James is the 17-year-old love interest in Taylor Swift’s “August” storyline.
The song is one part of a fictional love triangle on Folklore. Its narrator falls for James during a brief summer romance, even though James is already connected to Betty. The relationship ends when summer ends, leaving the narrator to recognize that James was never truly hers.
James is also the central character whose perspective appears in “Betty.” The third related song, “Cardigan,” presents Betty’s viewpoint. Together, the three tracks describe overlapping moments rather than three unrelated romances.
The characters are fictional creations rather than straightforward portraits of real people. Swift used imagined story arcs throughout Folklore, which represented a change from the strongly autobiographical framing associated with some of her earlier work.