The Charli XCX-Taylor Swift Beef, Explained
By N. Bodhi
Staff Writer
Upon the release of her latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl”, Taylor Swift once again found herself in the midst of controversy, not only due to the polarizing reception her album received—it is the worst-received album of her career by critics—but due to the messages that it contains. The seventh track, “Actually Romantic”, of her LP is a diss track directed towards British artist Charli XCX. The track’s title is a play on XCX’s Brat’s “Everything is Romantic”, instigated by the same album’s “Sympathy is a Knife”, a track which is widely assumed to be about Swift.
In “Sympathy is a Knife”, the British singer and songwriter deals with this “one girl who taps my insecurities”. The track’s tone is one of deep insecurity but not necessarily hostility towards Swift as Charli XCX reflects upon the reality of seeing somebody as excelling in her craft of pop stardom to levels that she cannot fathom reaching herself. The most piercing lyrics on it are the following: “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show/Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick/’Cause I couldn’t even be her if I tried/I’m opposite, I’m on the other side/I feel all these feelings I can’t control/Oh no, don’t know why/All this sympathy is just a knife”. The first portion of the fragment alludes to Swift’s short but notable relationship with Matty Healy, the frontman of The 1975, a pop-rock band in which Charli XCX’s now-husband, George Martin, is the drummer. Most importantly, the excerpt demonstrates that Charli XCX does not seem to have an issue with Swift on a personal level, but her figure seems to remind her of her own insecurities.
Swift took these lyrics personally and dedicated the aforementioned track of her latest release to Charli XCX. The track opens: “I heard you call me “Boring Barbie” when the coke’s got you brave/High-fived my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me/Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face/Some people might be offended/But it’s actually sweet/All the time you’ve spent on me/It’s honestly wild/All the effort you’ve put in/It’s actually romantic”. The first line exemplifies the shortcomings of Swift’s songwriting as of late, where her disposition to see herself as a victim and her refusal to see herself, as a lyrical character, as largest pop act in this world but still as a youthful underdog result in a clearly personal quip that is reminiscent of an insult from a high schooler, one that falls ineffective in the eyes of public opinion. It’d only have some weight to it had Brat not contained various references to cocaine paraphernalia, such as “365”’s memorable “Bumpin’ that” refrain. While Charli XCX’s “Brat” was a breath of fresh air to the pop landscape, Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” is a stale work that further reinforces that Swift is now insulated from the circumstances that once made her songwriting great. Her weak diss track aimed at Charli XCX is no exception.