LONDON -- As prince and princess of the teen pop world, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift were the short-lived couple of the century. Their inevitable split in early 2013 was enough to fuel at least three albums worth of break-up songs -- but it'd be a lie to say that we saw this coming.
When they released the second single from their forthcoming album, Made In The A.M., this morning, One Direction literally broke the Internet. The onslaught of fans who descended on Spotify around 7:55 a.m. BST left the website down for around 5 minutes -- or, if you're a Directioner, a lifetime.
When fans finally got their hands on the track, excitement -- obviously -- ensued. 1D could have probably released 230 seconds of silence and received the same utterly overwhelming reaction.
Here's where it gets sticky.
Rumours about the inspiration behind One Direction's new track began circulating the Internet earlier this week. The whispers speculated that Styles would take a swipe at Swift in the upcoming song. But as much as we giggled, cooed and swooned over them, we secretly knew that Harry would never be able to match Taylor's shit-hot shade throwing skills. Like, how could he?
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But then... he did.
.... one direction just taylor swifted Taylor Swift— alyson (@asapsev) October 16, 2015
To get started, let's listen to both tracks.
Taylor's "Style"...
And 1D's "Perfect."
You'd be hard pressed to find a fan who hasn't noticed the similarities between the two tracks both lyrically...
ONE DIRECTION'S NEW SONG IS TOTALLY ABOUT TAYLOR I LOVE THIS pic.twitter.com/SzLZQe5w6G— caitlin (@amysrory) October 16, 2015
...and sonically.
And perfect chorus is sound so much like STYLE . This shit is real— JOSEPH (@partin13glasses) October 16, 2015
It's so similar that listeners were crying with laughter.
Loving @onedirection new song #PERFECT some of it is clearly based on Taylor Swift though— Megan Fletcher (@MFletchxo) October 16, 2015
Us included.
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Let's begin with shade no. 1, the chorus of "Perfect." Compare it to "Style" again. Got it? Yeah. Thought so.
is taylor swift gonna sue one direction bc perfect sounds a little bit like style better protect your asses boys @onedirection— nic loves louis (@ladidas91) October 16, 2015
A "little bit"?
The chorus of perfect is so similar to Style by Taylor Swift oh my god pic.twitter.com/7HZoaYpoZk— nat (@daggertattooH) October 16, 2015
We're not saying that the boys have completely ripped Taylor's no. 1 hit, but we're not saying they haven't either. The two tracks are different enough to stand in their own right, but sound similar enough to see that 1D's collaborators have tapped into a tuneful trend that has clearly sold a lot of records. (According to Idolator, Jesse Shatkin, Jacob Kasher, John Ryan, Maureen 'MoZella' McDonald and Julian Bunetta worked with Harry and Louis on the song -- not Max Martin or Shellback, who wrote and produced "Style" with Swift.")
Maybe the melodic similarities between "Perfect" and "Style" are just a good business move. Maybe.
Enter shade no. 2: the lyrics.
But if you like causing trouble up in hotel rooms
And if you like having secret little rendezvous
If you like to do the things you know that we shouldn’t do
Baby, I’m perfect
Baby, I’m perfect for you
And if you like midnight driving with the windows down
And if you like going places we can’t even pronounce
If you like to do whatever you’ve been dreaming about
Baby, you’re perfect
Baby, you’re perfect
So let’s start right now
Secret little rendezvous? Midnight driving with the windows down? Hold up. This sounds familiar. Perhaps we heard it in Taylor's "I Know Places"...
Baby I know places we won't be found and they'll be chasing our trace tryin' to track us down
Cause I, I know places we can hide, I know places
Or was it "Style"?
Midnight,
You come and pick me up, no headlights
A long drive
Whichever way you look at it, when the bridge kicks in -- "If you’re looking for someone to write your breakup songs about" -- it's easy to see that "Perfect" is hardly a subtle burn.
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So, how likely is it that Harry set forth to out-shade Taylor? Lying on the cold hard ground pretty much sums it up.
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