Lauren Alex Hooper on Taylor Swift

ICMP's Masters in Songwriting alumna Lauren Alex Hooper has always had multiple projects on the go, from EP releases to blogging about mental health. 

Lauren's latest achievement is to contribute a chapter to a new collection of academic research, 'Taylor Swift: The Star, The Songs, The Fans'.

Titled, 'Lyrical World Building: An Exploration of Taylor Swift’s Use of Intratextuality and Intertextuality', the focus for Lauren's chapter explores the lyrics and songwriting craft of the American pop star powerhouse. 

In our interview, Lauren shares how the chapter came about, what her research delves into and how her studies helped pave the way for this opportunity. 

Congratulations on the book chapter - how did this come about? 

In 2021, during my second year of the MA Songwriting - I did the course part time - Sophie Daniels, knowing I had long been a huge fan of Taylor Swift, forwarded me an email about a potential (online) musicology conference centering on Swift.

It was being organised by three assistant professors at different US universities, all women, and they felt that, considering what an incredibly unique and successful career she'd already had, the existing research was severely lacking; they encouraged proposals exploring any and all areas within Swift's career but, as a songwriter, I knew that I wanted to write about her lyrics. It was, after all, Swift who first got me fascinated by lyrics. I submitted a proposal and they accepted, which was particularly exciting as I was the only songwriter on the roster (although everyone else was a PhD student or already had a PhD, which was more than a little intimidating). 

Somehow, I managed to research and write a paper-turned-presentation for the conference in the middle of my final MA project, although that research into songwriting did ultimately go on to serve my final project. I was really nervous about the conference but the organisers - Paula Harper, Christa Bentley, and Kate Galloway - were incredibly supportive and it was a truly interesting and thought-provoking two days. 

I don't think it was long after that when they got back in touch and told us that there was potential for the conference to be presented in book form, triggering a whole new academic process. I'd never written a paper for publication before, so I was very anxious and unsure about how to do what was required of me. 

I am so incredibly grateful to Paula, Christa, and Kate for taking a chance on me with this opportunity and for all of the support and reassurance they gave me, even when the word limit was a distant memory. It's been a very surreal experience, but I feel very lucky to have had it.

Could you talk about your chapter? What is it about?

My chapter is called 'Lyrical World Building: An Exploration of Taylor Swift's Use of Intratextuality and Intertextuality'. 

I was analysing Swift's lyrics and how she repeatedly references and explores certain imagery, metaphors, and themes, sometimes within an album and sometimes over the course of her discography so far.

I wanted to delve into how she has been able to create a unique and distinctive language as a songwriter and a wider universe through her extensive discography, allowing her to tell stories bigger than one song, such as her personal growth, relationships, and to revisit and re-examine her own experiences."

I also studied extratextuality, where a writer references the work of another, and how Swift uses this to connect her work to other worlds that her listeners might already be familiar with and linking her music to different areas of contemporary culture, such as literature, film, and so on; by doing this, she's anchoring her work unshakeably in both the present and the past.

Using all of these techniques - intratextuality, intertextuality, and extratextuality - she's made her discography a complex, inextricable, and stylistically unique body of work. I think it's something that can build both a strong relationship between a songwriter and their music and between the music and the listeners. Other songwriters have used these techniques, of course, but none of them to the same extent as Swift.

As you can tell, I am a huge lyrics nerd and loved exploring these different ideas and pulling apart songs to analyse the details, the parallels, and the similarities and differences; I learned so much about storytelling and about conveying emotion and experience through these three techniques. And I could've written so much more about it! Maybe I will one day; who knows…

Was this line of research born out of your studies/time with ICMP? 

I did write about Taylor Swift for my final essay of the Musicology module on my MA, but content-wise they weren't particularly similar.

But I learned a lot from ICMP's Dan Green while writing that essay and I don't think I could've written this paper that I'm so proud of without his support. 

I distinctly remember talking to him at the beginning of the semester – while I was still deciding what to research and what to write about – and he told me to write about whatever I would learn the most from and that's advice that I've taken with me far beyond that essay.

The research for this paper taught me so much, as a researcher, as a writer, and as a songwriter, which was ultimately reflected in the final project for my Masters and in the songs I've written since."

What other projects have been keeping you busy?

While working on my final MA project - an album exploring my experiences as an autistic, female singer-songwriter - I'd known that I wanted to release at least some of the songs I was writing and had originally planned to do that as soon as I graduated.

Unfortunately, I had to take some serious time off to look after my health, both physical and mental, so that plan got pushed back. But I'm finally back on track and while I can't say anything yet, you might want to keep an eye on my social media in January 2025…

Connect with Lauren 

Photo credits - Caitlin Gore