Where to listen to Taylor Swift songs at Rutgers

It’s no secret that there is a small faction of Taylor Swift fans — Swifties — at Rutgers campus. 

@rutgersaffirmations is an Instagram account with almost 4,000 followers run by Mary Gillespie, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore. She created a post with more than 1,000 likes with a short message: “I will spread the Swiftie Agenda on campus." 

That green light almost every American high school student had to read about from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” quite honestly holds less cultural significance than Gillespie’s post. Her simple sentence is a beacon of shining light for fellow Swifties and a rallying call to action that has inspired this article.

If you’re a Swiftie suffering (or benefitting) from main character syndrome, you’ll need a playlist for enjoying Swift’s songs at the perfect moments and places, and this article has you covered. Here are some moments when you should stream Swift songs:

“betty” 

This song is purely magic, and Voorhees Mall on the College Avenue campus is one of the most spiritually charged places on campus. Listening to this song on a bench outside of Murray Hall or while laying under a tree in front of the Art Library is a holy experience like no other. 10/10 Swifties would recommend. 

“Out Of The Woods” 

Rutgers Gardens is a beautiful and well-kept aspect of Rutgers that is beautiful to go to in the fall. Unfortunately, you’ll need a car to get there because it’s impossible to get there by bus and dangerous to cross the highway to reach it. The Gardens are filled with beautiful flora and fauna, and Swift’s melodical voice in “Out Of The Woods” only adds to the ambience. 

“the lakes – bonus track” 

It’s so obvious it feels almost ridiculous: This song is absolutely perfect to listen to beside Passion Puddle on Douglass campus. The leaves on the trees around campus are currently making their sacred transition from green to glowing reds, yellows, oranges and browns, and those surrounding Passion Puddle are no exception. Maybe you shed a tear or two while listening to the melancholy coos of Swift as you take a turn about the pond. 

“All Too Well”

“Wind in my hair, I was there/I remember it all too well,” the iconic song goes. In the spirit of @rutgersaffirmations, this song is ideal for manifesting the remembrance of important information for midterms, homework, etc. 

It’s also good to stream this to prepare for the 10-minute version of “All Too Well” that’s set to be on “Red (Taylor’s Version),” the rerelease of her iconic 2012 autumn heartbreak album. Don’t get too sick of this song, though, because knowing Swift, the rerelease is probably going to be even better than the original. 

“Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” 

One of Swift’s most iconic songs, “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” was released in February of this year. Although any time is a good time to listen to this absolute classic, the best moment to listen to it is at Livingston Dining Commons. This is for obvious reasons. Burger bar? Delicious daily meals? “It’s a love story baby, just say yes.” 

“it’s time to go – bonus track”

Either for reasons of convenience or self-hatred, you find yourself eating at Brower Commons on the College Avenue campus. Besides thinking “ew” and “why?” you might feel better humming along to this song.

“That old familiar body ache/The snaps from the same little breaks in your soul/You know when it's time to go,” Swift sings. You know it’s time to go at Brower the second you ingest its food. A well-trained Rutgers poet couldn’t have captured the vibe of Brower better themselves. Perhaps Swift is a Scarlet Knight after all, hmmm? 

“Cornelia Street - Live From Paris"

The “co” sound from “Cornelia” sounds suspiciously like “College Avenue” — at least if you have an imagination and a good case of main character syndrome. As you walk down the street, blasting this song is nothing short of euphoric, transcendental, otherworldly. 

There’s just something about the live version, those catches in Swift’s angelic voice, the adoring fans screaming along, that just matches the vibe of the hustle and bustle of College Avenue.

“right where you left me – bonus track” 

This song is a bonus track from her newest album, "evermore" (discounting her rerelease of “Fearless”). The chorus of the song goes, “Right where you left me/You left me no, you left me no/You left me no choice but to stay here forever/You left me, you left me no, oh, you left me no/You left me no choice but to stay here forever.” 

Um, hello? This is absolutely perfect to listen to at the SoCam 290 Apartments bus stop, when you’re waiting for a single EE bus to grace itself on George Street (RIP to all the other stops on George Street that disappeared this year).

You weigh the option of hauling yourself all the way to Douglass campus, but you’re convinced that by the time you encourage yourself to walk over, the EE bus will somehow appear and pass you by. And honestly, it probably will, based on the well-known physics principle titled The Law of the Rutgers Buses. It’s totally real. 

Rutgers definitely has beautiful spots across our five campuses, and Godspeed Swifties, amid this “Treacherous” midterm season, and in the wise words of Gillespie: Keep on spreading the Swiftie agenda.