There is no doubt that Taylor Swift is one of the most accomplished singer-songwriters of all time. She has come so far from when her debut album Taylor Swift was released in 2006, to selling out stadiums all over the world for her Eras Tour. Taylor is a true symbol of what it means to pour your heart into what you love, work extremely hard for the things you want in life, and being self-made.
Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13th, 1989 in West Reading, Pennsylvania. Her parents Scott and Andrea Swift named her after singer-songwriter James Taylor, whose name is referenced in Swift’s song Begin Again from Red (Taylor’s Version). Taylor grew up on a Christmas tree farm in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania with her mom, dad, and brother Austin. She released a song in 2019 titled Christmas Tree Farm referring to her roots. Taylor has always remembered where she came from and continues to show much gratitude to her family. She was extremely close to her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay. Marjorie was an award winning coloratura soprano opera singer who inspired Swift to pursue a career in music. When she passed, Taylor was devastated and wrote a song in memory of her grandmother. marjorie is an emotional piece that is full of reminiscence and reflection on the relationship the two of them had. Swift also wrote a song in tribute to her mother Andrea, titled The Best Day from her album Fearless (Taylor’s Version).
Taylor Swift started writing music at age 12, and learned guitar as well. However, she was performing at loc
al variety shows at age 10, and sang The Star Spangled Banner at a Philadelphia 76ers game at age 11. When she was 14, she signed a deal with record label Big Machine Records in 2005, and released her debut album Taylor Swift on October 24, 2006. It was a country album; she and her family moved to Nashville so Taylor could pursue her dreams. She later performed at the Grand Ole Opry. This was a big deal because at the time, there was much doubt that a woman could succeed in the country music industry, especially as a solo artist. Her debut album has hits like Our Song, Teardrops On My Guitar, and Picture To Burn.
On November 11, 2008, Taylor Swift released her second studio album, Fearless. Also a country album, it was an even bigger hit than her debut album, with songs like Love Story, and You Belong With Me. Soon after this release, Swift announced her Fearless Tour across the United states and Canada. Taylor took home four Grammys that year. Fearless won Best Album, Best Country Album, and her song White Horse won for Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. This successful night at the Grammys was just the beginning for Swift.
Less than two years after Fearless, Swift released Speak Now on October 25, 2010. This album took off immediately, and Taylor announced the Speak Now World Tour. At the Grammys, her song Mean won for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance. Her tour was extremely successful, spanning from February 9, 2011 to March 18, 2012. The name Taylor Swift started to be well known to the public, and she only went up from there.
The next album that Taylor released is now considered a transitional album from country to pop. Red was released on October 22, 2012, and had a mix of songs that had a pop, country, and even some rock feeling to them. Tracks like 22, We Are Never Getting Back Together, and I Knew You Were Trouble were constantly played on the radio. This album had girls feeling like they were 22, jamming in their bedrooms using a hairbrush as a microphone. The Red Tour started on March 13, 2013 and ended on June 12, 2014. Taylor’s music continued to climb the charts and her popularity skyrocketed.
On October 27, 2014, Taylor Swift reached a turning point in her career with the release of her first full pop album, 1989. The title being an ode to her birth year, 1989 is a bright album which pivoted the artist from a country star to a popstar. The first track on the album is called Welcome To New York; and Swift sings about moving to New York and spending time with friends. Other tracks include Style, Blank Space, and Wildest Dreams. Through the experience of love, laughter, heartbreak, and fun, this took listeners on a wild ride. It was another big year at the Grammys for Taylor, taking home Best Music Video for Bad Blood, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Album of the Year. Haters gonna hate, but Swift has the hardware to prove that she is a popstar.
This next stage in Taylor Swift’s career was very dark. In July of 2016, it became a trend to hate Taylor. She was heavily criticized for writing music about her ex-lovers, being dubbed a “snake” by Kanye West, and it was “cool” to be a part of the #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty on Twitter. At this time, there were also rumors going around that Swift was anorexic, as she appeared more and more frail whenever seen. In November 2016, Taylor disappeared from the public, and was not seen again until a year later. And all of a sudden, it was comeback time.
With the release of Taylor’s sixth studio album reputation, she clapped back at her haters, and they were definitely not ready for it. With tracks like Look What You Made Me Do, This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, and Don’t Blame Me, Swift proved that nothing could bring her down, and she embraced the spirit of exposing others’ crude manners, saying during a concert on July 16, “Happy Snake Day, my favorite day of the year!”, then laughed and continued giving an amazing performance. Many think that the reputation era was an emo, and grunge rock phase in Taylor’s career. But the true Swifties know that she had the time of her life on that tour.
The next period in Taylor’s career was a time of change and true transformation. She departed from Big Machine Records after a contract dispute (see below), and she signed with Republic Records and released Lover on August 23, 2019. This was Swift’s first album with a new label and gave fans a deeper look into her romance with British actor Joe Alwyn. IT is rumored that the pair first locked eyes at the 2016 Met Gala, shortly after her split from Tom Hiddleston. With tracks like Lover, Cornelia Street, and Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince, it was clear that Taylor was heavily invested in her relationship and she and Joe kept it to themselves and close friends. After four years, Swift’s fan favorite song Cruel Summer hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
Probably one of the most monumental experiences in Taylor’s career was the fight to own her music. Her record label at the time was Big Machine Records, founded by Scott Borchetta. In 2019, Scooter Braun purchased the label, and became the new owner of Swift’s masters of her first six studio albums. And so began the war. Swift claimed that she had previously attempted to purchase her masters but the label’s conditions were extremely unfavorable. Soon after Braun took over ownership of Taylor’s music, rumors started circulating that Big Machine Records kept her from performing songs at the 2020 American Music Awards and her documentary Miss Americana. To make matters worse, Swift’s former label released never before seen work by Taylor, without her approval. A year after buying the masters, Braun sold them to Shamrock Holdings. Expressing an even greater disapproval, Swift rejected the new owners’ offer to an equity partnership, wanting to solely own the rights to all of her music. Ever since then, Taylor Swift has been on the journey of re-recording all six of her studio albums in order to rightfully own it. Adding (Taylor’s Version) next to every track and every album, letting the world know that this is her music and her music only. Radio stations only play her re-recorded music once released. Fans refer to the original work as “the Stolen Version”. Taylor has never been afraid to clap back at haters. In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Swift was asked why she insisted on singing to her haters. She replied, “When they stop coming for me I will stop singing to them.” (see video here: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/taylor-swift-on-lover-and-haters/).
Taylor’s first re-release was Fearless (Taylor’s Version), which came out on April 9, 2021, along with six (From The Vault) tracks. These are songs that did not make the cut for the original album. Each re-record has several, and the Swiftie favorite on this one has to be Mr. Perfectly Fine.
The next album that Swift put out was Red (Taylor’s Version), released on November 12, 2021 with ten vault tracks, including the famous All Too Well (10 Minute Version). This was the original version of the five minute song on the first release back in 2012. This track is clearly about her ex-love Jake Gyllenhaal, and has fans screaming the bridge, not to mention the entire song. Not long after dropping this re-record, Swift released All Too Well: The Short Film, starring the lovely Sadie Sink and the charming Dylan O’Brien. Taylor wrote the script and directed it, and made a cameo at the end of the video. The film won for Best Music Video at last year’s Grammy Awards.
Swifties had to wait a little longer for Taylor’s next re-release, which she announced at the Eras Tour during her acoustic set. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) dropped on July 7, 2023, and soon followed the music video for one of her new vault tracks I Can See You. This action filled video starred Taylor Lautner, Joey King, and Presley Cash who work together to break Taylor out of the vault she is trapped in. She debuted the music video at one of her concerts and invited the three out to thank them for their work. I Can See You had fans decoding all the easter eggs in the cases of outfits leading to the vault. This album has five other great vault tracks such as When Emma Falls In Love and Timeless.
Let’s fast forward to 112 days later. One of Swift’s most anticipated re-record was released on October 27, 2023; exactly nine years after the original became available. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) came with five new vault tracks like Is It Over Now? and Now That We Don’t Talk. Is It Over Now? quickly climbed the charts and became one of the fan favorites.
In March of 2020, the whole world changed. We all remember what we were doing on that Friday and Saturday in March when schools shut down, and work became remote. The pandemic hit and it felt like the world stopped. COVID-19 was unprecedented. Movie productions were put on pause, tours were postponed, and people’s lives were on hold. But that didn’t stop Taylor Swift. On July 24, 2020, Swift released her first pandemic album folklore, after announcing it just 24 hours prior. Fans became obsessed with tracks like invisible string, the 1, and cardigan. This established Taylor as a storyteller, creating a woodsy feeling through the use of imagery and Swift’s artistic and original imagination. Using names from her good friends Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ children Betty, Inez, and James to write her song betty, transporting listeners to a cabin in the woods and creating fantasies of made up people falling in and out of love. Swift won Album Of The Year at the Grammys, marking her 11th Grammy. There was no tour for this album, as COVID was still prominent.
Less than five months after releasing folklore, Taylor Swift dropped another surprise album. evermore came out on December 11, 2020, and it was Swift’s second pandemic album. With the same alternative feel as folklore, listeners were treated to an extension of Taylor’s lyric and vocal abilities. Fans fell all over champagne problems, willow, tis’ the damn season, and tolerate it.
Swiftie’s got a big surprise during Taylor’s acceptance speech at the 2022 MTV Music Video Awards. At midnight on Friday, October 21, 2022, Swift’s tenth studio album Midnights was released. Three hours later, she dropped Midnights (3am Edition). The third track Anti-Hero shot to the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100, with nine other songs in the top ten. Taylor made history as the first artist to have the entire top ten spots occupied by her music. This was a record breaking release for Taylor. She hit 1.184 streams for the album itself and 228 million streams on Spotify in just 24 hours. Midnights sold 1.14 million copies in the first week. Taylor expressed her gratitude and shock on Twitter by saying, “10 out of 10 of the Hot 100??? On my 10th album??? I AM IN SHAMBLES.” The single Anti-Hero was number one for several weeks, and many thought it was going to break the record for weeks at number one, but in November Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You surpassed it. After Christmas, Anti-Hero was back on top.
After seeing the immediate success of Midnights, fans started speculating that Swift would be announcing a tour soon. On November 1, 2022, she answered their prayers. Taylor appeared on Good Morning America to announce her upcoming tour. However, this wasn’t just any tour. It would be called The Eras Tour, and Swift would perform select music from all ten of her studio albums. Once tickets went on sale, Swifties around the world all went online in an attempt to get a presale code and find seats. Taylor Swift broke Ticketmaster, the site stopped working due to all the people rushing to purchase tickets. Her first concert date was in Glendale Arizona on Friday, March 17, 2023. Since then she has been all over the country, and began a portion of her international leg of the tour. She has sold out arenas and stadiums for multiple nights. Artists such as Gracie Abrams, Sabrina Carpenter, Gayle, and Phoebe Bridgers have opened for Swift. The Eras Tour was professionally shot at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California and released in theaters on Friday, October 13, 2023. Tickets were $19.89 each. Swift performs forty-four songs, including two surprise songs during her acoustic set. Swifties make and exchange friendship bracelets at concerts, dress up as their favorite era, and scream their hearts out. So far, The Eras Tour has generated $1.04 billion, making her the first solo artist to ever hold that kind of caliber. She commands the stage and puts on quite the show. Her vocal talents are uniquely displayed in every era, and she impresses the crowd by where she places them in the show. Swift has given her fans everything they want and more. The Eras Tour will go down in history as the greatest and most accomplished tour of all time.
It is no secret that Taylor Swift is constantly teasing, (and torturing) her fans with easter eggs. She puts them everyw
here; songs, music videos, costumes, outfits, interviews, Instagram posts, and more. Swifties can always be found decoding one of Taylor’s latest schemes. She is a mastermind at scattering hints and giving us clues as to what’s coming next from Miss Swift. She doesn’t shy away from it, and her fans eat it up. The latest easter egg debate has been trying to figure out when Taylor plans on releasing Reputation (Taylor’s Version). Since she did not announce it at her last concert date of the year, the Swifties have been itching for details. In the past, her easter eggs have given away a lot. Which song is about which ex? What rerecord is next? Are we getting TS11 anytime soon? This seems to be the big one: Is Karma real?
Taylor Swift is one of the best examples of a self-made woman. She hit billionaire status in the fall of this year, and has tremendously given back to the community, and those who have helped her along the way. She truly cares about the music she puts out and is deeply grateful for the love and support from the fans. Her career longevity is impeccable, and definitely one for the ages. She was just named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, an achievement that no other solo female artist has ever been awarded. Taylor Swift’s music will never go out of style, no matter what era it’s from. Long live this brilliant star, and the recognition she deserves. It’s been a long time coming. 
