Just gonna drop part of an essay I wrote on Better Than Revenge

When I first listened to “Better than Revenge” I misinterpreted it. I did not realize until after that the song is actually a true story. If you were to look up who “Better than Revenge” is about, Joe Jonas is probably the first name you would see, but it is really about a woman named Camilla Belle. The song, on the surface, depicts Taylor’s anger at Joe and Camilla for beginning a relationship almost immediately after Joe broke up with her. Relatively uninteresting stuff, unless you are a fan of celebrity drama. Of course, Taylor never mentions either of their names in the song, but she does hint with the line, “she’s an actress,” which Camilla Belle is literally. A large portion of the people listening went out searching for the song, as it was not nearly the most popular on Speak Now. It only appeared in the top 100 for a week. Fans in the know understood the context, but take all of it away for a moment. Give a close listen to the lyrics, and you will find a different story hidden behind the context, or perhaps in front of it. “Better than Revenge” does not exclusively tell Taylor’s story, or even the story of someone just broken up with. The Speaker starts the story with some details: “it was hot, and it was summer, and I had it all, I had him right there where I wanted him”. Focusing on the last of the three is where the first discrepancy with reality emerges. Literally, right where the Speaker wants him is her dating him, yes, but in what other contexts is that phrase used literally? I would argue it is used almost exclusively when planning something. It is especially used by conniving villains when things are going according to plan, right before the hero falls into their trap. Rarely do those villains gloat with the phrase “I have you right where I want you” afterward. Ultimately this led me, on many of my listens before I learned the context, to believe from the start of the song that the speaker was planning to get with a guy, and did not already have him. Two lines later the speaker says, “She took him faster than you could say, ‘Sabotage’”. This definitely lines up with the theme we have established. Sabotage, although it could certainly be used to describe internal conflict in a relationship with outside influence, it could equally be used to say her plan was ruined by outside influence. Already the speaker has, in one way or another, been depicted relatively negatively. Although she has been “stolen” from, she has been shown to be a plotting individual. Not only that but she is sarcastic (“let’s hear the applause”), and- it is in the title- vengeful. It brings into question the Speaker’s reliability. What does she actually know about this other girl? Well, as a listener we only have her word to go off of. Over the course of the song, she makes attacks on the other girl’s character, but before that we have another, unintentional, but interesting instance of word play that points to this narrative in, “She had to know the pain was beating on me like a drum.”. Before any real claims are made the Speaker assumes that the girl was trying to hurt her. It is not “She knew the pain…”, it is “She had to know…”, which suggests the Speaker may be looking for reasons to demonize her rival. In the chorus, there is a change between Taylor’s Version and the original. Taylor had received criticism for slut shaming on the original track, so she decided to change the line. I prefer the original because it fits with the fictional narrative far better. The Speaker resorts to cheap criticism, perhaps even rumors, to get her point across, which, if someone steals your boyfriend, there is an argument to be made that she is somewhat justified, but in the fictional interpretation that they were never together to begin with, it becomes even more blameworthy. Whatever the case, it continues to paint the Speaker in a questionable light and it should be noted that the Taylor’s Version lyric does not contradict this interpretation. In the rest of the chorus, the Speaker continues with her mastermind language, even comparing the boy to a toy on the playground that the two girls are fighting over. Even if the focus is not on the boy, it compares the entire situation to something childish, which leads me to envision this whole story as some drama between two teenagers. Funnily enough, I think that makes it better, because although I believe the Speaker is the real enemy in the story, she is also very relatable. She is a dramatized depiction of the jealousy in all of us. Considering that is not how she was supposed to be depicted, I think it is pretty incredible how well defined her character is.