It happens every time Taylor Swift releases new music. The first time I hear it, I think it’s just okay. Then I start liking it after hearing it on the radio every day. Pretty soon I’m obsessed with it, and I burn a new CD so I can listen to it in my car (I don’t have Bluetooth or an auxiliary option in my 2007 Honda, okay?) . But this isn’t really about Taylor Swift or how addictive her music is: it’s about a sound in her song “Blank Space.”
I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. It happens near the end of the chorus:
Cause we’re young and we’re reckless
We’ll take this way too far
It’ll leave you breathless
Or with a nasty scar
Got a long list of ex-lovers
They’ll tell you I’m insane
But I got a blank space baby ****SOUND****
And I’ll write your name
It’s an indistinct clicking sound, and like the many weird sound effects I’ve heard in songs throughout the years — most often fake butt spanking sounds — I endeavored to replicate it so that my performances were more authentic, but I could never get it just right. You see, using my context clues (insanity, a blank space that’s going to contain a name), I thought the sound was the tongue-clicking you typically do when you’re winking and making your hand into a tiny gun. Not sure what I’m talking about? Imagine you’re buying a new car, and you ask the car salesman, “So the sunroof comes standard?” and he swaggers around the back of the car, waving his thumb and index finger and making a clicking noise when it lands on you and says, “Bingo” while winking. That’s the creepy effect I thought Taylor was going for! It fit perfectly with the spirit of the track!
But then the music video came out, and there was a whole lotta crazy but not a whole lotta hand guns and/or winking.
I decided to Google my theory to see if anyone else was trying to solve this mystery, and I found a Vanity Fair article that turned my world upside. It listed Vanity Fair‘s 49 favorite things about Taylor’s latest album, and number one shattered my dreams:
1) The pen-clicking sound at the end of the chorus of “Blank Space.”
Pen-clicking? PEN-CLICKING? I’ll admit, the possibility of this being the mysterious sound effect being a pen had briefly crossed my mind, but now that numerous sources had confirmed it…
The best part about “Blank Space” — besides the *pen click* (MTV)
Blank Space,” with its cheeky pen-clicking sound effects (Observer)
That pen click sound effect? Forget about it. (E! Online)
I was distraught. I would’ve been content to assume everyone but me had it wrong, but once I read the revelation below, that seemed a little unreasonable:
FUN FACT: The click sound is actually a pen click, as Taylor described in her Blank Space voice memo.
I guess it really is just a pen clicking, but I bet that this was a huge decision that even involved her record label. I imagine Taylor sitting around a group of people in suits defending the pen click while the executives insisted that she wink and make a hand gun in the music video.
I wish I could say this was the first time I was wrong about something I heard/imagined in a song, but in wasn’t that long ago that I thought the lyrics to Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball” were “All I wanted was to break you off,” instead of “All I wanted was to break your walls.” Her lyrics make a lot more sense in hindsight (but I think break you off still works!!!!!). I also spent several years thinking Justin Timberlake had his foot stuck in a fishbowl on the cover of Futuresex/Lovesounds until I looked a little closer and realized he was smashing a disco ball (which, again, made a lot more sense).
BUT I DON’T THINK MY HAND GUN THEORY IS AS INSANE AS TAYLOR’S LONG LIST OF EX LOVERS WOULD TELL YOU SHE IS! Who says she’s writing the guy’s name using a clicky pen, anyway? What if all she has is an eyeliner pencil? What if she’s writing in calligraphy with a fountain pen? What if she’s so insane she’s using one of her cat’s tails like Sagwa? What if the “blank space” in question is a dry erase board?!? The winking works universally! The pen does not.
Surely someone else out there has to be on my side. Please tell me I’m not alone.
<a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/8527923">Take Our Poll</a>
