'1989' Will Show Tremendous Growth

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Taylor Swift dropped a major bombshell: She's never been in love. That's right, the young woman who's made a career out of singing heartfelt love songs and tear-soaked breakup ballads said that, "looking back," she's never actually been in love before. In fact, Swift's entire perspective on love has changed since she wrote hits like "Love Story" and "Today Was a Fairytale." She explained:

I think the way I used to approach relationships was very idealistic. I used to go into them thinking, "Maybe this is the one — we'll get married and have a family, this could be forever." Whereas now I go in thinking, "How long do we have on the clock — before something comes along and puts a wrench in it, or your publicist calls and says this isn't a good idea?"

She also said that sometimes she feels like fame makes it impossible for her to maintain a relationship. Swift's most recent comments about love go hand in hand with her admission last week that she's currently taking a break from the dating because she just can't handle the constant media circus that surrounds her personal life. Swift certainly seems to be a little disillusioned with love at the moment — which isn't necessarily a good thing — but her shift in perspective tells me that she's undergone a tremendous amount of emotional growth since her last album, Red, and I can't wait to hear how that affected the music on her new album, 1989.

I do think that Swift has shown growth on each of the four studio albums she's released so far, but perhaps never to this extent. Face it, it would've been really easy for Swift to churn out another album full of catchy love songs and biting breakup tracks and call it a day. After all, she's had a lot of practice doing that sort of thing and she's really good at it.

But that kind of album would've been more than a little boring and expected at this point in Swift's career — and it wouldn't have been true to the way that she's feeling about romance right now. Instead, it seems like Swift really challenged herself when writing 1989 to document her complicated, evolving feelings about love and relationships — and that sounds a lot more interesting than another album full of songs like "Mine" or "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together."

As her interview with Rolling Stone last week revealed, there are love songs on 1989 , just not the idealistic, innocent ones we've become accustomed to hearing from Swift. This time around, they're more "wistful" and "nostalgic." Similarly, there are no scathing disses to Swift's exes on the album, because Swift just hasn't had that kind of nasty breakup lately. So, not only is Swift committed to staying true to her experiences, regardless of what has done well for her on the charts in the past, she's also committed to opening up and showing her fans an entirely new side of herself. That takes guts — and I think it's the mark of a true artist.

Don't worry — Swift isn't through with love entirely. She may have told Rolling Stone that she's never been in love before, but she also said that she believes that "real love," "the kind that lasts" is "still ahead" of her. She also apparently wrote a song for 1989 called "You Are Love" with fun.'s Jack Antonoff that Lena Dunham, Antonoff's girlfriend, really wants Swift to play at the couple's wedding someday. So, you know, when it comes to love songs, Swift's still got it.

1989 is due out on Oct. 27.

Images: Getty Images (2)