It's 2am, and I'm cursing your name

111. Taylor Swift - "Love Story" (Big Machine, 2008)
112. Taylor Swift - "The Way I Loved You" (from the Fearless album, Big Machine, 2008)

I've written about Taylor before, and I will again, but this is a good a time as any to introduce her (scientifically, of course), to the countdown. Last night seemed to crystallize how massively adored she now is, not just in the American mainstream, but in the demographic that means the most to me personally, my friends and acquaintances. When I first realized that Taylor was one of my favorites I wasn't quite sure whether she would catch on in this most important of demographics, but here we are a day after the VMAs and you'd think there Kanye had, in the words of unlikely ally Katy Perry, stepped on a kitten on live television.

But these two songs are here today not because we pity Taylor (pity is a bad word these days, you know), but because when something (relatively) unfortunate happens to someone you like, you tend to appreciate them even more (like in the movies!). And we here at YMD like Taylor a lot. We like the much discussed and yelled-out key change in "Love Story" a lot. We like the third chorus in "The Way I Loved You", the quiet one where she does that thing with her voice, a lot. We like her Twitter and her MySpace and especially her songwriting and performing and her crystal guitar. So, no of course these songs wouldn't be posted here today if the VMA thing didn't happen. But that's just how science works sometimes.