Taylor Swift- Throughout The Years

Taylor Swift is an American singer and songwriter. She was born December 3, 1989  in West Redding, Pennsylvania. When she was 14 years old she moved to Nashville, Tennessee. In 2004, she signed a deal with Big Machine Records. In 2006, she released her debut album called Taylor Swift. Her debut album made her the first female country singer to write a U.S. platinum-certified album. 

Taylor’s next album in 2008 was Fearless. Some of the most popular songs on that album include “You Belong With Me” and “Love Story”.  Her
Photo credit: Credit: Theo Wargo / WireImage

song “Love Story” got to #4 on the Billboard Top 100, which is an American music magazine. As  well as #1 in Australia. Her                 
album Fearless became her first     Photo Credit: Theo Wargo / WireImage    #1 album on the Billboard 200. This album also became 2009’s top selling album. 

In 2010 Taylor Swift released her next album Speak Now. When this album was released, it reached the Billboard 200. Within the first week of release, the album sold about 1,000,000 copies. Some of the most popular songs on this album include, “Back To December,” “Enchanted,”  and “Speak Now.”  Her album Speak Now  became the fastest selling album from a female artist, which got her a spot in the Guinness World Records in 2010. And in 2011 she was nominated Women Of The Year by Billboard. As well as in 2012 she won a grammy for Best Country Song, and Best Country Solo Performance. 

      In 2012, Taylor Swift released her album Red. Some of the most popular songs on this album are, “Red,” “All Too Well,” “I Knew You Were Trouble,” and “22.” This album debut at #1 on the Billboard 200. Within the first week, Taylor Swift had sold 1.21 million copies. The song “I Knew You Were Trouble,” won Best Female Video at the 2013 Video Music Awards. 

In 2014, Taylor released her next  Photo credit: Kevin Kane/Getty Images for Jingle Ball 2012     album 1989. This album is named after her birth year. Some of the most popular songs on that album, which are still on most radio stations include; “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” and “Bad Blood.” After the release of this album, she was named Billboard's Woman Of The Year. This made her the first artist to win this award twice. In 2016, the album 1989, won Album Of The Year, as well as Best Pop Vocal Album. The “Bad Blood” music video won Best Music Video. She was the first woman to get Album Of The Year twice. 

In 2017, after a one year disappearance from the spotlight, and clearing all of her social media accounts, she released her next album, Reputation.  This album had much more mature tones, about love and relationships. The most famous songs on this album include, “Look What You Made Me Do,” “Ready For It,” Photo credit: by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for DIRECTV)Getty Images“Gorgeous”, and “Delicate.” Her album Reputation won Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2019 Grammys. Her Reputation Stadium Tour gained so much popularity that Netflix created a film about it.

     With her newly signed deal with Universal Music Group, Taylor released the next album Lover in 2019. In the making of this album, she worked with Jack Antonoff, as well as Joel Little, and Louis Bell just to name a few. The more popular songs on this album include Photo credit: Katherine Gillespie    “Me!,” “Lover,” “Paper Rings,” “The Archer,” and “Death By A Thousand Cuts.” During this time, Taylor had the role as Bombalurina in the 2019 movie adaptation of Cats the musical. One song that she co-wrote in that movie is called Beautiful Ghosts. This song got a Golden Globe Nomination. Soon after Taylor Swift released a documentary called “Miss Americana,” which gave an insider perspective about Taylor's personal life, relationships, and career. 

Near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she released her sister albums called Folklore and Evermore . These albums are much more muted compared to her pop songs. The albums explore the genres, indie folk, as well as alternative rock. Some of the most notable songs on these albums include, “Tolerate It,” “Champaign Problems,” “Coney Island,” “Willow,” “Cowboy Like Me,” “The 1,” “Invisible Strings,” “My Tears Ricochet,” and “This Is Me Trying.” Something very unique about the album Folklore is that there are three songs with tied storylines about a love triangle. The songs with the tied storyline include “Cardigan,” “Betty,” and “August.” There are also several other songs on that album that fans think connect to the storyline, but only those three have been confirmed by Taylor herself. The album Folklore 2020’s best selling album in the U.S. selling about 1.2 million copies. This album also won Album Of The Year during the 2020 Grammys. During the 2020 American Music Awards, Taylor won Artist Of The Year, this made her the first artist to get this award three times. In 2020 Taylor Swift was the highest paid musician in the U.S.

In 2021, Taylor re-recorded her albums Fearless and Red. This was due to her old label with Big Machine Records not giving her rights to her songs. After re-recording her album, she changed the names to have “(Taylor’s Version)” at the end. These albums gained lots of popularity, because she added songs “From the vault” (aka unreleased songs) onto them, one of the most popular “From the vault” songs is “All Too Well 10 Minute Version (Taylor’s Version)” 

In October of 2022, Taylor Swift released her next album Midnights. This album is based on 13 sleepless nights. When this album debuted, it was on the Billboard 200. She sold about 1.57 million copies of this album. The most well known songs on this album include, “Bejeweled,” “Anti-hero,” “Lavender Haze,” and “Midnight Rain.” During the start of 2023, Taylor Swift announced her “Eras Tour.” This tour announcement broke the record of the most tickets sold in a day. During this tour, she Photo credit: Getty Images       announced her next re-recording, which will be Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). 

Taylor swift has had one of the most influential careers in music history. She has broken many records for female artists, as well as inspired many. With ten current albums, Taylor will keep releasing more, and will continue to set new precedence in the music industry. 

Sources:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Swift