An Attitudinal Analysis of Song Lyrics of Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” Album

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the attitudinal meaning in selected song lyrics from Taylor Swift’s album, The Tortured Poets Department, using the Appraisal framework developed by Martin and White (2005). The research employs a qualitative descriptive approach, utilizing content analysis as its method. The focus of this study is the Attitude subsystem, which consists of three types: Affect (emotion), Judgment (moral evaluation), and Appreciation (aesthetic evaluation). The data was collected from six selected songs and consisted of 160 attitudes from 144 lines. The findings reveal that Affect is the most prevalent attitude type, occurring 76 times (47.5%), followed by Appreciation (30 occurrences, or 18.7%) and Judgment (54 occurrences, or 33.8%). Additionally, this study examines how attitude is realized through direct (invoked) and indirect (inscribed) expressions, with the indirect realization being most prevalent. This demonstrates that Swift often employs poetic, metaphorical, and symbolic language in her lyrics. The results demonstrate how lyrics can convey strong emotions, moral dilemmas, and aesthetic principles. This study demonstrates the value of Appraisal Theory in analyzing evaluative meaning in written works regarding contemporary music.