Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift began professional songwriting at age 14 and signed with Big Machine Records in 2005 to become a country singer. She released six studio albums under the label, four of them to country radio, starting with her 2006 self-titled album. Taylor Swift was released on October 24, 2006. Country Weekly critic Chris Neal deemed Swift better than previous aspiring teenage country singers because of her "honesty, intelligence and idealism". The album peaked at number five on the U.S. Billboard 200, on which it spent 157 weeks—the longest stay on the chart by any release in the U.S. in the 2000s decade. Swift became the first female country music artist to write or co-write every track on a U.S. platinum-certified debut album. Swift is credited as a writer on all 11 of the album's tracks, three of which solely; Robert Ellis Orrall, Brian Maher, Angelo Petraglia, and Liz Rose have co-writing credits. Drawing on her personal life, the songs reflect Swift's outlook on life as a teenager, dealing with romantic relationships, friendships, and insecurity. Produced by Orrall and Nathan Chapman, Taylor Swift is a country record with pop and pop rock elements, incorporating acoustic instruments such as guitars, banjos, and fiddles.
FEARLESS
Swift's second studio album, Fearless, was released on November 11, 2008, in North America, and in March 2009 in other markets. Critics lauded Swift's honest and vulnerable songwriting in contrast to other teenage singers. Fearless became her first number-one album on the Billboard 200 and 2009's top-selling album in the U.S. The Fearless Tour, Swift's first headlining concert tour, grossed over $63 million. In 2009, the music video for "You Belong with Me" was named Best Female Video at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Her acceptance speech was interrupted by rapper Kanye West, an incident that became the subject of controversy, widespread media attention and Internet memes. That year she won five American Music Awards, including Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album. Billboard named her 2009's Artist of the Year. Fearless is a country pop album whose composition incorporates country-associated instruments such as banjos, fiddles, mandolins, and acoustic guitars, that intertwine with dynamic electric guitars and strings. Music critics found the album to feature a crossover appeal brought by the influences of different styles of pop, folk, and rock. Inspired by Swift's teenage feelings, the lyrics explore themes of romance, heartache, and aspirations. The album's title refers to the overarching theme of all of its tracks, as they altogether depict Swift's courage to embrace the challenges of love.
Speak Now
Swift wrote the album alone and co-produced every track. It was released on October 25, 2010, opening atop the Billboard 200 with over one million copies sold. It became the fastest-selling digital album by a female artist, with 278,000 downloads in a week. Critics appreciated Swift's grown-up perspectives; Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone wrote, "in a mere four years, the 20-year-old Nashville firecracker has put her name on three dozen or so of the smartest songs released by anyone in pop, rock or country. At the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012, Swift won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance for "Mean", which she performed during the ceremony. Swift won other awards for Speak Now, including Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association (2010 and 2011), Woman of the Year by Billboard (2011),and Entertainer of the Year by the Academy of Country Music (2011 and 2012) and the Country Music Association in 2011. Inspired by Swift's transition from adolescence into adulthood, Speak Now is a loose concept albumconsisting of confessional songs mostly about love and heartbreak that explore past relationships and depart from the youthful optimism on her past albums. Some tracks were inspired by her rising stardom and public experience, and they have lyrics about confrontation against her critics and adversaries.
RED
In August 2012, Swift released "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", the lead single from her fourth studio album, Red. It became her first number one in the U.S. and New Zealand, and became the fastest-selling single in digital history. On Red, released on October 22, 2012, Swift worked with Chapman and Rose, as well as the new producers Max Martin and Shellback. It incorporated many pop and rock styles such as heartland rock, dubstep and dance-pop. Randall Roberts of Los Angeles Times said Swift "strives for something much more grand and accomplished" with Red. It opened at number one on the Billboard 200 with 1.21 million sales, making Swift the first female to have two million-selling first-weeks.Red was Swift's first number-one album in the U.K. It earned several accolades, including four nominations at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards (2014). The album's title refers to the tumultuous, "red" emotions Swift experienced during the album's conception; its songs discuss the complex and conflicting feelings resulting from fading romance. Contemporaneous critics praised Swift's songwriting in Red but they were divided on the album's sonic range; praise was directed at the album's versatility but criticism targeted its inconsistency. Retrospectively, many critics regard Red one of Swift's best albums and a transitional record bridging her country roots to mainstream pop.
1989
1989 was released on October 27, 2014, and opened atop the Billboard 200 with 1.28 million copies sold. Its singles "Shake It Off", "Blank Space" and "Bad Blood" reached number one in Australia, Canada and the U.S., the first two making Swift the first woman to replace herself at the Hot 100 top spot. The 1989 World Tour (2015) was the highest-grossing tour of the year with $250 million in total revenue.Inspired by 1980s synth-pop, Swift conceived 1989 to recalibrate her artistry to pop after critics disputed her status as a country musician when she released the cross-genre Red (2012) to country radio. She titled 1989 after her birth year as a symbolic artistic rebirth and enlisted Max Martin, who produced Red's electronic-influenced pop tracks, as co-executive producer. When 1989 was first released, music critics generally complimented its production as catchy; they found an emotional engagement in its songwriting but some felt the synth-pop production eroded Swift's artistic integrity—a criticism that journalists and academics retrospectively regarded as rockist. 1989 won Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2016 Grammy Awards, and it was listed in all-time album rankings by Rolling Stone and Consequence. Critics and academics have considered 1989 an album that transformed Swift's status to a pop icon and promoted poptimism, but they also highlighted the media scrutiny that ensued.
r e p u t a t i o n
Reputation, released on November 10, 2017, incorporated heavy electropop, along with hip hop and EDM sounds. Reviews praised Swift's mature artistry, but some denounced the themes of fame and gossip. The album opened atop the Billboard 200 with 1.21 million sales, making Swift the first act to have four albums sell one million copies in a week in the U.S. The album topped the charts in the UK, Australia, and Canada, and sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide as of 2018. It spawned three more singles: "...Ready for It?", "End Game" and "Delicate". Reputation was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in 2019. In April 2018, Swift featured on country duo Sugarland's "Babe". She embarked on her Reputation Stadium Tour in 2018. It broke many records, such as the highest-grossing North American concert tour in history with $345.7 million revenue worldwide. Swift conceived the album during her self-seclusion from public appearances as an effect of the rampant tabloid scrutiny on her private life and celebrity after her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014).Inspired by the fantasy series Game of Thrones, she split the album's lyrical scope in two: one is about the downsides of fame and the resultant anger, and the other about love amidst the tumult.
Lover
Swift released her seventh studio album, Lover, on August 23, 2019. Lover made Swift the first female artist to have a sixth consecutive album sell more than 500,000 copies in one week in the U.S. Critics commended the album's free-spirited mood and emotional intimacy. The lead single, "Me!", peaked at number two on the Hot 100. Other singles from Lover were the U.S. top 10 singles "You Need to Calm Down" and "Lover", top 40 single "The Man", and "Cruel Summer", which became a resurgent success in 2023 and reached number one on the Hot 100. Lover was the world's best-selling album by a solo artist of 2019, selling 3.2 million copies, and along with its singles earned nominations at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2020. Swift conceived Lover as a "love letter to love", taking inspiration from her recalibrated personal life and newfound artistic freedom. Compared to the dark, heavy, hip hop-influenced tones of Reputation, Lover's brighter electropop sound draws mostly from pop rock and synth-pop, with melodies characterized by atmospheric synthesizers, mid-tempo rhythms, and acoustic instruments. The songs incorporate eclectic styles ranging from country and folk to funk and bubblegum pop. They explore emotions such as infatuation, commitment, lust, and heartache. A few discuss political issues such as LGBT rights and feminism.
folklore
Folklore (stylized in all lowercase) is the eighth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was a surprise album, released on July 24, 2020, via Republic Records.Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, Swift canceled the concert tour for her seventh studio album Lover(2019). Departing from the mainly upbeat pop production of its predecessors, Folklore consists of mellow ballads driven by neo-classical instruments, pursuing indie folk, alternative rock, and electro-acoustic styles. Influenced by the isolation of quarantine, Swift explores themes of escapism, empathy, nostalgia and romanticism in the album, using a set of characters, fictional narratives, and story arcs, in contrast to the autobiographical tone of her previous projects. The title was inspired by the lasting legacy of folk songs, whereas its visual aesthetic reflects cottagecore. Folklore received widespread critical acclaim, centering on its emotional weight, poetic lyricism, and relaxed pace. Critics found its introspective essence timely for the pandemic and regarded its sound a bold reinvention of Swift's artistry. Folklore received widespread critical acclaim, centering on its emotional weight, poetic lyricism, and relaxed pace. Critics found its introspective essence timely for the pandemic and regarded its sound a bold reinvention of Swift's artistry. The album was featured on numerous 2020 year-end rankings. It won Album of the Year at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, making Swift the first woman in history to win the honor three times.
evermore
Evermore (stylized in all lowercase) is the ninth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was a surprise album released on December 11, 2020, via Republic Records, less than five months after Folklore, her eighth studio album. Evermore was a spontaneous product of Swift's extended collaboration with her Folklore collaborator Aaron Dessner, mainly recorded at his Long Pond Studio in the Hudson Valley. Swift described Evermore as an offshoot of "the folklorian woods"—an escapist, cottagecore-inspired direction she first ideated with Folklore during the COVID-19 pandemic; she regards them as sister albums. Evermore blends alternative rock, indie folk and chamber pop styles, carried by fingerpicked guitars, somber pianos, lavish strings, and sparse percussion. Impressionist storytelling and mythopoeia dominate its lyrical technique. The subject matter has been described as an anthology of tales about love, marriage, infidelity, and grief, exploring the complexities of human emotion. American bands Bon Iver, Haim, and the National appear as guest performers on the album. Earning widespread acclaim from critics, Evermore was praised for its character studies, experimental production, and Swift's nuanced vocals. Reviews regarded the album a sequel or a counterpart to Folklore, and various publications listed it in their 2020 year-end rankings. Evermore was nominated for Album of the Year at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, a second consecutive nomination for Swift in the category after winning it with Folklore the previous year. Dessner and Long Pond have achieved mainstream notability since Evermore's release. The album reached number one in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Greece, New Zealand, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Midnights
Midnights is the tenth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 21, 2022, via Republic Records. Announced at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, Midnights marked Swift's first new body of work since her 2020 indie folk albums, Folklore and Evermore. It is a moody concept album about nocturnal ruminations, written and produced by Swift with longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff. Inspired by Swift's "sleepless nights", Midnights explores topics of anxiety, insecurity, self-criticism, self-awareness, insomnia, and self-confidence, with lyricism characterized as confessional yet cryptic. Sonically, it experiments with chill-out, electropop, dream pop, and bedroom pop styles, resulting from an alternative approach to synth-pop using analog synthesizers, drum machine, subtle grooves, and hip hop/R&B rhythms. A commercial success across all formats of music consumption, Midnights broke a string of records globally. It achieved the Spotify feat for the most single-day streams of an album and topped the charts in 28 territories. In the United States, it opened with over 1.57 million units, logged Swift's 11th number-one on the Billboard 200, the largest vinyl sales week of the 21st century, became the best-selling album of 2022, and spawned 10 top-ten songs on the Billboard Hot 100—the most for any album—in the same week. The lead single "Anti-Hero" marked her ninth number-one on the Hot 100, while the later singles "Lavender Haze" and "Karma" peaked at number two. Tracks such as "Maroon", "Snow on the Beach" featuring Lana Del Rey, "You're on Your Own, Kid", "Midnight Rain", and "Bejeweled" charted high internationally. Midnights was met with acclaim from music critics for its restrained production, candid songwriting, and vocal cadences. The album won a range of awards and was ranked by publications amongst the best albums of 2022; it has been nominated for Album of the Year at the upcoming 66th Annual Grammy Awards. Journalists felt the album's ubiquitous success is a testament to Swift's cultural impact. To support Midnights and her previous albums, Swift embarked on the Eras Tour in 2023.