[Summer Special Day 11] Ranking weird sounds in Taylor Swift songs!

Hi! This is a slightly larger post, so sorry it was a bit late. It's a kinda niche rankdown that I think I'm the first person ever to do, and it probably won't be a successful post but I love these kinds of things: a ranking of every "unconventional sound" that I know of in Taylor Swift songs. There are a lot of times throughout Taylor Swift's discography where she'll include a sound effect that's just meant to contribute to the atmosphere, and I love these. There are also a decent number of... "errors", I guess? Mostly in the rerecords when the production was slightly rushed, there are some noticeable glitches in the production, and some of them work better than others. So, this ranking includes all of those as well. The entries that are likely unintentional glitches are marked with an *asterisk. I don't think I need to explain further, so... here is the ranking!

#33: *Ed Sheeran's "AEHHH" in Everything Has Changed TV - Pretty obvious last place. This is one of the only major mistakes in Taylor's discography, and definitely the only one that truly disrupts the flow of the song, regardless of how much attention you pay to small musical details. Like, you can't really miss this one unless you're medically tone deaf. All-around, this song is significantly worse in the TV.

#32: *Buzzing in 1989 TV - I never experienced this infamous glitch firsthand, but it sounds horrible from what I heard about it.

#31: *The entire existence of Track 3 - This is just hilarious. For those of you who don't know, a few years back Taylor accidentally uploaded a song on streaming titled "Track 3" and it was eight seconds of static. Rather listen to this than "AEHHH".

#30: *Noticeable mixing imbalance in The Last Time TV - Another infamous glitch, where Gary's vocals are WAY louder than Taylor's for most of the song.

#29: "STAY!" in All You Had To Do Was Stay OG & TV - The first non-mistake on the ranking, and it's more annoying than most of the mistakes.

#28: *Metronome in Forever & Always TV - Fearless TV has a lot of errors, and this one is subtle but audible in the guitar solo. As someone who already doesn't really like F&A because of the lyrics, this just brings down the production for me.

#27: *"FooOOOcus" in Jump Then Fall TV - Reputation and Midnights called and want their autotune back. You don't belong on Fearless.

#26: *"YOUUUUUUuuuuuuu" in Sparks Fly TV - Slightly less noticeable version of the last one.

#25: *"And th--fAdEd picture" in The Other Side Of The Door TV - She's honestly so real for not having enough breath to get through this song's outro in one take, but I feel like the transition between takes could've been smoother. Luckily the other TOSOTD production error is accidental genius, and this one audio cut is not nearly enough to bring this song out of my top 22 favorite Taylor Swift songs.

#24: *Random backing vocal cuts in Lucky One TV - As someone who's more familiar with the TV than the OG, this doesn't bother me as much as anyone else, but still, it's a bit annoying.

#23: *"We were both young when I first saw you-FFFFSSSS-I close my eyes" in Love Story TV - This one isn't super noticeable, but I can never unhear that little static sound on this line. I can't tell if this is something in the production or just a weird closed-mouth breath, but it's a weird one.

#22: Birds & sirens in Exile - Twenty-twooooooo... Ranking these relatively low might have been in part biased by the fact that I hate this song for personal reasons I won't disclose. It's a nice touch but it doesn't really do much for me.

#21: Car tires in This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things - Gets annoying after a while but for the most part sounds cool.

#20: Police car in No Body, No Crime - Amazing unless you listen in the car.

#19: *"OoO-kay" in All Too Well 5MV TV - Possibly Taylor's most infamous production error, and for some reason I think this one is kinda cool. Nothing too special.

#18: *Off-key chimes in Holy Ground TV - Unsurprisingly, I seem to be the only person who doesn't mind the fact that those chime sounds are way out of tune. They're so high-pitched that it just makes it feel even more confused and natural. If it was a vocal it would be a different story.

#17: *"PPPPPAGE" in Lucky One TV - Very angry, very explosive, very ranty.

#16: Gunshots in I Did Something Bad - Very intense, very rageful, very angsty.

#15: VHS tape in I Know Places OG & TV - Because they're being recorded the whole time, even when they think they know places to hide. Genius.

#14: *Screeching noise in The Other Side Of The Door TV - It's a controversial opinion, but I love the way this sounds. It's very eerie, very raw, very rocky, and only makes me love this song more. Unfortunately the other TOSOTD production error is pretty egregious.

#13: Pen click in Blank Space OG & TV - Iconic. Earns the lucky 13 spot.

#12: Windshield wipers in Cornelia Street - Now this is how you do a sound effect in a song.

#11: Massive volume increase in Tell Me Why TV - This one is probably intentional since it happens after 13 seconds, and I think it sounds gorgeous.

#10: RADIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDYAHHDYAHH in I Did Something Bad - So glad she had that dream.

#9: Tolling bell in It's Nice To Have A Friend - The subtly sophisticated instrumentation of this song is a standout in Taylor's discography.

#8: High heels on cobblestone in Cardigan - A surprisingly gorgeous sound.

#7: Typewriter bell in Fortnight - Adds a touch of brightness to this otherwise very dark song.

#6: *Bridge layering in You Are In Love TV - This mistake improved the song from the original for me. Understandably, many people find it annoying that the "you are in love" line got accidentally copied over the first line of the bridge, but I think it's really cool how the bridge just kind of emerges out of the chorus in this way.

#5: Heartbeat in Wildest Dreams OG & TV & You're Losing Me - Another very iconic production choice that appears twice in Taylor's discography, and for good reason.

#4: Elephant trumpet in Labyrinth - The synths in this song are incredible.

#3: Metal clattering in Closure - Gets WAY too much hate.

#2: *Shaky breath in Last Kiss OG - Wow. I honestly wish this was in the TV because there's so much emotional depth in just this ONE BREATH, and it was so clearly not forced. The tradeoff? Taylor's Version has an even more hard-hitting sound effect that the OG also has, but the TV does it even better.

#1: Tolling bell in Last Kiss OG & TV but mostly TV - Okay, I'm about to go all-caps. HOW IS THIS NOT TALKED ABOUT MORE? Seriously, I want a 10-minute version of 4:41 of Last Kiss (Taylor's Version), and yet I haven't seen anyone else mention it. I don't even know why I'm obsessed with this. It's such a simple synth effect that could be achieved in just a few seconds, but... one could say it's e n c h a n t i n g. This sound, and the way it's paired with the emotive lyrics and vocals, especially in such a pivotal moment in the song, are the main things that boost Last Kiss into my top 13 favorite Taylor Swift songs of all time.

Well, I probably missed some, but for now that's my ranking of Taylor Swift's weird sound effects, which can also in turn be used as somewhat of a guide to what songs have these kinds of sounds. That's all for now! Byeeeeeeeeee!