Taylor SwiftSo he calls me up and he's like / "I still love you" and I'm like, I'm just ... / This is exhausting, you know like / We're never getting back together / Like ever. Ahh, Taylor Swift, you romantic wordsmith, you. Like, the concise turns of phrase, the economic, nearly Hemingway-esque style -- it, like, says so much, with, like, so little. For instance, which of your many rumored Romeos are you singing about?

Personally, I don't much care about the subjects of Taylor Swift's music, whether she's weeping about a mysterious breakup or celebrating the heady crush of early love. But plenty of people do, and that's why I've got to give her props for her much-discussed habit of singing about her high-profile boyfriends. Because this is a GENIUS marketing move.

I mean, you can't buy the word of mouth her newest single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," is already getting.

On Monday night Swift released a new song to her fans, as part of her new album Red that's coming out on October 22. The single, creatively titled, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," is already out on iTunes, and she promoted it on Good Morning America today. According to Swift, the lyrics are based on a real relationship of hers:

This guy walks in who is a friend of my ex's and starts talking about how he's heard we're going to get back together. And that was not the case. ... So I start telling (her fellow songwriters Max Martin and Shellback) the story: break up, get back together, break up, get back together -- just, ugh, the worst! And I picked up the guitar and Max said, 'This is what we're writing.'

Yes indeed. That's how they came up with the following:

No, we are never ever, ever getting back together
We are never ever, ever getting back together
You go talk to your friends, talk to my friends, talk to me
But we are never ever, ever, ever getting back together ...

(But wait, are you getting back together????)

Here's the audio track of the song:


Snarkiness over the silly wordplay aside, Swift's either a one-trick pony when it comes to her music, or she's smart enough to take advantage of all the speculation that comes with each new love song. I'm sort of banking on Option #2, because it just seems too perfect that she releases a new song and the gossip instantly ramps into high gear over who she's singing about. People, for instance, is breathlessly wondering whether her clueless ex is John Mayer, Jake Gyllenhaal, Taylor Lautner, or Joe Jonas.
 
In the meantime: hello, free publicity. Ka-ching, single sales. Hello, brand new $4.9 million Cape Cod beach home. At 22, Swift seems to have figured out the magic formula for milking every last drop from her romantic entanglements. Kristen Stewart, take note.

Do you think Taylor Swift's lyrics are designed to spark discussion?

Image via Eva Renaldi Photography/Flickr