Love Story (Taylor Swift song)

Single infobox
Name = Love Story


Artist = Taylor Swift
from Album = Fearless
Released = Start date|2008|09|12
Genre = Country
Length = 3:53 (Album/Single Version)
Writer = Taylor Swift
Label = Big Machine
Producer =
Certification = Gold (U.S.)
Last single = "Change"
(2008)
This single = "Love Story"
(2008)
Next single =
Misc = External music video|" [http://www.cmt.com/videos/taylor-swift/275121/love-story.jhtml Love Story] " at CMT.com

"Love Story" is a song by American country singer Taylor Swift from her upcoming album "Fearless". It was released on September 8, 2008, and is to date Swift's highest-charting single in her career. The song was written soley by Swift and is accompanied by guitar and banjo.

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."cite web |url=http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003849577 |title=New Taylor Swift album set for November |accessdate=2008-09-16 |last=Cohen |first=Jonathan |date=2008-09-12 |work=Billboard]

The song is a mid-tempo country song, accompanied by banjo and guitar, in which 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.

Release

"Love Story" was released as a single on September 12, 2008. For the week of September 27, the song debuted at #25 and #16 on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs and Hot 100 charts respectively, Swift's highest debuting song on both charts of her career.The following week, it rose to #18 on the country charts and #5 on the Hot 100, giving Swift her highest chart entry on the Hot 100.

Critical reception

Jim Malec of The 9513 gave "Love Story" a thumbs-up rating. Although he felt 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 commended the lyrics for showing that "the complications and difficulties surrounding her affair are just as grave as Juliet’s… [t] he 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… [w] hat’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." [cite web |url=http://www.the9513.com/taylor-swift-love-story/ |title=Taylor Swift - "Love Story" |accessdate=2008-09-22 |last=Malec |first=Jim |date=2008-09-16 |work=The 9513]

Music video

The music video premiered on Country Music Television on September 12, 2008. [cite web|title=Taylor Swift Premiering New Video on CMT|work=CMT.com|url=http://www.cmt.com/news/news-in-brief/1594680/taylor-swift-premiering-new-video-on-cmt.jhtml|date=September 12, 2008|accessdate=2008-09-15]

The video begins with Swift approaching a guy, played by Justin Gaston, [cite news|title=Taylor Swift Releases New Music Video For Song "Love Story"|first=Jan|last=Westmark|date=September 16, 2008|publisher=Celebrity News Service|url=http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7012317170|accessdate=2008-09-22] who is sitting under a tree in present day. Suddenly she experiences a somewhat flashback of somekind"I close my eyes and the flashback starts:". About the two of them in "the past". The video ends by Romeo coming back to her, after all the time she's waited, their finally together again,past and present.

Chart positions

References