"Style" is a song by the American singer-songwriter
Taylor Swift and the third
single from her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). Swift wrote the song with the producers
Max Martin,
Shellback, and
Ali Payami. An incorporation of
pop,
funk,
disco, and
electronic styles, "Style" is built on an
electric guitarriff, pulsing
synthesizers, and dense vocal
reverb. The lyrics are about a couple who could not escape from an unhealthy relationship because they are never "out of style".
Big Machine in partnership with
Republic Records released the song to US radio on February 9, 2015.
In the United States, "Style" peaked at number six and was 1989's third consecutive top-ten single on the
Billboard Hot 100, and it was certified
triple platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The single reached the top 25 and received
multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Early reviews were generally positive and praised the production but a few of them deemed the lyrics unsophisticated. Retrospective opinions have regarded "Style" as one of Swift's best songs.
Taylor Swift had identified as a
country musician until her fourth studio album, Red, which was released on October 22, 2012.[1]Red incorporates eclectic
pop and
rock styles beyond the country stylings of Swift's past albums, which led to critics questioning her country-music identity.[2][3] Swift began writing songs for her fifth studio album in mid-2013 while touring on
the Red Tour.[4] Inspired by 1980s
synth-pop, she named the album 1989 after her birth year to signify an artistic reinvention: she described it as her first "official pop album".[5][6] On 1989, Swift and the Swedish producer
Max Martin served as
executive producers.[7] For the standard edition, Martin and his frequent collaborator
Shellback produced seven out of 13 songs; one such song is "Style".[8]
The producer
Ali Payami and the guitarist Niklas Ljungfelt composed the instrumental of "Style", a guitar-driven track inspired by
Daft Punk and what Ljungfelt described as "funky electronic music".[7] Payami played the track to Martin, which Swift overheard and led to her becoming fond of the track.[7] She and Martin wrote new lyrics to the instrumental,[7] and Shellback and Payami co-wrote the track. Martin, Shellback, and Payami produced "Style", which was recorded by Michael Illbert and Sam Holland, assisted by Cory Bice, at MXM Studios in Stockholm and
Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles. The song was
mixed by
Serban Ghenea and John Hanes at MixStar Studios in
Virginia Beach, and it was
mastered by
Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound in New York City.[8] "Style" was one of the last songs produced for 1989.[9]
Critics mostly categorize "Style" as synth-pop[18][19][20] and "funk-pop".[21][22] Other reviews deem it
pop rock,[23] and
Italo disco.[24] Ed Masley in The Arizona Republic and the
musicologist James E. Perone regard it as a hybrid of disco and
new wave.[11][25] For many critics, "Style" not only resembles music of the 1980s that inspired 1989 but also features a modern-leaning production. They liken the sound to the works of 1980s musicians such as
Chaka Khan,[14]Nile Rodgers,[26]Don Henley, and
Madonna,[27] as well as modern acts such as Daft Punk,[28]Electric Youth, and
Blood Orange.[29] Masley writes that the track "would have sounded right at home on MTV a few years earlier than 1989",[11] and
Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone deems it "extremely 1986-sounding".[18] Perone sums up that although "Style" strongly evokes 1980s music, it does not reference any particular influence.[25]
Swift was inspired to write "Style" by an unstable relationship which she compared to timeless fashion staples.[9][30] The lyrics are about an on-again, off-again relationship, and the couple in question could not end it because they are never "out of style".[31][32] The opening lines set a scene, "Midnight/ You come and pick me up, no headlights"; for some critics, these lyrics allude to sex, a theme Swift had not openly embraced[21]—
Jon Caramanica of The New York Times cited them as an example of her relinquishing the youthful innocence of her past songs.[33] The refrain depicts the couple as conventionally attractive: the male lover resembles the 1950s actor
James Dean with his "daydream look in [his] eye", and the female narrator flaunts her "red lip classic thing that you like" and "good girl faith and a tight little skirt".[34] For some journalists, the beauty depicted is conservative and embedded with racial undertones.[34][35] In the second pre-chorus, both characters mutually admit to cheating;[27][36] Swift said the part displayed her evolved viewpoints on past relationships by admitting wrongdoings of both sides instead of her "I was right, you were wrong" mindset in previous songs.[9]
I say, "I heard that you've been out and about with some other girl" He says, "What you've heard is true, but I, Can't stop thinking about you and I" I said, "I've been there too a few times"
After Swift embarked on her sixth headlining world tour,
the Eras Tour, in March 2023, sales and streams of her discography resurged.[67] "Style" peaked at number 41 on the
Billboard Global 200 chart dated August 26, 2023.[68] It appeared on new singles charts of Italy (peaking at number 80),[69] Vietnam (number 37),[70] the Philippines (number 15),[71] Portugal (number 14),[72] and Singapore (number two).[73]
Critical reception
In reviews of 1989, many critics regarded "Style" as an album highlight, including Caramanica,[33] Mikael Wood of the
Los Angeles Times,[21] Benjamin Boles of
Now,[74] and Joey Guerra of the
Houston Chronicle.[75] The production received praise:
Kitty Empire from The Observer called it a "percolating" song that "satisfies on every level",[22] Paul Nolan from
Hot Press deemed it a "brilliantly executed" song with an "infectious" and "irresistible" production,[76] and PopMatters's Corey Beasley described the track as "immaculate".[20] In
Vulture, Lindsay Zoladz commented that "Style" showcased Swift as an artist who made pop music "bend to her will".[77] The song placed 24th on the 2015
Pazz & Jop poll, an annual mass critics' poll conducted by The Village Voice.[78]
Reception of the lyrics was not as uniformly positive. Caramanica and Robert Leedham of Drowned in Sound opined that "Style" embodied Swift's adult viewpoint on romance; the former said it depicted her as "savage, wry, and pointed",[33] and the latter applauded the song for celebrating "being young and reckless [as] a part of growing up".[79]Pitchfork ranked the song 50th on their list of 2014's best songs; Jordan Sargent opined that the lyrics were not groundbreaking but the production and Swift's "tense and restrained" vocals represented her artistic reinvention.[80]The Independent's Andy Gill said although the song had a "certain piquancy", it also contained "desperately inclusive electropop grooves and corporate rebel
clichés".[81]Consequence of Sound's Sasha Geffen said the song had one of the album's catchiest hooks but criticized its lyrics mentioning "conventionally pretty white people" as a cliché that blemished Swift's "girl-next-door likability".[35]
At the 2016
BMI Awards, "Style" was one of the Award-Winning Songs that earned Swift the honor of Songwriter of the Year.[82] It received a nomination for International Work of the Year at the
APRA Music Awards of 2016.[83] Critics have retrospectively considered "Style" one of Swift's best songs.[24][84]American Songwriter's Alex Hopper wrote that the single was "arguably the blueprint for pop music in the mid-2010s",[85] and Billboard's Kristen He said that it displayed "Swift's songwriting at its purest".[86] In rankings of Swift's entire catalog, the song was placed among her 20 best songs by Billboard's staff,[31]Clash's staff,[87]The Independent's Roisin O'Connor,[88]Paste's Jane Song,[89] and Vulture's Nate Jones,[90] and her 10 best by Exclaim!'s Alex Hudson and Megan LaPierre,[91]The Guardian's
Alexis Petridis,[14]NME's Hannah Mylrea,[32] and
Variety's Chris Willman.[13]
Music video
Kyle Newman directed the music video for "Style", which was shot in Los Angeles and completed within four days in summer 2014.[92][93] Before its release, Swift posted several teaser images and short clips from the video on her social media accounts.[94] She planned to premiere the video on Good Morning America on the morning of February 13, 2015, but Canadian music channel
Much released it at midnight.[95][96] Swift uploaded the video to her
Vevo account on the same day.[97] In the video, English actor
Dominic Sherwood plays Swift's love interest.[98] Swift contacted him by text message roughly a month before the shooting; the two had known of each other through mutual friends. By the time they worked on the video, Sherwood had finished the film Take Down, which was later renamed Billionaire Ransom (released in 2016).[93][99]
The video does not have a clear narrative but features disparate flashbacks of Swift and her love interest by the seashore, in the woods, and on car rides.[17] They are shown via broken glass pieces and a car's rear-view mirror, through which Swift and her lover see each other.[34][100] Media publications commented that the video for "Style" had a dark, abstract, and sensual atmosphere.[17][97][101][102]Vox's Kelsey McKinney opined that Swift embraced her sexuality using "sensual imagery" of her touching herself, which showcased her maturity as an artist.[17] Emilee Lindner of
MTV called the video "mature, tasteful, and ... sexy".[100] Spence Kornhaber from The Atlantic, meanwhile, remarked that Swift expressed her sexuality in a more conservative manner compared to her contemporaries that distinguished her from "the pop obsession with women's bodies".[34]
Several images in the video featuring silhouettes of Swift's head overlaid by other scenes of her lover, the forests, smoking clouds, or thunder storms, were compared to the opening credits of the crime drama series True Detective.[17][103][104]The Wall Street Journal's Michael Driscoll said the atmosphere evoked 1980s pop videos, specifically
Chris Isaak's "
Wicked Game" (1989).[105] Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times labelled the visual "a creepy homage" to
David Lynch's mystery film Mulholland Drive (2001).[106]
Live performances and other usage
Swift first performed "Style" live as part of the "1989 Secret Session", which took place on the rooftop of the
Empire State Building and was broadcast live by
Yahoo! and iHeartRadio on October 27, 2014.[107] On December 2, she performed the song along with "Blank Space" at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2014 in London.[108] "Style" was included on the set list for Swift's headlining 2015
world tour in support of 1989.[109] Swift also included the song on the set list for her 2018
Reputation Stadium Tour, where it was part of a medley with "
Love Story" and "
You Belong with Me".[110]
On April 23, 2019, Swift performed an acoustic version of the song at the
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts during the
Time 100 Gala, where she was honored as one of the "100 most influential people" of the year.[111] Swift again performed the song on the
Wango Tango festival on June 1,[112] during the
Amazon Prime Day concert on July 10,[113] and at the
City of Lover one-day concert in Paris on September 9, 2019.[114] She included "Style" in the regular set list of her sixth headlining tour, the Eras Tour (2023–2024).[115]
Rock singer-songwriter
Ryan Adams covered "Style" on his
2015 track-by-track cover album of Swift's 1989.[116] Adams changed the original James Dean-referenced lyric to "You've got that 'Daydream Nation' look in your eye", a tribute to 1980s rock band
Sonic Youth.[117] His version incorporated rock-oriented styles, which critics compared to the music by Irish rock band
U2 and its lead singer
Bono.[118][119][120]Annie Zaleski of The A.V. Club deemed it a standout on Adams's 1989, praising the cover as a "yearning, '80s college rock fever dream with snarling punk stabs".[121]Slant Magazine's Jeremy Winograd, by contrast, called the version "a bad U2 song."[118]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. † Streaming-only figures based on certification alone.
Swift ended her contract with Big Machine and signed with Republic Records in 2018. She began re-recording her first six studio albums in November 2020.[172] The decision followed a
public dispute in 2019 between Swift and the talent manager
Scooter Braun, who acquired Big Machine including the
masters of Swift's albums which the label had released.[173][174] By re-recording the albums, Swift had full ownership of the new masters, which enabled her to control the licensing of her songs for
commercial use and therefore substituted the Big Machine–owned masters.[175]
The re-recording of "Style", subtitled "Taylor's Version", was released as part of 1989's re-recording, 1989 (Taylor's Version), on October 27, 2023.[176] Swift produced "Style (Taylor's Version)" with
Christopher Rowe, who had produced her previous re-recordings.[177] The track was
engineered by Derek Garten at Prime Recording Studio in
Nashville, Tennessee; mixed by Ghenea at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia; and mastered by
Randy Merrill at
Sterling Sound in
Edgewater, New Jersey. Rowe recorded Swift's vocals at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles and Kitty Committee Studio in New York.[178]
Reception
Adam White from The Independent commented that the re-recording "sounds punishingly compressed [...] as though the mastering is off".[179]Slant Magazine's Jonathan Keefe wrote that the "altered guitar tone" was a "distraction" but the song overall was "perfect pop songcraft".[180] In American Songwriter, Alex Hopper said that the re-recorded "Style" featured Swift's matured vocals, which elevated an already great song.[181]Pitchfork's Shaad D'Souza regarded the track as one of the album's "immaculate highs",[182] and Rolling Stone UK's Mark Sutherland said the re-recording's production remained "astounding".[183]
"Style (Taylor's Version) peaked in the top 10 of charts in the Philippines (number two),[71] Australia (number seven),[184] Canda (number eight),[58] and New Zealand (number eight).[185] In the United States, "Style (Taylor's Version)" debuted at number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart dated November 11, 2023.[186] This chart achievement extended Swift's record for the most top-10 singles (49) on the Billboard Hot 100 among women.[187] On the Billboard Global 200, it debuted at number five. With other 1989 (Taylor's Version) tracks, it helped Swift become the first artist to occupy the entire top six of the Global 200 chart simultaneously.[188]
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of 1989 (Taylor's Version).[189]
Taylor Swift – lead vocals, background vocals, songwriter, producer
Max Bernstein – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, synth keyboards
^
abcdeMcKinney, Kelsey (February 19, 2015).
The anatomy of Taylor Swift's new 'Style'(analysis video). Edit & animation: Joe Posner.
Vox.
Archived from the original on February 5, 2019. Retrieved February 12, 2019 – via YouTube.
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ab"
ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – RADIO – TOP 100 and insert 201515 into search. Retrieved May 11, 2015.
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ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select SINGLES DIGITAL - TOP 100 and insert 202344 into search. Retrieved November 6, 2023.