This heart-wrenching ballad shows what happens when you combine three powerhouse alternative artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Aaron Dessner, and Swift on one track. While the song "22" encompasses the blissful nature of youth, "Nothing New" describes Swift's deep-rooted fears of someday becoming obsolete — professionally and in her personal life. These insecurities stem from the unrealistic societal expectations that condition young female artists to believe that their relevance hinges on their ability to contort themselves into society's mold for them. Swift echoed similar sentiments in her raw 2020 documentary Miss Americana, "We do exist in this society where women in entertainment are discarded in an elephant graveyard by the time they're 35."
When describing her vision for the song to Seth Meyers on The Late Show, Swift said, "I reached out [to Phoebe], and I sent her this song called 'Nothing New,' which I wrote when I was 22. It's really, really special to me because it was the first time I was not a shiny new artist. I was on my fourth album... I think this happens to a lot of artists, where they have their breakthrough moment. And then, the moment after that is really hard for them because they're just not getting the same [recognition]. And I sent it to Phoebe and said it would mean the world to me if you would do this as a duet. 'Cause I really wanted another female artist who I loved to sing it with me, because I think it has a very female-artist perspective, that would go through that experience."