Analysis of “Style” by Taylor Swift

Here at GE, we like a lot of things, with stuff like green energy, energy efficiency, and good music topping the list. I feel like not many people know about that last part though, so I felt that this week’s blog needed to explain our love of good music. Anyone can say they appreciate good music, so in order to prove to you that our feelings are real, I’ve taking the liberty of providing an analysis of a great song below to show that we understand the deeper meaning behind the catchy tunes.

The song “Style” might seem like a story about a girl and a guy in love, but if you look closer, you’ll see that the song is littered with green energy undertones. I’ll take the song apart line by line to show you what I mean:

“Midnight, You come and pick me up, no headlights”

At first glance, this line suggests secrecy. The girl is sneaking out to meet the guy. But let’s take a closer look: “No headlights.” What do headlights use? Electricity. The guy is actually just being energy efficient. Love isn’t something you should hide, but energy is definitely something you should save.

“A long drive, Could end in burning flames or paradise”

For me, this line is key; it totally debunks the whole “love story” hypothesis. This obviously isn’t the first time the guy and girl are sneaking out to spend time together, and I don’t think anyone’s ever snuck out break up with anyone, especially on a long drive. The rest of the time would just be shrouded in an awkward silence. What Taylor’s really referencing here is humanity’s future and climate change. We’ve got a ‘long road’ ahead of us as a species, whether the future is good or not depends on whether we let global warming spiral out of control (“burning flames”) or take action and switch over our energy supply to solar, wind, and other clean energy sources.

“Fade into view, oh, it’s been a while since I have even heard from you (heard from you)”

I think Taylor is actually directly referencing us here. It HAS been a while since we’ve last posted a blog. Sorry about that.

*Alright this could go on for awhile so I’m just going to skip to the end*

“Cause we never go out of style, out of style.”

That’s right folks, just like James Dean and red lipstick, clean energy is here for good. According to the Washington Post, solar and wind energy capacity in the United States has tripled in the past 7 years, and electricity provided from solar (both solar thermal and PVs) more than doubled in 2014. With prices continuing to fall, that tend will only continue.

Like our previous blog post mentioned, Georgetown Energy is closely working with the University to propel Georgetown to the front of this movement. Our on campus projects this semester include getting solar panels installed on Leo’s and retrofitting an existing building’s lighting system with LEDs. While these projects alone won’t completely vault Georgetown into James Dean levels of clean energy style, Georgetown Energy will use these as building blocks to accomplish more and more ambitious projects in the future. (ICC solar panels anyone?) Taylor would be proud.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CmadmM5cOk&authuser=0