Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” Lyrics Meaning

Many of the songs related to romance which Taylor Swift dropped later in her career have been used as tabloid-media fodder. But she wrote this particular one (“Fearless”) back in the day when she was quite-young and a budding star, apparently not being involved with anyone at the time. 

Owing to the above, the lyrics are not about an actual relationship. Instead they represent a teenage Swift’s vision of what the ideal first date would be like. So they are actually based on a romantic fantasy, if you will. Or at least such is the thematic setting of the tune. 

Lyrics

We have the narrator and her romantic interest, the addressee, closing out a night on the town. And what they actually did to entertain themselves is not specified. Rather the focus is on him driving her home afterwards, and she admiring the beauty of the night and also that of her date’s in the process.

That is how the first two verses read. But it can be postulated that the third begins more in a metaphorical sense. In other words, when the singer advises the addressee to “drive slow”, that may be an admonishment related more to his speed in handling her as opposed to a road rule. 

Either way, what she is ultimately saying is that she wants to savor her time with him. And by the time the passage concludes, the setting does clearly switch back to being on the road, just relishing being there next to this dude.

And it’s quite easy to ascertain that someone like a teenager wrote this, because it is a true puppy-love type of scenario. In fact the whole narrative concludes with the two of him having a ‘flawless first kiss’ in the doorway.

Title (“Fearless”)

And concerning the title of the song, what it actually alludes to is the general idea of the vocalist being unafraid to fall in love. Yes, Taylor Swift has given an elaborate, perhaps we can even say philosophical exposition concerning what the word “fearless” means in relation to the entire project named after it. 

You know, more or less the usual conquering-your-fears’ type of banter. But in relation to this particular song, once again according to her own words, it is about “the fearlessness of falling in love”, as asserted earlier

But that idea is not presented forthrightly in the lyrics. Rather the way it comes off is that she is so in love with this particular person – and him only – that she is willing to put aside her romantic apprehensions. 

Or stated more specifically, the lyrics are not about conquering the fear of love per se. Instead it’s like the young lady is so smitten that such fears are being cast aside naturally. And what’s making all of this possible, besides being physically attracted to her partner, is the fact that he is indeed living up to her expectations of what a perfect romance would look like.

Facts about “Fearless”

Taylor Swift wrote this song with Hillary Lindsey and Liz Rose. And production wise she worked alongside Nathan Chapman.

This track came out on 14 October 2008 courtesy of Big Machine Records, the first label Taylor ever signed to. It is the lead song and title track on the playlist of “Fearless”, Taylor Swift’s sophomore album. It also acted as the fifth-standard single from the project.

Film director Todd Cassetty handled the music video for this song. It features footage from what is known as the Fearless Tour (2009-2010), which was Taylor Swift’s first tour as a headliner.

Meanwhile the songstress actually conceptualized the tune while rather serving as the opening act on someone else’s tour, which would have likely been that of Rascal Flatts’, fellow Big Machine artists, in 2016. So that would have made her circa 17 years old when she first started putting this song together.

“Fearless” spent 15 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at a position of number 9.

This song was released as a promotional single, which basically means only made available to radio stations (i.e. not for commercial purposes, only to promote the album), in November of 2008.  Yet it still went on to achieve gold status. It was subsequently released as a standard single. And in doing so, it was reportedly the first song in RIAA history to be certified gold even before being released as an actual single.

This track also earned Taylor Swift and co. a couple of BMI Awards, Award-Winning Songs and Publisher of the Year, in 2010. And besides the US it also charted in Canada, Spain and the UK.

Fearless (Taylor’s Version)

A re-recorded version of this track was released, along with the rest of the Fearless album, in April of 2021. And Taylor did so basically to circumvent her original master recordings being sold to Scooter Braun, aka Justin Bieber’s manager.