What did I just watch.

There’s always been a particular public fascination with Taylor Swift. At 15 years old, the sweet, curly-haired, blonde, All-American girl got her first major recording deal and found herself onstage at the Grammys serenading her hero with “Tim McGraw.”

From her self-titled debut leading up to ‘Speak Now,’ Taylor Swift was mainly just a girl, a flowy dress and a guitar, singing songs about falling in and out of love.

But the allure was that it was about more than love. Whether we question her singing chops or not, Swift can write songs. They manage to be relatable to her young listeners in very singular ways (“All of her songs are about my life! It’s like she knows me!” has been a common observation among listeners), even though they’re based on her own experiences.

For instance, don’t fall in love with the boy on the football team, just because he tells you he loves you. You’re in high school and this is a trap:

For someone who by all visible means seems “perfect,” it was reassuring to know that Swift knows what heartbreak feels like too. She felt it so she could help us, and so we may even become a by all visible means “perfect” country-pop star adored worldwide and fawned over by the Hollywood hunks we can only read about in magazines.

It’s really difficult to dislike an artist when they are obviously so human. Even Swift has to go to the dentist, and she has no qualms about YouTubing it.

The anomaly? She’s perfect but she’s also imperfect. Perfectly imperfect. Perfect, but she’s been through a lot and she cares about us so she wants us to know that she can be imperfect too, even though she doesn’t have to do that because she’s a survivor and she’s emerged perfect from all her relationship trauma. She’s an attractive, young woman in the pop industry yet feels no need to flaunt her looks to be noticed for her talent. So it’s like even though she’s perfect it’s not something she cares too much for or even notices.

Then came her latest album ‘Red,’ and Swift wants her ex to know that they are never, ever (ever?) getting back together. With a vengeance.

Swift has explained the concept behind “Trouble” as such: a girl falls hard for a guy who lives the fast life, and in the process, loses herself. So basically, she loses who she is for a guy. And they break up. (Now you can skip to 2:04 of the video because the background stuff is all covered.)

Judging by her latest videos, award show performances and outfits, one can’t help but wonder where the concept ends and Taylor Swift, the Person, begins. If her innocent autobiographical songs were so relatable because they were an honest product of who she was, the same logic could reasonably be paralleled with her loss of innocence.

Our fascination was over how she has defied expectations, whether it was her being a blonde, a good lyricist, perfectly imperfect, or precocious. Now 23, age is no longer a nonissue; in fact, it seems to have finally caught up with her.

Whatever the case may be, there has been a change in the artist, and what the art is meant to achieve. She could be taking her listeners by the hand and growing up as they are, or she could have let go completely. Of course, I mean as an Artist, because one should not confuse the Artist with the Person, as they are two very separate things, right? It’s just that, in the case of Taylor Swift, it’s become a little bit harder to explain how.