Background and Lyrical Theme

“Love Story” came along late into the production of Fearless. Like most of Taylor’s songs, it is in part based on a real experience. It was written about a love interest of her’s who was not popular among her family and friends. She wrote the first draft of the song in approximately twenty minutes on her bedroom floor after she had an argument over this boy with her parents, feeling too inspired to put the song down unfinished. Because of the scenario, Taylor related to the plot of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1597) and used it as a source of inspiration to compose the song. The lyrics are from the perspective of Juliet. However, Taylor replaced Romeo and Juliet’s original tragic conclusion with a happy ending. She said:

«I used to be in high school where you see [a boyfriend] every day. Then I was in a situation where it wasn’t easy for me, and I wrote this song because I could relate to the whole Romeo and Juliet thing. I was really inspired by that story. Except for the ending. I feel like they had such promise and they were so crazy for each other. And if that had just gone a little bit differently, it could have been the best love story ever told. And it is one of the best love stories ever told, but it’s a tragedy. I thought, why can’t you…make it a happy ending, and put a key change in the song, and turn it into a marriage proposal?»

Taylor Swift

“Love Story” was recorded in March 2008 at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. Taylor said that, at first, the song was met with indifference from her record company and her parents. But she fought for it, which she says was a fun experience because she had something to prove. At a surprise gig in 2018, at the famous Bluebird Café in Nashville (where she was discovered), Taylor revealed that she was supposed to work on the song with country writer Craig Wiseman. The two had a writing session when Taylor was seventeen, and Wiseman wasn’t interested in her ideas for the track. They wrote a different song that day, but Taylor went home and finished the song. It eventually became one of the biggest country hits of all time. At the gig, Taylor joked: “I couldn’t stop thinking about the idea. I thought there was something to it. I really liked it.”