I once believed love would be black and white, but it’s golden
New episode "Colors" show and tell, out now!
In this week’s episode of AP Taylor Swift, we dive into the rich, poetic use of color in Taylor Swift's lyrics with a show and tell on…color! From "Red" to "Daylight" to "Maroon," we discuss how Taylor’s use of color evolves to reflect different stages of love and life.
🎧 Listen above and ⬇️ scroll below to read Jodi’s extra credit about Taylor’s color palette.
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🎒This Week’s Extra Credit - Brought to You by Jodi
Orange grass. Blue snow. Purple cat.
Those are probably not the colors you were taught to associate with each item, right?
We teach children the sky is blue, grass is green, and snow is white. It’s what’s most recognizable when you look at each object. But as I’ve been taking watercolor classes for the past few years, I’ve learned to look beyond what we’ve been told, and instead see the nuances of color: the way the sun’s amber rays at sunset reflect on a blade of grass, giving it an orange hue; how the snow is tinted blue on a bright, cloudless day; the hints of lilac in the shadow on a cat’s white fur. These unexpected colors give a painting more dimension, and make it more interesting, probably because it makes it even more lifelike than painting with the “expected,” solid colors.
Color, then, becomes an apt metaphor for a songwriter like Taylor Swift to use. Each color has its meaning or recognizable, relatable object, but colors also have nuance. Red means passion and love, as well as anger. Probably because there are many (many) shades of red, as we learn in “Maroon,” or as any amateur painter like myself learns when scouring Blick for new paints
Loving him was red
Taylor’s also a painter, so perhaps her evolution from “Red” to “Maroon” parallels her experience searching for paint colors for her physical palette. Taylor’s palette in “Red” is pretty standard:
Losing him was blue, like I'd never known
Missing him was dark gray, all alone
Forgetting him was like trying to know
Somebody you never met
But loving him was red
Loving him was red
Dark gray is as ambitious a color as we get—red and blue are primary, basic colors. That mirrors the emotional palette in the song, seeing things as either sad (blue), lonely (dark gray), or passionate (red). We’re taught as children to associate sadness with blue, love with red—these aren’t very nuanced takes on giving emotions color. While the color red has some nuance as it could mean “romantic-passionate” or “angry-challenging-passionate,” the lyrics help steer us toward what she means by “red.” But we don’t get any more depth or nuance than that—love can only be certain associated with colors, and those colors are easily described and expected.
I once believed love would be black and white
In “Daylight,” we hear from Taylor that her palette has evolved and she’s changed what colors love could be:
I once believed love would be (black and white)
But it's golden (golden)
And I can still see it all (in my head)
Back and forth from New York (sneaking in your bed)
I once believed love would be (burning red)
But it's golden
Like daylight, like daylight
Like daylight, daylight
Black and white aren’t used as colors here; they’re instead used to suggest Taylor believed love would be clear, straightforward, and easy to understand—as easy as, say, picking one of the primary colors, like red. However, by now she’s matured and has a new palette for love: Love is golden, like daylight. Golden is a richer, more nuanced hue, not quite a primary color, and not just a color; it’s an adjective that describes something precious, favored, or advantageous, like a “golden opportunity” or “golden child.” Daylight itself isn’t just one color, it’s often a range of colors that changes and evolves as the sun rises. Daylight’s colors also change daily; “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight; red sky at morning, sailors take warning” comes to mind. We’re starting to see Taylor evolve from the child’s eye to the artist’s eye, showcasing the unexpected tints and hues that give a painting, or an emotion in this case, depth and interest.
So scarlet, it was maroon
Finally (at least for this episode) we get to “Maroon,” whose palette resembles the paint aisle at Blick Art Supplies.
The burgundy on my T-shirt when you splashed your wine into me
And how the blood rushed into my cheeks, so scarlet, it was
The mark you saw on my collarbone, the rust that grew between telephones
The lips I used to call home, so scarlet, it was maroon
Here we see how diverse and nuanced her palette has grown, a veritable Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat-level of colors and shades to play with. She’s not only seeing how light reflects and object and gives it an unexpected hue; she’s also getting very specific with the hues and shades she’s using, knowing each one evokes a different feeling or has a different effect.
These are all shades of red, but now we see just how diverse “red” can really be, just like love can feel many different ways, not just one way. (I won’t get too much into the emotions behind the colors in “Maroon” and what they might mean as that would spoil next week’s deep dive!)
***
Think about your own emotions and relationships and how they’ve evolved from when you were in high school or college, to now (whenever “now” is for you, assuming you’re not still in high school or college, which you might be, in which case keep reading to hear how things may change for you!). Our emotional vocabulary grows as we learn that life isn’t black-and-white, it’s shades of gray. We realize that love isn’t simply red like it was in fairytales; love can be exciting and passionate and frustrating and confusing and safe and romantic and platonic and so many other things. Every love is different and can’t be compared to one another. Of course Taylor’s color palette has grown—she’s grown. Just like as we grow we learn to paint the hints of blue in snow or the shades of yellow in grass to make it more realistic, Taylor’s lyrical palette has evolved to paint more realistic—more mature—pictures of love.
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