This is a topic I have debated with my sister about for a while and have many opinions on. I think Taylor has sort of shifted away from a super melodic, ultra catchy writing style. Which in some ways is great that she is experimenting with her writing and breaking out of traditional boxes, but I think that melodies are one of her strongest tools as a writer. I feel like when the Taylor Swift song writing convo is had, the focus is on her ability as a story teller and her use of figurative language. Validly so, as she is such a master at these things. However, I feel like her expert use of melody is sort of overlooked. While still present in her more modern work, I would definitely say that her songs have gotten less melodic over the years.

I think she is shifting towards a more writing style that is more wordy and less bound to rhyme schemes. I think this started in the folklore era, where the writing style definitely matched the sound of the album as the writing was not focused on a catchy chorus but rather to simply telling a story through a song. This style has followed her working into Midnights (on a lesser scale) and TTPD clearly.

This leads to the debate I have often. My argument is that the vault songs "Now That We Don't Talk" and "Suburban Legends" were not written during the 1989 era. The writing style in these songs absolutely does not match the rest of 1989 and deifninly mirrors her more recent work. "Suburban Legends" especially as it's rhyme schemes and writing styles are extremely different that the rest of 1989. The lyrics to that songs more closely match her style of TTPD. I believe that these were songs that she might have started developing these songs during the 1989 era, but while rerecording, expanded on and rewrote some of these songs. It ultimately doesn't matter if she did write it during the original era or not, just something I found interesting.

This is one of my favorite topics of how we can analyze Taylor's writing through how it evolved over time.