A Look Back At Taylor Swift's 'Red' Three Years Later

(Radio.com) This month marks the tenth anniversary of Taylor Swift's self -titled debut album, which was released on October 24, 2006. Throughout the month, Radio.com's Amanda Wicks is taking a look at all five of her studio albums, including her fourth release: 'Red,' which was released on October 22, 2012.

Taylor Swift is a confessional songwriter in the classic sense. Her lyrics are her diary writ large, whether that means revealing her awkward self at 15 years old in one song, or sharing the time she battled a mean girl in another. But beyond those more self-reflective moments, Swift by and large sings about her relationships, which tend to include her oft-broken heart, her moments of unrequited love, and those rare times when gasp! He likes her back!

As her stardom has increased and her exes have gone from being sweet high school boys to super-famous celebrities, she's never shied away from speaking openly, albeit obscurely, about her trials and tribulations with love. Indeed, figuring out who she's singing about has become something of an obsession among her fans. When Swift ended things with then-boyfriend Calvin Harris over the summer, the collective response seemed to be: Watch out, Harris, you're next. And Swift's fans, no doubt, love her for that. Instead of naming names, she includes enough detail in her songwriting so that anyone who's paying attention (and she knows that many are) will get her references and draw their own conclusions. It becomes a guessing game of sorts, one her fans enjoy playing.

Fans and followers track her moves through gossip rags and her own social media posts, keeping up with who she's seeing and, perhaps more importantly, who she's not seeing anymore. And Swift is more than aware of this. In her song "All Too Well" off Red, she uses the paparazzi photos circulated during her courtship with Jake Gyllenhaal to her advantage, mentioning a scarf she often wore when spotted out with him. "I walked through the door with you/ The air was cold/ But something like it felt like home somehow/ I left my scarf there, at your sister's house/ And you've still got it, in your drawer even now," she sings in the opening verse. Swift places the scarf in a line, knowing that those who have seen the photos will pick up on the significance and draw the necessary conclusions without her having to specify anything more. Read more here.

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