Dear John

Dear John

Taylor Swift

“Dear John” is a reflection on Taylor’s short-lived relationship with fellow singer-songwriter John Mayer. Taylor conveys her feelings of frustration over the way she was treated by John and how she disregarded the warnings from others.

Besides the obvious song title, there are multiple references to Mayer directly, including the mention of their over ten-year age gap. Sonically, Taylor purposefully added guitar slurring to the background instrumentals, a guitar playing technique seen all throughout Mayer’s music.

The two notably collaborated on Mayer’s 2010 song “Half of My Heart,” which was released 4 months before “Dear John”.

Besides John’s public statement to Rolling Stone in 2012, Mayer also replied to “Dear John” three years later, in his 2013 song “Paper Doll.” In the song, John directly replies to Taylor’s line, “you paint me a blue sky then go back and turn it to rain” with, “and if those angel wings don’t fly, someone’s going to paint you another sky.”

Notably, “Dear John” was the third song to contribute to Taylor’s streak of having “emotional vulnerable” ballads as the 5th track of an album.