Taylor Swift's Connection To The Summer I Turned Pretty Goes Far Beyond The Soundtrack
An incredible soundtrack is always a summertime must-have, and Prime Video's new series "The Summer I Turned Pretty" has songs that are truly on point for the new season. If you've gotten the chance to see all seven episodes (and if you haven't yet, what are you doing?), then you know exactly what we're talking about. Everything from Olivia Rodrigo to Taylor Swift to Cardi B. and beyond is included in the teenage love story.
As it turns out, including T. Swift's music in the show was a long time in the making for novelist Jenny Han, who also helped pen the television series. "That was my no. 1 dream, to get one of her songs on this show," she gushed during an interview with E! News. (You could even say it was one of her "Wildest Dreams.")
While all Swifties truly appreciate the iconic tracks in the series, there's a very special reason why including these ballads was incredibly important to Han.
Jenny Han listened to Taylor Swift music while writing the original trilogy
When Jenny Han was writing the first novel in the early 2000s, there was one thing that always got her into a creative zone: a Taylor Swift album. (And, honestly, what better way to feel inspired by teen romance than to listen to Swift?) "I was listening to 'Fearless' and I was like, 'These songs have really helped me get to the finish line,'" Han told E! News. "When I write books, I like to listen to music to help me see the emotional vein of the story and her music really did that with me for the series."
When it came time to write a sequel for the series, Han nearly made the decision to dedicate the entire book to the pop star.
Fast forward a decade to Han's deal with Amazon Studios, and the writer found herself searching for the perfect tracks to play throughout the Season 1 finale. Swift made perfect sense for the incredible moment when Belly and Conrad stare into each other's eyes and dance the night away at the debutante ball (something that never happened in the novel). "It's fun that we got to do Taylor's Version and she's reimagining her music also, the way I'm reimagining 'The Summer I Turned Pretty,'" Han said. "It's just looking at something that you made years ago and reapproaching it and what does that look like today?"
After all, as Swift would iconically say, "Everything Has Changed."