Taylor Swift: Creating Unrealistic Expectation?

I love Taylor Swift’s music.  As a twenty-one year old female, I have been through a lot of the scenarios that she writes about and I can appreciate her artistic view of them.  I am also able to realize that her songs and lyrics are glorified takes on reality and do not represent scenarios that actually happen in real life.  Most of her songs are about boys, often about her pining after a boy who doesn’t appreciate her or about her finally falling in love with this “perfect” person.  A good amount of her audience is young girls, who may not yet have gained the insight or maturity to realize that the songs don’t represent reality.  They probably listen to lyrics like:

“I got tired of waiting


Wondering if you were ever coming around


My faith in you is fading


When I met you on the outskirts of town,

 and I said

Romeo save me I've been feeling so alone


I keep waiting for you but you never come


Is this in my head? I don't know what to think


He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring


And said, marry me Juliet


You'll never have to be alone


I love you and that's all I really know


I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress


It's a love story baby just say yes”

and fantasize about having their own fantastic fairy tale love story.  Her lyrics may give these girls completely unrealistic expectations about love and life in general.  Taylor Swift encodes messages within her lyrics that represent snapshots of her life and the experiences that she has had.  Listeners are going to decode these messages based on the experiences that they have had in their lives.  For young women who have not been exposed to the reality that people do have flaws and that perfection is unattainable, they may be setting themselves up for failure by placing so much stock in her music.  For other listeners, who have gone through some of the trials and relationships that Taylor writes about, a connection is formed and a bond of understanding connects that listener to her.  She is able to form a relationship with her audience, an essential part of success in popular culture, and evokes real emotion from her fans.