I Knew You Were Trouble (Red)

Hidden Message: When You Saw Me Dancing

One of Taylor's favorites off her latest album Red, the track I Knew You Were Trouble features Swift's first ever dubstep inspired breakdown. There has been a lot of speculation over which of Swift's ex's is the subject of the latest breakup anthem but the majority seem to have settled on John Mayer. The lyrics  do seem to allude to those of Swift's other song about Mayer, Dear John. (And I'll look back and regret how I ignored when they said run as fast as you can.) Swift explained the song is about "kind of being frustrated with yourself because you have your heart broken and you knew when you first saw that person you saw all these red flags and you just went for it anyway." Sounds a lot like her controversial relationship with Mayer. The lyrics,  A new notch in your belt is all I'll ever be/ And now I see, now I see, now I see/ He was long gone when he met me/ And I realize the joke is on me, also seem to allude to the musician who has a notorious playboy rep. 

* We also consider Joe Jonas a potential subject due to the opening line, Once upon a time, a phrase which Swift also used in Forever and Always. She also states that the perpetrator was "a few mistakes ago" which could open up the time frame to include a relationship even as far back as Joe.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

Joe Jonas

July - September 2008 (Forever & Always, Jump Then Fall, Today Was A Fairytale, Better Than Revenge, Last Kiss)

Joe of the Jonas Brothers dated Taylor during the summer of 2008. After breaking up with her over an infamous 27-second phone call, she penned Forever & Always, a last minute addition to her album Fearless. In response, Joe wrote the song Much Better, which compares Taylor to his newer and "better" then-girlfriend Camilla Belle. In Speak Now, Taylor angrily addresses her in Better Than Revenge and desperately remembers Joe in Last Kiss. Although Today Was A Fairytale was written during the summer of 2008, she did not release the song until the soundtrack for her film Valentine's Day came out. It is also assumed that Jump Then Fall (from the Fearless platinum edition) refers to him as well.

Sources: 1, 2

Last Kiss (Speak Now)

Hidden Message: Forever and Always

Last Kiss is Swift’s heartbreaking response to her break-up with Joe Jonas. The hidden message in the lyric booklet spells out Forever and Always, referring to Swift’s previous song about Jonas from the album Fearless. Her lyric, "I ran off the plane that July 9th,” corresponds with the date Swift flew to and attended a Jonas Brother’s concert back in 2008. “The sadness of losing this person, losing all the memories, and the hopes you had for the future. There are times when you have this moment of truth where you just admit to yourself that you miss all these things. When I was in one of those moments I wrote this song.”

Sources: 1

Forever & Always (Fearless)

Hidden Message: If You Play These Games Were Both Going To Lose

 Forever and Always was the last-minute emergency addition to the Fearless album. It has been very publicly linked to Swift’s relationship with Joe Jonas and their infamous 27-second break up. She describes watching the person she loves slip away, all the while not knowing why. “In this case the guy ended up breaking up with me for another girl. Guess I know why he was fading…”

Sources: 1, 2

Should've Said No (Taylor Swift)

Hidden Message: Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam

Should've Said No encompasses all of the angst expected in the lyrics of a sixteen-year-old girl. A last minute addition to her debut self-titled album (Forever and Always from her sophomore album was also rushed after the album was supposedly complete), Taylor Swift felt compelled to include this song after “something really, really dramatic and crazy [happened]," she said. “I [needed] to address it in the form of music.” Swift based the lyrics on what she actually said when confronting her now ex-boyfriend Sam Armstrong when she found out he had cheated on her.

"Just being a human being, I've realized that before every big problem you create for yourself, before every huge mess you have to clean up, there was a crucial moment where you could've just said no. This is a song I wrote about a guy who never should have cheated on me." 

Sources: 1, 2 (Horner, Marianne (2008-10-20). "Story Behind the Song: Don't Cheat on a Songwriter". Country Weekly)