Taylor Alison Swift (born on December 13, 1989) is an American artist and singer. Her discography is a mix of genres. Her lyrics, which are often influenced by her personal experiences, has garnered extensive media coverage and high praise from critics. The singer was raised from West Reading, Pennsylvania, Swift moved in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 14 to pursue the career of a country musician. She signed a songwriting agreement to Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 2004 and a recording agreement to Big Machine Records in 2005 and released her self-titled debut studio album in 2006.
Swift explored country music in her third and second Studio albums: Fearless (2008) as well as Speak Now (2010). The success of the latter’s songs “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me” on both pop and country stations established Swift as a major crossover artist. Swift continued to experiment with rock, pop, and electronic music with her album, her fourth “Red” (2012). Fifth album, the song-based album synthpop 1989 (2014) was a huge success and changed her image from country-songstress to pop star, as evidenced with the Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles “Shake It Off”, “Blank Space”, and “Bad Blood”. The scrutiny of the media on her private life that followed was the main inspiration for Swift’s sixth album Reputation (2017) Reputation, which explored urban music.
After separating from Big Machine to sign with Republic Records in 2018, Swift released her seventh studio album, Lover, in the year 2019. Following a steady rise in commercial success during the decade of 2010, she branched out into alternative and indie rock with her album, Folklore and Evermore, whose lyrics, influenced by the escapism of the COVID-19 outbreak was highly praised for its subtle storytelling. To take ownership of the works of her older catalogue, Swift released two re-recorded albums in 2021. the Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version), both that were highly praised for their improved performance and the singer’s enhanced vocal performance. In addition to the music aspect, Swift has played various supporting roles in movies like Valentine’s Day (2010) and Cats (2019). She released the autobiographical document Miss Americana (2020) as well as the Self-directed music films Folklore: Long Pond Studio Sessions (2020) and All Too Well: The Short Film (2021), in addition to other specials.
With more than 200 million records around the world, Swift is one of the most successful artists to sell records ever. Her awards are numerous, including the 11 Grammy Awards (including three Album of the Year wins) as well as one Emmy Award, 12 Country Music Association Awards as well as the 25 Billboard Music Awards (the most wins for female artists) and 34 American Music Awards (the most wins an artist has ever received) along with the 49 Guinness World Records. Swift was appeared in Rolling Stone‘s 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time (2015), she was ranked 8th the Billboard‘s Greatest Of All Time Artists list (2019) and was featured multiple times on power rankings like The Time 100 in addition to the Forbes Celebrity 100. The woman was named the”Woman of the 2010s” Decade, by Billboard as well as the Artist of the Decade of 2010 at the American Music Awards, Swift was recognized for her support of women’s rights and artists’ empowerment in the world of music.
Life and work
1989-2003 Education and early life
Swift’s childhood home was Wyomissing, Pennsylvania
Taylor Alison Swift was born on the 13th of December 1989 in the Reading Hospital in West Reading, Pennsylvania. The father of Taylor, Scott Kingsley Swift, was a former stockbroker at Merrill Lynch; her mother, Andrea Gardner Swift (nee Finlay) was a homemaker for a while and was previously an executive in the marketing of mutual funds. The younger sister, Austin who is an actor. She was named after the singer-songwriter James Taylor and has Scottish and German roots; some of her ancestors were employed in the industry of music. Swift’s paternal great-great-grandfather was an Italian immigrant entrepreneur and community leader who opened several businesses in Philadelphia in the 1800s. Swift spent her childhood on the Christmas tree farm her father bought by one of his customers. Swift declares herself a Christian. She was a kindergartener and preschooler in The Alvernia Montessori School, run by the Bernadine Franciscan sisters, prior to transfer into The Wyndcroft School. The family moved into a house that was rented out in the suburb city located in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, where she was enrolled in Wyomissing Area Senior High School and Junior High School.
When she was nine years old, Swift became interested in musical theater. She performed in the four Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions. Swift also regularly traveled across the country to New York City for vocal and acting classes. Swift changed her focus on country music, being influenced by the songs of ShaniaTwain which inspired her to “want to just run around the block four times and daydream about everything.” She would play on weekends at local festivals and other events. Following a film on Faith Hill, Swift felt it was imperative to move into Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue an opportunity in the field of music. Swift traveled with her mother at the age of eleven to go to Nashville record labels, and also submitted recordings of her demos, including Dolly Parton and The Chicks songs from karaoke. However, she was not accepted due to the fact that “everyone in that town wanted to do what I wanted to do. So, I kept thinking to myself, I need to figure out a way to be different.”
When Swift was about 12 years old older, a computer technician as well as local artist Ronnie Cremer taught her to play the guitar. He assisted her in her first attempts as a songwriter, guiding her to compose “Lucky You”. The song was released in 2003. Swift as well as her mother began working with New york-based the talent management company Dan Dymtrow. With his assistance, Swift modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch as part of their “Rising Stars” campaign, included an original song in the Maybelline collection CD and participated in sessions with the major labels. After performing her own songs in the RCA Records showcase, Swift was awarded an artist development contract. She began to frequent Nashville together with her mother.
To aid Swift get into country music her father was transferred into Merrill Lynch’s Nashville office at fourteen years old. After that, the family moved to a lakefront residence located in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Swift first attended Hendersonville High School before transferring to the Aaron Academy after two years to better fit her busy schedule by homeschooling. Swift graduated one year earlier.
2004-2008: Beginnings of a career and the first album
Then, in Nashville, Swift worked with skilled Music Row songwriters such as Troy Verges, Brett Beavers, Brett James, Mac McAnally along with Mac McAnally, and the Warren Brothers, and formed an ongoing connection along with Liz Rose. They began to meet for writing sessions of two hours every Tuesday afternoon following school. Rose considered the sessions to be “some of the easiest I’ve ever done. Basically, I was just her editor. She’d write about what happened in school that day. She had such a clear vision of what she was trying to say. And she’d come in with the most incredible hooks.” Swift was the youngest artist to be signed with Sony/ATV Tree. Sony/ATV Tree publishing house but quit Sony’s RCA Records at the age of 14. Swift recalled: “I genuinely felt that I was running out of time. I wanted to capture these years of my life on an album while they still represented what I was going through.”
In an industry event in the Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe at the end of 2005 Swift was spotted by Scott Borchetta, a DreamWorks Records executive who was planning to create an independent label called Big Machine Records. She had first met Borchetta in 2004. Swift was the Big Machine’s early signings. Her father acquired a 3 percent part of the business at $120,000. Swift began work on her debut album soon after. Swift got Big Machine to employ its demo-producer Nathan Chapman, with whom she believed they had the proper “chemistry”. She composed three songs for the album on her own, and also co-wrote the remaining eight songs with Rose, Robert Ellis Orrall, Brian Maher, and Angelo Petraglia. Taylor Swift was released on the 24th of October 2006. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times described the song in the form of “a small masterpiece of pop-minded country, both wide-eyed and cynical, held together by Ms. Swift’s firm, pleading voice.” Taylor Swift peaked at the top of the U.S. Billboard 200, where it had a total of 157 weeks. This was the longest period on the charts of any album within the U.S. in the 2000s decade. Swift performing with Brad Paisley in 2007. In order to promote her first album, Swift opened tours for other country music artists between 2007 and 2008.
Big Machine Records was still at its beginnings when it released when it released the single that was the lead track, “Tim McGraw”. Swift and her mom helped “stuff the CD singles into envelopes to send to radio.” The singer spent the majority of 2006 advertising Taylor Swift with an upcoming tour on radio, television appearances and performing as the opening act with Rascal Flatts on specific dates on their 2006 tour. They had to dismiss their previous opening band, Eric Church, for playing for longer than the allotted time. Church joked that Swift she could give him the first record she had ever made gold in appreciation for being fired. Swift sent his first record in gold, along with the following note “Thanks for playing too long and too loud on the Flatts tour. I sincerely appreciate it. Taylor.”
Borchetta claimed that even though the record industry’s peers initially were not supportive of his signing a 16 year old artist, Swift tapped into a previously untapped market: teenage girls who enjoy country music. After “Tim McGraw”, four songs were released during the year 2007 as well as 2008, including “Teardrops on My Guitar”, “Our Song”, “Picture to Burn” and “Should’ve Said No”. The four songs were all featured as songs on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs and included “Our Song”, and “Should’ve Said No” reaching the top spot at number one. Through “Our Song”, Swift became the first person in history to sing and write the number one song on the charts. “Teardrops on My Guitar” made it to number 13 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Swift also released her Christmas album The Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection in October 2007 as well as the EP Beautiful Eyes in July 2008. The album was promoted extensively, including as the opening of other country music artists touring throughout 2007 and 2006, which included George Strait, Brad Paisley and Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.
Swift received praise to her name. Taylor Swift. Swift was among the winners of Nashville’s Songwriters’ Association’s Songwriter/Artist of the Year award in 2007, making her the youngest person ever to receive the award. She also received the Country Music Association’s Horizon Award for Best New Artist and The Academy of Country Music Awards’ Top New Female Vocalist and the American Music Awards’ Favorite Country Female Artist Award. She was nominated as a Best New Artist at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. She performed as a support for Rascal Flatts on their 2008 autumn and summer tour. In the summer of 2008, Swift began a romance with singer Joe Jonas that ended three months later.
2008-2010 The year 2008 was a time of fearless and acting debut
Swift’s second album, Fearless, was released on 11 November on the 11th of November in 2008. Five singles came out in the year 2008 and the year 2009, including “Love Story”, “White Horse”, “You Belong with Me”, “Fifteen”, and “Fearless”. “Love Story”, the leading single, reached fourth place in the Billboard Hot 100 and ranked first in Australia. “You Belong with Me” was the album’s top-charting single in the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number two. Five of the singles were Billboard Hot Country Songs top 10 entries including “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me” making it to the top of the charts at the top of the list. Fearless was released at the top of the Billboard 200 and was the album with the highest sales in 2009. It was also the top-selling album of 2009 U.S. In the Fearless Tour, Swift’s first headlining tour, earned more than $63 million. Journey to Fearless is a three-part documentary miniseries that aired on television and then made available on Blu-ray and DVD. Swift also appeared as an opening act to Keith Urban’s Escape Together World Tour in 2009. The picture was taken at the screening of Hannah Montana: The Movie, Swift had a cameo performance in the film. She also composed two songs for its soundtrack.
In 2009 the music video for “You Belong with Me” was awarded the title of Best Female Film at the MTV Video Music Awards. Swift’s acceptance speech got interrupted by hip-hop artist Kanye West the incident became the source of debate, widespread media attention, and a myriad of Internet memes. James Montgomery of MTV argued that the incident, and subsequent media attention made Swift to “a bona-fide mainstream celebrity”. The year she received five American Music Awards, including Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album. Billboard announced her as 2009’s Best Artist. The album was ranked 99 on NPR’s listing of 150 Best albums made by Women. She was awarded The Video of Year Award and the Female Video Of the Year award for “Love Story” at the 2009 CMT Music Awards, where she made a parody of the track with rapper T-Pain known as “Thug Story”.
The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, Fearless was awarded album of the year, as well as the Best Country Album, and “White Horse” was awarded the Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Swift is the youngest singer to be awarded album of the year. At the awards ceremony, Swift performed “You Belong with Me” and “Rhiannon” with Stevie Nicks the latter of whom was criticized and triggered negative media reaction. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times discovered the performance “refreshing to see someone so gifted make the occasional flub”. In 2009, at the Country Music Association Awards, Swift received the award for Album of the Year with the song Fearless and was also named Entertainer of Year. the youngest person to receive the award.
Swift was featured on John Mayer’s track “Half of My Heart” and Boys Like Girls’ single “Two Is Better Than One” Both of which she co-wrote. The song she co-wrote with her co-writers was “Best Days of Your Life” with Kellie Pickler. She also co-wrote 2 songs on the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack–“You’ll Always Find Your Way to Home” along with “Crazier”. She also contributed two songs in The Valentine’s Day soundtrack, including the track “Today Was a Fairytale” it was her debut top spot in the Canadian Hot 100, and reached the top spot at two in the Billboard Hot 100. When she was filming her first cinematic performance Valentine’s Day in October 2009, Swift began a romantic relationship with co-star Taylor Lautner; they broke in the following year. Valentine’s Day saw her playing the sexy female friend of a high-school jock. The role was met with mixed reviews. Swift made her acting debut in the season of the CBS show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in which she played an unruly teenage. The following season, Swift was the host and musical performer on an episode Saturday Night Live She is the only host in history to compose an opening monologue of her own.
2010-2012: Speak Now
Swift performing on The Speak Now World Tour in 2012
In August of 2010, Swift released “Mine” as the lead song from her third studio album Speak Now. It entered the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at the third spot. Swift composed the album on her own and produced each track herself. Speak Now was released on October 25 in 2010, debuted the top of the Billboard 200, with the first week’s sales of one million copies. It was the top-selling online album of a female artist with downloads of 278,000 in just one week, which earned Swift an entry into the 2010 Guinness World Records. The tracks “Mine”, “Back to December”, “Mean”, “The Story of Us”, “Sparks Fly” and “Ours” were released as singles. The songs, with the exception of “The Story of Us” were Hot Country Songs top-three entries and “Sparks Fly” and “Ours” being ranked at the top spot. “Back to December” and “Mean” peaked in the top ten of Canada. In 2010 she was briefly with actress Jake Gyllenhaal.
In the course of her tour dates in 2011 she wrote the lyrics to a variety of songs that were written by others in her right arm. The 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012, Swift won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance for “Mean”, which she performed at the awards ceremony. Media outlets praised her performance as a significant improvement over her highly-criticized performance in 2010. Grammy performance, and was a testimony to her musicianship skills. Swift received other accolades on behalf of the song Speak Now which included Songwriter/Artists of the Year from the Nashville Songwriters Association (2010 and 2011) and The Woman of the Year from Billboard (2011) and Entertainer of The Year from the Academy of Country Music (2011 and 2012) and the Country Music Association in 2011. At the American Music Awards of 2011, Swift won Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album. Rolling Stone placed Speak Now at 45 on its 2012 list of “50 Best Female Albums of All Time” and wrote: “She might get played on the country station, but she’s one of the few genuine rock stars we’ve got these days, with a flawless ear for what makes a song click.”
The Speak Now World Tour ran from February 2011 until March 2012 and raked in more than $123 million. In November of 2011, Swift released a live album called The Speak Now World Tour: Live. Swift contributed two original songs for The Hunger Games soundtrack album: “Safe & Sound” written and recorded in collaboration by the Civil Wars and T-Bone Burnett and “Eyes Open”. “Safe & Sound” won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. Swift was featured the song on B.o.B’s track “Both of Us”, which was released in May 2012. Between July and September of 2012 Swift had a relationship with the political heir Conor Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mary Richardson Kennedy.
2012-2014: Red
The month of August was when Swift dropped “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” as the lead track taken from her 4th studio album The Red. It was her first top one single in both the U.S. and New Zealand and also climbed to the top spot on iTunes sales of digital tracks chart within 50 minutes of its release. It also earned her the title of the Fastest-Seller Single on the Digital History Guinness World Record. Other singles that were released on the album are “Begin Again”, “I Knew You Were Trouble”, “22”, “Everything Has Changed”, “The Last Time” and “Red”. “I Knew You Were Trouble” made it to the top five of chart in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand and New Zealand, Denmark, the U.K. in the U.K. and U.S. Three singles “Begin Again”, “22” and “Red”, reached the top 20 in the U.S. Swift on the Red Tour in 2013
Red was released on the 22nd of October 2012. The album, the album, titled Red, Swift worked with new producers, in addition to her long-time co-workers Nathan Chapman and Liz Rose: Max Martin, Shellback Dann Huff Jeff Bhasker, Butch Walker, Dan Wilson, and Jacknife Lee. The album introduces new styles for Swift like dubstep, heartland rock and dance-pop. It debuted at the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart with the first week’s total sales in the range of 1.21 million units. It made Swift one of the few females artist to sell two million albums in the opening week which was a feat that was recognized by Guinness World Records. Swift’s debut number-one album to be released in the U.K. It was the Red Tour ran from March 2013 until June 2014 and raked in more than 150 million dollars, making it the country tour with the highest gross in its final year.
Red was sold to eight million copies by the time 2014 arrived. The album received numerous awards which included four nominations at the 56th annual Grammy Awards in 2014. The album’s lead track “I Knew You Were Trouble” was awarded Best Female Music Video in the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. Swift was awarded the American Music Awards for Best Female Country Artist in 2012, as well as Artist of the Year in 2013. Swift was awarded The Nashville Songwriters’ Association’s Songwriter/Artist Award for the fifth and sixth consecutive years in 2012 and 2013. Swift was recognized in 2013 by the Association with an exclusive Pinnacle Award, making her the second recipient of this award, following Garth Brooks. In the same time frame she had a brief affair in a relationship with English musician Harry Styles.
The year 2013 saw Swift released “Sweeter than Fiction” which was a track she co-wrote and recorded together with Jack Antonoff for the One Chance film’s soundtrack. The track received an Best Original Song nomination at the 71st Golden Globe Awards. Swift sang as a guest on Tim McGraw’s hit song “Highway Don’t Care”, with guitar playing of Keith Urban. Swift sang “As Tears Go By” together with The Rolling Stones in Chicago, Illinois as part of their fifty & Counting tour. Swift joined Florida Georgia Line on stage during their performance in The 2013 Country Radio Seminar to sing “Cruise”. Swift played Audrey the tree-loving in the animated film The Lorax (2012) She also made a cameo appearance on the show The New Girl (2013), and played a role in the adaptation film of The Giver (2014).
2014-2017: 1989
The month of March was 2014 and Swift resided at New York City. At the time the singer was working on her fourth studio album 1989, together with the producers Jack Antonoff, Max Martin, Shellback, Imogen Heap, Ryan Tedder, and Ali Payami. The album was promoted by Swift through different campaigns, including inviting fans to private album listening sessions. The album was influenced by synth-pop of the 1980s, Swift severed ties with the traditional country music that she had previously released and advertised 1989 as her “first documented, official pop album”. The album debuted on the 27th of October the 27th of October, 2014. Swift performing on The 1989 World Tour, the highest-grossing tour of 2015.
1989 sold 1.28 million copies in the U.S. during the first week of its release, and it debuting at the top of the Billboard 200. This led to Swift the first band to sell three albums more than a million copies during their initial week. She also received an Guinness World Record. In June of 2017, 1989 had sold more than 10 million copies across the globe. The three singles–“Shake It Off”, “Blank Space”, and “Bad Blood” featuring rapper Kendrick Lamar–reach number one on the charts in Australia, Canada, and the U.S. Singles “Style” and “Wildest Dreams” were among at the top of the charts in the U.S. The other singles were “Out of the Woods” and “New Romantics”. “The 1989 World Tour ran from May through December in 2015, and it was the top-grossing concert of 2015, with the total of $250 million.
In the years prior to 1989‘s release, Swift stressed the importance of albums to both artists and their fans. On November 14, 2014 Swift removed all of her catalogs from Spotify in protest that the streaming company’s advertising-supported free service harmed the premium option that pays more royalties for the songwriters. In the June 2015 open letter, Swift criticized Apple Music for not paying royalties to musicians during the service’s free trial period of three months and said she’d take 1989 from the catalog. On the same date, Apple announced that it would pay artists during the trial period and Swift accepted to play 1989 on the streaming service. TAS Rights Management, Swift’s holding and intellectual property management company TAS Rights Management applied for 73 trademarks that relate to Swift and the 1989 memes from the 1989 era. Swift re-uploaded her entire catalog, plus 1989 to Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Play and other digital streaming platforms in June of 2017.
Swift received the honor of being awarded Billboard‘s Woman of the Year 2014 in addition to making her the first artist ever to win the honor twice. In the 2013 American Music Awards, Swift was awarded the inaugural Dick Clark Award for Excellence. In 2015, Swift won the Brit Award for International Female Solo Artist. The music video of her song “Bad Blood” won Video of the Year and Best Collaboration at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards. Swift was one of the eight artists who received the 50th Anniversary Milestone Award at the 2015 Academy of Country Music Awards. At the 58th Grammy Awards in 2016, 1989 won Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album, and “Bad Blood” won Best Music Video. Swift became the very first female and fifth group overall to be awarded album of the year two times as the lead singer.
Swift was a lover of Scottish music producer and DJ Calvin Harris from March 2015 until June the year. Before their split The two co-wrote the track “This Is What You Came For” featuring the vocals of Barbadian musician Rihanna; Swift was initially crediting the song as the pseudonym Nils Sjoberg. Swift then was a lover of English actor Tom Hiddleston for a few months. In June of 2016, Kanye West released his single “Famous”, which contained the controversial lyrics that referenced Swift in reference to his interruption to the singer’s 2009 VMA acceptance speech. Swift was critical of West who claimed she was in agreement with the lyrics prior to its release, which Swift did not deny. Months later, West’s wife Kim Kardashian released a video of a phone call between Swift and West in which Swift appears to approve a portion of the lyric, following which “#TaylorSwiftIsASnake” trended on Twitter. Then in 2020, a long uncut recording of the call was released, proving that West did not inform Swift about the phrase (“I have made that snark famous”) that Swift was able to dispute.
Swift began dating English actor Joe Alwyn in September 2016. Swift wrote the track “Better Man” for Little Big Town’s seventh album, The Breaker that was released in November. The track earned Swift an honor at this year’s CMA Awards. Swift and English Zayn Malik recorded an album “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” as the soundtrack to the movie The Fifty Shades of Darker (2017). The track ranked second across the U.S and was awarded The Best Co-Collaboration at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards.
2017-2018: Reputation
Swift performs on the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018) which is the most lucrative North American tour of all time.
In August of 2017, Swift successfully sued David Mueller who was a former morning host at Denver’s KYGO-FM. Four years prior, Swift had informed Mueller’s bosses that he had allegedly sexually assaulted her during an occasion. Following her dismissal, Mueller accused Swift of lying and filed a lawsuit against her to recover damages for his loss of job. After a short time, Swift counter-sued for sexual assault, seeking damages of just one dollar. The jury ruled against Mueller’s allegations and the verdict was in the favor of Swift. After a year away from the spotlight, Swift cleared her social media accounts and dropped “Look What You Made Me Do” as the lead track from her sixth album Reputation. It was Swift’s first top-of-the-line U.K. single. It reached the top of charts across Australia, Ireland, New Zealand as well as the U.S.
Reputation was released on the 10th of November 2017. The album has a heavy electropop sound, incorporating the hip-hop, R&B and EDM influences. It was released on the Billboard 200 with the first week’s numbers at 1.21 millions copies. This achievement means that Swift made history as the only group to sell four albums one million copies in one month across the U.S. The album was a top seller across Australia, UK, Australia, and Canada. The first week of sales worldwide was 2 million copies. The album was sold more than 4.5 million copies in the world at the time of its release in 2018. It also spawned three additional international singles which included”Ready for It?” U.S. top-five entry “…Ready for It? “, and two U.S. top-20 singles–“End Game” (featuring Ed Sheeran and rapper Future) and “Delicate”. Additional singles included “New Year’s Day”, which was only released only to U.S. country radio, and “Getaway Car”, which was released to Australia only.
In April of 2018, Swift featured on Sugarland’s “Babe” from their album Bigger. To promote Reputation Swift, she embarked on the Reputation Stadium Tour, which took place from May until November of 2018. For the U.S., the tour made $266.1 million at the box office revenue and sold more than two million tickets, surpassing Swift’s own record of the most lucrative U.S. tour by a woman. The record was prior to the 1989 World Tour in 2015 ($181.5 million). The tour also broke the record for the top-grossing North American concert tour in the history of music. The tour’s total worldwide revenue was $345.7 million, which makes it the second-highest-grossing touring concert of all time. In in November Big Machine Records released the Reputation Stadium Tour playlist for streaming services. The playlist contains every track performed on the B-stages of the Reputation Stadium Tour. On December 31st, Swift released her Reputation Stadium Tour video of her concert on Netflix.
Reputation was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in 2019. The American Music Awards of 2018, Swift won four awards which included artist of the year as well as the title of Favorite Female Pop/Rock Artist. Following 2018, at the AMAs, Swift garnered a total of 23 awards. She became the highest-prized female artist in AMA history. This record was previously set previously by Whitney Houston.
2018-2020: Master and love dispute
Reputation was Swift’s final album in her contract of 12 years to Big Machine Records. In November of 2018, Swift signed a multi-album agreement in partnership with the distributor of Big Machine, Universal Music Group; in the U.S. her subsequent releases were sold through the Republic Records imprint. Swift stated that the contract contained an option for her to retain ownership over her original recordings. Additionally should Universal decides to sell any portion or all of the stake it holds of Spotify, Spotify agreed to share a non-recoupable percentage of the profits to their artists. Swift at the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards
Swift has released her seventh album of studio work, Lover, on 23 August 2019. Alongside her long-time partner Jack Antonoff, Swift worked with new producers Louis Bell, Frank Dukes as well as Joel Little. Lover was Swift’s sixth consecutive album to have sold over 500,000 copies within just one week in the U.S., making Swift the first female artist to achieve that feat. All 18 tracks from the album charted in the Billboard Hot 100 in the same week, setting records for the highest number of simultaneous hits by a woman. The album’s lead track, “Me! “, debuts at the top of the list, number 100 in the Billboard Hot 100 and then climbed to the top spot one week later, registering the highest single-week increase in the history of charts. Other singles by Lover included”Lover,” the U.S. top-10 singles “You Need to Calm Down” and “Lover”, and U.S. top-40 single “The Man”.
Lover was the best-selling album from the studio in 2019, with 3.2 millions copies. It was the year that International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) named Swift as the top-selling global artist of the year in 2019. This was the first time that Swift the first female to receive the award twice. She had previously won the award in 2014. The album received praise and nominations, including three at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards in 2020. At the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, “Me!” won Best Visual Effects as well as “You Need to Calm Down” was awarded Video of the Year as well as the Video of the Year award. Swift is the only female artist and the second overall to be awarded Video of the Year for an original video they directed. Swift was awarded 6 awards in the 2019 American Music Awards, including Artist of the Year as well as artist of the Decade.
Swift played the role of Bombalurina in the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats (2019). Swift composed an original track named “Beautiful Ghosts”, which she co-wrote together with Webber for the soundtrack of the film. The track earned Swift further nominations in the categories of Best Original Song and Best Song written to Visual Media during the 77th Golden Globe Awards and the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, respectively. While critics viewed the film in a negative light, Swift received positive feedback for her performance and performance. This film Miss Americana that chronicles a portion of Swift’s life and work it premiered in 2020 at the Sundance Film Festival and was released on Netflix on January 31st in 2020. Miss Americana features the hit song “Only the Young”, that Swift composed following Trump’s election of 2018 in the United States elections. In February of 2020, Swift signed an exclusive global publishing contract together with Universal Music Publishing Group, following the expiration of her 16-year contract to Sony/ATV Music Publishing expired.
In the course of promoting the album Lover in the year 2019, Swift became embroiled in an open dispute with her the talent manager Scooter Braun, as well as her previous Label Big Machine, regarding the purchase of the masters from her old catalog. Swift declared in the blog of her Tumblr blog that she’d been attempting to purchase the masters over the course of many years however Big Machine only allowed her to purchase them in exchange for a new album for one from an earlier release under a different contract. However, she decided not to. On April 20, 2020 Big Machine released Live from Clear Channel Stripped 2008 the live album of Swift’s appearances on a radio show in 2008 that Swift didn’t authorize. Then, in October Braun has sold the Swift masters as well as her artwork and videos for sale to Shamrock Holdings for a reported $300 million. Swift started recording her old catalog in November 2020.
2020-present: Folklore, Evermore, and re-recordings
In the year 2020, Swift released two surprise albums that received little publicity, to great critical applause. The first album, the eighth album of her studio Folklore was released on the 24th of July. The secondalbum, her ninth album, Evermore Evermore, was released on December 11. Swift wrote and recorded both albums while she was in isolated during the COVID-19 epidemic, cooperating with producer Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner from the National. The albums include collaborative tracks together with Bon Iver, and Evermore has collaborations with Haim, the National along with Haim. Swift’s friend Joe Alwyn co-wrote and co-produced certain tracks under the name William Bowery. The creation of Folklore has been featured in the documentary concert Folklore the Long Pond Studio Sessions which was produced by Swift and released on November 25.
Described by Swift and Dessner as “sister records”, both albums feature indie folk and alternative rock, a departure from previous pop albums. The U.S., Folklore and Evermore were supported by three singles – one for mainstream radio, another to country radio and one to triple-A radio. The three singles that were released included “Cardigan”, “Betty”, “Exile” (featuring Bon Iver) and “Willow”, “No Body, No Crime” (featuring Haim), “Coney Island” (featuring the National) as well as. The album was released in Germany, Folklore was accompanied by a second track, “The 1”. The two lead singles from the album “Cardigan” and “Willow” were released on the Billboard Hot 100 in the same week that the albums’ parents debuted on the Billboard 200 and made Swift one of the few artists to debut on both U.S. singles and albums charts at the same time. Both albums sold more than one million copies worldwide within the first week of release and Folklore selling 2 million copies. Folklore was the first album to break records. It set the Guinness World Record for the most album first-day streams by an artist of female gender on Spotify and was also the most-seller album of the year across the U.S., having sold 1.2 million copies. Swift was the highest-paid artist of 2020 within the U.S., and highest-paid solo artist in the world. In the 2020 American Music Awards, Swift was awarded three prizes including the The Artist of the Year award for the record-breaking third time. Folklore was awarded The Album of the Year award in the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, making Swift the first female to be awarded an award for three consecutive times.
In the wake of the masters scandal, Swift released the first recording of her back catalogue, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), on April 9th 2021. The re-recordings of her album from 2008 Fearless was the highest-rated album on the Billboard 200, making it the first album that was re-recorded to achieve that feat. It it was preceded by 3 songs: “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)”, “You All Over Me” featuring Maren Morris and “Mr. Absolutely Good”. “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” is the Re-recording of Swift’s single from 2008 “Love Story” was the first single to be released by Swift. Swift as the only artist following Dolly Parton to have both the original track and the re-recording of a song that topped the charts at number one in the Hot Country Songs. Swift dropped “Wildest Dreams (Taylors Version)” which was the re-recording of her single from 2015 “Wildest Dreams”, on September 17, 2021 after the song was gaining traction on the popular online video sharing app, TikTok. A second re-recording of her catalog from the past, Red (Taylor’s Version)–the re-recording of her 2012 album Red–was released on November 12 2021.
In addition to her solo work, Swift featured on the single “Gasoline”, from the version that was expanded of Haim’s Album Women In Music. III. The album also included two tracks, “Renegade” and “Birch” from the Big Red, an indie folk group from Machine’s album 2021, How Much Time Do You Believe It’s Going To last?. On May 20, 2021 Swift won an award called the Global Icon Award by the Brit Awards as well as also the Songwriter Icon Award by the National Music Publishers Association. A short film directed and written by Swift, All Too Well was released along with The Red (Taylor’s Version) on 12 November 2021. the title is after and features an extended version of her 2012 track with the same title, and features her, Sadie Sink, and Dylan O’Brien. Swift was also in David O. Russell’s film that is untitled and scheduled to release on November 4 2022.
Artistry
Influences
One of Swift’s most fond musical memories was listening to an American opera singers as well as mother, Marjorie Finlay, sing in the church. When she was a kid she was a fan of Disney films’ soundtracks “My parents noticed that, once I had run out of words, I would just make up my own”. Swift has stated that she credits her self-confidence to her mother, who was able to help her prepare for presentations in class when she was a kid. Swift also credits to her “fascination with writing and storytelling” to her mother. Swift was attracted by the storytelling aspect of country music and was first introduced to the genre by listening to “the famous female country stars in that time period ’90s”–Shania Twain Faith Hill, and the Dixie Chicks.” Twain as an artist and songwriter, was the biggest influence on her musical style. Hill was Swift’s hero: “Everything she said, did, wore, I tried to copy it”. Swift was awed by and admired the Dixie Chicks’ defiant attitude and capability to perform their instruments. “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer was the first song Swift began playing on guitar. Swift also looked into the music of the older country artists like Patsy Cline Loretta Lynn Tammy Wynette along with Dolly Parton, the latter of whom she believes to be “an amazing example to every female songwriter out there” and alt-country musicians such as Patty Griffin and Lori McKenna. She also has cited Keith Urban’s style of singing for inspiration.
Swift was also in the influence of a myriad of rock and pop artists. Swift mentions Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, and Carly Simon as her career model. When discussing McCartney as well as Harris, Swift has said, “They’ve taken chances, but they’ve also been the same artist for their entire careers”. McCartney is, as an Beatle and as a solo artist has made Swift think “as if I’ve been let into his heart and his mind […] He’s out there continuing to make his fans so happy. Any musician could only dream of a legacy like that.” Swift likes Springsteen because he is “so musically relevant after such a long period of time”. She wants to be as great as Harris as she gets older due to her preference for music over fame. Swift declares about Kristofferson that the singer “shines in songwriting”, and is awestruck by Simon as being “an emotional” but “a strong person”. The synth-pop album she released in 1989 was influenced by a few of her most adored pop stars of the 1980s, such as Peter Gabriel, Annie Lennox, Phil Collins and Madonna. as a songwriter, Swift was influenced by Joni Mitchell’s autobiographical lyrics, which express the deepest feelings: “She wrote it about her deepest pains and most haunting demons … I think [ Blue] is my favorite because it explores somebody’s soul so deeply”.
Music styles
Swift’s discography covers pop, country, folk along with alternative and folk genres. The three albums she released as her debut studio album Taylor Swift, Fearless and Speak Now are categorized as country. Swift’s fourth album of studio work, Red is described as both pop and country; the next three albums, 1989 Reputation as well as Lover are considered pop; while Folklore as well as Evermore are considered to be alternative. Music critics have described her music as country pop, synth-pop and electropop, along with rock and even indie, among other things Some songs, particularly the ones on Reputation contain aspects from R&B, EDM, hip trap, and rap. The instruments Swift uses include the banjo, piano as well as ukulele, and other types of guitar. Swift declared herself an artist from the country genre until her release of her debut album in 1989 the album, which she described the album as being her very first “sonically cohesive pop album”.
Rolling Stone wrote, “[Swift] might get played on the country station, but she’s one of the few genuine rock stars we’ve got these days.” As per The New York Times, “There isn’t much in Ms. Swift’s music to indicate country–a few banjo strums, a pair of cowboy boots worn onstage, a bedazzled guitar–but there’s something in her winsome, vulnerable delivery that’s unique to Nashville.” The Guardian wrote that Swift “cranks melodies out with the pitiless efficiency of a Scandinavian pop factory.” Consequence praised Swift’s “capacity to continually reinvent while remaining herself” and Time described Swift as a “musical chameleon” for the ever-changing sound that her catalog. Clash stated that Swift’s career “has always been one of transcendence and covert boundary-pushing” to the where “Taylor Swift is just Taylor Swift” that isn’t identified by any particular music genre.
Voice
Swift has a mezzo-soprano voice range. Her vocal range can be described as “sweet but soft” according Sophie Schillaci from The Hollywood Reporter. Pitchfork‘s Sam Sodomsky said it was “versatile and expressive”. The professor of Music Theory Alyssa Barna described Swift’s timbre as higher registers in terms of “breathy and bright”, and her lower register as “full and dark”. According to the Los Angeles Times noted Swift’s “defining” vocal gesture in studio recordings as “the line that slides down like a contented sigh or up like a raised eyebrow, giving her beloved girl-time hits their air of easy intimacy.” A 2010 journalist of the newspaper The Tennessean acknowledged the fact that Swift had “not the best technical singer” but nonetheless described her as being the “best communicator that we’ve got”. Her singing ability is one which has always worried Swift during her first few years of career, and she’s “put a lot of work” to improve her vocal ability. She has said that she’s anxious when singing live “if I’m not sure what the audience thinks of me, like at award shows”.
In the year 2011, Rolling Stone wrote: “Swift’s voice is unaffected enough to mask how masterful she has become as a singer; she lowers her voice for the payoff lines in the classic mode of a shy girl trying to talk tough.” The Village Voice stated that her phrasing was prior to that “bland and muddled, but that’s changed. She can still sound strained and thin, and often strays into a pitch that drives some people crazy; but she’s learned how to make words sound like what they mean.” The year 2014 saw NPR Music described her singing as a conversational and personal style because of the “exceptional gift for inflection” However, she also suffered from the “wobbly pitch and tight, nasal delivery”. The Hollywood Reporter stated that Swift’s live vocals weren’t “fine”, but did not quite match the vocals of her fellow singers. Swift received praise for her refusal to adjust her pitch using Auto-Tune.
in 2020 in 2020, Variety reviewer Andrew Barker said Swift has achieved “remarkable” control over her vocals, and has never allowed an “flourish or a tricky run to compromise the clarity of a lyric” while singing “wonders within her register” and “exploring its further reaches”. In a review of Swift’s 2021 re-recording “Fearless”, The New York Times critic Lindsay Zoladz wrote that her vocals became more powerful, controlledand more pronounced as time went on, removing the nasal tones of her first vocals. Lucy Harbron of Clash commented that Swift’s voice have changed “into her own unique blend of country, pop and indie”.
Songwriting
I am a huge fan of songwriting because there’s a part of it that’s mysterious. As I’m sure every musician will say, when you have an idea that you’re not sure of where it came from however, if you are able to grasp this idea and make it into an original piece of music, then that’s where the craft is where it all begins; this is where you can have the chance to develop and nurture your art.
— Swift about the craft of songwriting Variety
Swift is regarded by many as being one of the top songwriters of all time , and one of the top artists of her generation, according to various media and institutions. In a interview in the New Yorker, Swift was referred to as a songwriter in the first place: “I write songs, and my voice is just a way to get those lyrics across.” Swift’s personal experiences served as an source of inspiration for her first songs, which allowed her to overcome the difficulties of life. Swift’s “diaristic” technique began with finding an emotion, then which was then followed by a tune. In her initial 3 studio albums common themes included heartbreak, love and fears, all from an adolescent’s perspective. Swift explored the turmoil of unhealthy relationships in Red and also embraced nostalgia and positivity following unsuccessful relationships in 1989. Reputation was an homage to Swift’s fame while Lover revealed her understanding about what she calls the “full spectrum of love”. Other themes that Swift’s music explore are friendships, parent-child relationships as well as self-awareness, alienation and self-awareness.
Swift’s confessional tales have received praise from critics. The music critics praised Swift’s songwriting for its vivid detail and emotional resonance which was unique when compared to other pop artists. New York magazine claimed the fact that Swift became the very first artist who specifically depicted teenagers’ experiences within her work. Rolling Stone described Swift as “a songwriting savant with an intuitive gift for verse-chorus-bridge architecture”. While reviews about Swift generally praise her, The New Yorker said that she was depicted “more as a skilled technician than as a Dylanesque visionary”. Due to her confessional stories that tabloids often speculated on and linked the people in the songs with former lovers of Swift the way they did, which New York Magazine was deemed to be “sexist, inasmuch as it’s not asked of her male peers”. Apart from the information in the album’s liner notes, Swift avoided talking about the subject matter of her songs specifically. In an interview in 2013 by Vanity Fair, Swift said that her criticism of her writing–in which critics saw her as an “clingy crazy, insane lover who wants to make your marriage official and having children in with her”–was “a little sexist”.
In her albums for 2020, Folklore as well as Evermore, Swift was inspired by escapism , and romanticism to create fictional stories. In a non-serious way, without referencing her personal life, she imprinted her feelings onto fictional narratives and stories which freed her from the stress that comes from tabloids and offered new avenues for her creativity. In an interview for Rolling Stone, Swift stated that she was thrilled with the direction she was taking in her songwriting when she gave up fretting about commercial success: “I always thought, ‘That’ll never track on pop radio,’ but when I was making Folklore, I thought, ‘If you take away all the parameters, what do you make?” After the release of Evermore, Spin discovered Swift performing “exceedingly complex human emotions with precision and devastation”. Consequence declared that her 2020 albums “offered a chance for doubters to see Swift’s songwriting power on full display, but the truth is that her pen has always been her sword” and Swift’s ability to write changed into “different forms” as she changed to “teenage wunderkind to a confident and careful adult.”
Swift’s bridges have been praised as one of the greatest features of her music and earned the name “Queen of Bridges” from media publications. In awarding Swift with the Songwriter Icon Award in 2021 the Association of Music Publishers’ Organization noted it was “no one is more influential when it comes to writing music today” than Swift.
Music videos
Swift has worked with many different directors in the production of music videos. And as time has passed, she’s become more involved in writing and producing. Taylor Swift owns her own production company, Taylor Swift Productions, Inc. The company is responsible for putting together music video for songs, such as “Me! “, and is known for tucking in intricate Easter eggs and clues within her work. In 2010 Swift directed”Mine”‘s music video “Mine” with Roman White. In 2011 she continued to work with White on music video for “Mean” and “Ours”. Swift came up with the idea along with the treatment to “Mean”. In an interview with White, White explained on how Swift “was keenly involved in writing the treatment, casting and wardrobe. And she stayed for both the 15-hour shooting days, even when she wasn’t in the scenes.” Swift created the idea of”Ours” and wrote the concept for “Ours” music video and later was brought in by White to direct. White stated her ideas for the two videos as “storylines”.
From 2014 until 2018, Swift collaborated with director Joseph Kahn on eight music videos, four of which were of her album 1989 and Reputation. Kahn was awed by Swift’s work in the art. The year 2014 saw Swift collaborated with American Express to create the release of her “Blank Space” music video (which Kahn directed), and then released the interactive application The AMEX Unstaged Taylor Swift Experience. Swift got the role of executive producer and starring and was awarded an Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Interactive Program in 2015 for the application. Swift received producer credit in the music video for “Bad Blood” and won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video in the year 2016. Swift came up with the idea and composed the lyrics for and performed in the official music video of the Sugarland track “Babe” (2018). Swift has since become a director of music videos herself and is co-directing video music for 3 lover songs: “Me!” featuring Dave Meyers, and “You Need to Calm Down” and “Lover” with Drew Kirsch. She co-produced the third one along with Todrick Hall. Swift was the sole director on the music videos of “The Man”, for which she was awarded an MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction in 2020. She also directed “Cardigan”; and “Willow” in which Swift was again nominated in 2021 for the award of Best Direction. Video Music Awards.
