Taylor Swift’s New Song ‘Only the Young’ Has Fans Seriously Divided
Taylor Swift’s documentary, Miss Americana, is officially out on Netflix and in select theaters today. The film seeks to explore Swift’s life over the past couple of years as she attempts to find her place in the world. The film has already been seen by thousands of Swift’s loyal fans and even sparked engagement rumors. But, as Swift is a marketing and PR mastermind, she also included a new song for fans to experience alongside the documentary.
Taylor Swift’s documentary, Miss Americana
Miss Americana explores plenty of themes, but one of the largest is Swift finding her political voice. As someone who remained politically neutral for the large majority of her career, it was a big deal for Swift to speak out and declare her allegiance with the democratic party. She confesses in the documentary that she wanted to be “on the right side of history” before finally speaking up about her views in an Instagram post. Because politics were near the forefront of her mind for several years, Swift did what she does best and wrote a song about some of her feelings. Her new song “Only The Young” seeks to encourage young people to keep fighting for what they believe in.
What inspired Swift to write Only The Young
“I wrote it after the midterm elections, when there were so many young people who rallied for their candidate, whether it was a senator or congressman or congresswoman. It was hard to see so many people feel like they had canvassed and done everything and tried so hard. I saw a lot of young people’s hopes dashed. And I found that to be particularly tragic, because young people are the people who feel the worst effects of gun violence, and student loans and trying to figure out how to start their lives and how to pay their bills, and climate change, and are we going to war — all these horrific situations that we find ourselves facing right now,” Swift said of the new song in a recent interview with Variety.
While the song sheds light on an important issue and showcases Swift finally using her incredible platform for something good, it is largely coming across as polarizing. Fans seem to have truly strong opinions about the song, be they positive or negative. While some really love the tune and find it catchy, others think it is incredibly juvenile, especially lyrically. “This is the reason she is Artist of the Decade. She uses her art as power. That is why I love her,” one fan commented about the song.
Fans have mixed reactions about the new song
“She has this nostalgic, melancholy, magical vibe to a lot of her songs. I love it. Like “it was sad but worth it” kind of vibe,” another fan penned, praising the new song. But, not everyone was impressed. “Lyrics suck, but the song is catchy. I miss Red, Speak Now, and Fearless lol,” one person wrote, referencing her older albums. “I consider myself a big fan but I don’t see myself listening to this song again,” another Swiftie wrote of the featured song of the documentary.
Others added that Swift was trying to appeal to too wide of an audience thus the quality of her songwriting was decreasing. They felt this was apparent in “Only The Young” as well as her newest album, Lover. “She has some genuinely affecting lyrics (most prominently on red, imo, but also on fearless and some on speak now, and since they hold up years later I’m going to assume that I didn’t just think they were good because I was young) but her songwriting quality has drastically declined because she’s trying to be both more adult and appeal to the growing generation you wouldn’t get ME! and False God on the same album otherwise,” one person wrote. Clearly, the new song isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. One thing we will say about Swift is that no matter what, she always elicits some type of response, and, for better or worse, she rarely makes art that is forgettable.
