This thread inspired me to listen to some of her music again. Last night was 1989, and listening more closely to “Style”, I see why you both say this (and I agree) - it’s a good example of a lot of the things she excels at as a songwriter and performer. So for those who can be bothered to listen to the music, here’s a little dive into the weeds of why people like her.
Lyrically, the song is about something that almost everyone can relate to: being in a relationship that you know is bad but you just can’t quit. So the song connects with people at a deeper level than “I like the music.” She also uses good imagery to tell the story:
Midnight
You come and pick me up, no headlights
Long drive
Could end in burning flames or paradise
But there’s nuance: in the second verse, it comes out that she’s also to blame for their dynamic, which subverts expectations for a listener who thought it was simply a song about a guy who did her wrong:
I say, I heard, oh
That you’ve been out and about with some other girl, some other girl
He says, what you heard is true, but I
Can’t stop thinkin’ 'bout you and I
I said, I’ve been there too a few times
And there’s ambiguity: in the bridge, she sings “Take me home, just take me home.” Is that take me home, I’m done with this? Or take me home so we can jump into bed? This further connects listeners to the song as they try to figure it out or read their own biases into it.
In addition to decent rhymes, she also pays attention to the rhythm of the lyrics. In the sample lyrics above she rhymes “…is true” and “'…bout you”, but also appends a staccato “but I / and I” to each line. This links the lines together and gives a better flow to the song. In the chorus, she alternates running the words together (“And-I-got-that”) with extra spacing (“red—lip—cla—ssic—thing that you like”) on the downbeat, switching to off the beat for the last line “out - of - style.” That variation provides interest and makes the song stick in your brain better.
The lyrics (and title) are also an easter egg for fans, who speculate it’s about her former relationship with Harry Styles. Solving the “mystery” makes the fans feel more of a connection to her, like they know some secret of hers.
Musically, it has a classic pop beat and the basics like harmonies are spot-on. But less common for a pop song, it starts in a minor key (B minor), which coupled with the faster beat causes tension. It then relieves the tension by shifting to the key of D major for the chorus. These keys share two notes, so it maintains continuity while shifting the feel of the song. She does this build tension/release tension in a lot of her songs. “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince” shifts between minor and major chords within the chorus in a call-and-response type format. There’s a study that showed a high correlation between song rank on Billboard charts with what it calls “harmonic surprise,” where the chord shifts are unexpected.
The bridge in “Style” does this in an even more extreme fashion. After the second chorus, the expectation is that it will return to a minor key verse, but instead it stays in the major key and jumps an octave for an even bigger buildup. Taylor is somewhat famous for her song bridges; you can find rankings of the bridges of her songs alone.
So on the one hand, “Style” is a pretty standard synth pop song. But it’s all the little things that you don’t really notice, but are done so well that it takes that standard format and make it great. It might not stand out as unique or innovative, but it’s no less an accomplishment.