She’s known as one of the best songwriters in the world, but Taylor Swift’s Charlie Puth lyric from The Tortured Poets Department is being mocked online, and not in a good way.
The Tortured Poets Department is Swift’s 11th album set to be released on April 19, 2024. The album leaked a day early on April 18, 2024, which led to fans making fun of a lyric about Puth in the LP’s title track, “The Tortured Poets Department,” the second song from the album. Keep reading for what Taylor Swift’s Charlie Puth lyric was and why it has fans so pressed.
What is Taylor Swift’s Charlie Puth lyric?
Taylor Swift reportedly references Charlie Puth in the second song of her new album, The Tortured Poets Department. The song, which is the album’s title track and also named “The Tortured Poets Department,” reportedly name-drops Puth in the second verse in which Swift sings, “You smoked and ate seven bars of chocolate / we declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist / I scratch your head, you fall asleep / Like a tattooed Golden Retriever.”
After Taylor Swift’s Charlie Puth lyric leaked, fans mocked the line online. “’We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist’ ??? taylor swift you need to be so serious right now,” a user tweeted. Another user wrote, “taylor swift releasing that charlie puth line after i’ve been defending her songwriting all week.” One more user wrote, ‘we declared charlie puth should be a bigger artist’ mind u this is taylor swift lyric.”
Other users interpreted Taylor Swift’s Charlie Puth lyric as shade toward the artist. “charlie puth hearing his name come up in a taylor swift song bc she doesn’t consider him a big artist,” a user wrote. Another user tweeted, “Serious question. Does Taylor Swift actually listen to music? Is she aware of anyone who isn’t a Top 40, already-famous artist? The Charlie Puth line is mesmerizing because…are there no other ‘smaller’ artists she could namedrop?”
What Taylor Swift and Charlie Puth have said about each other?
Before the leak of The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift and Charlie Puth have referenced each other occasionally. Puth discussed Swift’s 2006 single, “Teardrops on My Guitar,” in an social media video in 2021. “This is why she’s such a genius, man. These are the chord changes,” Puth said before singing the first verse of “Teardrops on My Guitar.” Puth went on to compliment Swift on the unexpected chords she chose for the song. “It’s wonderful. I think it’s wonderful,” he said.
Puth also commended Swift at a concert in New York City in 2022. “Sidebar, this has nothing to do with anything, but Taylor Swift is the queen of these types of chords,” he said before giving examples of Swift’s songs “Fifteen” from Fearless and “Blank Space” from 1989. “It’s a classic chord progression that everybody has used, but she makes it feel different every single time,” he said. He continued, “Her album comes out two weeks after mine, so make sure to listen to mine first.”
