Matching each Taylor Swift album to a Durham college

So, it’s been about a year since The Life of a Showgirl dropped on shelves and Spotify playlists. And you might’ve lived out the showgirl era or confined yourself to just being Augustine. But now it’s time to find out which of Taylor’s albums fits you (well, your college) best. And we might as well include the TVs, as all these colleges need personalities. This is the definitive and updated college and era matchup. Here’s to the poets, highschoolers and manic romantics. Let the games begin.

Josephine Butler – Red (TV)

JoBo. The bar, the people and the best of vibes. Okay, let’s crank down the stereotype and all that. The architecture gives off a nineties high school rom-com vibe (10 Things I Hate About You and all that), and your bar is waiting for a flash mob of We’re All in This Together. But throw that whimsy right out. You guys are sharp and cutthroat, ready to face reality and the world. High school with attitude (or basically high school). So Red (Taylor’s Version, obviously). I know, the red college gets the titular album, it’s a tale as old as time. Give me a second. You guys are self-aware enough for 22 and Better Man and in touch with your emotions to go through the ten minutes of All Too Well. JoBo “was holy ground” (or holy mound) – and hey, it almost certainly will always be that.

St. Mary’s – Lover

Every now and then the Mares will take over the JCR for tea, biscuits, and friendship bracelets. We’ll hang out in the dining hall way after meals and take over college bar crawls. Can’t walk anywhere without calling someone across the road, can you? A small college packs a punch with unfathomable enthusiasm and oddly specific networking skills. We’ve heard it all; the friendliest college, the girls’ college (not any more), and the college which (according to stats) always has the most LGBTQ+ students. Friendly, vibrant, and screaming for no real reason sometimes (guilty as charged), you guys have the spark for life. Your dark academia architecture will say TTPD and call it a day. But honestly, with all this, the Mares (Meerkats?) are always in the Lover era. Pink streamers and definitely “fever dream high”.

Hatfield – The Tortured Poets Department (Double Album)

Here’s the thing. It’s easy to tag you guys to Reputation and call it a day. But, let’s be honest for a second. You guys were and are at the forefront of change and in terms of location you’re at the heart of all the tea and drama (literally right in front of the AR). Basically, your college has seen it all and you guys have lived through just a fraction of it (we all have). Yes, you have the reputation, but with everything going for you guys you’re definitely more TTPD. The trench coats and the greys and the rain justify the crash-outs at the bar (it’s giving The Black Dog) and something about your vibe perfectly fits into the heavy melancholia of the double album. “You look like Taylor Swift” kind of works as a motto for you guys (I won’t elaborate) but so does Imgonnagetyouback.

Collingwood – The Life of a Showgirl

You guys college-ify the concept of the High School Musical franchise, but specifically High School Musical Two (I Don’t Dance is literally your theatre department vs your sports teams). All jokes aside, with one of the best theatre departments and sports scenes it’s easy to tie you guys with Fearless. But no. You guys are high-energy and dramatic enough for something else. Think The Life of a Showgirl (not a fan favourite, but good for a 10k). You guys can sing half the tracklist with no shame and mean every word of it at the same time. And hey, “you don’t know the life of a showgirl” has a ring to it, doesn’t it? Sounds like you guys.

Trevs – Reputation

You have the flare and attitude and beehive housing, and somehow you give off this New York City energy (I swear to God, I heard Sinatra and Frankie Wallie playing from the dorms one time). Again, it’s not going to be the obvious 1989 pairing. You are the definitive older sister, the one who’s realistic, who’s getting over everything, who also has the best music and life advice. Reputation is the one for you. Everyone thinks Rep and thinks revenge, wine and sabotages (partially true). But the album has Call it What You Want and New Year’s Day and Dancing With Our Hands Tied. You guys have peaked enough not to actually care, and you’re not hopelessly romantic about everything.

Castle – The Tortured Poets Department

Everyone takes one look at Castle and assumes that you live there. Like TTPD, people assume everything about your college. People think Castle, and they think heritage sight. There’s a little more to that, honestly. I mean, Castle is the prime location for any promo content and it also sees some great cherry blossoms during the spring. Unlike the double album, TTPD is able to say everything almost right up front, but people will still assume everything. TTPD somehow gets paired up with Dead Poets Society and becomes a convenient autumn album. And like this album, there’s more to you guys than just the history. Has anyone been to Fellowes? Has anyone looped themselves around the college bar with its unreal closing hours? Sure you may be trying to live up the poetics of the Folkmore duo, but hey, you guys have your fans.

Hild Bede – Midnights

Okay, you guys are actually quite hard to make a case for. You’re mysterious enough for Evermore and good enough for Rep. The lore coming out about you guys is actually kind of insane (it’s like the family gossip about that one cousin that went and did everything). All of this fits right into Midnights. The Hild Bede Babs nights are the stuff of Durham legend and facing you guys at a football match is nightmare fuel (you guys are brilliant by the way). Anyways, every plot beat of your college aligns with the bridge of You’re on Your Own, Kid and you guys might be the certified Anti-Hero. With the average Babs night looking like “a diamond’s gotta shine”, you guys are set in stone for this one.

St. Chad’s – Speak Now (TV)

Gorgeous interiors and a bar that everyone raves about. There’s something in your fashion and whimsy that has that timelessness to it. You guys are a stone’s throw from both Prebends and the riverwalk and the cathedral and town centre. Basically, perfectly stuck between two worlds. Bet you guys walk the green and the bar space “like it was the very first page”, and “sparks fly” when you guys head up the Bailey. Don’t let the whimsy and the architecture fool anyone though. You guys are just as sharp as everyone else, and ready to use kindness to your full advantage. Sure, you guys might be on the Bailey surrounded by history, but the younger sister energy really sticks the landing. Long Live, Chad’s!

St Cuth’s – 1989 (Both versions)

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This might come down to the split location, but from what I’ve heard, there are two distinct vibes coming out of the Cuth’s cohort. With all the notable alumni, you guys have taken centre stage as a college that has a bit of everything. So, you guys walk away with both versions of 1989. Like the original, you guys are at the centre of the town, surrounded by roads and close to everything else. But you guys are also willing to distance yourself from that in favour of the attachment to the coat and The Summer I Turned Pretty aesthetics (or anything with that old money aesthetic that belongs to the Bailey). You guys will build yourselves up “out of the all the brick they threw” and you’ll walk that New York dreamscape.

St John’s – Fearless (TV)

You guys are small as a college, yet like every college you still pack that quintessential punch. It’s easy to match you guys up with Debut but I think we can look to the next one for inspiration. You guys are sandwiched between the big ones and their reps, and yet you stand on your own, “perfectly fine”. Like Fearless, there’s something young and vivacious despite the history and the deep-rooted traditions. You guys will pace the green spaces with your head in the clouds before lectures (or whatever’s on the timetable). Unlike Fearless, however, you’ve come to the level of understanding where you’re able to look at everything with a little more introspection. Yes, definitely a little more unsung out of the re-recordings, but Forever and Always resonates a little bit with you guys.

Van Mildert – Folklore

I know quite a few poets and writing enthusiasts from Mildert, all certified masters of the craft. There’s also something of a pond (or lake). All this perfectly ties itself to Folklore. For some reason Folklore has been claimed as an autumnal album, when it’s really about tall grass blades, love triangles, and high school parties. You have ducks, and you’ve made that an integral part of your identity, which kind of parallels the era’s attachment to the high school love story that never really took off. But you guys are also the life of the party, with connections that weave in like “invisible strings”. The poets and the tail end summer rest with you guys, and the Swifties I’ve talked to will always claim to be Folklore lovers. So, I rest my case, “take me the lakes where all the poets went” (though hopefully not to die).

Ustinov and Grey – Red

Okay, Ustinov first. Most of you guys are doing your postgrad work (well done on that). But you guys are cut away from the rest and in your bubble. And Evermore really doesn’t work (I met some people from Ustinov and you guys are some of the friendliest faces I’ve seen around). You walk Durham with your maturity and research, and you could rock it up to Babs or do the café crawls. All that said, you guys are young at heart with an incredible community (saw you guys setting up the college for the college day, looked like a great time). So, Red (weird but work with it). Since Red (TV), everyone has kind of left the OG on read. You guys deserve all the love, but hey – try to burst that bubble just a little.

So, why is Grey Red too? Well, there’s so much talk about “Grey by name, Grey by Nature’”. No! Grey has some lovely people and I don’t mean that lightly. They’re some of the brightest and best people you’ll ever meet (cab shared with someone in my first year). So technically I saw their college before my own and the vibes you gave off were bright and fresh. There were clear signs of college patriotism that I haven’t found anywhere else. You guys can live off of the 22 energy and still have enough for the rest of the day. Also don’t let that Red (TV) hype put you off.

John Snow – Speak Now

You guys don’t have it easy in terms of location. You guys are lost to the hill colleges and mixed up, and that’s not fair. With unmissable younger sibling energy, the ideal pairing has to be Speak Now. Like the album, you have to kind of make a statement with your sports and theatre and everything in between. I mean, as an album, Speak Now is lost between the high school country ones and the obvious pop of the others. It has to play to strengths of its fairy-tale qualities and out-of-high-school feels. But despite all that, you guys find ways to really sparkle.

St. Aidan’s – Evermore

The steps! Okay, that’s not the way to start. You guys are known for having some legends amongst yourselves. You’re a close knit lot, walking through the green and taking on the dreaded steps on the daily. And when autumn kicks in, with the leaves and the rest of it, you guys essentially become Evermore. Aesthetics aside, you guys use that to your advantage: Your spot on the hill gives a killer view and leaves everything for the taking. Sure, you guys have No Body, No Crime and Champagne Problems – but hey, those steps will make anyone cry in the middle of autumn.

South – Fearless

The youngest energy is strong with you guys. You guys can get lost, but you never do. Your name rings a bell and you manage to march to stick the landing every single time. You guys are a bit of this and a bit of that (sorry if I’m not making any sense with this one, trust me I am trying to). You guys don’t have anything that stands out in terms of the aesthetics, but again, you guys have this free spirit that you guys take with you to all your sports and that all screams the high school picture. So I guess you could say this match is a bit of “a love story”.

Stephenson – Debut

People see Debut and think: Ah yes, a sweet and innocent country album. Did we listen to the same album? It’s unfiltered, chaotic and packed with the essence of being a teenager and calling out everyone. Sure, there is the high school label that’s a bit too hard to pull off, but Stevo does it. You guys have a stellar football team (something straight out of a high school film) and your bar has the entire hill defending it (the most loyal fanbase ever?). It’s not the start of the hill or the Bailey, but you guys are full of surprises. Like Debut, you guys take your time to find your footing, but putting all that aside, you’re rocking it.

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