The two Taylor Swift Songs I am most fascinated by are Style and Getaway Car; songs that while appreciated in the Swift canon are never really analysed together. I personally see the two songs as two parts of a greater story. While both songs have ‘correct’ and accepted meanings, I am a firm believer that in literary analysis there are multiple readings beyond the main or intended meaning from the author. I’m going to walk around the readily accepted interpretations of the two songs and present my own, an interpretation filled with 50s glamour, crime, and very fast cars.
Both songs are 80s style synth-pop anthems with the same structure (VCVCBC). The instrumental in Style is lighter and more fun while Getaway Car is darker, which suits both the story between the songs as well as the tracks’ parent albums. Style is the first part of the story, in which Taylor describes her relationship with a dangerous anti-hero. The song references James Dean, an iconic actor from the 1950s best known for his film Rebel Without a Cause, in which he plays a troubled teenager rebelling against society that drags the girl he loves into his criminal life. A similar story is told in Style. Taylor plays the good girl getting led astray, she ‘got that good girl faith’. She believes in the good nature of her partner, who I’ll call ‘James’ for convenience. James is a shady and dangerous character, picking her up late at night with ‘no headlights’ in order to, presumably, hide his activity. She is aware of the danger he presents, saying she ‘knows exactly where it leads’ and saying that their drives ‘could end in burning flames’. Taylor evokes the trope of the good girl trying to make the bad boy less bad. This is implied by the line ‘good girl faith’ and her reluctance to let James go, despite his disloyal behaviour.
Getaway Car takes place later in the story, instead of turning the bad boy good, James has turned the good girl bad, reversing the trope. The production is more minimal to begin with, this represents how they have been on the run for some time and don’t have the same recourses as they used to. Their relationship is straining and there is no longer the bravado from Style. The lyrics reference 1950s film in the first verse mentioning black, white and grey. Placing the story of the song in a world before colour. Since the events of Style Taylor and James have become Bonnie and Clyde, driving around and committing crimes, in what I like to believe is the same car from Style. Getaway Car song starts with a similar sentiment to Style ‘nothing good starts in a getaway car’, nothing good is going to come from this relationship. Despite how deep she is in this relationship she still realises that it’s a bad, dangerous thing. She’s trying to find a way out, ‘want[ing] to leave him, need[ing] a reason’. The song proceeds to talk about a failed heist, probably due to a falling out (‘x marks the spot, where we fell apart’), then they flee from the law in their getaway car. The climax of the song is in the bridge where Taylor’s arc is finally completed. She acts on what she knew from the start: James was trouble and she needs to escape him. ‘It’s no surprise [she] turned him in’, she’s been signalling it from the beginning. We knew there were two outcomes, she stays with him and gets stricken by tragedy or she turns him in and gets away. There was no possibility of her turning him good. But even though she did what was right, she’s still suffering, crying while saying goodbye, it was a hard decision to betray James, but ultimately, it was the right decision.
Something additional I noticed after finishing writing this was that Getaway Car can be read interview of the events of the night, Taylor recalling the events and her thoughts to a detective. This interpretation falters in the chorus but it’s interesting to me.
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