Taylor Swift Rhetorical Devices

Swift’s ‘Mean’ attacks the bully

Bullying has been an unfortunate thread in society’s fabric and it is only in the modern era that it has been acknowledged. Songs are one way in which the issues of bullying can be addressed effectively to reach a wide audience. Taylor Swift’s song Mean talks about her own experience of being bullied in a public forum. What motivated Swift to write about this topic? Swift composed this song when Bob Lefsetz wrote a disgraceful review of her performance in 2010. His critically unfair comments clearly hurt her feelings to which she responded by tackling this caustic attack with the song, Mean because she would not tolerate further unjustifiable attacks. This song is built upon three important features; language, structure and musical elements. Swift uses an even tempo in the song which is both empowering and uplifting as it creates a sad emotional atmosphere which has great

The three similes in verse one emphasize the effect of the critic’s comments on her. For example, ‘You, with your words like knives,’ compares the critics’ words to the sharp pain Swift felt. Furthermore, this idea is reinforced in another simile, ‘You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard,’ appeals to the listener’s sense of being annoyed. In ‘Got me feeling like a nothing,’ Swift gives the impression that the critic’s words have taken away her self-worth. These lyrics are extremely evocative and serve to capture the listener’s attention from the start of the song. The metaphor, ’Well you can’t take me down with just one single blow,’ shows how strongly she feels about bullying. In stanza two Swift creates vivid imagery such as, ‘Wild fires lies’ and ‘I walk with my head down,’ to further illustrate her distress. Therefore Swift has used a variety of language features that makes the song meaningful and effective in conveying the message of