Taylor Swift's obsession with NBC's Dateline series inspired a song on her new album.
While many songs on The Tortured Poet's Department were inspired by relationships with Travis Kelce, Joe Alwyn, or Matty Healy, one track does come as a result of a former relationship.
She reveals that "Florida!!!," which she wrote with Florence + the Machine, was inspired by watching a lot of Dateline. The Keith Morrison-hosted series delves into mysterious deaths and missing person cases throughout a two hour-long broadcast.
Swift says that the true-crime series served as inspiration for a story about someone who flees to the southern state to completely change their identity.
"I'm always watching Dateline. People have these crimes that they commit; where do they immediately skip town and go to? They go to Florida," the Grammy-winner revealed to Amazon Music. "They try to reinvent themselves, have a new identity, blend in."
The song, however, does not have a murderous angle like her Evermore duet with Haim, "No Body No Crime." Instead, Swift says that moving to Florida could also serve as starting over after reeling from a heartbreak.
"I think when you go through a heartbreak, there's a part of you that thinks, 'I want a new name. I want a new life. I don't want anyone to know where I've been or know me at all.' And so that was the jumping off point. Where would you go to reinvent yourself and blend in? Florida!"
She goes on to say that the song focuses on someone who feels overwhelmed with the "consequences and judgment" that stems from being misled. Whether it be the result of her six year relationship with Joe Alwyn or short-lived dalliance with Matty Healy, it seems that a recent "heartbreak" left Swift wanting to "escape."
"I think I was coming off this idea of like, what happens when your life doesn't fit or the choices you've made catch up to you and you're surrounding by these harsh consequences and judgment and circumstances did not lead you to where you thought you would be and you just want to escape from everything you've ever known. Is there a place you could go?"
In the newly-released Amazon Music track analysis, Swift spills on what motivated several of the tracks on her new LP. The narration also covers songs like "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me," "Fortnight," and "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys," which she says came after she felt "devalued" in a relationship.
The song stems from "being somebody's favorite toy until they break you and then don't want to play with you anymore," the "Lover" singer says. "Which is how a lot of us are in relationships where we are so valued by a person in the beginning, and then all of the sudden, they break us or they devalue us in their mind. We're still clinging on to 'No no, no. You should've seen them the first time they saw me. They'll come back to that. They'll get back to that.'"
Swift also opened up about using the names of Clara Bow and Stevie Nicks in the final song on the first part of the album. She says that being told by record executives about who she reminds them of when she was younger inspired the track.
"I picked women who have done great things in the past and have been these archetypes of greatness in the entertainment industry. Clara Bow was the first 'it girl.' Stevie Nicks is an icon and an incredible example for anyone who wants to write songs and make music."
Nicks also wrote a poem for the new album, available in the physical CD and vinyl copies of the LP. The album covers a wide range of topics, even covering her friendship with Kim Kardashian. The Tortured Poets Department is out on all streaming platforms now, with several different vinyl versions also available.
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