Taylor Swift — Our Lady of Lyrical Truth Bombs, Patron Saint of Deal With It, Friend of Lordes and Dunhams — released her new album yesterday, and at exactly 11:46 p.m. last night, my girlfriend said to me, “Baby, can you please sing literally anything else besides ‘Shake It Off’? I love you. Please, though. I’m serious.” Presumably millions of similar conversations took place as the nation mainlined 1989 right into their brains from their earbuds, on repeat, for as long as it took to decode the hidden killshot embedded in every song and/or just feel really understood.
If you’re high on T-Swizzle, maybe you’d like to test your knowledge of her music and also emojis? Yes, I thought so. Here’s the challenge: Match the following emojis with the correct Taylor Swift song. (Place your mouse inside the quiz body to scroll down and see all 16 questions.) You’ll find a handy key with detailed answers below the quiz.
Answer Key
1. Love Story (Fearless, 2008)
Relevant lyrics: “It’s a love story / baby, just say yes”
2. Sad Beautiful Tragic (Red, 2012)
Relevant lyrics: “We had a beautiful magic love there / What a sad beautiful tragic love affair”
3. I Knew You Were Trouble (Red, 2012)
Relevant lyrics: “I knew you were trouble when you walked in”
4. Blank Spaces (1989, 2014)
Relevant lyrics: “But you’ll come back each time you leave / ‘Cause darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream”
5. Back to December (Speak Now, 2012)
Relevant lyrics: “I go back to December all the time”
6. The Last Time (Red, 2012)
Relevant lyrics: “This is the last time I’m asking you this / Put my name at the top of your list / This is the last time I’m asking you why / You break my heart in the blink of an eye”
7. Tim McGraw (Taylor Swift, 2006)
Relevant lyrics: “But when you think Tim McGraw / I hope you think my favorite song / The one we danced to all night long / The moon like a spotlight on the lake”
8. Mean (Speak Now, 2010)
Relevant lyrics: “Why you gotta be so mean??”
9. We Are Never Getting Back Together (Red, 2012)
Relevant lyrics: “We are never, ever, ever getting back together”
10. New Romantics (1989, 2014)
Relevant lyrics: “We’re all bored, we’re all so tired of everything / We wait for trains that just aren’t coming / We show off our different scarlet letters […] We cry tears of mascara in the bathroom / Honey life is just a classroom”
11. Welcome to New York (1989, 2014)
Relevant lyrics: “Welcome to New York”
12. Our Song (Taylor Swift, 2006)
Relevant lyrics: “Our song is the slamming screen door / Sneakin’ out late, tapping on your window / When we’re on the phone and you talk real slow / ’cause it’s late and your mama don’t know / Our song is the way you laugh / The first date: ‘Man, I didn’t kiss her, when I should have’ / And when I got home before I said amen / Asking God if he could play it again”
13. Red (Red, 2012)
Relevant lyrics: “Losing him was blue like I’d never known / Missing him was dark grey all alone / Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met / But loving him was red”
14. Sparks Fly (Speak Now, 2010)
Relevant lyrics: “Meet me in the pouring rain / Kiss me on the sidewalk / Take away the pain / ’cause I see sparks fly whenever you smile”
15. Stay, Stay, Stay (Red, 2012)
Relevant lyrics: “I’ve been lovin’ you for quite some time, time, time / You think that it’s funny when I’m mad, mad, mad”
16. Wonderland (1989, 2014)
Relevant lyrics: “We found wonderland / You and I got lost in it / And we pretended it could last forever”
Nice work. Now you may feel free to share your thoughts/feelings about 1989.
Yay(?) I got most of them right just guesing – good emoji clues Heather!
TAYLOR NOTICED ME LAST NIGHT….okay it was only on tumblr which pales in comparison to the nyc secret session but i am a huge swiftie nerd so this is the most exciting thing to happen to me this year.
since as is a safe space i’ll admit i still don’t get the tumblr craze but i love her posts and endearingly dorky hashtags such as #whereismychill and #taylurking. 1989 is a fun synthpoppy album kinda similar to heartthrob by t&s. so those of you who normally find tswift bland or overly dramatic may be pleasantly surprised by it.
OH i’m not sure why i forgot to mention this earlier but her song welcome to new york contains the queer friendly line ‘you can want who you want, boys and boys and girls and girls’. also she now identifies as a feminist and she is constantly hanging out with fans and being adorable as hell.
and just a minor correction, it’s blank space not blank spaces.
I thoroughly enjoyed this even though I dont really like T Swizzle.
I… I clearly don’t know enough Taylor Swift songs.
this is such great morning quizzing. thank you!
i’m so upset, my ipod has broken and i have to go to work and not listen to 1989 for an ENTIRE DAY.
Oh? Taylor Swift is a real person?
This is amazing!!!
Thank you for reminding me to download the new album. I will now proceed to lose all my street cred and confess that I was more excited for 1989 than for the new Weezer album
I’ve never been so disappointed in myself for getting a 63% on a quiz until just now, haha.
Have I mentioned that I am SO HAPPY you are writing for Autostraddle now? I found AfterEllen before I knew Autostraddle was a thing and I loved everything you wrote and would literally just scroll down until I saw your name. I converted to a full time Straddler at some point but still snuck back to AfterEllen to read ALL THE THINGS you wrote.
Really I just love Taylor Swift and you and if you put Fireball in Angry Orchard Hard Cider it tastes delicious.
I’m shocked I got as many right as I did lol. i got a 63%. I know every single TSwift song, but I suck at emojis. This was fun though.
Boom. 94%. Get at me Taylor.
Yessss. The new album is great!
Unfortunate naming of the images– if you hover over, it gives away the answer :P