Listening to Bowling for Soup in the car I realized how angsty all of their music is. The majority of their songs are angry attacks at ex-girlfriends with a somewhat reflective/positive song every so often. That is when I realized that Bowling for Soup and Taylor Swift use essentially the same lyrical techniques. Not only is Taylor Swift is pictured in the dictionary next to the definition of angst, but nearly all of her songs are focused on ex-boyfriends who have hurt her.

The key similarity between the two artists is the idea of angst used as a device for lyrics. When I mentioned this theory to my family they said that they considered Bowling for Soup more angry than angsty. When I stopped to think about the feeling angst I realized that it manifests itself differently in men and women. I believe that in men angst is more often manifested in anger (as is evident in Bowling for Soups songs), and in women it is often manifested in bitterness (and who is more bitter than dear Taylor Swift).

This is not meant to be an attack on either of their music because I actually love both of them, it’s just an observation that I made in the car and I do think that angst can be a very useful device in lyrics.