"Only The Young" By Taylor Swift: The Fight Song That Never Was

This is the second edition of Fangirl a Column by Bergin Russell

Photo provided by The Associated Press. Taylor Swift performs on her world-wide Eras Tour.

I love Taylor Swift. Her songs were the soundtrack to my youth, adolescence and now adulthood. I know every lyric, album and easter egg. I own physical copies of her albums on vinyl and CD, have spent the money I earned babysitting on merch and saw her live this summer in London. What I’m trying to say is that I am crazy. 

Crazy qualified to tell you all about a little-known single Swift released in 2020, since it recently went up 200% in streams on election day, according to @chartdata on X. 

“Only The Young” in my very humble opinion is just not a good song, but has a very interesting history. It was released in collaboration with Swift’s documentary, “Miss Americana,” which follows Swift through her Reputation Tour as well as the making of her seventh studio album, “Lover.” The documentary has a throughline focused on political tension within Taylor’s management about whether Swift should share her thoughts on the 2018 midterm elections after remaining neutral her entire career. 

After negotiating with her team, Swift then made a statement that endorsed the democratic candidate for Tennessee and the importance of voting for liberal ideals, via Instagram, while encouraging her fans to register to vote. This action created a phenomenon called “The Swift Lift” leading to the highest percentage of new registered voters in young people that year. 

Despite her endorsement, the democratic candidate ended up losing the race in Tennessee prompting Swift to write “Only The Young.” The song’s message focuses on how the future of America and politics is in the hands of young people. All that to say, the song did not make as big of a splash as anticipated and is touted by many Swifties as an awkward blip.