We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her fourth studio album, '' Red'' (2012). It was released as the album's lead single on August 13, 2012, by Big Machine Records. Written and produced by Swift, Max Martin, and Shellback, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" is an upbeat pop song that features synthesizers, twangy processed guitar riffs, bass drums, and a spoken-word bridge. Its lyrics express Swift's frustration with an ex-lover who wants to rekindle their relationship. An alternate version was released to US country radio on August 21, 2012.

Music critics praised the track for its catchy melody and radio-friendly sound, although some found the song overtly commercial and its lyrics subpar. The song appeared in year-end lists by ''Rolling Stone'', ''Time'', and ''The Village Voice''. "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" reached number one in Canada and New Zealand and reached the top five in Australia, Ireland, Japan, and the UK. On the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, the single debuted at number 72 and rose to number one the following week, registering one of the biggest single-week jumps in chart history. The single spent a record-breaking nine consecutive weeks topping the Hot Country Songs chart. It has received multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the US.

The music video for the song was released on August 30, 2012. "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" won a ''Billboard'' Music Award for Top Country Song and was nominated for Record of the Year at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, Video of the Year at the 2013 CMT Music Awards, and Favorite Song at the 39th People's Choice Awards. Swift has performed the song on four of her world tours, from the Red Tour (2013–14) to the Eras Tour (2023–2024). A re-recorded version of the song, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Taylor's Version)", was released as part of her 2021 re-recorded album ''Red (Taylor's Version)''.

Background and release

Taylor Swift continued working with longtime collaborator Nathan Chapman on her third studio album, ''Speak Now'' (2010). For her next studio album, ''Red'', Swift wanted to collaborate with new pop and rock producers, hoping to expand beyond the country pop sound that had informed her previous albums. Among the new producers were Max Martin and Shellback, two Swedish producers known for their chart-topping pop songs.

Swift wrote three songs for ''Red'' with Martin and Shellback, including "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", which was produced by the three. When the three were in the studio, a friend of Swift visited and told her she and an ex-boyfriend of hers were reconciling. When the friend left, Swift told Martin and Shellback that they were not getting back together. She strummed an acoustic guitar and improvising the refrain, "We are never ever...", asking Martin and Shellback, "Is that too obvious?" The producers built on that idea and finished the song in 25 minutes. The song was recorded at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles and MXM Studios in Stockholm.

The track served as ''Red'''s lead single. Swift premiered a snippet of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" via a live webchat on Google Hangouts on August 13, 2012; it was released to hot adult contemporary radio in the US the same day, promoted by Republic Records. The following day, Big Machine Records released the song for digital download and to contemporary hit radio in the US in partnership with Republic. An alternate version was released to country radio on August 21, 2012. A limited-edition individually numbered CD single was released to Swift's online store on September 4, 2012; each CD was packaged with a "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" T-shirt and backpack.

Composition and lyrics

"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" is 3 minutes and 12 seconds long. The song is anchored by a recurring acoustic guitar riff that features a light twang. Driven by an insistent foor on the floor beat, the production features prominent electronic elements—pulsing synthesizers, keyboards, processed vocals, and a drum machine, alongside acoustic instruments of guitars and banjo. The thumping bass drum instrumentation evokes hip-hop.

The refrain features a vocal hook that Swift sings the word "we" with an extra syllable, delivered in half an octave higher. The musicologist James E. Perone wrote that Swift's vocals on "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" are both robotic and humane, thanks to the balance between processed vocals during most of the verses and unprocessed vocals at the end of each refrain as well as in the bridge and the spoken word interlude, which goes: "I'm just, I mean, this is exhausting. Like, we are never getting back together. Like, ever."

Critics aligned "We Are Never Getting Back Together" with a multitude of pop subgenres, including bubblegum, dance-pop, pop-punk, Europop, pop rock, and electropop. Steve Hyden, reflecting on the single in a 2021 article for ''The New York Times'', characterized the song as electro-folk. The alternate version released to country radio incorporates a softer production. Perone commented that "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" is a musically flexible track, in that its song structure and melodic qualities resemble a conventional country song, but with modern influences of contemporary music that make it adaptable to many different genres.

The lyrics are about a protagonist's frustration over an ex-boyfriend who wants to rekindle their relationship. At one point, Swift sings, "And you would hide away and find your peace of mind/ With some indie record that's much cooler than mine", deriding the ex-boyfriend's pretentious music taste while referencing her own profession as a musical artist. Swift said that the cited lyrics were the song's most important detail because they reveal her real-life ex-boyfriend's judgment of her music, "It was a relationship where I felt very critiqued and subpar. He'd listen to this music that nobody had heard of ... but as soon as anyone else liked this band, he'd drop them." To this extent, she wrote "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" in hopes of commercial success to spite the ex-boyfriend, "Not only would it hopefully be played a lot, so that he'd have to hear it, but lsoit's the opposite of the kind of music that he was trying to make me feel inferior to." Various critics thought that the song's vocabulary exemplified the language that millennials or " Valley girls" used.

Critical reception

When "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was first released, many critics commented on its pure pop production and contrasted it with Swift's status as a country musician. A multitude of critics highlighted its hook as catchy and infectious, although this was not necessarily a compliment. Robert Myers of ''The Village Voice'' considered the single a "commercial calculation of the worst kind", and Grady Smith of ''Entertainment Weekly'' regarded it as a regression following ''Speak Now''. Billy Dukes of '' Taste of Country'' stated that Swift successfully "captures the anger of young love gone wrong" but contended that the melody was "difficult to embrace quickly".

Jonathan Keefe of ''Slant Magazine'' complimented the song's melodic composition but criticized Swift's "stilted phrasing" and vocal performance, describing them "flat and unconvincing". David Malitz of ''The Washington Post'' found the song immature and remarked, "the chorus is catchy but if this is representative of what awaits on ''Red'', it's hard to be too excited". On a positive side, Jody Rosen, in his review for ''Rolling Stone'', rated the song four stars out of five. He wrote that the song's "hooks, plural, have a zing that's more Stockholm than Nashville" but it was still "unmistakably Taylor: a witty relationship postmortem, delivered in inimitable girlie-girl patois". In another piece for ''Slate'', Rosen argued that the catchy pop sound of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" could be traced back to Swift's earlier singles like " Picture to Burn" or " Should've Said No" (2006); to this extent, the single was less of a novelty and more of a refinement.

Some critics remarked on the song's tone. Marah Eakin of '' The A.V. Club'' praised the production and "mildly snarky lyrics", while James Montgomery of MTV felt that the track represented a "defiant, liberated" Swift that no longer " layedthe victim" and that it was predisposed to be a successful radio hit. Also giving the song four stars out of five, ''Billboard'' opined that there was a "sardonic sneer" in Swift's vocals and that the song incorporated "biting sarcasm within her deep-rooted confidence". Glenn Gamboa of ''Newsday'' wrote that in the song, Swift still managed to "sound genuine and conversational" as before. In an article for NPR, Ann Powers wrote that "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was neither earnest nor wistful as Swift's early country songs but instead "spins sugar from spit". According to Powers, by collaborating with Martin, Swift participated in a wave of defiant, sassy feminist "punk" female artists who conveyed their headstrong attitudes through songs, though Swift's delivery was still "too callow and insular to really be substantial".

Listicles

Several publications ranked "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" in their lists of the best songs of 2012, including ''Rolling Stone'' (second), ''Time'' (fourth), ''The Guardian'' (fifth), ''The Village Voice''s Pazz & Jop critics' poll (sixth), ''PopMatters'' (11th), ''NME'' (24th), and ''Consequence of Sound'' (40th). The single was named the 169th best song of 2010–2014 on ''Pitchfork'''s "The 200 Best Tracks of the Decade So Far (2010–2014)" list. In 2019, ''Stereogum'' ranked the song as the 71st best song of the 2010s. ''Rolling Stone'' ranked the song as the thirteenth-best female country song of the 2000s and 2010s. The ''Tampa Bay Times'' ranked it 4th on their list of the best 2010s pop songs.

Critics have placed "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" highly on rankings of Swift's entire catalog; Hannah Mylrea from ''NME'' (2020) ranked it 15th out of 161 songs in Swift's discography, Nate Jones from '' Vulture'' (2021), 16th out of 245, and Rob Sheffield of ''Rolling Stone'' (2024), 27th out of 274. Alexis Petridis from ''The Guardian'' ranked the track 11th on a 2019 ranking of Swift's 44 singles, deeming it "revitalised – smarter, snarkier and tougher" compared to the "artistically underwhelming" ''Speak Now''.

Commercial performance

In the US, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" debuted at number 72 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart week ending August 25, 2012, based on two days of airplay. It rose to number one the following week, registering one of the biggest single-week jumps in chart history. Giving Swift her first Hot 100 number one, it made Swift the country artist with the most top-ten chart entries (11, tying with Kenny Rogers). It spent three non-consecutive weeks at number one, becoming the first country song to spend three or more weeks at number one after Kenny Rogers's " Lady" (1980). The single stayed in the top ten for thirteen non-consecutive weeks. On the Radio Songs chart, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" entered at number 25, the highest debut for a song by a female country artist. It peaked at number three for three non-consecutive weeks, giving Swift her fourth top-ten entry. On the Hot Digital Songs chart, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" debuted at number one with first-week sales of 623,000 digital copies in the week ending September 1, 2012, setting a record for the fastest-selling digital single by a female artist in '' Billboard'' chart history.

The single debuted at number 13 on the Hot Country Songs chart week ending September 1, 2012, based on airplay alone. After ''Billboard'' changed the methodology for the chart, incorporating digital sales and streaming into chart rankings in addition to airplay, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" ascended to number one for the chart dated October 20, 2012, giving Swift her seventh Hot Country Songs number one. This prompted industry debate over the status of Swift as a country artist, given that "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" received lukewarm reception at country radio and never reached the top ten of the Country Airplay chart, and was more favorably received at pop radio. It remained on the top spot of the Hot Country Songs for nine consecutive weeks, breaking the eight consecutive weeks record of Connie Smith's " Once a Day" (1965) for the longest unbroken run at number one for a female artist. The song spent a total of ten weeks at number one, a career best for Swift and a record for the longest-run at number one for a female artist.

"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" peaked within the top ten of ''Billboard'' airplay charts including Adult Contemporary, where it reached number ten for seven non-consecutive weeks, Adult Pop Songs, where it reached number seven, and Pop Songs, where it peaked at number two for four non-consecutive weeks. Roughly two months after its release, the single surpassed two million US digital sales by September 2012, making Swift the first country artist two have six digital singles each sell over two million copies. By July 2019, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" had sold 4.1 million copies in the US. The Recording Industry Association of America certified the single six times platinum, denoting six million units based on sales and streaming. In neighboring Canada, the single peaked atop the Canadian Hot 100 and was certified gold by Music Canada.

Outside North America, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" peaked atop the record chart in New Zealand, where it was certified triple platinum by Recorded Music NZ. The single peaked within the top ten on charts in Israel (number two), Australia (number three), the Irish Singles Chart (number four), the UK Singles Chart (number four), Norway (number six), Hungary (number nine), and Spain (number nine). It peaked at number eight on Euro Digital Song Sales, a ''Billboard'' chart monitoring digital singles across Europe. The track was certified platinum in Sweden, double platinum the UK, and nine times platinum in Australia. By October 2014, the single had sold over 616,000 digital copies in the UK.

In Japan, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was a major chart hit, peaking at number two on the Japan Hot 100 and remained on the chart until 2015, three years after its release. In January 2015, the Recording Industry Association of Japan awarded the single a "Million" certification for selling over one million digital copies. As of October 2017, the single had sold 1.9 million digital copies in Japan, becoming Swift's most successful single in the country.

Music video

The music video for "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was directed by Declan Whitebloom, who had directed the videos for Swift's singles " Mean" and " Ours". It premiered both on television and for internet streaming, via CMT, MTV, VH1, and TeenNick, on August 30, 2012. The video was staged like a pop-up book using a Sony F65 CineAlta camera with Leica 25 mm Summilux-C lens in one shot with no editing. It features five sets and Swift in as many outfits. It is also the first music video to be featured in 4K resolution. According to Swift, she wanted the video to be as "quirky as the song sounds" and stated: "There's just knitting everywhere; there's just random woodland creatures popping up."

The video begins with Swift in colorful pajamas recounting the events of her off and on again relationship with her ex-boyfriend (played by Noah Mills). The video then segues into Swift going into her living room where her band is dressed up in animal costumes and Swift belts out the chorus of the song. The video then goes to a TV where Swift says "Like, ever." and then to the dining room where we see she returns to recounting the events of her relationship and receives a phone call from her ex who is calling her from a nightclub. Swift hangs up on him and he walks off the screen into the nightclub. It then goes to the two in a truck having an argument and then to them having a stroll in the park. Swift then runs off and we see her on the phone telling the person on the other line how she and her ex are not getting back together and her frustration with their entire relationship. The video then segues back to Swift's living room where a party is going on and her ex shows up unannounced trying to woo her back and she slams the door in his face. The video ends with Swift on her window ledge where she was at the beginning of the video, singing the last line of the song.

James Montgomery of MTV praised the video stating that the video is "truly a treat to watch". Jim Farber of the ''New York Daily News'' commented that " wift'stone and demeanor in the clip is conversational and sarcastic, ideally suited to simulating intimacy with her massive teen girl fan-base." Carl Williott of Idolator commented on the video's content and stated "what more could you ask for in a visual for a #1 pop smash?" ''Rolling Stone'' called it "flinging strong-willed sass". David Greenwald of ''Billboard'' stated that the video "is a quirky celebration that finds Swift singing and dancing with band members in animal costumes in between relationship flashbacks – all filmed in an elaborate long shot. Swift wears large glasses and a pair of printed pajamas as she shrugs off her not-so-nice ex-boyfriend, a scruffy, seemingly older musician-type with a penchant for drama."

Live performances and usage in popular culture

On August 13, 2012, Swift performed an acoustic rendition of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" for her "YouTube Webchat" recorded in Nashville. On September 6, Swift performed the song live at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards, which was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Swift was the last performance of the night and, wearing a red and white striped shirt and black shorts (reminiscent of a female circus ringmaster), began her performance in an area resembling a recording studio before taking the stage along with her back-up singers, dancers and band (in animal costumes) took the stage. Swift also performed the song live at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in 2012 and 2014. During her visit to Brazil, she performed the song on '' TV Xuxa'' and during a concert in Rio de Janeiro on September 13, 2012.

Swift performed the song on an episode of the ninth series of the British version of ''The X Factor'' on October 14, 2012. She performed the song on the German TV show '' Schlag Den Raab''. On January 25, 2013, Swift performed "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" at the Los Premios 40 Principales in Spain. The next day, she performed it in Cannes, France, during the NRJ Music Awards. On February 10, 2013, Swift performed the song at the 2013 Grammy Awards, opening the ceremony. She performed the song on her Red Tour nightly as the finale. A rock version of the song was performed on The 1989 World Tour. More recently, the song was performed as a mashup with "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" as the finale on Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour. Swift performed the song on the iHeartRadio Wango Tango on June 1, 2019. On December 8, she performed an acoustic version of the song at Capital FM's Jingle Bell Ball 2019 in London. Swift included "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" in the Red section of the Eras Tour (2023–2024).

"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was used as the opening theme song of the Japanese reality TV show '' Terrace House: Boys × Girls Next Door'' (2012), which contributed to its huge success in Japan. The song and video were parodied by teddiefilms in the style of ''Breaking Bad''. The parody, called "We Are Never Ever Gonna Cook Together," was uploaded to YouTube on October 18, 2012. The 22nd episode of ''Grey's Anatomy'' tenth season is titled "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together". On September 8, 2012, YouTube star Shane Dawson, parodied the song, releasing a studio version and a music video on his YouTube channel. Sky News remixed portions of speeches by David Cameron to make it appear as though he was reciting the chorus as a promotion for their coverage of the 2014 Scotland Independence Referendum.

Accolades

Credits and personnel

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of the CD single.

* Taylor Swift – lead vocals, writer, producer, backing vocals
* Max Martin – producer, writer, keyboards
* Shellback – producer, writer, guitar, bass, keyboards, programming
* Tom Coyne – mastering
* Eric Eylands – assistant recording
* Serban Ghenea – mixing
* John Hanes – engineer
* Sam Holland – recording
* Michael Ilbert – recording
* Tim Roberts – assistant engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end chart

Certifications

Release history

"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Taylor's Version)"

Swift re-recorded "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", subtitled "(Taylor's Version)", for her second re-recorded album, ''Red (Taylor's Version)'', released on November 12, 2021, through Republic Records.

Critics primarily focused on observations of Swift's delivery of certain phrases and words in the song. Some noted a dissimilarity between the "wee-ee"s of the original and re-recorded versions, with Olivia Horn of ''Pitchfork'' opining the re-recorded "wee-ee"s were more cloying than the original. Rob Sheffield of ''Rolling Stone'' stated that the song included "a little extra venom" when she delivered the words "trust me". According to Hannah Mylrea of ''NME'', Swift's vocal maturity can be observed in the spoken-word moments, including in the line: "With some indie record that’s much cooler than mine". ''Variety'' posed the question as to whether the delivery of "What?" on the track was more or less insolent.

Credits

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Red (Taylor's Version)''

Studios

* Engineered and edited at Prime Recording, Nashville
* Swift's lead vocals recorded at Conway Recording Studios, Los Angeles, and Kitty Committee Studio, Belfast
* Mixed at MixStar Studios, Virginia Beach

Personnel
* Taylor Swift – producer, vocals, background vocals
* Christopher Rowe – vocal engineering, vocal recording, producer
* Shellback – producer
* Sam Holland – vocal engineering, vocal recording
* Amos Heller – bass guitar, synth bass
* Matt Billingslea – drums, percussion, drum programming
* Max Bernstein – synthesizer
* Mike Meadows – synthesizer, acoustic guitar
* Paul Sidoti – electric guitar
* Dan Burns – programming, additional engineering
* Derek Garten – engineer, editor
* Randy Merrill – mastering
* Serban Ghenea – mixing
* Bryce Bordone – mix engineering

Charts

Certifications

See also

* List of ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one singles of 2012
* List of ''Billboard'' number-one country songs of 2012
* List of number-one digital songs of 2012 (U.S.)
* List of Canadian Hot 100 number-one singles of 2012
* List of number-one singles from the 2010s (New Zealand)

Footnotes

References

Sources

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2012 songs
2012 singles
Taylor Swift songs
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
Canadian Hot 100 number-one singles
Number-one singles in New Zealand
Bubblegum pop songs
Song recordings produced by Taylor Swift
Song recordings produced by Max Martin
Song recordings produced by Shellback (record producer)
Song recordings produced by Chris Rowe
Songs written by Taylor Swift
Songs written by Max Martin
Songs written by Shellback (record producer)
Big Machine Records singles
American dance-pop songs
American pop rock songs
Breakup songs
American pop punk songs
Europop songs