Look, I know this might not be everyone’s kind of content, but let’s be real. We can’t escape Taylor Swift. There’s no rock big enough to hide under. Since 2019, she’s dropped the most commercially successful album of the year four times (2019, 2022, 2023, 2024) and there’s a good chance she’ll do it again in 2025. On top of that, the Eras Tour became the highest-grossing concert tour of all time, and even the movie version managed to land as the 11th highest-grossing domestic film of 2023.
In short, Taylor Swift is the music industry.
For the past three years, I’ve been fully immersed in a crossover fandom known as the Swemos—a group that realized Taylor has been writing emo and pop-punk anthems all along, just with a glitter pen. When you hear her songs in the language of the scene, you find the same longing, gut-punch lyrics, and clever turns of phrase that defined the music we grew up on.
With that in mind, here are ten Taylor Swift performances that just might turn you into a proud Swemo too.
10. “Should’ve Said No” – ACM Awards
We should have known from the moment we saw the black hoodie and the black guitar. Taylor appeared at the ACM Awards looking like an emo kid playing an acoustic show at a coffee shop. While her early work is undeniably country, the pop-punk influence is apparent in this bratty version of her breakup anthem. With a sneer, Taylor calls out the man who broke her heart when he said “yes” to the advances of someone who definitely wasn’t going to become the biggest pop star in the world.
9. “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” – The Eras Tour
Is it Les Misérables? Is it The Black Parade (Taylor’s Version)? Why not both? The scene has always thrived on theatrics (thanks, My Chemical Romance), and here Taylor leans into her inner theater kid. She stages an all-out war against “the Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” collapsing center stage as a full drumline joins her before she’s cut down. Dramatic? 100%.
8. “The Middle” with Jim Adkins – Speak Now Tour
You might remember Taylor dancing to “The Middle” in that Apple Music ad, but the real emo kid energy came when she brought out Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World during the Speak Now Tour. That run showcased her love for the scene, with covers of Jimmy Eat World, Green Day, Avril Lavigne, The All-American Rejects, and Fall Out Boy. She also welcomed Hayley Williams of Paramore and Jon Foreman of Switchfoot as guests.
7. “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me” – The Eras Tour
Taylor has always embraced witchy vibes, and this scorched-earth anthem takes it to another level. Floating across the stage like something out of a supernatural movie, she spits the lyrics as a reminder not to mistake kindness for weakness. Swift may be a billionaire who often plays nice, but this performance makes it clear…if she wanted to destroy you, she could. There’s a reason she nicknamed this part of the set “Female Rage: The Musical.”
6. “Haunted” – Universal Thanksgiving Special
Tell me she wasn’t a hair away from a full-blown goth phase. Performing “Haunted” in the Psycho House at Universal Studios, Taylor delivered pure horror-movie-soundtrack energy. The song’s orchestration feels like it could slip seamlessly into an Evanescence or I AM GHOST track.
5. “This Is Me Trying” – Long Pond Studio Sessions
You want emo? Like really emo? Look no further than “This Is Me Trying.” Stripped down to just Taylor and Jack Antonoff on piano, the performance feels raw, fragile, and painfully honest. Lyrics like “I got wasted like all my potential” and “Pulled the car off the road to the lookout, could’ve followed my fears all the way down” could have easily been lifted from a Dashboard Confessional B-side. If a mediocre suburban dude had written this in 2004, you would’ve slapped it in your AIM away message without hesitation.
4. “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark” with Fall Out Boy – Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2013
Taylor fronting Fall Out Boy at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show? YES PLEASE! Dressed in a top hat and a Union Jack dress, she looked right at home leading one of the biggest scene bands of all-time, strutting down the catwalk like she owned it. Models everywhere, FOB behind her, and Taylor in command. An iconic rockstar performance.
3. “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” – 1989 World Tour
There’s a Swiftie conspiracy that before the Kanye fallout, Taylor planned to release a more rock-driven record called Karma. The theory is it got scrapped so she could rebuild her Reputation (literally). The best “evidence” is this 1989 Tour performance of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” where she straps on a Fender Jaguar, dons black leather, and turns the pop hit into a grittier, punk-tinged anthem.
2. “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” – Short Film Premiere
This performance cemented “All Too Well” as the defining Taylor Swift song. When re-recording Red (Taylor’s Version), she chose to release the full 10-minute version, the “rough draft” that had been chopped down a decade earlier. The result? Some of her most devastating lyrics and one of the loudest, most cathartic sing-alongs of her career. At the short film premiere, the crowd screamed every word, proving this would be one of her most beloved hits.
1. “Death by a Thousand Cuts” – Tiny Desk Concert
This was the moment it all clicked for me. Taylor alone with an acoustic guitar, singing about heartbreak, framed around the chord structure of “Canon in D”, a literal wedding march. Using a wedding song as the template for a breakup ballad? That’s emo to its core. While the album version from Lover leans into synth-pop, the Tiny Desk performance strips it bare and hits like a dagger straight to the chest.