This Is What You Came For

Taylor Swift has a new boyfriend. Possibly! Maybe? We need this. Lately, the world has been exceptionally exhausting.; a joyous event unfolding before our eyes, even if carefully crafted in some PR office, we’ll take it. Lie to us! But lie well. So far it has been well. Someone on Twitter phrased it beautifully: “It’s awesome, it’s fun and it’s American culture in all its corn-syrup glory. Are you not entertained?”. Yes we are @awi_sinha, yes we are.

Some could say we discovered Travis Kelce through Taylor Swift. And I would say I discovered her through him.

I didn’t always understand the phenomenon of Taylor. Huge fan base, awards in plenty; I couldn’t quite see it. I’ve heard her perform live and Adele, she wasn’t. In fact, people on The American Idol sounded better than her. It took me a little while to grasp what it is about her that makes her a global phenomenon. The understanding of music. Melody. Arrangements. Songwriting. And above all - storytelling.

And boy can she tell a story.

When I started to really dig her was when I realized all her songs are about some boy or a man she dated. That also came in three stages for me. First was, wow, petty, love it. Second was, a bit tongue-in-cheek, is it? The third was a realization that was all too familiar to me: I lived this story, and I own it, it’s mine and I can talk about it.