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Love Story (Taylor Swift song)

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"Love Story"
Song

"Love Story" is a song by American country music-pop music artist Taylor Swift. It is the first single from her second studio album, 2008's Fearless. The song was released in September 2008, and by November it reached the top of the Billboard country chart, becoming her third Billboard Number One. It has also become her first top 5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. As with most of the songs on Fearless, Swift wrote "Love Story" herself. "Love Story" is Swift's first international single venturing into other markets outside North America and Australia. The single is also Swift's first single to receive remixes for the clubs. As of the week ending Feb. 8, 2009, "love Story" has been downloaded more than 2.64 million times making it the most downloaded country song in history. In addition, "Love Story" also became the first country crossover recording to hit #1 on the Nielsen BDS CHR/Top 40 chart, which appears in industry leading trade publications Radio & Records and Billboard as well as #1 on the Mediabase Top 40 Chart.[1]

Music and lyrics

In an article for Billboard, Swift described "Love Story" as "a love that you've got to hide because for whatever reason it wouldn't go over well. I spun it in the direction of Romeo and Juliet; our parents are fighting. I relate to it more as a love that you cannot really elaborate on — a love that maybe society wouldn't accept [or] maybe your friends wouldn't accept."[2]

The song is a mid-tempo, accompanied by banjo and guitar. The chord progression is a simple I-V-vi-IV, very common in pop music. In the lyrics, the narrator alludes to Romeo and Juliet and The Scarlet Letter to describe a lover whom her father will not let her see. In the end, however, the father reconciles and the lover proposes to the female narrator. The proposal is accompanied by a modulation in key up one whole step, from D to E. Swift has repeatedly mentioned in interviews that the song was written around the lyrics, "This love is difficult, but it's real."

The Pop Mix replaces the Country-style instruments (i.e. the banjo) and adds a heavier bassline, a drum loop and heavier electric guitars.

The International Radio Mix is a hybrid mix of the album version and pop edit, keeping the storybook theme of the original song with a pop overtone arrangement.

Critical reception

The song received a mostly positive response from critics. Jim Malec of The 9513 gave "Love Story" a thumbs-up rating. Although he said that the song had a "wonderful, idealized ending" and that it seemed to comprise too much of a plot line for a four-minute song, he nonetheless made note of the lyrics, saying, "the complications and difficulties surrounding her affair are just as grave as Juliet’s… the fact that Swift, arguably the genre’s biggest star at the moment, has done so here is a breath of fresh air, even if the song does otherwise follow a disappointingly unoriginal pattern." He added, "None of these criticisms, however, will have a major impact on the song’s effectiveness, or on its ability to strike a resonant chord with its intended audience… what’s more, 'Love Story' shows an artist willing to take chances by venturing from the format’s standard song structure, and to let her personality shine through–even if the lyric generally follows a well-worn path."[3]

Nick Levine from the UK website Digital Spy gave the song 3 stars and praised Swift for knowing her "way to a radio-friendly chorus" and stated she "has enough charm to pull off lyrics that essentially rewrite Romeo & Juliet with a happy ending". He concluded his review of the song by saying "Like a Meg Ryan rom-com, this is completely corny but hard not to like".[4]

Chart performance

"Love Story" was released as a single on September 12, 2008. For the chart week of September 27, 2008, it debuted at #25 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs becoming Swift's highest debuting song on that chart of her career. For the chart week of November 22, 2008, it has become her third Number One on the Hot Country Songs chart, although it only spent thirteen weeks on that chart. Also on the Billboard Hot 100 it debuted at #16 making Swift's third highest debut on that chart of her career (behind "Fearless" which debuted at #9 and "You're Not Sorry" which debuted at #11) and has so far peaked at #4. It has also become her biggest airplay hit peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 airplay and #1 on the Billboard Pop 100 airplay. As of February 20th "Love Story" was the first country crossover to ever be number 1 on the Top 40 pop chart.

On 22 February 2009, "Love Story" entered the UK Singles Chart at #22 on downloads alone. On 1 March 2009, "Love Story" climbed to #2, behind Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You".

Music video

File:TaylorSwift LoveStory musicvideo.png
Taylor Swift with her prince

The music video premiered on Country Music Television on September 12, 2008.[5]

The video begins with Swift seeing a man, that is sitting under a tree in present day, played by Justin Gaston.[6] Then, there are some videos scenes alternating flashbacks and present scenes. Taylor Swift is seen singing outside of a castle and she is waiting for her prince. She singing and still some scenes are alternate with the past, where she dancing during a gala with her boyfriend. The "love story" ends with the prince's arrival and the video comes back to the present. The boy is seen getting up and they approach each other. The video and the song make several references to the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare however the video displays Regency Era Fashions.

Track listing

Promo CD Single

  1. "Love Story" (International Radio Mix)
  2. "Love Story" (U.S. Pop Mix)
  3. "Love Story" (U.S. Album Version)

Promo Remix CD Single

  1. "Love Story" (Radio Edit)
  2. "Love Story" (J Stax Full Mix)
  3. "Love Story" (J Stax Edit)
  4. "Love Story" (Digital Dog Remix)
  5. "Love Story" (Digital Dog Edit)
  6. "Love Story" (Digital Dog Dub)

Charts

Chart (2008-2009) Peak
position
American Top 40 1
Australian Singles Chart 2
Canadian Country Singles 1
Canadian Hot 100 4
Dutch Top 40 30
Irish Singles Chart 14
New Zealand Singles Chart 7
Swedish Singles Chart 29
UK Singles Chart 2
UK Download Chart[7] 2
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs 1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 4
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay 2
U.S. Billboard Pop 100 3
U.S. Billboard Pop 100 Airplay 1
U.S. Billboard Mainstream Top 40 1
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks 3
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks 3
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs 3

Chart procession and succession

Preceded by Canadian Country Singles Chart
number-one single
November 14-November 21, 2008 		Succeeded by
Preceded by U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs
number-one single
November 22-November 29, 2008 		Succeeded by
Preceded by U.S. Billboard Mainstream Top 40
number-one single
February 28, 2009 		Succeeded by

References

  1. ^ "Taylor Swift Sets Historic Top 40 Radio Milestone for Country Artist". Universal Republic Records. 2009-02-17. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
  2. ^ Cohen, Jonathan (2008-09-12). "New Taylor Swift album set for November". Billboard. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  3. ^ Malec, Jim (2008-09-16). "Taylor Swift - "Love Story"". The 9513. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
  4. ^ http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/a145668/taylor-swift-love-story.html
  5. ^ "Taylor Swift Premiering New Video on CMT". CMT.com. September 12, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-15.
  6. ^ Westmark, Jan (September 16, 2008). "Taylor Swift Releases New Music Video For Song "Love Story"". Celebrity News Service. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
  7. ^ [1]
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