Taylor Swift's 'Style' Isn't as Good as This Rock Star's Cover
Taylor Swift's "Style" only hints at the pain in this cover from an indie rock star who's indebted to the 1980s.
Music
One of the crowning jewels of Taylor Swift's career is "Style" from '1989'. A rock star took a stab at the song and made it so much better.
by Matthew Trzcinski
Published on January 13, 2025
One of the crowning jewels of Taylor Swiftâs career is âStyleâ from 1989. A rock star took a stab at the song and made it so much better. Interestingly, he took a song from 1989 and reinterpreted it to sound more like a 1980s song.
âStyleâ is perfect. Itâs emotionally complex, genre-fluid, and revealing. It features a desperate yearning that makes Swift, the 21st-century goddess of pop music, feel vulnerable and human. âStyleâ wasnât as big as other 1989 tracks like âShake It Off,â âBlank Space,â or âBad Blood,â but it blew all the other songs from the album out of the water (or out of the woods).
Perhaps that desperation could use a different vocal performance. When Swift sang it, she restrained her voice for much of the track. When Ryan Adams covered âStyleâ for his album 1989, he howled it. Swift sounded like someone going through difficult emotions. Adams sounds like a rock ânâ roll hurricane. There are points where his voice reaches a timbre similar to Bonoâs on songs from U2âs The Joshua Tree â which is a high compliment indeed.Â
On top of Adamsâ voice, his approach to âStyleâ works better on an instrumental level. Swiftâs 1989 was allegedly inspired by 1980s synth-pop, but it ultimately sounds like it came out in 2014. Adams made his version of the song sound like an actual 1980s hit.Â
The soundscape is a little U2, a little Bruce Springsteen, and a little Morrissey. Altogether, itâs a blast. On top of that, the lyrical changes are amusing. Adams throws in a shout-out to Sonic Youth and makes one line much more explicit than it was in the original song. If you want to get classic rock fans to appreciate Swift, Adamsâ âStyleâ is a good place to start.
During a 2015 interview with Grantland, Adams discussed the origin of his 1989. âOver the Christmas holiday, I had a three-week break, and thatâs when I originally started to track 1989,â he said. âBut I was tracking on a four-track cassette recorder. It was like, âYeah, cool, Iâm going to cover it like Bruce Springsteenâs Nebraska.â Then the cassette tape was eaten by the machine, which was unbelievable â after a week of setup, too. I didnât get discouraged, but in my mind, I went, âWell, this is not meant to be in the style; Iâll do it later. Iâll make it an after-tour, fun project.'â
Adams revealed that his record was spontaneous. âEverybody had their ideas and we would learn it on-the-spot together,â he recalled. âPick the key, come up with an arrangement, try the arrangement â if it felt right, weâd cut the song. Right after we got the take we wanted â which would be between the first and third take â we would right away record two electric guitar overdubs and percussion. It made for a totally cool sound, somewhere between [Springsteenâs] Darkness on the Edge of Town and [The Smithsâ] Meat Is Murder.â
Adams showed respect for Swiftâs songwriting â and he gave âStyleâ that extra kick.