Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music

by Rob Sheffield

“Cruel Summer” is her ultimate window song, and not just the way she sings “Killing me slow, out the window.” There’s so much mystery in the erotics of windows in Taylor’s song—she’s got a Keatsian obsession with the kind of desire that doesn’t dare use the door. Heading out the window, she feels a rush that she doesn’t feel when she gets wherever she’s slithering off to. These lovers keep it on the hush, but that’s the attraction, the sub-rosa thrill. She’s seduced by the window, more than by anything on either side of it. She sings, “I don’t wanna keep secrets just to keep you,” but she’s drawn to thresholds, gates, liminal spaces, any portal to a forbidden place. Windows are for tapping on, tossing pebbles, hiding in the curtains. Doors are for confessions and transitions. She loves sneaking into gardens, weddings, yacht-club parties, and beds. There’s so much breathless excitement in how she sings “I snuck in through the garden gate / Every night that summer just to seal my fate.” The rock & roll philosophers might have warned her that windows are for cheaters, winners use the door, but she prefers the window every time. Whatever’s on the other side, she’ll take her chances. Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes.

the erotics of windows!!!!! thresholds!!! gates!!!! liminal spaces!!!!!! any portal to a forbidden place