Defeating the Taylor Swift Mentality

 

Though I was in denial for a long time, I love Taylor Swift's music as much as most young women do. My current favorites are "Safe and Sound" and "Bad Blood", and in a month when I turn 22 I will be humming her song "22" to myself all day. 

 However, as much as I love listening to Taylor Swift and other secular artists, I have noticed an attitude in many of her songs.

"Can't you see 

That I'm the one

Who understands you?

Been here all along

So, why can't you see

You belong with me?"

 ~ "You Belong with Me"

 Though it is a feeling I understand and have had before, I find it dangerous, especially in a song that seems harmless and can play in your brain and change your thinking without you even realizing it.

 Another song of Taylor Swift's tells the story of a girl who crashes the man she loves' wedding. When the minister asks if anyone knows of why this man and woman shouldn't be married, the girl speaks and says he should be marrying her.

"She floats down the aisle like a pageant queen

But I know you wish it was me,

You wish it was me,

Don't you?"

~ "Speak Now"

  At the end of the song, the guy sneaks out of the church with her and they live happily ever after.

 Whenever I hear this song, I sometimes get a certain attitude. This attitude is feeling like I have the right to have a certain guy to like me. That I deserve him.

 It is so easy for me to begin thinking this way, and listening to music with lyrics that heighten those feelings in me only makes it worse.

 I have to go back to what I really deserve: hell.

 "But you're a sweet girl," someone might say. "You deserve a great guy."

 This is where we have the juxtoposition of my worth in Christ along with the failure of my sin. Before I can see my worth in Christ, I have to see first my sin and wretchedness and evil filth.

 Sadly, a great guy is not what God has promised me and not what I deserve no matter how I feel or what anyone says.

 So Taylor Swift, though I love to listen to your music, there are some songs of yours that will not make it on my playlist.



 Disclaimer: Please note that I still love listening to Taylor Swift as well as other secular artists, and though I believe that as Christians we need to be careful with what we fill our minds with, I do not think that means we can never listen to secular music.