Taylor Swift’s song “cardigan” shares the fictional love triangle with “august” and is told from Betty’s perspective.
The three connected Folklore songs are “cardigan,” “betty,” and “august.” “cardigan” follows Betty, “betty” follows James, and “august” follows the unnamed girl involved in the summer romance.
This storytelling structure was unusual for Swift because the songs use imagined characters and overlapping viewpoints rather than presenting a single autobiographical narrative. The shared details allow listeners to reconstruct the relationship from several angles.
A common mix-up is treating “betty” as Betty’s song because of its title. In the narrative, however, “betty” is sung from James’s perspective, while “cardigan” is the track associated with Betty.