Taylor Swift is notorious for spinning the straw of her failed relationships—with stars from Joe Jonas to Jake Gyllenhaal—into chart-topping gold. The latest track from Swift’s upcoming 1989 is no different. Astute fans immediately picked up on multiple allusions to Harry Styles in the moody, synth-heavy “Out of the Woods.” Considering this is actually the second time that Swift has drawn lyrical inspiration from her romance with the comely British man-child, we appear to be overdue for a One Direction ballad about a lanky, blond cat fancier whose name rhymes with Shmaylor.

After all, heartbreak has always been rich creative fodder for artistic types—and that goes double when they’re heartbroken over each other. As their audience, we get to gorge on the spoils of their pain as they work out all that delicious ugliness back and forth on the radio. For your voyeuristic listening pleasure, here are 10 pairs of breakup songs written by lovelorn (and, in some cases, pissed off) musicians after they split: a situation Swift herself can certainly relate to.

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John Mayer and Taylor Swift

“Paper Doll” vs. “Dear John”

On 2010’s Speak Now, Taylor not-so-transparently dished about her fling with John Mayer in a song that just happens to share his name.

Dear John, I see it all now it was wrong

Don’t you think 19’s too young

To be played by your dark, twisted games?

When I loved you so, I should’ve known

Mayer—who, for the record, is pretty gross—told Rolling Stone he was “humiliated” by “Dear John.” He shot back in 2013 with “Paper Doll,” a track that defends his behavior and pointedly alludes to several of Taylor’s songs, including “22.”

You’re like 22 girls in one

And none of them know what they’re running from

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Eminem and Mariah Carey

“Bagpipes From Baghdad” vs. “Obsessed” vs. “The Warning”

This is one of the greatest, strangest facts of American music: Eminem claims that he and Mariah Carey dated for six months, but she denies that they ever had a romantic relationship. During his “Anger Management” tour, the rapper would play voicemail messages purportedly left by Carey on stage. Rumors came to a head in 2009 with the release of “Bagpipes From Baghdad” on Relapse. The song name-checks not only Mimi, but also her ex-boyfriend Luis Miguel and husband Nick Cannon.

Mariah, whatever happened to us?

Why did we have to break up? All I asked for was a glass of punch

You see I never really asked for much

I can’t imagine what’s goin’ through your mind

After such a nasty breakup

With that Latin hunk Luis Miguel

Nick Cannon better back the fuck up

I’m not playin’, I want her back you punk

The same year, Carey countered with “Obsessed.” In the video, Mariah appears in drag as her own “delusional” hoodie-wearing stalker, who bears an unmistakable resemblance to Eminem.

Why you so obsessed with me?

Boy, I want to know, lyin’ that you’re sexing me

When everybody knows, it’s clear that you’re upset with me

It took Eminem only a month to release “The Warning” as a response. This vicious diss song gets explicit about the specifics of his alleged relationship with Carey, and Slim Shady threatens to go public with intimate photos and recordings of the diva.

Wow, Mariah, didn’t expect you to go balls out

Bitch shut the fuck up, ‘fore I put all them phone calls out

You made it my house when you was Wild ‘N Out before Nick

When you was on my dick and give you somethin’ to smile about

“The Warning” enjoys the dubious distinction of being the only song on this list with lyrics that make poetic use of both “dry humping” and “ejaculated prematurely.”

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Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell

“I Used to Be a King” vs. “River”

Together for two years in the late ’60s, Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash (as in Crosby, Stills and) were folk music’s one true pairing. In “River”—which is a Christmas song in the same way that Die Hard is a Christmas movie—she blames herself for their split. If this song isn’t already on your breakup playlist, then your breakup playlist is garbage.

Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on

I made my baby say goodbye

Nash, who previously wrote the painfully sweet “Our House” about their shared home in Laurel Canyon, was devastated when Mitchell left. Many of the tracks from his Songs for Beginners are tinged with a sense of loss, particularly “I Used to Be a King,” which plays on the title of Mitchell’s song “I Had a King.”

I used to be a king

And everything around me turned to gold

I thought I had everything

Now I’m left without a hand to hold

We know it’s been more than 40 years, but could you two maybe get back together, please?



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Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez

“Nothing Like Us” vs. “Love Will Remember”

The regrettable Canadian import’s on-again, off-again puppy love with Disney alum Selena Gomez spawned at least two songs in 2013. Early versions of Gomez’s “Love Will Remember” included an affectionate voicemail message from Bieber as its opening, and it’s said that she’s been unable to hold back tears while performing it live. It’s a downer.

Bieber’s take on a worldly, weepy lament for love lost is exactly what you’d imagine Bieber’s take on a worldly, weepy lament for love lost would sound like:

I gave you everything, baby

Everything I had to give

Girl, why would you push me away, yeah?

Lost in confusion, like an illusion

You know I’m used to making your day

We have no idea whether these two freshly pubescent human beings are currently dating each other, and frankly, we’re already uncomfortable with the amount of Google time we’ve invested in trying to find out.

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Nas and Kelis

“Bye Baby” vs. “Rumble”

The “Milkshake” singer filed for divorce from Nasir Jones when she was seven months pregnant in 2009. Nas later posed with Kelis’ green wedding dress in the cover art for his album Life Is Good. “Bye Baby” suggests that Kelis has trust issues, though he’d later admit that he’d “strayed,” so, go figure.

Reason you don’t trust men, that was your daddy fault

He in the grave, let it go, he no longer living

Said you caught him cheating with mom and other women

Fuck that gotta do with us?

Kelis addressed the aftermath of their relationship in “Rumble,” the second single off 2014’s Food. In this song, she expresses her fondness for an unspecified ex (ahem), but ultimately concludes she’s better off without him: “I’m so glad you gave me back my keys.” Sounds about right.

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Stephen Stills and Judy Collins

“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” vs. “Houses”

In 1969, Graham Nash’s bandmate Stephen Stills was similarly heartbroken by his impending breakup with singer Judy Collins. Fortunately, he chose to drown his sorrows in beautiful harmonies—Stills’ four-part ode to his famously blue-eyed girlfriend ranks among the Rolling Stone-anointed 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Collins wrote an affectionate response, “Houses,” in 1975.

“Come on,” you say, “Come with me, I’m going to the castle”

All the bells are ringing, the weddings have begun

But I can only stand here, I cannot move to follow

I’m burning in the shadows and freezing in the sun

Stills wouldn’t learn that this song was about him until 2013.

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Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill

“Cheated (To All the Girls)” vs. “Ex-Factor”

The tumultuous relationship between two thirds of the Fugees—which started before and continued after Wyclef Jean married his wife—directly contributed to the group’s implosion in 1997. In a single off The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, she sings about a toxic relationship that, to her fans, sounds awfully familiar.

It could all be so simple

But you’d rather make it hard

Loving you is like a battle

And we both end up with scars

In “Cheated (To All the Girls),” Clef—with lines like “I’m in love with two women, who is it gonna be now?”—offers up what’s either a lame apology or an even lamer boast.

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Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears

“Cry Me a River” vs. “Everytime”

When the prince and princess of pop broke up in 2002, their own hearts were nearly as broken as those of all 13-year-old girls everywhere. After their split, Justin was suspiciously quick to release “Cry Me a River,” about a cheating woman who gets cheated on in turn—doubling down on implications of Spears’ infidelity by casting a Britney lookalike in the video. The single won JT a Grammy and peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The future Mrs. Federline answered with the depressingly apologetic “Everytime”:

And every time I see you in my dreams

I see your face, you’re haunting me

It’s not too hard to figure out who came out on top in this one.

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Chris Brown and Rihanna

“Deuces” vs. “Cold Case Love”

What else is there to be said about the unfortunate romance between Rihanna, queen, and Chris Brown, sentient trash bag?

Recorded after her R&B star boyfriend violently assaulted her in 2009, Rihanna’s fourth album, Rated R, was noticeably darker. She’d later comment that “Cold Case Love” refers specifically to Brown. “It’s a song that everybody wanted to hear, everything that I didn’t say for the past eight months, exactly how I felt about that relationship and how I feel about it now,” she said. The result is gorgeously melancholy:

We opened up a cold case love

And it got the best of us

And now prints, pictures and white outlines

Are all that’s left at the scene of a crime

Brown took a slightly different tack on “Deuces,” first released in 2010:

You ain’t nothin’ but a vulture

Always hopin’ for the worst

Waiting for me to fuck up

You’ll regret the day when I find another girl, yeah

That knows just what I need, she knows just what I mean

When I tell her keep it drama free

Yikes. The couple would briefly rekindle their relationship in 2012, but thankfully, that nightmare seems to have finally run its course.

Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks

“Go Your Own Way” vs. “Silver Springs”

Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is their greatest album, in spite (or maybe because) of the fact that the circumstances in which it was recorded were incredibly fucked up: Mick Fleetwood had discovered that his wife cheated with the band’s guitarist, John and Christine McVie divorced, and Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham were teetering on the verge of their own breakup.

Both of these songs were recorded in the Rumours sessions in 1976, but only “Go Your Own Way” was initially included on the album. Ironically, Nicks’ “Silver Springs”—inspired by a sign for Silver Springs, Maryland she saw while driving on a freeway with Buckingham—was released as the B-side to her partner’s own eulogy for their failing relationship. “Go Your Own Way” rightfully proved to be one of Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hits, but “Silver Springs” deserves a lot more love than it gets:

I’ll begin not to love you

Turn around, see me runnin’

I’ll say I loved you years ago

Tell myself you never loved me, no

And did you say she was pretty

And did you say that she loves you

Baby, I don’t wanna know

Oof. Right in the feels.