Taylor Swift admitted that there are “corners” of her fanbase that take things to an “extreme place” by over-speculating about the subjects of her songs.
“There’s nothing I can do about that. There’s people who are gonna try to, like, do detective work, figure out the details — ‘Who is that about? What is this?’” she said in a video interview with The New York Times published Tuesday, in which she was named one of the 30 greatest living American songwriters.
The “Cruel Summer” singer said that it “gets a little bit weird” when her fans treat her lyrics like a “paternity test.”
“Like, ‘This song’s about that person,’” she said, parroting curiosity from her overzealous fans. “[And] I’m like, ‘That dude didn’t write the song, I did.’”
But that’s part of being a celebrity, Swift acknowledged.
“You have to hold tight to your perception of your art and your relationship with it, and then you just kind of have to like [mimics blowing something out of her hand] ‘There it goes, hope you like it. If you don’t now, hope you do in five years. And if you never do, then I was doing it for me anyway,’” she said.
But Swift says she welcomes criticism, as it’s “been a huge fuel” and “a jumping-off point” for her songwriting career.
“There are so many songs in my career that would not exist — like ‘Blank Space’ would not exist if I hadn’t had people being like, ‘Here’s a slideshow of all her boyfriends,‘” she added, sarcastically mimicking her critics. “And then ‘Anti-Hero’ is a song that I’m so proud of still, like that song doesn’t exist if I don’t get criticized for every aspect of my personality that people have a problem with or whatever.”
Watch Swift’s full New York Times interview here.
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