Taylor Swift has listed two specific 2000s pop-punk bands as her musical inspirations. Swift puts a lot of thought into her songwriting process and often looks to those who came before her to guide her.

Swift has mostly been compared to singers like Stevie Nicks, Shania Twain, and Joni Mitchell in her career.

The singer has put the same rage into her breakup songs as Nicks put into her music, has experimented with country-pop just like Twain, and shares the songwriting style of Mitchell quite often. However, some of Taylor Swift’s biggest inspirations when it comes to her lyrics are quite unexpected.

Taylor Swift Was Inspired By Panic! At The Disco & Fall Out Boy

Swift Credits Them For Her Songwriting

While Swift has a long list of female singer-songwriters she credits as inspiration, she was also inspired by Panic! at the Disco and Fall Out Boy. As much as she was a country music fan growing up, like a lot of teenagers in the 2000s, Taylor Swift also loved pop-punk bands. While promoting her seventh studio album, Lover, Taylor Swift wrote an article for Elle UK, where she talks about the writing that has inspired her work throughout her career. Swift discussed her love for making music that transports people back in time and how Panic! at the Disco does that for her.

In 2020 and 2022, Taylor Swift collaborated with two of her favorite artists and went on to win highly coveted Grammy Awards with both of them.

According to Swift, anytime she hears the band’s 2005 single “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” she’s immediately taken back to her teenage days, driving around Tennessee with her high school best friend, Abigail. The same year, in a Rolling Stone article, Swift confessed that Fall Out Boy has lyrically inspired her more than anyone else. Swift specifically referenced the “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” lyric “a loaded god complex, cock it and pull it,” as one of the genius ways the band has taken common phrases and twisted them.

Swift has done this in her own career, like in 2020’s “champagne problems,” when she sings “One for the money, two for the show / I never was ready so I watched you go.” However, in the 2019 interview, Swift admitted that Fall Out Boy was the inspiration behind the title of her Lover track “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince,” which she opened the Eras Tour with.

A Red Track Best Showcases Fall Out Boy’s Inspiration

Swift Borrowed A Common Phrase From The Band

While Swift may have listed “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince” as a Fall Out Boy-inspired song, one of her 2012 tracks also seems influenced by the band. On Red, Swift’s single “I Knew You Were Trouble” uses a phrase seemingly taken from Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down.” In the 2005 song’s pre-chorus, the pop-punk band sings, “I’m just a notch in your bedpost, but you’re just a line in a song.”

As Swift stated in her Rolling Stone interview, this is one of the many ways Fall Out Boy has cleverly reworked common phrases. In “I Knew You Were Trouble,” Swift used the original phrase, “I heard you moved on from whispers on the street / A new notch in your belt is all I’ll ever be.” While the phrase was not unheard of before Fall Out Boy’s song, Swift openly being a fan of them suggests they may have inspired “I Knew You Were Trouble.”

Not to mention, Swift leaned more into pop-rock influences for her Red album, and this was especially prevalent in “I Knew You Were Trouble.” The electric guitar and drum beats fit the song perfectly with the early 2000s pop-punk songs that have inspired Swift so much.

Swift Ended Up Collaborating With Both Inspirations

Swift Has Songs With Panic! at the Disco & Fall Out Boy

Swift has become fond of collaborating with her musical idols, with The Chicks on her Lover track “Soon You’ll Get Better” and an array of singers on her Taylor’s Version vault tracks. It’s no surprise that Panic! at the Disco and Fall Out Boy also ended up on Swift’s songs. It turns out Swift’s mention of Panic! at the Disco in her Elle UK article was another one of her famous Easter eggs. Two months later, Swift would release “ME!” featuring Brendon Urie, the band’s lead singer.

While the song received mixed reactions from fans and was a lot more bubblegum pop than Panic! at the Disco’s usual music, Urie’s vocals shone through. The best part, though, was how enthusiastic Swift was about getting to work with someone she admired for so long.

The pop star first performed with Fall Out Boy on her Red Tour when she invited lead singer Patrick Stump to sing “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark.” Later the same year, she performed the single again, this time with the full band, at the 2013 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

However, Swift officially worked with them on her 2023 Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) vault track “Electric Touch.” The song suited the band perfectly, as its 2010s pop-rock beat made it feel authentic to the group. The collaboration did exactly what Swift said she aims to do: transport listeners back to a different time period. “Electric Touch” is reminiscent of the time period in which it was written, and Swift’s vocals pair perfectly with Fall Out Boy’s. Hopefully, in the future, Taylor Swift will continue to work with more of her musical idols.