least once in our teenage years. Taylor’s track on her self-titled debut album encapsulates these feelings of loneliness and being a social outcast at school.
As she finds comfort on the “Road less travelled” of her individual musical path, the song encapsulates the misery of seeing other people from a distance and feeling cut off.
Taylor Swift songs that go beyond romance & breakups
While Taylor is most known for her romantic serenades and heartbreak anthems, her songwriting is clearly not just bound by her experiences with her long list of exes.
Hopefully, this list will break the stigma of Taylor Swift solely writing love songs and maybe even expose some of Taylor’s lesser-known tracks that are just as hit-worthy as her singles.
Cover image adapted from: iStock, Today.com, Daily Mail