Sophia Michaels
The secret message behind the song: “They loved each other recklessly.”
The telling lyrics: “Ooh, your necklace hanging from my neck,” “Remember when you hit the brakes too soon? / Twenty stitches in the hospital room / When you started crying, baby, I did too”
The secret message behind the song: “They loved each other recklessly.”
Why it’s about Harry Styles: “Out Of The Woods” chronicles the ups and downs of a relationship that often leaves you feeling apprehensive about the time when it all finally comes crashing down. Chronologically placed right after “Style” on the “1989” tracklist, the secret message behind “Out Of The Woods” ties the subject, heavily speculated to be Styles, together to the rest of the album. The bridge of the track takes a metaphorical route where Swift sings about how the relationship suddenly came to a screeching halt, which might be a nod to their real-life snowmobile accident in September 2014, further suggesting Styles influenced the song. Furthermore, the exact replica of the paper airplane necklace that Styles was spotted wearing on multiple occasions in 2012 also appears in the music video for “Out Of The Woods.”
“This song is about the fragility and kind of breakable nature of some relationships,” Swift explained the song’s lyrics in her Big Machine Radio commentary. “This was a relationship where it was, kind of, living day-to-day, wondering where it was going, if it was going to go anywhere, if it was gonna end the next day. It was a relationship where you kind of never feel like you’re standing on solid ground. And that kind of a feeling brings on excitement but also extreme anxiety and, kind of a frantic feeling of wondering endless questions.” She added that the sound of “Out Of The Woods” (see: the repetitive questioning in the chorus) perfectly mirrors the anxious feelings that sparked the lyrics. “It stresses that even if a relationship is breakable and fragile and full of anxiety, it doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile, exciting, beautiful, and all the things that we look for,” Swift concluded.
