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Kaitlyn McCoy

Professor Parcell

Music 1121

07 December 2021

All Too Well (10 Minute Version)

Taylor Swift is commonly known as one of the most influential artists and song writers of

her generation. “All Too Well” was rerecorded this year to include every lyric and emotion that

was meant to be felt the first time around. This piece takes you on a complete journey through

her past relationship and includes a short film to piece it all together. From the changes in

dynamics that accent emotions to the addictive melody, she has completed a true masterpiece.

Today I will be discussing the progression of emotions and melody throughout this song.

“All Too Well” starts out fortissimo with few basic chords and a bass to create a feeling

of sadness and reflection. She begins recalling the first time meeting his family and leaving her

scarf at his sister’s house. This is significant because it foreshadows him keeping the scarf and

wearing it post-breakup. Taylor uses word painting throughout to have the music match the

emotions and the instrumental breaks give listeners the chance to absorb what they just felt from

each segment.

The bridge is a reflection on how she knows that it is over, and she might look okay, but

she’s not fine at all. The emphasis and forte on the words “long gone”, “not here”, “okay”, and

“fine at all” add to the emotional pull the song has. I thought it to be creative how she stretches

the word “all” and it almost sounds like it transforms into the word “no”. This is where the
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tempo picks up and we enter the chorus. She is explaining how her mind takes her back to when

they were together driving around, wind in her hair, and him almost running the red light from

looking over at her. She proceeds to repeat the main theme of the song “I remember it all too

well” indicating that he is impossible to forget. She sings the words “all too well” in a low tone

to continue matching the music to the emotions.

The next verse is about reminiscing on the times his mom would tell his childhood stories

and him teaching her his past thinking the future was her. She again emphasizes certain words

and phrases except instead of using forte she uses pianissimo to show sadness instead of

frustration. The mood changes during this verse back to anger because she is finally showing the

ugly side of the relationship and where it started to fall apart. There is much emphasis on “fuck

the patriarchy” and “you never called it what it was” to set the mood for the change going on.

She then exposes how he was only able to realize what he had when it was too late and thought

he could come back thinking it was the same.

The chorus repeats except this time she is reminiscing on when they danced in front of

the refrigerator light and continues the repetition of remembering it all too well. She explains her

frustration of forgetting about him long enough to forget why she needed to and how one-sided it

felt with him keeping her like a secret while she kept him like an oath. The fact of how many

times she must repeat that she remembers it all alludes to the idea that she was being

manipulated and gaslighted throughout her experience with this person. This all leads up to the

climax of the song.

The climax comes in almost perfectly half-way through the song, and it comes in hard.

The tempo is faster, the dynamics have shifted, and the emotions are at an all-time high. She is

coming up with all the different reasons as to how it ended and concludes that it was a
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masterpiece before he tore it all up. This next section is where every bit of those emotions built

up throughout the piece all come busting out with the loudest, most dramatic portion of the song.

She screams how he calls her up again just to break her like a promise and compares herself to a

piece of paper lying there because she remembers it all too well. She lets her emotions take over

and begins listing all those times he hurt her and disappointed her. She even says how it made

her want to die and the unison of words with the beat stresses that feeling. The rest of the song

afterwards is back to the original tempo and dynamics with her voice again fluctuating pitch

based on emotion.

The final portion of the song feels like the resolution of the relationship and the start of

her healing process. She uses pianissimo again to set the saddened mood and explains how she’s

paralyzed by what she went though. She is fighting to be her old self again, but still trying to find

it. The tempo and forte pick back up going into the final chorus where she is reminded of when

he loved her before he lost the one real thing he will ever know. The scarf is brought back up

with comments on how he can’t get rid of it and it reminds him of her. The very end is a

shockwave of her testifying how she grows older, yet his lovers stay young and wondering if the

twin flame bruise and love affair maimed him the way it did her. The song fades out to her

relisting all the things she remembered throughout the lyrics and brings the entire story together

with such softness that the listener can absorb it all.

This song takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions, but it is a perfect piece to analyze

from start to finish. So much passion, emotions, and technical ideas played into creating this

masterpiece of a song. Taylor Swift did not let one portion of this song fall flat and anyone

listening can feel what she was feeling even if you never experienced this yourself. Her use of
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word painting, crescendo, and decrescendo sends a message even to listeners who do not speak

English because the music moves you just as much as the lyrics do.
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Works Cited

Taylor Swift - All Too Well: The Short Film, YouTube, 12 Nov. 2021,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tollGa3S0o8. Accessed 11 Dec. 2021.