Why musicians revisit their pain and doubt in their art

Taylor Swift’s latest album Midnights launched with the single ‘Anti-Hero‘. Anti-heroes in fiction are dark, complex characters who may question their moral compass but are ultimately trying to be led by their good intentions. Perhaps most humans feel like we are all anti-heroes lacking the right amount of courage, idealism and morality – wanting to be heroic but struggling through familiar dark places.

The new Swift album reveals her struggle with her own insecurities and maybe common universal human emotions that everyone struggles to face. In ‘Labyrinth’, for example, she sings about heartbreak, and more specifically, the fear of falling in love again: