Thematically, The Guardian has noted that Swift was "fantastically good at regarding teenage life with a kind of wistful, sepia-toned nostalgia" over the course of her first two albums.
New York Magazine has remarked that few singer-songwriters have written "great records so explicitly about their teens ... Her nearest antecedent might be sixties-era Brian Wilson, the one true adolescent auteur before she came along." Comparisons have also been drawn with Janis Ian. Fairytale imagery featured on Swift's second album, Fearless.
She explored the disconnect "between fairy tales and the reality of love." Her third and fourth albums addressed more adult relationships. In addition to romance and love, Swift's songs have discussed parent-child relationships ("The Best Day", "Never Grow Up", "Ronan"), friendships ("Fifteen", "Breathe", "22"), alienation ("The Outside", "A Place In This World", "Tied Together with a Smile", "Mean") and career ambitions ("Change", "Long Live", "The Lucky One"). Her defining quality as a songwriter, it has been said, is "a determination to register and hang onto fleeting feelings and impressions, a pre-emptive nostalgia for a present (and sometimes even a future) that she knows will some day be in the past." Swift frequently includes "a tossed-off phrase to suggest large and serious things that won't fit in the song, things that enhance or subvert the surface narrative." The New Yorker has said that her songs, "though they are not subversive, have a certain sophistication ... Sentimental songs are laced with intimations of future disillusionment."
Structurally, Slate notes that Swift has "effortless, preternatural mastery of pop conventions: Very few songwriters can build better bridges than she does." Rolling Stone has described her as "a songwriting savant with an intuitive gift for verse-chorus-bridge architecture." The Village Voice has noted that Swift uses third-verse POV reversals frequently. She has a tendency to use the same images repeatedly. In the words of The Guardian, "she spends so much time kissin' in the rain that it seems a miracle she hasn't developed trenchfoot."
However, "to Swift's credit, she explores new lyrical motifs over the course of [her fourth] album." American Songwriter describes Swift as "a great songwriter, who writes with an unmatched and almost unnatural acuity ... Even her earliest material is characterized by thoughtful - perhaps meticulous - word choice and deliberate melodic construction, with nary a lazy rhyme or aimless tune to be found." While reviews of Swift's work are "almost uniformly positive," The New Yorker has said she is generally portrayed "more as a skilled technician than as a Dylanesque visionary." Swift uses autobiographical detail in her work.
Listening to music as a child, she felt confused "when I knew something was going on in someone's personal life and they didn't address it in their music." The New York Timesbelieves that "righting wrongs is Ms. Swift's raison d'être." In her songs, Swift often addresses the "anonymous crushes of her high school years" and, more recently, fellow celebrities. John Mayer, the presumed subject of "Dear John", has said the song "humiliated" him: "I think it's kind of cheap songwriting.
I know she's the biggest thing in the world, and I'm not trying to sink anybody's ship, but I think it's abusing your talent to rub your hands together and go, 'Wait till he gets a load of this!'" The Village Voice has downplayed this aspect of Swift's songwriting: "Being told What Songs Mean is like having a really pushy professor.
And it imperils a true appreciation of Swift's talent, which is not confessional, but dramatic." New York Magazine believes the media scrutiny over her decision to use autobiographical detail "is sexist, inasmuch as it's not asked of her male peers": "It's a relief to see Swift, the ur-nice-girl, refuse to give themea culpa that many journalists she's talked to have sought."
The singer herself has said that all her songs are not factual and are often based on observations. Aside from her liner note clues, Swift tries not to talk specifically about song subjects "because these are real people. You try to give insight as to where you were coming from as a writer without completely throwing somebody under the bus."
"For a female to write about her feelings, and then be portrayed as some clingy, insane, desperate girlfriend in need of making you marry her and have kids with her, I think that's taking something that potentially should be celebrated - a woman writing about her feelings in a confessional way - that's taking it and turning it and twisting it into something that is frankly a little sexist."
- Swift in response to criticism of her songwriting
