Taylor Swift’s ‘Tortured Poet Parts’ and when the lyrics are about bad things

Music is bound to make you feel something. “People need to understand that music is tied to memory, and memories are tied to emotions,” says Kevin Chapman, founder and director of the Kentucky Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders. It represents nostalgia, negаtive and positive life experiences, people, places and things.

Combine that with Swift’s specific songwriting prowess, and the authenticity will sink from depths of your eardrums to your soul. “One thing about Taylor Swift’s music is it’s sort of become synonymous with what it means to experience authentic American music in the sense that she’s a songwriter,” says Melvin L. Williams, associate professor of communication studies at Pace University. “She composes her music, and she’s very much at the pen, both literally and metaphorically of how it all comes together, which lends a level of authenticity that varies from artists who don’t write their music.”

That authenticity, though, could be painful for the listener, particularly on the song “loml,” where “she really demonstrates her powerful gift of illustrating the nuanced emotions of heartbreak and the ways in which they really resemble a deаth.”

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If you’re going through it, take a beаt and accept “the fact that these emotions, albeit painful, exist,” Williams says.

But “don’t judge your emotional experience when it is triggered,” Chapman adds. “In other words, if I’ve had a traumatic experience, and it’s triggered by music and songs that remind me of that traumatic event, it is important to acknowledge that things like anger, sadness, disgust, feаr, those emotions at the core serve an adaptive purpose.” It’s OK to feel your feelings … but take a step back if you need.