- Source: How You Get the Girl
"How You Get the Girl" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). She wrote the song with the Swedish producers Max Martin and Shellback. An electropop and bubblegum pop song, "How You Get the Girl" has a balladic production that features acoustic guitar strums and a heavy disco beat. The lyrics see Swift telling a man how to win his ex-girlfriend back after their breakup.
Some critics praised the song as catchy and energetic: they particularly highlighted the refrain and how the track combines acoustic and electronic elements. Less enthusiastic reviews found the production generic and the lyrics lightweight. "How You Get the Girl" charted on the Canadian Hot 100 chart in Canada and on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart in the United States. It was used in a Diet Coke advertisement prior to its release. Swift included the track in the set list of the 1989 World Tour (2015), with choreography that evoked the musical film Singin' in the Rain (1952). She performed it on certain dates of her later tours, the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018) and the Eras Tour (2023–2024).
Following a 2019 dispute regarding the ownership of her back catalog, Swift re-recorded the song as "How You Get the Girl (Taylor's Version)" for her fourth re-recorded album, 1989 (Taylor's Version) (2023). She produced the new version with the American producer Christopher Rowe. "How You Get the Girl (Taylor's Version)" reached number 29 on the Billboard Global 200 chart and the top 40 on the national charts of Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.
Background and releases
Taylor Swift had identified as a country musician until her fourth studio album, Red (2012). Red incorporates eclectic pop and rock styles beyond the country stylings of her past albums, which led to journalists questioning her country-music identity. She began writing songs for her fifth studio album in 2013 while embarking on the Red Tour (2013–2014) and named it 1989 after her birth year to signify an artistic reinvention. Described by Swift as her first "official pop album", 1989 was inspired by 1980s synth-pop and musical experimentation. Big Machine Records released 1989 on October 27, 2014, to critical praise and commercial success; "How You Get the Girl" is the album's tenth track.
Swift departed from Big Machine Records and signed with Republic Records in November 2018. She began re-recording her first six studio albums in November 2020. The decision followed a public dispute in 2019 between Swift and the talent manager Scooter Braun, who acquired Big Machine including the masters of her albums which the label had released. By re-recording the albums, Swift had full ownership of the new masters, which enabled her to control the licensing of her songs for commercial use and therefore substitute the Big Machine–owned masters. The re-recording of "How You Get the Girl", subtitled "Taylor's Version", was released as part of her fourth re-recorded album, 1989 (Taylor's Version), on October 27, 2023.
Production and composition
Max Martin and Shellback produced seven of the thirteen tracks on 1989's standard edition, including "How You Get the Girl". Swift co-wrote "How You Get the Girl" with Martin and Shellback, who both programmed the track and played electronic keyboards on it. The track was recorded by Sam Holland at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles and by Michael Ilbert at MXM Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. It was mixed by Serban Ghenea at Mixstar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and mastered by Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound in New York.
"How You Get the Girl (Taylor's Version)" was produced by Swift and Christopher Rowe, who had produced her previous re-recordings. It was engineered by Derek Garten at Prime Recording Studio in Nashville, Tennessee; mixed by Ghenea at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia; and mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound in Edgewater, New Jersey. Rowe recorded Swift's vocals at Kitty Committee Studio in New York.
The two versions of "How You Get the Girl" are four minutes and seven seconds long. Music journalists identified it as an electropop and bubblegum pop track with a midtempo rhythm and a dreamy balladic atmosphere. "How You Get the Girl" incorporates acoustic guitar strums, a heavy disco-styled beat, and beatboxing vocal percussion. The Quietus's Amy Pettifier likened the "metaphorical distance and melancholy" of the song to the music of Cyndi Lauper, the Bangles, and Stevie Nicks, while Stereogum's Tom Breihan thought that it had the shimmery elements of Debbie Gibson's music.
In the physical booklet of 1989, Swift provided a secret message for each track which collectively tells a short story that reflects the album's theme of self-discovery, inspired by her personal life. The secret message for "How You Get the Girl" was "Then one day he came back". She described the track as a tutorial to a man on how to win his ex-girlfriend back, six months after he ruined their relationship. In the second verse, Swift tells the man to remember the good times between him and the woman and sings, "Tell her how you must have lost your mind / When you left her all alone / and never told her why". She explains in the pre-chorus, "That's how you lost the girl". Swift instructs the man in the chorus in the form of cue cards that in order for the woman to forgive him, he needs to show his commitment in the relationship. She sings, "Then you say / I want you for worse or for better / I would wait for ever and ever / Broke your heart, I'll put it back together / I would wait for ever and ever". Swift sings in the outro of the song, "And that's how it works / that's how you got the girl". The outro, which is written in past tense, suggests a reunion between the two lovers and a happy ending. Pettifier found the song's lyrical imagery similar to "saccharine fairy tales".
Critical reception
When "How You Get the Girl" was first released, some music critics praised the song as catchy and for its ability to combine Swift's old and new sounds. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone selected "How You Get the Girl" as one of the three best tracks on the album and thought that it combined the best of Swift's "old and new tricks": her acoustic arrangements and Martin's disco-heavy production. In a retrospective ranking of Swift's discography in 2024, he ranked the song at number 107. Sheffield's sentiment was echoed by Nylon's Leila Brillson, who said that "How You Get the Girl" matched the "new Taylor with the old" and described it as "the most familiar-feeling Taylor song" on 1989. Brillson questioned Swift's decision over not having released the song as the album's lead single. Philadelphia's Brandon Baker dubbed "How You Get the Girl" an "earworm" and picked it as one of the songs that made 1989 the "catchiest and most radio-ready pop album of the year", and Ken Tucker, in a review for NPR, found it one of the songs that "nod fondly at youth while yielding the pleasures of adult artistry", which he thought to be the key to the album's success. Several critics praised the chorus of "How You Get the Girl", including Brillson, MusicOMH's Shane Kimberlin, and PopMatters's Corey Beasley.
Other critics found the theme and production of "How You Get the Girl" generic and unremarkable. John Caramanica of The New York Times regarded the song as ineffective, and Alexis Petridis of The Guardian described it as "a knowing checklist of the kind of love-song platitudes that Swift's peers might easily punt out with a straight face". Marah Eakin from The A.V. Club found the song's midtempo balladic production similar to Swift's other works and inconspicuous compared to the rest of the album, saying that it seemed "out of place". Spin's Andrew Unterberger similarly believed that "How You Get the Girl" was one of the tracks that deviated from the album's 1980s pop sound and viewed it as a "breezy-but-slight acoustic romp".
Some critics considered the lyrics straightforward and underwhelming. Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times described the song's lyricism as "clunky and bland at the same time", and Courteney Larocca of Business Insider thought that the lyrics were disappointing to Swift's female fans. Allie Volpe of The Seattle Times and Eakin deemed "How You Get the Girl" one of 1989's fillers that she made in order to make the album have a total of thirteen tracks. In 2019, Larocca regarded the track as one of Swift's 17 worst songs, while Vulture's Nate Jones placed it at number 126 in a 2024 ranking of her discography, dubbing it the "breeziest and least complicated" song out of her "guy-standing-on-a-doorstep" songs.
Reviewing "How You Get the Girl (Taylor's Version)", critics praised the song's production and energetic sound; The Atlantic's Spencer Kornhaber deemed it one of 1989 (Taylor's Version)'s adrenaline-pumping and centerpiece tracks and Slant Magazine's Jonathan Keefe commented that the production "packs even greater heft" on the new version and considered it one of the tracks that validates the re-recorded album. Mark Sutherland from Rolling Stone UK lauded the song's "irresistible groove" and wrote although "How You Get the Girl (Taylor's Version)" was not originally released as a single, it sounded like a "monster hit". In a less enthusiastic review, Callie Ahlgrim of Business Insider compared "How You Get the Girl (Taylor's Version)" to Radio Disney songs, describing it as "cloying and juvenile" and regarding it as one of the album's five worst songs.
Commercial performance
In the United States, "How You Get the Girl" reached number four on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. In July 2018, it received a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. The track reached number 81 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart in Canada. "How You Get the Girl" was certified silver in the United Kingdom by the British Phonographic Industry and platinum in Australia by the Australian Recording Industry Association.
"How You Get the Girl (Taylor's Version) reached number 29 on the Billboard Global 200 chart. It charted in Canada and New Zealand, with peaks of 34 and 31, respectively. "How You Get the Girl (Taylor's Version)" debuted at number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, extending Swift's record for the most top-40 chart entries by a female artist.
Live performances and other usage
Swift included "How You Get the Girl" in the set list of the 1989 World Tour (2015). She sang it wearing a glowing pink polka dot two piece dress, accompanied by choreography performed by backup dancers with neon umbrellas. According to several media publications, the choreography evoked the themes of the musical film Singin' in the Rain (1952). Swift performed "How You Get the Girl" on acoustic guitar during the second Dublin show of the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018) and the first Sydney show of the Eras Tour (2023–2024). She performed the track on piano during the final Atlanta and New Orleans shows of the Eras Tour, the latter performance in a mashup with her song "Clean" (2014). During the final Stockholm show of the Eras Tour, Swift performed "How You Get the Girl" on acoustic guitar as part of a medley with her singles "Message in a Bottle" (2021) and "New Romantics" (2016). She dedicated the performance to Martin, who was in the audience watching the show.
Prior to its release, "How You Get the Girl" was used in a Diet Coke advertisement in which the number of cats increased whenever Swift took a sip from a can of Diet Coke. The advertisement featured Swift's cat, Olivia Benson. Ryan Adams, an American singer-songwriter, recorded "How You Get the Girl" as part of his track-by-track cover album of 1989, which was released on September 21, 2015. He stated that Swift's 1989 helped him cope with emotional hardships and that he wanted to interpret the songs from his perspective "like it was Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska". Described by Swift as a "neat twist on the original", Adams's version of "How You Get the Girl" forgoes the original's upbeat production in favor of an acoustic guitar and string arrangement. Adams kept the pronouns that Swift had used in the song the same as her version. Entertainment Weekly's Leah Greenblatt described his version as a "pretty, ruminative ballad", while Unterberger found the balladic production unremarkable. Billboard's Chris Payne picked it as his sixth-favorite track on the cover album, adding that "flipping the song's speaker and subject elicits all kinds of dynamics worth pondering".
Personnel
"How You Get the Girl" (2014)
Taylor Swift – lead vocals, background vocals, songwriter
Max Martin – producer, songwriter, programmer, keyboards
Shellback – producer, songwriter, programmer, bass guitar, drums, guitars, keyboards
Michael Ilbert – recording engineer
Sam Holland – recording engineer
Cory Bice – assistant recording engineer
Serban Ghenea – mixer
Tom Coyne – mastering engineer
"How You Get the Girl (Taylor's Version)" (2023)
Charts
Certifications
Footnotes
References
= Sources
=
McNutt, Myles (2020). "From 'Mine' to 'Ours': Gendered Hierarchies of Authorship and the Limits of Taylor Swift's Paratextual Feminism". Communication, Culture and Critique. 13 (1): 72–91. doi:10.1093/ccc/tcz042.
Zaleski, Annie (2024). "The 1989 Era". Taylor Swift: The Stories Behind the Songs. Thunder Bay Press. pp. 106–131. ISBN 978-1-6672-0845-9.
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