"Out of the Woods"

 

This young singer/songwriter is known for writing lyrics that sound as if they came out of her journal about past relationships. This makes her songs so real and relatable to everyone because they too have experienced some of the same things.  She has evolved, through the years, from country to now a pop artist but the message of her songs haven’t really changed.  Taylor Swift is among one of the most popular names in Entertainment today. Taylor Swift is one of my favorite artists of today.  The song, “Out of the Woods”, is on her most recent album 1989.

Taylor Swift, in an interview, explains the overall song’s meaning by saying, “"This song is about the fragility and kind of breakable nature of some relationships. This was a relationship where I was kind of living day to day, wondering where it was going, if it was going to go anywhere, if it was going to end the next day. It was a relationship where you kind of never feel like you're standing on solid ground." (www.entertainmentwise.com)

This meaning behind this song is portrayed through imagery in the lyrics. The chorus, repeatedly, says, “Are we out of the woods yet?” “Are we in the clear yet?” She’s saying, in reference to her relationship, are we out of danger? This is referring to a shaky and shallow relationship because there was no foundation established. The relationship could have ended the next day. The relationship could have lasted the next day. She didn’t know. To her, this kind of relationship brought on many mixed emotions. It brought on bad feelings. It brought on good feelings.

This song has a more questioning and anxious tone to it.  This song takes you on a bit of a music roller coaster ride.   The repeated question she sings in the chorus I think represents the anxiousness she felt while in the relationship. She was frantic because she had to keep asking herself if they were okay. She couldn’t get herself to believe everything was fine, no matter how hard she wanted to.

I think this message resonates with people in society because it’s something everyone experiences.  You can, under certain situations, feel anxious and frantic but also excited and happy. Feelings, instead of logic, start to control the situation.  It becomes easy to ignore the bad things screaming at you until it comes to a screeching halt. Coming from a Christian perspective, our focus should be on pleasing God. When we give God ourselves, He’ll lead us in the right path for our lives.