316 News: Taylor Swift's new single has people talking

Taylor Swift announced to fans on August 13* the details about her upcoming record, Red, scheduled to release October 22.

When asked why she chose to name the album Red instead of the usual inspirational names she's had for her past two albums (Fearless and Speak Now), Taylor said:

"Thinking about what that means to me and all the different emotions that are written about on this album, they're all pretty much about the kind of tumultuos, crazy, insane, intense, semi-toxic relationships that I've experienced in the last two years...There's nothing beige about any of those feelings, so I called the record Red."

While I have lived for this moment for the past two years (since Speak Now was released), this is the third time Taylor Swift has released an album the week of my birthday. I really cannot wait to hear the new sound Taylor's sporting.

On this record, Taylor decided, after writing an entire record on her own, she wanted to incorporate other artists' ideas and thoughts into her music. So she co-wrote songs with numerous other artists, including Ed Sheeran and Max Martin. 

During a live Webcast on August 13, Taylor revealed the album cover (see below), the number of tracks (16) and the first single off the new album, called "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." According to an article on Taylor Swift's Facebook page, the single had more than 623,000 song downloads in the first week, making it the highest-selling song by a female artist. "WANEGBT" is also the second most downloaded song EVER.

Rolling Stone calls it "a pop-leaning tune with lyrics that adamantly assert the end of her relationship with a recent, unnamed beau." Rolling Stone then goes on to suggest John Mayer as the possible subject. While I recommend this article for you to read, this is where Rolling Stone got it wrong.

"Swifties"* everywhere (including myself) are declaring the song is about Jake Gyllenhaal, whom Taylor split with in December 2010. Not only because they seemed to be off and on all the time, but because of a certain story Taylor let slip in an ABC interview that aired shortly after her live web chat.

Taylor explains how the song was written in a music studio one night after a friend of one of her exes walked in.

Taylor says she was sitting with songwriters Max Martin and Johan Shellback, when "he starts talking about he's heard we were getting back together and that was not the case. So when he leaves, Max and Johan are like, 'so what's the story behind that?'"

This further proved to fans the song was about Gyllenhaal because the lead singer of Maroon 5, Adam Levine, is said to be good friends with both Max Martin and Gyllenhaal.

As if fans needed more proof the song was about Jake Gyllenhaal, MTV unveiled a commercial advertising the Video Music Awards starring Taylor Swift and VMA 2012 host Kevin Hart.

Taylor is seen practicing "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" on her guitar when Kevin walks in, hurt by the song, insisting it was about their "relationship." When Taylor promptly says the song is not about him, he holds up a picture of Taylor and "himself," out and about on a city sidewalk.

Taylor goes on to explain that he has digitally altered the photo by putting his face on someone else's body. This "someone else's" body happens to be that of Gyllenhaal.

While Rolling Stone published their article the night after Taylor's live Webcast and before additional evidence was uncovered, Taylor Swift fans were predicting the song's subject to be Gyllenhaal all along. 

If doubters need more proof, there is only a short time before Taylor releases her album, which will include the ever-popular hidden messages typed into the lyrics, cluing fans into who (or what) the song is about.

Until then, this goes to show Swifties know best.

If this information isn't enough...

To read the story in Rolling Stone's words, go here. To see the ABC interview with Taylor, go here.
To read the song's stats on Facebook, go here.

*Swiftie terms to know:
-Swif-tie (noun) a dedicated Taylor Swift fan
-Swift Day (noun) fan-proclaimed, 13th day of every month because 13 is Taylor's favorite number. This is the number she always writes on her hand and the day she often chooses to release new information about her music, perfumes, performances, etc.