For some reason, most people I talk to think that Taylor Swift wrote every song on her first two albums. The truth is, many of her most successful songs were co-written with country music songwriter Liz Rose. In fact, two songs from the Swift/Rose collaboration, White Horse, and You Belong With Me, earned Grammys. So why forgo the collaboration on her next album, entitled Speak Now? According to Swift, she didn’t have co-writers because she would get her “best ideas at 3 am in Arkansas when [she] didn’t have any co-writers around, so [she] would just finish it. It just so happened that the songs that made the cut on the album were the ones [she] wrote [her]self.” Artists often write too many songs for their album, and the choice about what songs “make the cut” comes down to last minute decisions. It sounds like Swift did have co-writers on her latest album, but favored her solo songs. I wonder if having an adult as a co-writer helped even-out the excessive teenage angst in Swift’s songs. Will she be relatable to the masses without someone older as a balance?