Whats Poppin: Songs That Make You the Villain

Mia Shields, Design Editor

Whether it is singing in the shower or blasting music in the car, everyone loves a catchy song. However, some fan favorites may not be as lighthearted as expected. 

Taylor Swift, for one, has gone through various eras which makes it difficult to keep track. Her album “Reputation” has several empowering songs, created in retaliation to the degrading experiences she faced in the music industry. Many of the songs from the album reveal an edgier side to Swift’s typical pop persona. Specifically, her song “Getaway Car” has included more skeptical lyrics. 

“…I’m in a getaway car, I left you in a motel bar, put the money in a bag and I stole the keys, that was the last time you ever saw me…” This line from the song narrates a story of a girl leaving her partner at the scene of a crime helpless as she turns the guy in, never to show her face again. Clearly, the girl in the song is not the best person, leaving her partner to face all the blame for something she committed. However, “Getaway Car” remains one of the most popular songs on the album despite its depiction of a bad main character. 

Swift’s album “Evermore,” and its sister album “Folklore,” emulate their own beautifully melancholy twist and subtle country influences, reminiscent of Swift’s older discography. While most of “Evermore” consists of a similar rhythm throughout the tracks, “No Body, No Crime,” managed to differ from the rest of the album as it blatantly centers on covering up a murder. 

The line “…and I’ve cleaned enough houses to know how to cover up a scene,” conveys the idea that the narrator needs to clean up some sort of crime scene, while the next line solidifies the storyline with “Good thing Este’s sister’s gonna swear she was with me (“She was with me dude”),” which admits to setting up an alibi. 

The last villainous song pick is “Jenny was a friend of mine,” by The Killers. This song is similar to “No Body, No Crime” because they both talk about a crime that is being covered up. This song, however, goes into more graphic detail when it says “She couldn’t scream while I held her close,” and discusses more deeply how the victim had died in the hands of the narrator. This song remains upbeat, with a rock tempo despite it going through the steps of committing a crime and denying any actions.