Taylor Alison Swift is one of the most revolutionary artists of our time. From her start in country at the early age of twelve to her current more indie-vibe albums, Taylor Swift has made her mark, globally. At just 31, she’s won over 400 awards including 10 Grammys, 29 American Music Awards counting her Artist of the Decade title, 23 Billboard Music Awards, and 26 Teen Choice Awards. Notably, Swift has won three separate Grammy: Album of the Year Awards with three different albums in three different genres! Fans of Taylor Swift or better known as “Swifties” can all agree that Taylor Swift is an insanely talented individual who writes and produces extraordinary music but trying to get all Swifties to agree on their favorite song is a tall order. Thus, I have created my own “March Madness” to find out what my favorite Taylor Swift song is! In order to create the most efficient bracket, I chose my top three favorite songs from each album + one film soundtrack song out of her 173 songs.

BRACKET 1

Our Song vs Picture To Burn               Tim McGraw vs The Way I Loved You

Love Story vs Fifteen                           Enchanted vs If This Was A Movie

Better Than Revenge vs All Too Well    I Almost Do vs Sad Beautiful Tragic

Clean vs Wildest Dreams                      New Romantics vs Dress 

Cruel Summer vs Miss Americana        Illicit Affairs vs Peace

& The Heartbreak Prince    

Cornelia Street vs August                      Getaway Car vs Delicate

Tolerate It vs Long Story Short             Happiness vs Safe & Sound

The Bracket 1 Winners weren’t the hardest to pick except for New Romantics vs Dress so I had one of my group members who doesn’t typically listen to Taylor Swift weigh in with their opinion to help me decide. Although all the songs included in Bracket 1 are my favorites from each album, I was easily able to intuitively choose the ones I wanted to advance. 

BRACKET 2

Picture to Burn vs The Way I Loved You        Love Story vs Enchanted

All Too Well vs I Almost Do   Clean vs Dress

Cruel Summer vs Peace   August vs Getaway Car

Long Story Short vs Happiness

Similarly, with Bracket 2, my decisions for which songs would win wasn’t a hard one. I would say the hardest pairing to choose between was August vs Getaway Car. I predict that the next few brackets are going to be exponentially harder to choose between.

BRACKET 3

The Way I Loved You vs Enchanted All Too Well vs Clean

Getaway Car vs Long Story Short Cruel Summer

There became an uneven amount of songs so I just gave Cruel Summer to Bracket 4 because it’s my groupmate’s favorite Taylor Swift song. This bracket was a little bit harder considering that all the songs were pitted against songs from another album. Choosing between different songs from substantially different albums was a more time-consuming task but I still was able to narrow it down.

BRACKET 4

Enchanted vs All Too Well Getaway Car vs Cruel Summer

These two semi-final decisions weren’t actually that hard for me to commit to. Almost intuitively, I was able to decide a little bit, most likely due to my implicit bias. I tried to come into the original bracket with no bias with a clean slate and an open year but realistically, I chose some songs based on my previous history with them. Regardless, these top four songs are all songs that have always been my favorites and I can be in any mood and still enjoy these songs.

BRACKET 5

All Too Well vs Cruel Summer

The Final Round consisted of All Too Well and Cruel Summer! These two songs are fairly different as All Too Well is seen as a breakup ballad while Cruel Summer like its name is about summer love. Furthermore, All Too Well is from RED which is an album from the “Old Taylor” and Cruel Summer is from the “New Taylor” albums. Although these songs are distinctly different, they’ve both made their mark on my heart. But alas, Cruel Summer was able to win as it’s a heart-wrenching, bittersweet song about summer love.