Is Taylor Swift's Imgonnagetyouback A Rodrigo Rip-Off? Songwriter Settles Drama For Us
Taylor Swift delighted fans by releasing her 11th studio album, "The Tortured Poets Department," in April 2024. The singer-songwriter also surprise-dropped an extended edition called "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology." One song from "The Anthology," entitled "imgonnagetyouback," finds Swift ruminating on what she's going to do with a former romantic interest. In the chorus, the pop star croons, "Whether I'm gonna be your wife or / Gonna smash up your bike, I haven't decided yet / But I'm gonna get you back." Double meanings are used throughout the song, revealing that Swift still has complicated feelings for the song's subject despite her previous trouble with him.
Some fans can't help but compare the song to Olivia Rodrigo's strikingly similar "get him back!," which was released in 2023, and are declaring potential hypocrisy. In major news for Swift and Rodrigo fans at the time, the newcomer interpolated two of Swift's songs in her work. She then added songwriting credits for Swift and other musicians involved and had to fork over a large chunk of royalties as a result. One fan on X, formerly known as Twitter, quipped, "Is someone going to make taylor swift credit olivia rodrigo as a writer on imgonnagetyouback or is that a one-way ratchet only?"
The List exclusively spoke with Melissa Axel, a songwriter and producer, to get to the bottom of all the copycat drama. And, as she notably reasoned, "From my perspective as a songwriter who also co-produces music, and especially as a lyricist, the best way to describe these two songs is as 'siblings, not twins.'"
Axel feels Rodrigo and Swift's songs are like family
Olivia Rodrigo's "get him back!" chronicles the singer-songwriter reminiscing about a former flame and waffling between hating him and wanting to reconcile their ostensibly toxic romance. For instance, she sings, "I wanna break his heart, stitch it right back up." Songwriter and producer Melissa Axel's interpretation was that "get him back!' and Taylor Swift's "imgonnagetyouback" were rooted in the same feeling and idea but that the tracks aren't necessarily identical copies of each other. As Axel elaborated, "Like individuals who were born into the same family, they each have their own unique ways of expressing the same universal idea, both in their lyrics and the composition and arrangement of their recordings."
Certain fans feel the same, with one pointing out on X that Rodrigo's song is a teenager's perspective on the situation while Swift's is more adult since she's in her thirties. Likewise, Axel didn't feel that there was any outright copying: "While I'm not a musicologist who could analyze the songs note for note to confirm or deny any possible plagiarism, I don't hear anything that would lead me to believe there was any copyright infringement intended. Personally, I love when artists are inspired by each other's creations and are drawn to put their own spins on similar subject matter in fresh new ways." She also raved about both songs, calling them a "binary pair of stars" for listeners who can relate to the feelings evoked by both.
Rodrigo will likely stay tight-lipped on her opinion
Taylor Swift's "imgonnagetyouback" and Olivia Rodrigo's "get him back!" have similarities to yet another song too. A commenter on X noted, "Everyone is talking about imgonnagetyouback like Olivia Rodrigo invented the song concept but have none of you heard of Fiona Apple," with a link to Apple's track "Get Him Back," which utilizes the same double meaning. It's also possible that Swift wrote "imgonnagetyouback" before "get him back!" was even released. When she announced "The Tortured Poets Department" at the 2024 Grammys, the singer-songwriter described the album as "a secret that I've been keeping for the last two years," (via YouTube).
No matter what Rodrigo thinks about "imgonnagetyouback," she probably won't speak out about it publicly. In September 2023, the pop star briefly reflected on the credits and royalty payments made to Swift and other artists with Rolling Stone but remained mostly tight-lipped. She told the outlet that the situation "was very confusing," acknowledging, "It's not something that I was super involved in. It was more team-on-team. So, I wouldn't be the best person to ask." The "lacy" singer didn't elaborate on whether she was legally required to add the credits. For more on both women, check out all the signs that the Swift-Rodrigo feud was never that serious.