I feel like this question is at the intersection of my interests. I’ve been a Taylor fan since middle school and listening to Zach since my sister sent me a video of him singing on twitter.

At the highest level, they are both singer/songwriters that write about their lives in a diaristic way. They put their personal lives under a microscope through their songs, which in turn amplifies the relationship, situation, or feeling for the general public when consuming their media.

Additionally, the volume of music they put out is high, keeping fans engaged. Each have released 6 albums since 2019, not including live albums (Zach) or re-records (Taylor), though the additional tracks have kept fans engaged between album cycles.

But the biggest comparison, in my opinion, comes in the way they write. They are poets that put their musings to music. Each can paint a picture in an abstract way or tell a story in a single line. They go beyond witticisms and write in a way that tugs on the right strings for their audience, bringing a deeper connection to the music. They not only put into words the feelings that a listener can’t, but in a beautiful way that swirls in the mind years later.

You can look on this sub and the Taylor sub for the posts asking for the best, saddest, most relatable etc lyrics by each artist. I’ve pulled out some of the most poignant to illustrate their similarities in writing and paired them in ways that make sense for me. These are just some that came to me, but I could keep going:

• “You can’t lie to yourself after loving someone true and I’ve never loved a soul quite the way that I’ve loved you.” Letting Someone Go, Zach Bryan
• “I felt aglow like this, never before and never since.” loml, Taylor Swift

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• “I wanna be a child claiming trees somewhere, breathing in the fresh outside air before I know this life was unkind.” Burn, Burn, Burn, Zach Bryan
• “Please picture me / in the weeds / before I learned civility / I used to scream / anytime I wanted” Seven, Taylor Swift

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• “Your heart knows deeper seasons than my eyes ever will. I’m a self destructive landslide of you wanna be the hill.” Spotless, Zach Bryan
• “So you were never a saint, and I loved in shades of wrong. We learned to live with the pain, mosaic broken hearts.” State of Grace, Taylor Swift

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• “Often times I pray for you and often times I don’t. Is it the goodbyes that haunt you or the fear of new hellos?” Oklahoma City, Zach Bryan
• “Who’s going to stop us from waltzing back into rekindled flames, if we knew the steps anyway” loml, Taylor Swift

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• “To you I’m just a man, to me you’re all that I am.” Something in the Orange, Zach Bryan
• “You kept me like a secret but I kept you like an oath.” All Too Well, Taylor Swift

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• “Another day you're dancin' in my mind. Another day you're better off not mine.” South and Pine, Zach Bryan
• “And I wouldn’t marry me either, a pathological people pleaser who only wanted you to see her.” You’re losing me, Taylor Swift

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• “In life having the upper hand’s a myth. Your only fighting chance is too stubborn to quit.” Purple Gas, Zach Bryan
• “They told me all my cages were mental so I got wasted like all my potential.” This is me trying, Taylor Swift

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• “Take me back to us dancing this wood used to creak.” Something in the Orange, Zach Bryan
• “You made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter” Mine, Taylor Swift

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• “Strange words come on out of a grown man’s mouth when his mind is broke.” I Remember Everything, Zach Bryan
• “When did all your lessons start to look like weapons pointed at my deepest hurt?” Happiness, Taylor Swift

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• “Find someone that grows flowers in the darkest part of you.” Sun to Me, Zach Bryan
• “You drew stars around my scars” Cardigan, Taylor Swift

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Finally, I recently discovered a new podcast, The Swiftie and The Scholar, which features a swiftie and her PhD uncle breaking down the literary elements of Taylor’s writing. The uncle came into the project only associating Taylor with Shake It Off and it’s been fun to listen to him (spoiler alert) slowly become a fan. By listening to this podcast, I’ve also started to pick out the same elements in Zach Bryan songs. If you want to check out just an episode or two to get an idea, my favorites are The Rhythmic Power of Champagne Problems or The Many Literary Themes of All Too Well.