Taylor Swift YouTube Comments Are a Depressing Pit of Nostalgia and Despair

Life’s sprint towards death is hard on everyone. Sagging skin, cardiovascular disease, a seamless transition from country to pop music stardom: they come for us all. As we learn and grow and get sicker and change, we might look back on our old selves and think, “Wow — who even was I back then? When I did this thing? When I had that haircut? When I regularly listened to Crass?” However, most of us don’t have endless archives of young strangers pining for the way we used to be, and that is maybe the most noteworthy difference between us and Taylor Swift.

Before she was embroiled in a mutually beneficial publicity feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, Taylor Swift was a pop star. And before she was a pop star, Taylor Swift was a country star. The change happened, to borrow a phrase from the promotion cycle of the film version of The Fault in Our Stars, “slowly and then all at once.” Her 2012 album Red earned a Grammy nomination for “Best Country Album,” but many of its singles were decidedly pop: “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” “I Knew You Were Trouble,” “22.” Then her 2014 album 1989 was a pop album, and now she’s just a pop guy.

While it may seem like Taylor Swift made the transition in a way that didn’t affect us personally and maybe we didn’t even notice, how rude. Lots of people out there are very sad. And you’re just going to sit there, ignoring their pain? Going on with your life like nothing happened? Incredible.

The comments on YouTube VEVO music videos from Taylor Swift’s former country life are filled with people asking “anybody here in 2016?,” but when the comments aren’t asking “anybody here in 2016?,” they offer a deeply sad study on the nature of change, the harshness of life, and the inevitability of death. Below you’ll find sad proclamations from the comments sections of six music videos featuring songs from Taylor Swift’s 2006 self-titled first album, Taylor Swift. You won’t soon forget their pain.

From the Taylor Swift video “Love Story”:

From the Taylor Swift video “Picture to Burn”:

From the Taylor Swift video “You Belong With Me,” which features Taylor Swift playing two young women, one of whom has brown hair. This comments section is unique in that the majority of the comments are about how people didn’t realize she was playing both of the young women, even though it is quite obvious:

But here are the sort of comments we’re focusing on today:

From the Taylor Swift video “White Horse”:

From the Taylor Swift video “Teardrops On My Guitar”:

From the Taylor Swift video “Our Song”:

As Taylor Swift once said, “If you are lucky enough to be different, don’t ever change.” Or, ahh — no. I mean: As Taylor Swift once said, “Everything…has changed.”