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Taylor Swift’s ‘Cruel Summer’ Deconstructed: Strategic Hooks, Intriguing Lyrics & an Emotional Connection
Written by djfrosty on October 18, 2023
Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” is the full package when it comes to hit songwriting. Every aspect of the song is fully optimized and firing on all cylinders so that it fully connects and resonates with the listener without ever wearing out its welcome.
What follows are a few of the song’s strongest qualities that have contributed to its success.
Notably, the song spends a 10th week at No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart (dated Oct. 21), marking Swift’s first double-digit-week leader on the list. It has reached a No. 3 high on the Billboard Hot 100, having become one of her 42 top 10s on the chart, the most among women. It was originally released on Swift’s 2019 album Lover before Republic Records started promoting it as a single this June.
Strategically Placed Vocal Hooks
At the heart of “Cruel Summer” are its uniquely delivered and strategically placed vocal hooks that make it an irresistible earworm of a song that keeps the listener engaged from start to finish.
The bookending intro and outro and turnaround feature the vocoder-processed “yeah” hook that serves as an instantly recognizable calling card for the song.
Both verses also feature catchy vocoder-processed vocal hooks, presented in a background manner under Swift’s lead. Together, they create a catchy call-and-response flow while cleverly conveying Swift’s conflicted desire for her love interest.
The chorus features the nonsensical “ooh, whoa-oh” hook, which achieves a few key elements: The creative, melismatic and show-don’t-tell manner in which it’s sung communicates the emotion that Swift feels without the need to outright state it; it foreshadows and subsequently reinforces the summative, “it’s a cruel summer,” song title hook that directly follows; and it showcases Swift’s vocal chops.
Meanwhile, the bridge uniquely features two standout shouted vocal hooks that are primely placed at the end each stanza: “I don’t wanna keep secrets just to keep you,” and the even more stark, “‘I love you’ – ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?” A testament to the bridge’s overall strength is its interpolation in Olivia Rodrigo’s No. 3 Hot 100 hit from 2021, “Deja Vu,” which resulted in the writers of “Cruel Summer” – Swift, Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent – all receiving writing credits on Rodrigo’s song.
Intriguing Lyricism
While many of today’s hits pepper in a bit of clever, metaphorical lyricism to make a narrative more engaging, “Cruel Summer” is atypically chock full of it. Every section, save for the action scene in the bridge, features an abundance of intriguing show-don’t-tell writing, as noted above, that delivers the story in a highly compelling and engaging manner.
A prime example is the pre-chorus’ “devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes” line. Along with conveying Swift’s likely futile gamble on her bad-boy love interest, the astute Swift fan will notice that it also cleverly alludes to a board game featured in the video for Swift’s 2019 hit “Lover.”
However, as shrewd as the song’s lyricism is, it remains easy to grasp and comprehend, which is a testament to Swift’s masterful lyric-writing skills.
Emotional Connection
One of the most important qualities of a hit song is its ability to emotionally impact the listener so that it connects on a profound level and keeps ears coming back for more. One highly effective way of achieving this is through the vocal performance, instruments and lyrics all working in tandem to create a unified expression, a combination known as prosody.
In “Cruel Summer,” prosody is effectively achieved throughout the entire song. For instance, in the first verse, the synth creates a subtle, dark vibe that underscores the problematic love/relationships-themed story. In the chorus, Swift’s soaring, evocative vocals accentuate the passion she feels for her love interest. As for the bridge, the faster-paced vocals and synth pattern work in concert to bolster the anxiety-ridden, action-based lyrics.
David and Yael Penn co-founded Hit Songs Deconstructed. Earlier in October, Hit Songs Deconstructed and fellow song analysis platform MyPart publicly launched launched ChartCipher, a new AI-powered platform analyzing a deeper scope of hit songs, as defined by Billboard’s charts.