Entertainment

Harry Styles Is Taking '1989' Really Well

by Kadeen Griffiths

I will not rest until Harry Styles of One Direction writes an entire dissertation on exactly how it feels to be the unofficial subject of an entire Taylor Swift album. All right, so it's only really confirmed that Swift's "Out of the Woods" single is about Styles, but the rest of us kind of know that there are way more songs on the album about him than just that one. In fact, I just refer to 1989 as the unofficial Haylor album and call it a day. While Styles did call 1989 very good when asked about it by a fan, that was a casual, quick answer tossed out before he made a speedy getaway. One amazing interviewer asked the boy band member about the album again when he couldn't run away and, surprisingly, Styles continued to take it in stride. In fact, Styles' opinion on 1989 is that he's "lucky" and he's got a better reason to feel that way than he even realizes.

"We write from personal experience, and I think everyone does, so it would be hypocritical of us to be like, 'Oh you can’t write about us,'" said Styles in response to the question. "And they’re really good. They’re good songs. So I’m really lucky in that sense." Can I get a group awwwwww? Saying that he's lucky to be the subject of a Swift song because they're good? Are these two gunning for most amicable exes or what? Sure, they're not hanging out all the time like Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr or moving into houses near each other like Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, but that's just about the best attitude to have when it comes to something like this. I doubt the rest of Swift's exes would agree.

But that's exactly what makes Styles so lucky in this situation. To date, the songs that are generally accepted to have been written about her famous exes are "Forever and Always" (Joe Jonas), "Dear John" (John Mayer), and "I Knew You Were Trouble" (Mayer again or Styles) and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" (Styles again or Jake Gyllenhaal). Compared to those songs, "Out of the Woods" is the kindest song about a famous ex that she has written in her entire songwriting history. In fact, even when not compared to any of her other songs, "Out of the Woods" is downright sweet. It's an acknowledgement of mistakes made by both sides and remains hopeful about improving the relationship in the future.

In "Forever and Always", Swift called Jonas out on breaking every promise he ever made to her romantically and, you know, dumping her in a 27 second phone call. In "Dear John", Swift calls Mayer out on messing around with her emotions, as one does. In "I Knew You Were Trouble", Swift displayed a sense of self-awareness, calling herself out on her tendency toward falling for boys that she knows are bad for her before the flirting even starts. And I don't think I need to explain the finality in "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together". The title kind of speaks for itself there. "Out of the Woods", "Wonderland", "Style" — all those songs that are maybe (probably) about Styles either share the blame for the problems in the relationship or point to Styles' "bad boy" flaws as exactly what's so attractive about him. She's not calling him out. She's celebrating him.

No matter how you look at it, it's never not awkward when your ex writes a song about you. It's even more awkward when everyone knows that your ex wrote a song about you. Styles could be angry about it on principle. He could refuse to answer questions. Hell, he could talk smack about her entire career and he'd probably be somewhat justified in doing so considering she put a bit of a target on his back here. However, the fact that he's choosing to take it in stride speaks very highly to his character and to his relationship with Swift. Then again, 1989 made me the world's biggest Haylor fan almost a year too late, so I like to think that Styles is as genuinely flattered as he claims.

Watch his entire interview with the boys of One Direction below.

Image: booksandtaylorswift, jackfalahee/Tumblr