#i typed this post out a few days before she dropped itwam tv and it aged quite poorly

[backup-baby-backup]

If This Was A Movie: A Brief Retrospective

It's April 2009*, and Taylor Swift has been dumped over a 27-second phone call by Joe Jonas for half a year now. For whatever reason, despite performing the non-single track Forever & Always a LOT during this time (iconic move tbh), she now feels more wistful about that relationship and wishes he'd stayed longer. So she calls Martin Johnson, whom she's a fan of and collaborated with for that Hannah Montana song, and they get together and write If This Was A Movie.

After its release in October 2010, If This Was A Movie had largely flown under the radar, not least because it was a deluxe track. However, it has found some favour among more devoted fans (including a certain prolific YouTuber). Also, as Taylor never officially released the lyrics to this song**, occasionally there are debates on who Eli is, and whether that line in the bridge says "ever", "every day", "wary", "weary" or "worried".

We fast forward a bit and it's now November 2011. Taylor Swift has finally released the deluxe tracks of Speak Now on iTunes for purchase. One of these songs is Ours. It's widely known to be her next single, and she's just performed it live at the CMAs. It's also listed as the first bonus track so you can't miss it. So these songs debut on the Billboard 100, and...

Despite all the promo for Ours, it still comes in lower than If This Was A Movie, which debuts in the top 10. In 2011, streaming still wasn't as big of a deal, so rankings like these depended mostly on digital sales. This means that If This Was A Movie literally outsold Ours. By 17,000 downloads, in fact. Given that the songs cost $1.29 to purchase on iTunes, If This Was A Movie brought in $22k more from downloads within its first week.

Oh, and that old Instagram post I quoted above? It was originally posted on November 8, 2011, which was the first day the bonus tracks were available for download. And If This Was A Movie was already outselling Ours from the get-go.

So why hasn't Taylor Swift, a singer who puts a lot of effort into chasing chart figures, ever acknowledged the existence of If This Was A Movie? It's not like it's problematic like Better Than Revenge or emotionally raw like Dear John.

Here are three theories:

She plain forgot. She already forgot the lyrics to Mine, her lead single, on the Red tour, so it's the most probable reason. Boring though.

Something about Martin Johnson. If This Was A Movie is the only co-write on Speak Now. If Love Story is indeed about Martin Johnson like many people think, then it follows that Martin indeed the "creep" Taylor mentioned in that 60 Minutes interview in 2011, and maybe she doesn't want to give Martin any credit? But then again she performed This Is What You Came For after she split with Calvin Harris.

She doesn't think a co-written song fits on Speak Now, so she wishes it never existed. I will admit I added this after she retroactively added a song to Fearless TV. Maybe she didn't want to put it out but her label (read: Scott) forced her to? Well, I guess this is the correct answer now? Idk really.

Anyway, the song is good and it's a shame that she never performed it.

*or somewhere around that time, we can't know for sure

**that album booklet that purports to include the deluxe tracks is fake (so fake that it spells John Mayer's name wrong)

P.S. It really should be If This Were A Movie.

#i typed this post out a few days before she dropped itwam tv and it aged quite poorly #taylor swift #speak now #speak now taylor’s version #if this was a movie #ours