The Word Wizadry That Explains Taylor's First #1 Hit | #7

Summary

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Decoding Taylor Swift: The Word Wizardry That Explains Taylor's First #1 Hit

Podcast: Decoding Taylor Swift: A Storytelling Revolution
Hosts: Joe Romm and Toni Romm
Episode: #7 – The Word Wizardry That Explains Taylor's First #1 Hit
Date: August 12, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this lively and insightful episode, Joe and Toni Romm dissect the storytelling—and especially the linguistic and rhetorical—techniques behind Taylor Swift’s first #1 single, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” The episode explores how Swift’s lyricism uses classic storytelling and poetic tricks—headline construction, alliteration, rhyme, assonance and more—and why these are essential not just for pop chart success, but for anyone who wants to communicate effectively and make their ideas “go viral.” The conversation flows from Swift’s writing process and personal experiences, to the ancient roots of memorable language and practical tips for writers.

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Main Themes & Discussion Points

1. The Power of Headlines and First Lines ([01:37], [04:44])

• Headlines as Gateways: The hosts explain the outsized importance of headlines, first lines, and subject lines across all forms of communication, not just in music. The attention given to these elements can determine "whether someone actually reads what you say or clicks on what you say or listens to anything that you say." ([01:41] Joe)
• Testing Headlines: Joe notes his own approach: “I spend almost half the time on the headline.” ([05:06]) He references advertising legend David Ogilvy:

  "On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. A change of headline can make a difference of 10 to 1 in sales. I never write fewer than 16 headlines for a single advertisement." ([13:07])

• “Clicky and Sticky” Content: To go viral, you need content people will both click (because the headline grabs them) and stick with (because the story keeps them). “To be clicky, your headline needs these memory tricks... to be sticky, it's got to be a story.” ([15:59], Joe)

2. Memory Tricks: Figures of Speech and Rhetorical Devices ([04:01]–[07:07])

• Alliteration & Repetition: Taylor’s chorus (“We are never, ever, ever getting back together”) leverages alliteration (repeating initial consonants), assonance (repeating vowel sounds), consonance (repetition of internal consonants), rhyme, and internal repetition to make the phrase instantly catchy and memorable.
• Rhetoric from Ancient Greece to Taylor Swift: The hosts connect Swift’s techniques to the memory aids codified in ancient rhetoric, used by bards and orators for storytelling:

  “The point of these memory tricks... these are the memory tricks used by the great bards... and these memory tricks got codified by the Greeks into what was called rhetoric.” ([16:17], Joe)

• The Scientific Underpinning: Setting words to music and using repeated patterns make lyrics easier to remember, a universal principle since ancient storytelling. (16:50–17:23)
• Headline Testing in the Digital Era: The importance of testing concepts and phrasing in real time, just like pop songwriters test hooks, is analogized to political messaging and marketing. (14:49)

3. “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” – Dissecting the Lyrics ([21:26]–[35:06])

• Swift’s Bop as Masterclass: The song is described as “a pure bop” and also possibly a “fuck you to Jake [Gyllenhaal],” showing how personal vendetta and viral catchiness coexist. ([26:17])
• Lyric Breakdown:
  • Alliteration: “never, ever, ever”
  • Consonance: Internal echoes of “v”, “r”, “g”, “t”
  • Assonance: The "E" vowel sound in “never, ever”
  • Double Rhymes (masculine and feminine rhymes): “never, ever” (double rhyme), “ever, together” (imperfect double rhyme).
  • Creative escalation: “We are never, ever, ever, ever getting back together. Like, ever.” ([34:22])
• Not Just Accidental Brilliance:

  "This song was co-authored by three of the greatest songwriters of all time... so they didn't do this by accident." ([32:22], Joe)

  • Max Martin and Shellback, two of pop’s greatest, joined Taylor on this song.
  • Swift’s conscious and subconscious deployment of these devices is a signature of advanced songwriting.
• Actionable Takeaway: These same memory tricks help make any communication—from essays to emails—more memorable and engaging.

4. Poetry, Brevity, and Figurative Language ([36:00]–[37:54])

• Brevity as Purpose:

  “The purpose of poetry is to allow you brevity. You can write…When you use figurative language, you don't have to explain things as much.” ([36:45], Joe)

• Short, Simple, Sticky: Simpler, monosyllabic words and repetition—not complexity—are key to embedding phrases in listeners’ minds (and why Dr. Seuss and Swift have so much in common). (50:46)
• Metaphor and Antithesis: Swift’s use of “never ever getting back together” and “forever” as contrasting poles in the bridge embodies the power of presenting stark dichotomies, a classic emotional and rhetorical technique. ([45:04])

5. Beyond the Song: Storytelling Tools for Everyone ([15:59], [51:04])

• Action Items for Writers:
  • Focus on headlines/titles and first sentences—spend more time here.
  • Use alliteration, rhyme, assonance, and consonance wherever possible, especially in headers and subject lines.
  • Employ “but” and “however” for contrast and narrative tension—but don’t overdo it (“The opening paragraph should have the word but in it.” [52:11])
  • Avoid wordiness; every word should earn its place (“If you have a word in your essay and you don't know why it's there, cut it out.” [55:01])
  • Alliteration in business and branding is everywhere; notice it and use it.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Taylor’s technique:

  “Taylor is the queen of memory...she repeats the phrase remember it 17 times. It's an instruction to the audience to remember it.” ([16:12], Joe)

• On Sound Play in Songwriting:

  “There is more memory tricks or more figures of speech crammed into those words than you can just about imagine.” ([29:25], Joe)

• On Brevity:

  "The purpose of poetry is to allow you brevity..." ([36:45], Joe)

• On the song's deeper message:

  "It is a pure bop. It's not at all surprising...there is kind of one deep meaning which is Fu Jake. Rake Jake. Hashtag Rake Jake." ([34:39], Joe)

• On the importance of titles:

  “The headline was the most important thing for two reasons...most people are never going to read past the headline. That is the most important thing to know when you write.” ([12:47], Joe)

• Playful banter:

  Toni: “Call somebody a shabiroon. Call them a dirty rotten shabaroo.” ([35:36])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:41 — The importance of headlines/first lines
• 04:01 — Introduction to alliteration and figures of speech
• 13:07 — David Ogilvy on headline testing
• 15:59 — “Clicky and sticky” content formula
• 16:12 — Taylor as “queen of memory tricks”
• 19:11 — Rhetoric’s roots in ancient Greece
• 21:26 — Deep dive into “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”
• 29:25 — Dissecting the lyric’s memory tricks
• 36:45 — “The purpose of poetry is brevity”
• 45:04 — The bridge: use of antithesis and emotional contrast
• 51:04 — Using alliteration in titles & branding
• 54:54 — Swift as a “mastermind” and the importance of purposeful word choice

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Tone & Style

This episode blends father-daughter banter with accessible deep dives into the craft of songwriting and communication. Their tone is witty, nerdy, playful, and irreverent. The academic (Joe) and pop culture-savvy (Toni) mix keeps the conversation lively. They bounce between granular lyric analysis, ancient rhetoric, and practical writing tips—often digressing into pop culture asides (“Hashtag Rake Jake,” “Call someone a shabiroon”).

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Practical Takeaways

• To get and keep people’s attention, think like a songwriter: headlines/titles and first lines matter most.
• Repetition, alliteration, rhyme, and strong contrast are not “tricks”—they are fundamental to viral storytelling, in any medium.
• You don’t have to be Taylor Swift to use these tools; they work for emails, research papers, essays, and brands.
• Brevity, memorable phrasing, and the right details make your message rise above the crowd (“Clicky and sticky!”).

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Homework/Assignment

"Your assignment: Listen to these songs again. Write the lyrics of this song out so you can see what she is doing in every word. Because she is, as we said in episode four, Mastermind. She's doing everything by design. No casual use of words." ([54:41]–[55:04], Joe & Toni)

“If you have a word in your essay and you don't know why it's there, cut it out.” ([55:01], Toni)

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Hashtags & Running Gags

• #RakeJake — An ongoing, tongue-in-cheek roast of Jake Gyllenhaal
• Memory tricks, rhyme, alliteration
• Banter about old-fashioned insults (“shabiroon,” “rake”)
• “Clicky and sticky” content

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Listen to become a sharper communicator—and to see Taylor Swift in a whole new light.

Transcript

[A]

Hi, I'm Joe Rome and I'm his daughter Toni.

[B]

Welcome to Decoding Taylor Swift where you'll learn the storytelling tools Swift uses that make her a modern day Shakespeare, but.

[A]

Can make you a better communicator so you can drive your mission and build your tribe.

[B]

Rolling Stone magazine put both me and Swift on its list of 100 people changing America. So I know that the most successful social change makers are the best storytellers.

[A]

This podcast will transform how you think about Swift's songs and give you the life changing tools to lead, connect and change the world. Hello and welcome from our studio.

[B]

Hello and yes. This is episode seven.

[A]

Episode seven, today's topic.

[B]

We are going to be talking about one of the most important actionable things that people do wrong.

[A]

Wrong.

[B]

When I go tomorrow, tomorrow we're flying to Chicago and gonna be a workshop.

[A]

Tell them where we're gonna be on story.

[B]

Well, this will be. They'll.

[A]

They're gonna find me and throw pies.

[B]

No, no, they will. But that's. This is being broadcast.

[A]

Well, of course.

[B]

Well, a couple weeks after.

[A]

Yes. Okay. No, when you hear this, we will be going to Chicago.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And that's actually probably true because I have to move in.

[B]

Doing a workshop on storytelling.

[A]

Wow. Professionals. Just like no big deal.

[B]

And often get asked, what is the biggest mistake people make?

[A]

Ooh.

[B]

And I had to think about it a lot.

[A]

It's true. Because that's what he does.

[B]

That's what I do. I think the biggest mistake people make is not focusing enough on their headline or the email subject line or the title of their piece or their book or their song or their research paper, whatever it is. Or the first line, whatever it is. Right. That is what is going to determine entirely whether someone actually reads what you say or clicks on what you say or listens to anything that you say.

[A]

So true King.

[B]

So we are going to be talking about that. And this. The elements of a good headline.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Coincidentally. Coincidentally turn out to be the very. The same memory tricks.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

And the figures of speech that we.

[A]

Are talking about and they just also happen to all be present. And Taylor Swift's number one hit single, we are never ever getting back together.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Just like we didn't plan that. They just happened to be there.

[B]

That's the song we're gonna focus on today. And if you know our format, regular listeners.

[A]

Yes, regular listeners. Our format, quote unquote, that we began two episod ago.

[B]

Well, we kind of drifted into it, but we drifted. I like to think of it as.

[A]

Something we Plan we e like the.

[B]

Ocean, you could say we talk about the. The main lesson.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

In the first half.

[A]

The storytelling skill, if you will.

[B]

And then we talk about how Taylor uses it in one song.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

And then we morph into a longer discussion of that song.

[A]

Of the song.

[B]

So we can see how she uses all of these tricks in combination.

[A]

Yes. Then your minds are blown and you listen to all of our episodes and give us money.

[B]

You're obsessed about them giving us money.

[A]

Well, I think you need a vacation. I think you just need to go somewhere so you don't start counting how many letters are in Taylor Swift's songs again.

[B]

Well, as it so happens, as you know, that there are devices that do the counting for us.

[A]

That is true. He does not use them, though I do use them.

[B]

I use.

[A]

I sat with you while you counted the number of T sounds.

[B]

No, no, just in the chorus. I counted. Then I. And I used the search feature in words.

[A]

No, I think it's beautiful. I think it's beautiful.

[B]

But the point is, as we will see, Taylor has gone out of her way to use one particular figure of speech in combination with some others. But she uses alliteration.

[A]

She does.

[B]

Right now everyone uses alliteration. Alliteration. We talked in episode two.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

That repetition was rule number one.

[A]

Repetition.

[B]

It was rule number one.

[A]

It was rule number one.

[B]

Rule number two. Possibly also rule number three could be.

[A]

Rule number four, if you even were so nasty to do that.

[B]

And the most elemental form of repetition is repeating the first letter.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

That you're using. Right. And this is very common. Dunkin Donuts. Right. Big beautiful Bill. There's just a million. Everyone uses it. And then in combination with that, we'll see some other memory tricks which are related. But let me talk a little bit more about this. Headlines.

[A]

Yes, sure.

[B]

Okay. So I think when people write, certainly when I was originally writing, I would just treated the first line or the headline or the email subject line as any other line.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

But it isn't. It's the single most important line and it deserves a lot more time. You should be spending considerably more time. And when I became a blogger.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I ended up realizing I spend almost half the time on the headline and.

[A]

That'S what you got to do, man. And he was a pretty important blogger. Man.

[B]

I did.

[A]

He had dis articles written about him.

[B]

I. Well, people and people, you know me into the same issue of Rolling Stone as Taylor Swift.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

And you know, the. The thing about. We were able to test headlines.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

And ultimately you're going to want to test headlines yourself. This is the state of the art digitally.

[A]

But obviously you can't really test, like, you know, titles for, like, you know, writing assignments or email subject lines. But the test. The test is life.

[B]

You just have to get better and better at that yourself. Yeah, right now I just want to read a quote, as I am want to do, because I did a lot of research. I have a whole book, by the way, not that I'm selling. How to Go viral.

[A]

Yeah. Just like, not to plug the book, but.

[B]

Not to plug this book. Yeah, but this book.

[A]

Just, like, while we're here, just to be clear. Sponsored by Joe Rome.

[B]

And I should say this book.

[A]

Well, are you going to sponsor the podcast? Yeah.

[B]

Sponsor podcast. We didn't. First of all, we didn't even play the opening of we are Never Ever Getting Back Together.

[A]

I thought, oh, okay. Do you want to do that now?

[B]

I do. Yes, yes, yes. I don't want.

[A]

Yeah, let's do that. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

[B]

I don't want to get ahead of ourselves.

[A]

Yeah, that's okay. As. As happens. As happens. Okay, here we go. Here we go. We are never, ever, ever getting back together. We are never, ever, ever getting back together.

[B]

You go talk to your friends, Talk to my friends.

[A]

Talk to me. But we never, ever, ever, ever getting back together. Like, ever. Wait, hold on. Really quickly, before we go on, should we just put this discussion that we're about to have really quickly about this, like, at the front?

[B]

No, I think we're good right now.

[A]

Okay. So this is, like, really meta. This is like, I think we just.

[B]

Roll, you know, I don't think there's any hard and fast rules. I think that we do want to get that music out there just so people know what's coming and that they've heard this. Just so you're warned, this song. And just to be clear, this was her first number one song.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And that's a big deal. She was 22 at the time.

[A]

22. Yeah. And it's probably about Jake Gyllenhaal. It is probably about most of that album is right.

[B]

And that's, you know, famously who Famously Shitty boyfriend. You know, we did a whole episode two, and we'll be doing more on Fake Jake, I think was.

[A]

Oh, my gosh. Hashtag. Fake Jake. Hashtag Snake Jake. Hashtag. Oh, I have one walk into a rake.

[B]

This is going to be Rake Jake, a rake. You'll have to Google it. You and Gen Z. But a rake is not a good guy.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

A rake is a cad.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

A rake is a term. Not used a lot.

[A]

Not used a lot.

[B]

But I think those who are beyond Gen Z may have heard the word rake before. I know you think it's for. For you. For leaves, but it literally means, you know. Well, I think it's. It's similar to what is now called. And since.

[A]

But I know. But I have a question, though, really quickly. What was it like seeing Jesus Christ being born?

[B]

You had to be there. I will tell you. It was cold.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

And was it.

[A]

I think he was born. Wasn't he born in May? There were these and then Christians just wanted to emulate Yule.

[B]

We're not here to critique.

[A]

Yeah. Roasted.

[B]

I will just say that there were these three old guys who came with presents.

[A]

Yeah. One of them was you. Right.

[B]

I. I brought the myrrh. No, no, no. That's the thing. There was the gold and everyone was excited about that. And then there was the frankincense and myrrh and people like, what the F is this stuff? I mean. Yeah.

[A]

What? The frankincense is myrrh.

[B]

Thank you. But we're going to talk to the gold guy a bit more.

[A]

Did you know that there apparently is evidence that if you, like, played as a child, a character in like, the, like Birth of Jesus, play like that, can, like, predict your outcome as an adult?

[B]

I did not know that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But I'm going to tell listeners something and you can't tell your friends this. The single. If you play hangman. How many of you out there have ever played hangman?

[A]

I've played hangman.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Yeah, man.

[B]

Hangman. The single best word guaranteed to win hangman is myr, M, Y, R, R, H. Trust me, I have played it many times. No one has ever.

[A]

He actually invented it. He was the first person to play it.

[B]

Got no vowels in it except the Y.

[A]

Trust me. Sometimes. Why?

[B]

If you just want to do, like, what you can do.

[A]

Wait, how many letters are there in it? I'm surprised they haven't used that in Wordle.

[B]

My R, R, H is five letters.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Here's what you do. I've never done this, but I'm just giving this. This is a free way to make money. Fans is play some, some games of hangman with someone, just do a mediocre job so they don't think you're that great. And then you say, well, let's play one.

[A]

Are you trying to describe how to do it? Ringer, how are you?

[B]

This. This is. This is. I'm not Saying, I never do anything like this. But the.

[A]

Yes, you can hustle someone with a hangman in that.

[B]

You can. Yes. Or. Or the color of money. You may have seen that was the sequel that Paul Newman did to the Hustler. Look, my father fancied himself a hustler. He really did. He was a newspaper editor, but he liked to gamble.

[A]

Lore. You guys are getting some good lore right now. This is just pretty juicy lore.

[B]

Anyway, so this just occurred to me right on the spot.

[A]

Sure, sure.

[B]

You have to pretend that you're just an okay hangman player. And then you say, how about one more game? And to make it interesting, let's put some money on it. That's how my father would always say, want to make this interesting? That was his favorite line. I want to make this interesting.

[A]

He's doing like a little hand motion. It makes him kind of look like a drag queen.

[B]

I'm just going to say. I'll say one thing, El, about my father, which probably explains why I am the way I am.

[A]

Sure is probably a little bit of autism.

[B]

He was a newspaper editor, so he was very. He knew a lot about words, and he invented all these word games. And. And if you said something wrong or the wrong. Used a word wrong or, you know, grammar, whatever, he would correct you. And. And you could challenge him. You say, oh, I thought I said it right. Whatever it is. Any circumstances, his line. His next line would always be, would you care to put money on it? Right. He was always testing how certain I was of what I said.

[A]

Interesting.

[B]

And it was very. Did all. You know, I had two brothers and fairly uncertain.

[A]

If you think that niche is pronounced niche.

[B]

I will. If you want to come back to that.

[A]

Whatever, whatever.

[B]

You know, whatever. 2000.

[A]

I don't know.

[B]

Nobody's. I've talked to people. Let's say I can't. My generation.

[A]

About the year 1000. How did people say, I don't know.

[B]

You see, the thing about niche is that's the correct French pronunciation. And so for those. I'm just trying to respect kind of bougie or something.

[A]

I'm not like a culture vulture like you.

[B]

Anyway, I think we've sidetracked enough.

[A]

What are we talking about?

[B]

I have no idea. We kind of looped out.

[A]

We're talking about Katy Perry, right?

[B]

No, we're not talking about Katy Perry. We were talking about headlines.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

And. Oh, the word. We got there from you. Somehow we got into Christmas and myrrh. That's how we got into this.

[A]

Yes, sure.

[B]

So let's Go back to headlines for a second. What I learned blogging.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Was that the headline was the most important thing for two reasons. And it's the same email subject or whatever it is. Most people are never going to read past the headline. That is the most important thing to know when you write.

[A]

Yeah. What was that phrase you were talking about? You were telling me about David Ogilvy.

[B]

David Ogilvie, you are so good. Yes. Oh, man. What a. What a possible.

[A]

Thank you. Do I get more money for that?

[B]

Yes, that's. That's. Where. If. If we could. That's. That's a product placement.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

David Ogilvie, sometimes considered to be one of the founders of advertising. And he wrote a book in 1963 called Confessions of an Advertising Man. And you might say if you ever watched Mad Men, that was about advertising in the era of the 60s when it was just being brought into a very mature business industry.

[A]

Sure. Not just some dude screaming from like a little squire's podium.

[B]

No. And he wrote, on the average five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. A change of headline can make a difference of 10 to 1 in sales. I never write fewer than 16 headlines for a single advertisement. So in those days, they would test headlines, and if they were written in different newspapers in different towns, and then they would see how many people showed up at the stores compared to the normal people showing up at the stores. So they could find out. That was called headline testing. Very common. You could do the same thing on radios. You could do a radio ad. Same with that. Test out, run a radio ad in different cities, see who shows up, and then ultimately say, oh, well, this is the best headline. And it might vary by region. Right. Headline that's best in the south, might not be the best in the Northeast. Right, Right. Well, now you can do that all on Facebook. Trivially. Right. And that is, in fact, the key to all major marketing campaigns today is headline testing. So everything you see on Facebook has probably been tested, but against other people.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And it's being used in elections. So very common.

[A]

Well, and as it turns out, the most catchy headlines are the ones that employ the figures of speech.

[B]

Absolutely. And as I said, you know, we. Towards the end of my blog, I blogged for like 10, 12 years. We actually had real time headline testing. And everyone out there in the media and online is, you know, who can use real time. Which is to say, when you showed up on my website, you were shown one of four different headlines, and it would give you statistics on the Click through, rate of each headline, what percentage of people click through to the content. It would also tell you what percentage of people who click through stuck around for 15 seconds. That was called a quality click. So in this day and age, just keeping people's attention, 15 seconds is a quality quick click. Right. So that was why, of course, I did come up with this phrase, clicky and sticky. Your content has to be something people will click on and then it will be something they will stick around for. Right. And to be clicky, your headline needs to have these memory tricks, the figures of speech. And to be sticky, it's got to be a story. Right. Because stories are what are immersive. Stories are what the algorithm.

[A]

Right. And that's, I think, why Never ever getting back together is so catchy.

[B]

Because, you know, and let me, let's talk a little bit about.

[A]

Well, she immediately dives into the story. That's what makes it good.

[B]

And let's talk about like she says.

[A]

I remember when we broke up, she likes memories. She does, she does. All too well. That's another callback to, you know.

[B]

Yeah. No, no. Taylor is the queen of memory. Right. And this allows her in all too well, as we said, to repeat the phrase remember it 17 times. Right, right. Which is an instruction to the audience to remember it. Right. That's the point. Is she. The point of these memory tricks, to go back to the very first discussion in episode one, these are the memory tricks used by the great bards.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

To remember their multi hour long, epic heroic stories that they went from town to town telling.

[A]

Right, Right.

[B]

So it's hard to remember a multi hour long poem, but not if A, you use memory tricks and B, you set it to music. That was the other thing they figured out. Right. And that the ancient tribes figured out. Anything you put to music, if it's a good musical beat with the same rhythms and choruses and all that, it will be easier to remember. Right. So the point is that these memory tricks are the ones that ultimately got codified by the ancient Greeks into what was called rhetoric.

[A]

Rhetoric.

[B]

And should I put in a 60 second digression of why the ancient Greeks codified these memory tricks into rhetoric?

[A]

All right. People might have to pop like an Adderall or something. I'm just kidding.

[B]

Pop your Adderall.

[A]

Yeah, pop the Adderall.

[B]

You could crush it. Don't have to take a whole one. I think you could get by.

[A]

You get like 5 milligrams.

[B]

Yeah, she knows she's the junkie here.

[A]

Oh, my God. Yeah. Just like, take 5 milligrams. You might not eat for a few hours, but it's fine.

[B]

So in ancient Athens, 25 centuries ago, sure. They were transitioning into democracy, which I want.

[A]

Wait, can I put music behind this really quickly?

[B]

You have music to put on here?

[A]

Yeah, I'm gonna search up It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia soundtrack. It's always sunny. Hold on, hold on.

[B]

I don't. I don't know how long that our listeners can wait here.

[A]

Oh, my God. No, no, no. Okay, now you go.

[B]

All righty. 25 centuries ago, ancient Greece, they were moving towards democratization. Now, I want to be clear. Their idea of democracy was similar to ours in 1776. We're talking basically Caucasian men who are landowners. Right. But it was still better than no democracy. Maybe it wasn't better for everyone else, but at least for them, this was their move to. And so they changed the way they did court cases. They moved from trial by magistrate to trial by jury. Those juries were 500 people. Majority rules. Right. Your opponent spoke for 30 minutes, and you spoke for 30 minutes. And that speech would determine the entire course of your life. If you were accused of being a traitor or a thief or a murderer, you had to get that speech better than the other guy's speech. So there arose a group of people who became the first speech writers.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Logos, graphos. Logos being Greek for speech or word, and graphos being writer. And they created. They studied how do you write a speech that is persuasive and memorable? Right. So they looked at what the ancient bards did. They codified those memory tricks. They created the discipline of rhetoric. They threw in some other stuff like ethos and pathos and all that stuff, how you connect with people emotionally. And that became rhetoric. And you could study rhetoric. If you were rich, you could pay someone to write that speech. If you were less rich, you could pay for some lessons on how to write that speech. And if you were even less rich, you could write. Read one of the books on rhetoric that were written about the time.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And if you were less rich, you could just get accused for a crime.

[B]

And be found guilty. And that's true today. See how like world doesn't change. You have money, you can get away with things, and if you don't have money, you can't do it.

[A]

Really.

[B]

The Greeks codified rhetoric. The ancient Romans, like Cicero, did a lot more of it. And then it was raised to high art in the Etou Brute, Elizabethan times by Shakespeare and the authors of the King James Bible. And that's why the works of Shakespeare and the King James Bible have the most quotable quotes. Right? Cause those quotes are the figures of speech. Everything you remember, lyric, you remember, quote, you remember things that you say to people that other people remember. 95% of those are going to be these memory tricks. Okay, that's enough of digression. Let's start.

[A]

That's beautiful. That was 2 minutes and 40 seconds.

[B]

That's pretty good for me. I was only off by effective 140%.

[A]

That's okay.

[B]

I feel that's a minor.

[A]

Did you do that math just now in your head? Actually, that's not that bad. That's not hard to do.

[B]

It's not hard to do. But we can pretend that having a PhD in physics was what level do that calculation, ladies. Okay. Still, we need some new, new content over here from you, Anton. There we go. Muchachas is good. I'm, I'm. I like variety. That's another theory of rhetoric.

[A]

I'm going to learn how to say ladies in five different languages.

[B]

I like that idea. I think that's excellent. Because we want to diversify our listener base. Anyway, hold on.

[A]

How do you say it? I know. Garcon. Is it in French?

[B]

What's mademoiselle?

[A]

Mademoiselle. That's like miss.

[B]

And so let's jump back to the lyrics of the song which are. There we go. So we are never ever getting back together.

[A]

Hashtag Slayqueen.

[B]

Right. So let's be clear. This song is a bop. Right. This is a. This is a designed to be a popular song.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

And why she did it we'll get to. But.

[A]

Well, we can talk about why she did it. Right now if you want. Pepper that in. Why? You know, she was dating Jake Gyllenha Hall. Apparently Jake Gyllenhaal did not like her music because he didn't like the pop music. And he was like. Well, the line that she put in, which is like you go and hide away and find your peace of mind with some indie record that's much cooler than mine.

[B]

Right. That line was about Jake Gyllenhaal, presumably because he was artsy guy and he didn't. He kind of looked down a little at Taylor because she's like, you know, 19 year old girl and she does pop music and. Oh, that's popular. Right. Where I'm into the artsy stuff.

[A]

Yeah. I feel like maybe she dodged a bullet there.

[B]

She did. And you know. Well, obviously did we know from all too well. I mean she didn't dodge it. The problem was the bullet hit her. And that's true, as we know from all too well. You know, she kind of died and came back. Right. It was dead and born, dead and buried. Check the pulse and come back swearing.

[A]

It's the same.

[B]

The same. Yeah. Right, Right. So this is one of her relationships that metaphorically killed her. But the nice thing about Taylor is she comes back stronger.

[A]

Right?

[B]

Like, that's her thing. Now this. That song was a very melodramatic version of events.

[A]

Right.

[B]

This is the very boppy.

[A]

So she wrote like an extra pop song. She was like.

[B]

Well, she wrote a few songs of. About this. But this is. But I think it's significant, by the way, that. That you know. And we read some pieces on this. But the point is.

[A]

No, we didn't. Don't tell them that.

[B]

Oh, sorry. We did no research for this whatsoever.

[A]

We just know these things.

[B]

All ideas you hear from us are original experts. Under no circumstances Google anything we said and see if someone else said it, because we're correct. I will just say, as an aside, I always tell people, know, you're not going to play the music.

[A]

What's your aside?

[B]

My aside is all you people out there. Whenever you think you have an original idea, please Google it. Someone else thought of it first.

[A]

Okay, true. I tell him that every day.

[B]

No, I tell you this every day.

[A]

Whatever. All right. That was a really quick aside. Good job. I think the music is helping, by the way.

[B]

I just want to say it's always sunny in Philadelphia.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

We have.

[A]

Do we have to pay for the copyright?

[B]

Comedy, right? A great sitcom.

[A]

Yes, we love it right now.

[B]

It doesn't become really great until first.

[A]

Of all, the second season.

[B]

Oh, my God, what's his name comes on board, right?

[A]

Danny DeVito.

[B]

Danny DeVito.

[A]

That.

[B]

That is a very big turning point for the show. But it's got 25 or 26 seasons, right. It has the record for the longest number of seasons of any non animated sitcom.

[A]

Right.

[B]

The longest sitcom.

[A]

Because it's Great. Top. Top 10.

[B]

But you don't want to listen to all those.

[A]

No. So he always. He has, like. He knows exactly when to start sitcoms. He's like, the community doesn't start until the ninth episode. Don't watch this until the fourth episode, fourth season.

[B]

People want more actionable. Look, let me just say something. You want to become a great speaker or you want to become a great writer? You need to listen to. To the great speech makers and the great writers, right? So you can't listen to all. None of these shows are perfect from the start. Particularly sitcoms. So yes, go online.

[A]

Except for our podcast. Right.

[B]

Except for our podcast. Absolutely. In general, it takes. People get better and better over time. This is true of Seinfeld. It's true of almost every major questionable.

[A]

Whether Seinfeld ever really got.

[B]

Yeah, no, it.

[A]

Curb youb Enthusiasm is better. I'm a curb your enthusiasm truther.

[B]

The number one. The point is.

[A]

What was the point?

[B]

You don't have to listen to all the episodes in a 26 season show. We don't have time to do that. Just Google the Internet. What. What experts say are the best seasons. Right?

[A]

Experts. He's talking about go on Reddit.

[B]

Anyway, so let's dive deeply into this title.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

Or actually not the title, but the lyrics of the chorus.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

We are never, ever, ever getting back together. Okay. Now this is her first number one song. This is the set a record I think we read for first week streaming by female singer. And partly we got the view that this song is a little bit of a fuck you to Jake.

[A]

Whoa, language alert.

[B]

Right. Because Jake only likes the artsy stuff. The indie song.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

And she's like, I'm going to put out a hit song. It's going to be a pure bop and it's going to be about you. And guess what? It's my first number one song. Right. So this is very Taylor esque of her. And since we're flashing back, I really. I know people are always criticizing Taylor for writing songs that are like responding to critics or boyfriend. I just want you to know that the greatest songwriter of all time did the exact same thing.

[A]

Amen.

[B]

And I'm talking about the person, the person who wrote has the most number one songs. Co authorship or co authorship of the most number one songs on the billboard in their history.

[A]

That's true. Sir Paul McCartney.

[B]

Sir Paul McCartney. Right. And famously, he was at the Beatles.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

He liked to write love songs. He did partner with John Lennon, who was a kind of a deeper guy.

[A]

Yeah. John Lennon liked artsy fartsy shit.

[B]

You know he did. And of course he famously. After the Beatles split up, one of his most famous songs is Imagine. One of the greatest songs of all time ever written.

[A]

I'm a mat. I can imagine.

[B]

John Lennon, by the way, is number three on the all time list of greatest songwriters. We'll get to who number two is because number two is a co author on Taylor's song.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But number three. So the point is they fought. Lennon McCartney fought all the time McCartney liked I want pop songs, love songs. Lennon's like, we should be doing meaningful, you know, artsy stuff. And so after they split up, right, Lennon is writing, he's doing Imagine. Yeah, John. I mean, Paul puts out a song called Silly Love Songs. You'd think the world would have enough of silly love songs. Right. And as even Wikipedia says, the song, which features disco overtones, was seen as being written in response to music critics accusing McCartney of predominantly writing, quote, silly love songs and sentimental slush. Right. So this was, this song is a fu that they didn't have like the.

[A]

New York Post back then.

[B]

And it's also an F U to John saying, I'm gonna, I'm on my own now. I can write a silly love song. And by the way, this song was McCartney's 27th American number one, making him the was set the all time record for the most number one hits achieved by a songwriter.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So. And it became, with this song, McCartney became the first person to have a year end number one song as member of two distinct acts.

[A]

Damn.

[B]

So the point is that when Taylor puts out her pop song in response to maybe someone like Jake, there's nothing wrong with that. The greatest songwriter of all time does the same thing. Your songs are a statement of your brand and who you are. You get to write songs, you can get to put whatever you want in them. And frankly, if someone doesn't like it, let them write their own number one song.

[A]

Oh my God. Right? It's like people like trash her and it's like, I don't know when you've gotten like dozens of Grammys, like, hello, we digressed again.

[B]

But what is the genius of we are never ever, ever getting back together. Okay, so this title has more memory tricks or more figures of speech crammed into those words than you can just about imagine. Right. And I'm going to talk in particular about four of the most important memory tricks or figures of speech we've already taught. Everyone knows rhyme.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

Never ever. Right. Okay. That's pretty straightforward. Everyone knows alliteration, which is the repetition of the first letter ever. Ever, you know? Right. But the other two, there's the internal repetition of a sound of a vowel sound, which is called assonance. Never ever getting. We're picking up the S sound again. Getting back together.

[A]

Yeah. I think the thesis of the last few episodes have just been that butts are beautiful.

[B]

Buts are beautiful. We've talked about butts.

[A]

We've talked about asses.

[B]

Asses. And then there is something called consonants. And that is repeating the.

[A]

The same. She does a lot of consonants.

[B]

Consonants is an internal alliteration, Right? Consonance is, for instance, never ever, right? You're picking up the V sound internally. You're picking up the R sound internally. Then you get the getting back together, right? So you're picking up the G sound from getting into together, right? You're picking up the T sound from getting. Right.

[A]

You're flipping, in fact, get to take back together.

[B]

You're flipping the G and the T sound for getting together, right? So this is very sophisticated stuff. And.

[A]

Yeah, well. And also the. When people say, you know, people might be like, Joe, you know, maybe she didn't even realize. Maybe she was just like, oh, it's catchy. That's also the point is, a lot of times writers will do that. And I think it's important to point out that a lot of times if you're a really good writer, you don't know that you're doing these tricks all the time very consciously, but you know that it sounds catchy. But this is the reason why.

[B]

But to be clear, to be clear, this song was co authored by three of the greatest songwriters of all time, right? Because Taylor got Max Martin and Shell Drake, the Swedish.

[A]

Is it Shellback.

[B]

And Max Martin's first actual name is. What was it? Carl.

[A]

Yes, Carl Sandberg.

[B]

Carl Sandberg, the famous American poet. But in this case it was spelled with a K. These guys are Swedish guys, but. But they have totally mastered the art of writing American pop songs. And they wrote I Kissed a Girl. I mean, it's just these guys know what they're doing. And so Max Martin is number two on the all time number one songwriters.

[A]

Yeah, I'm right. It's Shellback get dunked on. Another loss for the white man.

[B]

Oh, man. Crushed. Nicely done.

[A]

Thank you.

[B]

So Max Martin, Shellback and Taylor, they're three of the greatest songwriters of all time, right? So they didn't do this by accident. Right. They're not casually choosing words. And the fact that she's not just. So anyway, the point is, this title is a very memorable title. It is using. It is squished together as many of these memory tricks as you can imagine. And in terms of rhyming, one thing people should know is there are single rhymes, double rhymes, and triple rhymes.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Isn't there also, like feminine and masculine?

[B]

We're gonna get to that.

[A]

Oh, man.

[B]

When you rhyme ever, ever with together together. Right. That's a double rhyme.

[A]

Sure, right. It's an imperfect rhyme.

[B]

It's an imperfect double rhyme.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But never and ever is also a double rhyme, right?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

The single rhymes are mass. Are called masculine rhymes.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Double and triple rhymes are called feminine rhymes. Right. You may want to view that as some being harder and more superior. I would never dispute that. But I think certainly it is harder to double intelligence.

[A]

Your stab at feminism.

[B]

Yes. Right. That's exactly what's going on. So what is she doing in the chorus? So let's, let's, you know, expand on the chorus. So she repeats. We are never ever getting back together. Now the key. One of the key letters here is together getting back together. Right. Now she jumps to you go talk to your friends. Talk to my friends. Talk to me. Right. She's repeating the T sound six times.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

You go talk to your friends. Talk to my friends. Talk to me.

[A]

She also does that with the K's like getting back together talk.

[B]

It's almost a K. You can the question of whether a D is a hard T. Right. I mean there's. There are those things that kind of support. And by the way, when she goes to the fourth line in the chorus, she adds another ever.

[A]

Right.

[B]

To be clear, the first. The first line is we are never, ever, ever getting back together. The second line is we are never, ever, ever getting back together. But the fourth line is we are never, ever, ever, ever getting back together.

[A]

She wants to make it clear.

[B]

And then she throws in a. Like ever.

[A]

Like ever.

[B]

Right. Like ever. This is a staggering amount of repetition. Ever staggering amount of rhyme. Double rhymes, alliteration. Again, that's what this song is about. It is a pure bop. It's not at all surprising. We're not talking that there's necessarily a very deep meaning in this song. Although we've seen there is kind of one deep meaning which is Fu Jake. Rake Jake. Hashtag Rake Jake.

[A]

Nobody look it up.

[B]

People should learn a word. This is a good word. I was just saying rake. Rake is kind of the old fashioned.

[A]

If you go out in the street and scream like you, you rotten scoundrel.

[B]

Exactly. That's it. You wrote your college application. Your college application, which you read last episode was digging up three old forms of insult if I remember correctly.

[A]

Yeah, but they were better than rake. All I'm just saying they were shabaroon. Go call somebody a shabiroon. Call them a dirty rotten shabaroo.

[B]

I don't think that would have any.

[A]

My college essay sponsor this podcast.

[B]

Anyway. I don't know that your college essay had any money to sponsor this.

[A]

Yes, all I can Say Sesame street rake.

[B]

Oh, sponsored by the letter number three.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

This episode.

[A]

This is sponsored by the word shabiroo.

[B]

Okay. You're right. This is for those Sesame Streets fans. This episode was sponsored by alliteration.

[A]

Oh, my God. Wait, that's beautiful.

[B]

Alliteration.

[A]

Do you think we can get Sesame street to sponsor us if they're not defunded?

[B]

Well, no, they don't. They don't need money. They need our help sponsoring them.

[A]

It's true. Wait, can we sponsor Sesame Street? Guys, don't defund Sesame Street.

[B]

Exactly. We will give a portion of all profits for this podcast to Sesame Street.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

I'm not specifying what portion that is.

[A]

Give a dollar.

[B]

There you go. But, yes, this is a very sophisticated. It sounds simple. I mean, that's the beauty. Sure.

[A]

I mean, literally, it sounds.

[B]

Right. This sounds simple. The point of. And, you know, and maybe we haven't emphasized this point enough point. My producer wanted us to make sure. The purpose of poetry is to allow you brevity. You can write.

[A]

That was such a beautiful line. The purpose of poetry is to allow you brevity.

[B]

Right. You. When you use figurative language, you don't have to explain things as much.

[A]

Right.

[B]

You're using a metaphor that says how sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child. Right. Okay.

[A]

Whatever the hell that means.

[B]

Or in Taylor's case, when in Cruel Summer, she says she describes a relationship as breakable heaven.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

Right. Well, that's two words that tell you a lot about her idea of a relationship. Right. It's everything you can picture when you think of the word heaven.

[A]

Yeah. And then it's breakable.

[B]

It's breakable. So the point of poetry, of and of figurative speech, is to allow you to say a lot in a few words. And guess what? We live in an era where people aren't interested in listening for very many words.

[A]

Right, Right. So in this also, people don't always listen to songs for the lyrics.

[B]

No, that's true. That's true. I do. And, you know, I think one of the points of this podcast is there's a lot going on in these lyrics, even when it doesn't look like there is.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And you can learn a lot from any. Any number one song is a statement. Obviously, this is a very popular song. This has mass appeal.

[A]

Right, Right.

[B]

The challenge, the hardest thing in the world is not to be artsy or not to be popular, but it's to be both at the same time. That's what Shakespeare accomplished. He wrote Both for the Groundlings who paid a penny and in the front row. And they wanted to see very broad body stuff. But he also wrote for the more sophisticated middle class who were educated and wanted to see the deeper underlying figurative meaning stuff, right?

[A]

Like she could be played on the radio, but people also, you know, will play her and like, you know, cry to it.

[B]

So, right, she had the big, most successful concert in U.S. history. She has, you know, three albums that have streamed more than 10 billion songs. So, right, she is popular, but her goal is to be more than popular. And by the way, speaking of being more than popular, right, and her viewing herself as a poet, given that we talked about this, benefits of this title, we are never ever getting back together. Take another one of her album songs, Tortured Poets Department.

[A]

Wow, right, a lot of tease there.

[B]

And torture, right? Picking up the R sound, taking up the T sound. Torture is a great word. Torture is a great. Tortured poets. Picking up the tea depart ment, right? Also picking up the P from poets, right? She is not doing this by accident. Tortured Poets Department is just a great. This is three words. And again, cramming in multiple memory tricks, right? That's why the album title. That's why the song title, right? Again, this is not accidents. This is the point. One of our whole points of this whole podcast. You want to understand how to do this and you can do this if you. Again, when you're writing an email, right, you need to spend a little more time to make sure in the subject line to make sure that someone's going to open this.

[A]

Right?

[B]

Right.

[A]

Especially if you're cold emailing. Like if you want to do research posts at universities, like you got like.

[B]

Cold emails do not have a very good open rate. I mean, we are talking about a few percent. I've sent many cold emails in my day and I think I probably have a better open rate than 3%. But I wouldn't put it at more than, I don't know, one in three. It's just hard to get a total stranger to open up an email from you. Now you know, the better known you are, the better chance you are. I will say I know you dis LinkedIn, but the cold open rate on LinkedIn is much higher because it is a different group of people and you are somewhat. You already have social proof by virtue of the number of followers you have on LinkedIn and the credentials.

[A]

LinkedIn is an email evil site.

[B]

It is not an evil site.

[A]

It is a harbinger of doom.

[B]

No, Facebook was the harbinger of doom. Facebook brought us. The doom Facebook brought us. Yeah, but that doesn't even count us brought Instagram. And Instagram.

[A]

Facebook isn't even evil. It's just, like, genuinely horrible.

[B]

There you go. So, look, social media has not been, I think, I hope we can conclude, not necessarily the biggest positive or even net positive, but it doesn't change the fact that it's the world we operate in and the people who go viral. Yeah, and who is more viral than, you know, in the music business than Taylor? But look, all of the great songwriters. It was not like, you know, this is not anything different than what Lennon, you know, or McCartney did and any different than what, you know, Max Martin does. So, you know, this is what's going on in this song. And I just, you know, let's. Let's look at. Oh, and by the way, you know, we. That was the chorus, right? There is a pre chorus.

[A]

The pre chorus.

[B]

Ooh, you called me up again tonight. Two T's. But. Ooh. And it's got a but. But. Ooh, this time I'm telling you. I'm telling you. Right? It's all tease, right? You can go through this whole song. She got a lot of words with T's in them. T is a very common letter. Don't get me wrong.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

But where's the most common? Like, it's number two in. In. In the frequency chart. It is E, T, A, O, N, I, S. The hell you gotta.

[A]

Nerd alert.

[B]

That's something. My father, that's. Look, if you're a professional writer, you know what the frequency charts is. My father got obsessed with this. My father, since we're talking about. My father, loved to watch Wheel of Fortune. Right? But he was very perverse. He would record it on the vcr. No, no, no. Wheel of Fortune is fine. You're just. You're just being mean, but you're not, because this is a great TV show I'm very happy to be associated with. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It's hilarious. Thank you. Let's just listen to it a little bit. Okay? So very nice, my daughter.

[A]

Thank you.

[B]

You managed to get me to forget what I was going to say, which I think was your plan all along.

[A]

Yeah, we were talking about Adele. Right?

[B]

We were talking about Adele. And so the point is, even though this is just a bop, easy to dismiss as a pop song, in fact, very sophisticated, right?

[A]

Because it's hard to, like, get, like, number one hit on the Billboard music charts.

[B]

It is. I mean, so it is hard to get number One.

[A]

It's very easy to dismiss when you see a song like this, but at the same time, it's like, well, I mean, this is how you do it.

[B]

Right? And let's be clear.

[A]

This clear.

[B]

It's her first number one song. She's 22.

[A]

I know.

[B]

Okay. So, you know. Okay. It's not. It isn't the extended version.

[A]

I don't think I could do this in four years.

[B]

Well, I mean, you know, it's not the extended version of All Too well. Right. Okay. That's a different level of song, but that's her greatest song of all time. I will say that. I believe when Billboard ranked the 50 greatest breakup songs of all time, they gave her two. This was, I think, number 50 and number one, the greatest breakup song of all time. All too well. So she specialized in breakup songs. So she's. In that sense, she's. She's The Anti. Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney writes love songs. She writes breakup songs. But, you know, that's also, I think, the difference between, let's say, his era and her era. Let's talk about the bridge, right? You can't really talk about a Taylor song if you don't talk about the bridge, because she's gonna do some more.

[A]

Can you do it in a really sassy voice. Like, try, like, your best. Like, imagine you just got broken up with, like, by Jake Gyllenhaal, and you're, like, frustrated with him.

[B]

That would bum me out. If I'd been hanging out with Jake Gyllenhaal and now I'm not anymore, and he'd been jetting me off to places, making. Taking me to Cannes or something like that.

[A]

Yeah, man.

[B]

Seeing his freaking shows or something.

[A]

Or introducing Jake Gyllenhaal. No Shade. Sponsor the podcast now.

[B]

I'm just piping away for rake check.

[A]

Yes. Now take that feeling and. And do this bridge.

[B]

I used to think that we were forever, ever. And I used to say, never say never. Ugh. So he calls me up and he's like, I still love you.

[A]

And I'm like, why is Jake Gyllenhaal.

[B]

I don't know. I'm switching.

[A]

You know, that's fine.

[B]

And I'm like, no. I just. This is exhausting, you know? Like, we are never getting back together, like, ever.

[A]

Snaps.

[B]

Right? That was. And by the way, she talk. Sings some of this. She likes to, you know, certain. Often the bridges are tucked. Talk sung.

[A]

But same with Shake It Off.

[B]

The point is, here she is going backwards and doing some retroactive foreshadow Right. So she used to say never say never.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Well, that's what she used to say. Now she says it all the time to. In this song. Right. Just keeps repeating the word never ever ever.

[A]

Right? Yeah.

[B]

And she used to think that we were forever, ever. Nicely showing that the word ever that she used in never ever getting back together is part of the word forever. Right. So she is, in fact, this is almost, we might say a little bit of antithesis.

[A]

Omg.

[B]

Because she is flipping.

[A]

You could almost say that. But this is not what the. This podcast episode is about. So we're not allowed to say it.

[B]

We're not allowed to say it. But that was episode six or they'll shoot us. She is contrasting never ever getting back together with thinking of the relationship as forever. Right. In fact, this actually harkens back to the song that we talked about last time, which is blank space. Because in blank space she was presenting this parody version of songs. But the point was that she had.

[A]

Realized, so it's going to be forever or it's going to go down in flames.

[B]

Right. So she had come to the realization that your two choices, two choices, two extreme choices. Yeah, it's going to be forever or it's going to go down in flames. But so that song, you know, this song predates that song.

[A]

Right.

[B]

But the point is that again, it's the flip. It's the choice. Either it's going to be forever or we're never, ever getting back.

[A]

Yeah. People like two choices. That's why the matrix, you know, red pill, blue pill.

[B]

And as I think you said last time, the power of this from a emotional.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Is you want to contrast two opposites because then the distinction looks even bigger.

[A]

Right, Exactly.

[B]

Right. We can all imagine forever. Well, we can't really imagine forever, but we can certainly compare forever to never ever coming back together.

[A]

Right? Sure.

[B]

Right. So the point is, when you create the biggest possible contrast, you are becoming more memorable.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And I think we've covered a lot of actionable stuff.

[A]

Yeah, man.

[B]

I think the point is that you need to put more effort into the clicky part, getting people's attention. Right. We live, we talked about world is an open fire hydrant of stuff coming at you all the time.

[A]

Truth.

[B]

Right. So that's why so much of what we see in the world has amped itself up to a bonkers level.

[A]

Right, Right.

[B]

Our politics is now bonkers, but that's because it's run by people who are trying to get your attention through all the noise out there.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Taylor amps all of her songs up to a bonkers level. And by the way, we didn't talk about the video here, but the video was bonkers. This, in fact, I would argue she intentionally takes this kind of normal song and decides in the music video, I'm just gonna go bonkers and have people dressed up like woodland creatures.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Please vote.

[A]

And it's done in one shot.

[B]

It's a one shot.

[A]

You may have not seen it. So if you liked adolescence.

[B]

If you liked adolescence, if you liked.

[A]

The episode, that one episode of the.

[B]

Bear and the Studio, which you should be watching. The studio. Great spoof. Parody show.

[A]

Mom wants us. She likes.

[B]

But yes, the point is she uses the. The woodland creatures to help disguise the fact that she's making all these clothing changes and scene changes and stuff.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And. And also in theory, because this video is a little woodland creatures and other sort of weird musical instruments are common in, you know, artsy indie songs.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And that's part of her, you know, kind of making fun of Hashtag Rake Jake.

[A]

So true. That's the one that you really want to go with?

[B]

I do. I want people to. I feel people. It's a good word to learn. Look, your choices are word of the day.

[A]

Rake, not the word not normal. Rake.

[B]

Yeah. No, it's not. And, and I think, you know, in modern parlance, in. In modern parlance, parlance is another. We're talking about an A boy. Right?

[A]

Oh, my God.

[B]

And. But you know, the stock character. Here we go. Wikipedia.

[A]

Next to it is literally a photo. I'm a Renaissance painting.

[B]

It is in a historical context, a rake was a man who was habituated to immoral conduct, particularly womanizing often. A rake was also prodigal, wasting his fortune. All right, so hashtag Rake Jake.

[A]

So true.

[B]

But you want to call him an F Boy. Whatever. You call him whatever.

[A]

No, I think we've really roasted him by calling him a rake.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

I think that. I think that did him in. I'm going to be honest.

[B]

All righty.

[A]

End of Jake.

[B]

See what you can do with words. And they're one syllable. That's the other thing.

[A]

Yes. The homework is to find a way to call an asshole a rake. Find a way to do that.

[B]

And we're going to do a separate episode.

[A]

Let's bring Rake back.

[B]

But the point is, we're talking simple words.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

These songs, they're not much different from Dr. Seuss. Right. Dr. Seuss was trying to write stuff with the fewest words possible.

[A]

Right? Yeah.

[B]

Right. So that's what you Know, this is all basic stuff. Later she would evolve into using more. So, you know, sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see.

[A]

Right, right. But sure. But for now. And yeah, so in your homework, you know, if you're writing like a paper, you know, try to do. Try to do before the semicolon, you know, a little bit of like, you know, if it's on trees, you know, like tempting trees or.

[B]

I don't know, I use alliteration a lot. I will tell you.

[A]

Terrific. Trees.

[B]

It is very unlikely you will use too much alliteration.

[A]

No, man.

[B]

And again, you know, these are. These are basic things that you want to do.

[A]

Don't use it in your paper. Try to avoid that.

[B]

But in the title.

[A]

In the title, if you're.

[B]

Let's say you're starting a business, put some alliteration in the business. Lots of business. Go. When you walk around now, go online, you're going to see alliteration everywhere. It's very, very common in businesses. And look, you know, even in, let's see, peanuts. Peppermint Patty.

[A]

Yeah, Peppermint Patty.

[B]

In Harry Potter, Dumbledore, as always, we try to show that Taylor uses all of these things in combination.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And right. So you are going to want to. In your essay, you have to have a title. The title should have some figures of speech in it. The opening paragraph should have the word but in it.

[A]

Right, Right.

[B]

If you don't have a word but in your opening paragraph.

[A]

Okay, well, what are you even doing? You're just listing.

[B]

Right, Exactly. You're just listening. You're just saying this and this and this and this and this. And you're boring people.

[A]

Don't use too many howevers, because Grammarly dinged me on that in the past and now I don't use. Really.

[B]

There are two things. Two. Two things that have died. Semicolons. What? Sorry. You can Google.

[A]

He's obsessed with EM dashes.

[B]

I am.

[A]

Whatever.

[B]

Anyway, can I just say one thing about the tragedy, the EM dash, Because, yes, I used EM dashes in my blog an amazing amount.

[A]

It's true.

[B]

Here's the thing. Now people believe that one way to find out if your work was done by an AI.

[A]

That's what hurts me, is if it.

[B]

Has too many em dashes. You can't imagine how much I now hate ChatGPT for making it seem like the use of an em dash, which is just a pause that. That's very visible, rather than a semicolon, which is a pause that isn't so.

[A]

Visible if I'm using an M dash. Mind your damn business.

[B]

Exactly. Go back. I'm just trying to be whimsical. Screw you. Chat. GPT And. And open. AI. You're really closed. You're very close.

[A]

Every time you use an M dash, a child dies.

[B]

Exactly. Just shame on you.

[A]

Depriving them of water in a third world country.

[B]

So. And the word how. However. Yeah, however is another one. Sorry. Because it used to be. It would be a semicolon.

[A]

Oh, my God. Ever, ever, ever. Somebody should write a song like that.

[B]

The way people would used to use semi, however, was in conjunction with a semicolon. There'd be like a sentence, and instead of ending the sentence, you'd put a semicolon.

[A]

However, comma, that's what they teach us in grammar class. They still teach us to do that. And I still always do that whenever I use it. However, please do not.

[B]

Please do not do that. Stop using semicolons.

[A]

Ms. McGrory.

[B]

That man. No.

[A]

Shout out my English teacher. She's really cool.

[B]

Read. Read Ernest Hemingway or something. Do not. Do not. Do not do that. Sorry. However is a three syllable word. Once it adds no value whatsoever. Use. But please replace all you havers with the word.

[A]

But now people like butts.

[B]

Oh, man. Yes. And. And don't use a semicolon. Just use a comma. But on what planet do you have to use a semicolon?

[A]

However, I like semicolon.

[B]

Use a comma. But. Okay, man. This is. We're full of gems today. I feel.

[A]

I feel like this is honestly our most educational episode.

[B]

I really do. If we're learning a lot, I look, I learn a lot.

[A]

We're having breakthroughs here.

[B]

This is incredible. All right. I think. I think you have your assignment.

[A]

Yes. Your assignment is this. If you choose to accept it.

[B]

Listen to these songs again. Write them out. Write the lyrics of this song out so you can see what she is doing in every word. Because she is, as we said in episode four, Mastermind. She's doing everything by design.

[A]

By design.

[B]

No casual use of words. If you have a word in your essay and you don't know why it's.

[A]

There, Cut it out.

[B]

Cut it out.

[A]

That shit out, right?

[B]

You have to know why it's there. Because if you don't know why it's there, how is the reader going to know why it's. I mean, honestly, what are they? Mind readers. Sorry. All right, anyway, till next time.

[A]

Till next time. Hashtag rake Jake.

[B]

Hashtag rake Jake.

[A]

Let's get started. Adios Ciao.