Picture To Burn - Wikipedia

In 2004, Pennsylvania-born Taylor Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at fourteen to pursue a career in country music.[1] She signed a professional songwriting contract with Sony/ATV in 2004 and a recording contract with Big Machine Records in 2005.[2][3] She wrote many songs with Liz Rose, who became an important collaborator and formed a lasting working relationship with Swift in her future career.[4] Swift had productive sessions with Rose because she respected Swift's vision and did not want to put her in the "Nashville cookie-cutter songwriting mold".[5] Near the end of 2005, Swift recorded songs for her self-titled debut album with producer Nathan Chapman.[6] By the time production wrapped, Swift had completed her first year of high school in Hendersonville, Tennessee.[7]

"Picture to Burn" was one of the album tracks Swift wrote with Rose on guitar.[8] Swift was inspired to write it by a male classmate at Hendersonville High School.[9] In an interview with The Washington Post, Swift said, "It's about a guy who didn't like me back, and I got really mad, you know?"[8] She also found him narcissistic, which frustrated her; in an after-school songwriting session with Rose, Swift exclaimed to herself, "I hate his stupid truck that he doesn't let me drive. He's such a redneck! Oh my God!" The two later developed a line in the chorus based on this sentence.[8] Swift said "Picture to Burn" was a "brutally honest" song and cited it as an example of how she expressed her feelings towards those who wronged her.[10][11] She said it was the only song driven by anger on her self-titled debut album (2006) and that it was a topic she felt most teenage females could relate to.[11] After Swift performed "Picture to Burn" at concerts throughout 2006–2007, she decided to pick it as a single because the crowd seemed to be the most enthusiastic with most screaming it "at the top of their lungs".[12]

In retrospect, Swift stated that the song was something typical of her to say in her teenage years and that it exemplified how she processed emotion at the time, "I didn't know anything then."[13] She explained, "I had this song called 'Picture to Burn,' that's talking about how 'I hate your truck,' and 'I hate that you ignored me,' 'I hate you.' Now, the way that I would say that and the way that I would feel that kind of pain is a lot different."[13] Despite her evolving on a personal level and as a songwriter, she claimed not to be regretful of "Picture to Burn", rather happy she was able to demonstrate "those emotions that when you're so angry, you hate everything. It's like recording your diary over the years, and that's a gift", she said.[13] "Picture to Burn" was released to US country radio as the fourth single from Taylor Swift on February 4, 2008, by Big Machine Records.[14] It was released to US contemporary hit radio on July 15, 2008, by Big Machine and Republic Records.[15]