Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. She is known for narrative songs about her personal life, which have received widespread media coverage. Born and raised in Reading, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 14 to pursue a career in country music. She signed with label Big Machine Records and became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. Her 2006 eponymous debut album was the longest-charting album of the 2000s in the U.S., where it peaked at number five. The album's third single, "Our Song", made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Hot Country Songs chart. Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in 2008. Buoyed by the success of pop crossover singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", Fearless became the best-selling album of 2009 in the U.S. The album won four Grammy Awards, and Swift became the youngest Album of the Year winner.
Swift was the sole writer of her 2010 album Speak Now. It debuted at number one in the U.S., and the single "Mean" won two Grammy Awards. Her fourth album, Red (2012), yielded the singles "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "I Knew You Were Trouble". For her fifth album, the pop-focused 1989 (2014), she received three Grammys and became the first woman and fifth act overall to win Album of the Year twice. Its singles "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", and "Bad Blood" reached number one in the U.S., Australia, and Canada. The first two made Swift the first woman in the Billboard Hot 100's history to succeed herself at the top spot. Her sixth album, Reputation (2017), and its lead single, "Look What You Made Me Do", topped the UK and U.S. charts; with the release of Reputation, Swift became the first act to have four albums sell one million copies within one week in the U.S. Her seventh album, Lover (2019), spawned two U.S. number-two singles, "Me!" and "You Need to Calm Down".
Having sold more than 50 million albums—including 32 million in the U.S.—and 150 million singles, Swift is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. As a songwriter, she has received awards from the Nashville Songwriters Association and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and was included in Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time in 2015. Her other accolades include 10 Grammy Awards, one Emmy, 29 American Music Awards, 23 Billboard Music Awards, six Guinness world records, and appearances in Time's 100 most influential people in the world (2010, 2015, 2019). She also ranked first in the Forbes Celebrity 100 (2016 and 2019), and was the youngest to be featured in the magazine's listing of the 100 most powerful women (2015). In 2019, Billboard placed Swift on number 8 of its list of Greatest of All Time Artists, the highest for an artist that started in the 21st century.
Life and career
1989–2003: Early life
Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in Reading, Pennsylvania.[1] Her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, was a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch; her mother, Andrea Gardner Swift (née Finlay), was a homemaker who had worked as a mutual fund marketing executive.[2] Swift, who has said she has Scottish heritage[3] was named after the singer-songwriter James Taylor.[4] She has a younger brother named Austin, who is an actor.[5] Swift spent her early years on a Christmas tree farm, which her father purchased from one of his clients.[6][7] She attended preschool and kindergarten at the Alvernia Montessori School, run by Franciscan nuns,[8] before transferring to The Wyndcroft School.[9] The family moved to a rented house in the suburban town of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania,[10] where she attended Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School.[11]
At age nine, Swift became interested in musical theater and performed in four Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions.[12] She also traveled regularly to New York City for vocal and acting lessons.[13] Swift later shifted her focus toward country music inspired by Shania Twain's songs, which made her "want to just run around the block four times and daydream about everything."[14] She spent her weekends performing at local festivals and events.[15][16] After watching a documentary about Faith Hill, Swift felt sure she needed to go to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a music career.[17] She traveled with her mother at age eleven to visit Nashville record labels and submitted a demo tape of Dolly Parton and Dixie Chicks karaoke covers.[18] She was rejected, however, because "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."[19]
When Swift was about 12 years old, computer repairman and local musician Ronnie Cremer taught her to play guitar. He helped with her first efforts as a songwriter, leading to her writing "Lucky You".[20] In 2003, Swift and her parents started working with New York-based music manager Dan Dymtrow. With his help, Swift modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch as part of their "Rising Stars" campaign, had an original song included on a Maybelline compilation CD, and attended meetings with major record labels.[21] After performing original songs at an RCA Records showcase, Swift was given an artist development deal and began making frequent trips to Nashville with her mother.[22][23]
To help Swift break into country music, her father transferred to Merrill Lynch's Nashville office when she was 14, and the family relocated to a lakefront house in Hendersonville, Tennessee.[6][24] Swift attended Hendersonville High School[25] but after two years transferred to the Aaron Academy, which through homeschooling could accommodate her touring schedule; she graduated a year early.[26]
2004–2008: Career beginnings and Taylor Swift
In Nashville, Swift worked with experienced Music Row songwriters such as Troy Verges, Brett Beavers, Brett James, Mac McAnally, and the Warren Brothers,[27][28] and formed a lasting working relationship with Liz Rose.[29] They began meeting for two-hour writing sessions every Tuesday afternoon after school.[30] Rose thought the sessions were "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 signed by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house[31] but left RCA Records when she was 14.[16] She later said: "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.
At an industry showcase at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe in 2005, Swift caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, a DreamWorks Records executive who was preparing to form an independent record label, Big Machine Records. She had first met Borchetta in 2004.[33] Swift became one of Big Machine's first signings, and her father purchased a three-percent stake in the company for an estimated $120,000.[34][35] She began working on her eponymous debut album shortly after. Swift persuaded Big Machine to hire her demo producer Nathan Chapman, with whom she felt she had the right "chemistry".[16] She wrote three of the album's songs alone, and co-wrote the remaining eight with Rose, Robert Ellis Orrall, Brian Maher, and Angelo Petraglia.[36] Taylor Swift was released on October 24, 2006.[37] Jon Caramanica of The New York Times described it as "a small masterpiece of pop-minded country, both wide-eyed and cynical, held together by Ms. Swift's firm, pleading voice."[38] Taylor Swift peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 albums chart in the United States, spending 157 weeks there—the longest stay on the chart by any release in the U.S. that decade.[39] As of August 2016, the album had sold over 7.75 million copies worldwide.[40]
Big Machine Records was still in its infancy during the June 2006 release of the lead single, "Tim McGraw". Swift and her mother helped "stuff the CD singles into envelopes to send to radio."[41] She spent much of 2006 promoting Taylor Swift with a radio tour, television appearances, and opening for Rascal Flatts on select dates during their 2006 tour[42][43] after they fired their previous opening act, Eric Church, for playing longer than his allotted time. Church jokingly told Swift she should give him her first gold record as thanks for getting fired. She sent him her first gold record with a note that said, "Thanks for playing too long and too loud on the Flatts tour. I sincerely appreciate it. Taylor."[44]
Borchetta said that record industry peers disapproved of his signing a 16-year-old singer-songwriter, but that Swift tapped into a previously unknown market—teenage girls who listen to country music.[6] Following "Tim McGraw", four more singles were released throughout 2007 and 2008: "Teardrops on My Guitar", "Our Song", "Picture to Burn" and "Should've Said No". All were successful on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart in the United States, with "Our Song", and "Should've Said No" reaching number one. With "Our Song", Swift became the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the chart.[45] "Teardrops on My Guitar" reached number thirteen on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart in the United States.[46] Swift also released the holiday album Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection in October 2007 and the EP Beautiful Eyes in July 2008.[47][48] She promoted her debut album extensively as the opening act for other artists on their tours.[49]
Swift won accolades for Taylor Swift. She was one of the recipients of the Nashville Songwriters Association's Songwriter/Artist of the Year in 2007, becoming the youngest person to be honored with the title.[50] She also won the Country Music Association's Horizon Award for Best New Artist,[51] the Academy of Country Music Awards' Top New Female Vocalist,[52] and the American Music Awards' Favorite Country Female Artist honor.[53] She was also nominated for Best New Artist at the 2008 Grammy Awards.[54] She opened for the Rascal Flatts on their 2008 summer and fall tour.[55] In July of that year, Swift began a romance with singer Joe Jonas that ended three months later.[56][57]
2008–2010: Fearless and acting
Swift's second studio album, Fearless, was released on November 11, 2008.[37] The lead single, "Love Story", was released in September 2008. It peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100[58] and number one in Australia.[59] Four more singles were released throughout 2008 and 2009: "White Horse", "You Belong with Me", "Fifteen" and "Fearless". "You Belong with Me" was the album's highest-charting single on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number two.[60] The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and was the top-selling album of 2009 in the United States.[61] Swift's first concert tour, the Fearless Tour, promoted the album;[62] it grossed over $63 million.[63] Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless, a concert film, was aired on television and later released on DVD and Blu-ray.[64] Swift also performed as a supporting act for Keith Urban's Escape Together World Tour
In 2009, the music video for "You Belong with Me" was named MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video.[68] Her acceptance speech was interrupted by rapper Kanye West.[69] The incident was the subject of controversy and widespread media attention, resulting in many Internet memes.[70] James Montgomery of MTV argued the incident and subsequent media attention turned Swift into "a bona-fide mainstream celebrity".[71] That year she won five American Music Awards, including Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album.[72] Billboard named her 2009's Artist of the Year.[73] The album ranked number 99 on NPR's 2017 list of the 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women.[74]
At the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, Fearless was named Album of the Year and Best Country Album, and "White Horse" was named Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Swift was the youngest artist to win Album of the Year.[75] During the ceremony, Swift sang "You Belong with Me" and "Rhiannon" with Stevie Nicks. Her performance received negative reviews and caused a media backlash.[71][76] Jon Caramanica of The New York Times found it "refreshing to see someone so gifted make the occasional flub" and described Swift as "the most important new pop star of the past few years".[77] Swift became the youngest artist to be named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association.[78] Fearless also won the Association's Album of the Year award.[79]
Swift contributed backing vocals to John Mayer's "Half of My Heart", a single featured on his fourth album, Battle Studies (2009).[80] She co-wrote and recorded "Best Days of Your Life" with Kellie Pickler,[81] and co-wrote two songs for the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack—"You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" and "Crazier".[67] Swift also provided vocals for Boys Like Girls' "Two Is Better Than One".[82] She contributed two songs to the Valentine's Day soundtrack, including "Today Was a Fairytale", which became her first number one on the Canadian Hot 100 chart.[83][84] While filming her cinematic debut Valentine's Day in October 2009, Swift began a romantic relationship with co-star Taylor Lautner; they broke up later that year.[85][86] The romantic comedy, released the following year, saw her play the ditzy girlfriend of a high school jock, a role which the Los Angeles Times felt showed Swift had "serious comedic potential".[87] In a scathing review, a critic for Variety deemed her "entirely undirected", arguing "she needs to find a skilled director to tamp her down and channel her obviously abundant energy".[88]
Swift made her TV acting debut in a 2009 episode of CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, playing a rebellious teenager. The New York Times noted the character allowed Swift to be "a little bit naughty, and credibly so".[89] Later that year, Swift both hosted and performed as the musical guest on an episode of Saturday Night Live.[90] Entertainment Weekly described her as "this season's best Saturday Night Live host so far", noting she "was always up for the challenge, seemed to be having fun, and helped the rest of the cast nail the punchlines".[91]
2010–2014: Speak Now and Red
In August 2010, Swift released "Mine", the lead single from her third studio album, Speak Now. It entered the U.S. charts at number three, making Swift the second female artist in the history of the Hot 100 (after Mariah Carey) to debut multiple tracks in the top five in one year; the other was "Today Was a Fairytale" at number two.[92] Swift wrote the album alone and co-produced every track.[93] Speak Now, released on October 25, 2010,[37] was a commercial success, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200, and becoming the 16th album to achieve opening week sales of one million copies.[94] It became the fastest-selling digital album by a female artist, with 278,000 downloads in a week, earning Swift an entry in the 2010 Guinness World Records. She earned a second entry after she became the first woman to achieve 10 track debuts on the Billboard Hot 100.[95][96] Three of the album's singles, "Mine", "Back to December", and "Mean", peaked in the top ten in Canada.[84] Later in 2010, she briefly dated actor Jake Gyllenhaal.[97]
"Mean" won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.[98] Swift performed it during the ceremony. Claire Suddath of Time felt she "delivered her comeback on-key and with a vengeance";[99] Jayme Deerwester of USA Today wrote that the criticism in 2010 seemed to have "made her a better songwriter and live performer".[100] Swift won other awards for Speak Now, including Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association (2010 and 2011),[101][102] Woman of the Year by Billboard (2011),[103] and Entertainer of the Year by the Academy of Country Music (2011 and 2012)[104] and the Country Music Association in 2011.[105] At the American Music Awards of 2011, Swift won Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album.[106] Rolling Stone placed Speak Now at number 45 in its 2012 list of the "50 Best Female Albums of All Time", writing: "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 to March 2012 and grossed over $123 million.[108] In November 2011, Swift released her first live album, Speak Now World Tour: Live.[109] The following month, she contributed two original songs to The Hunger Games soundtrack album: "Safe & Sound", cowritten and recorded with the Civil Wars and T-Bone Burnett, and "Eyes Open". "Safe & Sound" won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media.[110] Swift contributed vocals to rapper B.o.B's "Both of Us", released in May 2012.[111] From July to September 2012, Swift dated political heir Conor Kennedy.[112] In August, 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[113][114] and reached the top slot on iTunes' digital song sales chart 50 minutes after its release, earning the Fastest Selling Single in Digital History Guinness World Record.[115] Swift released the album's second single, "Begin Again", in October. It reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100.[116] Other singles released from the album include "I Knew You Were Trouble", "22", "Everything Has Changed", "The Last Time", and "Red". "I Knew You Were Trouble" was a major commercial success,[117] peaking at number two in the United States.[116]
Red was released on October 22, 2012,[37] incorporating new genres for Swift, such as heartland rock, dubstep and dance-pop. The album was a critical and commercial success,[14] and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 1.21 million copies. This marked the highest opening sales in a decade in the United States, and made Swift the first female to have two million-selling album openings, a record recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.[118][119] The Red Tour ran from March 2013 to June 2014 and grossed over $150 million; the tour broke the ticket sales record in China with all 18,000 tickets sold in 60 seconds.[120][121] Red earned several accolades, including four nominations at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.[122] Its single "I Knew You Were Trouble" won Best Female Video at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.[123] Swift was named Best Female Country Artist at the 2012 American Music Awards and Artist of the Year at the 2013 ceremony.[124][125] She received the Nashville Songwriters Association's Songwriter/Artist Award for the fifth and sixth consecutive years in 2012 and 2013.[126] Swift was also honored by the Association with a special Pinnacle Award, making her the second recipient of the accolade after Garth Brooks.[127] During this time, she had a short-term relationship with British singer Harry Styles.[128]
In 2013, Swift co-wrote and co-produced "Sweeter than Fiction" with Jack Antonoff for the One Chance soundtrack, and received a Best Original Song nomination at the 71st Golden Globe Awards.[129] She provided guest vocals for Tim McGraw's song "Highway Don't Care", featuring guitar work by Keith Urban.[130] Swift performed "As Tears Go By" with the Rolling Stones in Chicago, Illinois as part of their 50 & Counting tour,[131] and said that the band was a major influence on her career outlook.[132] She also joined Florida Georgia Line on stage during their set at the 2013 Country Radio Seminar to sing "Cruise".[133] Swift voiced Audrey, a tree lover, in the animated film The Lorax (2012),[134] made a cameo in the sitcom New Girl (2013),[135] and had a supporting role in the film adaptation of The Giver (2014).[136]
2014–2017: 1989
In March 2014, Swift relocated to New York City.[137] Around this time, she was working on her fifth studio album, 1989, with co-writers Antonoff, Max Martin, Shellback, Imogen Heap, Ryan Tedder, and Ali Payami.[138] She promoted the album through various campaigns, including inviting fans to secret album-listening sessions.[139] Credited as her "first documented, official pop album", it marked a departure from her country albums.[140] The album was released on October 27, 2014, to positive reviews
1989 sold 1.28 million copies in the U.S. during the first week of its release and debuted atop the Billboard 200. This made Swift the first act to have three albums sell more than one million copies in their opening release week, for which she earned another Guinness World Record.[142][143] As of June 2017, 1989 had sold over 10 million copies worldwide.[144] The lead single, "Shake It Off", was released in August 2014 and debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.[145] The album generated two additional number-one singles—"Blank Space" and "Bad Blood" (featuring Kendrick Lamar)—as well as the top-ten entries "Style" and "Wildest Dreams", and other singles "Out of the Woods" and "New Romantics".[146] "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", and "Bad Blood" also topped the charts in Australia and Canada.[59][84] After "Blank Space" reached number one in the U.S. following "Shake It Off", Swift became the first woman in the Hot 100's history to "succeed herself at the top spot".[147] The music video for "Blank Space" was briefly the fastest video to reach one billion views on Vevo.[148] The videos for "Blank Space" and "Bad Blood" earned four nominations at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards. "Bad Blood" won Video of the Year and Best Collaboration.[149] Swift's headlining tour, the 1989 World Tour, running from May to December 2015, grossed over $250 million, and was highest-grossing tour of the year.[150]
Swift was named Billboard's Woman of the Year in 2014—the first artist to win the award twice.[151] That year she also received the Dick Clark Award for Excellence at the American Music Awards.[152] In 2015, "Shake It Off" was nominated for three Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year; Swift won the Brit Award for International Female Solo Artist.[153][154] Swift was one of eight artists to receive a 50th Anniversary Milestone Award at the 2015 Academy of Country Music Awards.[155] In 2016, she won three Grammy Awards for 1989—Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Music Video for "Bad Blood". She became the first woman, and the fifth act, to win the first of these twice.[156]
Prior to 1989's release, Swift stressed the importance of albums to artists and fans.[157] In November 2014, she removed her entire catalog from the streaming service Spotify, arguing that its ad-supported free service undermined the premium service, which provides higher royalties for songwriters.[158] In a June 2015 open letter, Swift criticized Apple Music for not offering royalties to artists during their free three-month trial period and said she would pull 1989 from the catalog.[159] The following day, Apple announced it would pay artists during the free trial period,[160] and Swift agreed to stream 1989 on their streaming service.[161] Swift's intellectual property rights management and holding company, TAS Rights Management, filed for 73 trademarks related to Swift and the 1989 era memes.[162] She re-released her entire catalog plus 1989 to Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Play and other digital streaming platforms in June 2017.[163]
In 2015, Swift performed "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Shake It Off" with Paul McCartney at the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special after-party.[164] She joined Kenny Chesney to sing "Big Star" on the opening night of his Big Revival Tour in Nashville.[165] In March 2015, Swift started dating Scottish DJ and record producer Calvin Harris.[166] By June 2015, the duo were ranked as the highest-paid celebrity couple over the past year by Forbes with combined earnings of over $146 million.[167] Before Swift and Harris announced the end of their relationship in June 2016,[168] they co-wrote his song "This Is What You Came For" (featuring Rihanna), for which she was initially credited under the pseudonym Nils Sjöberg.[169] The same month Swift began dating English actor Tom Hiddleston;[170] the relationship ended several months later. In August, Swift addressed her mother's cancer diagnosis and encouraged others to get a medical checkup.[171] In September 2016, Swift began dating British actor Joe Alwyn.[172][173] In October, Little Big Town released "Better Man", written solely by Swift, for their seventh album, The Breaker.[174] She had emailed them the song and offered it to them, having their vocal harmonies in mind.[175] The song earned Swift an award for Song of the Year at the 51st CMA Awards.[176] Two months later, Swift and British singer Zayn Malik released a single together called "I Don't Wanna Live Forever", for the soundtrack of the film Fifty Shades Darker (2017). The song reached number one in Sweden and peaked at number two in the United States.[177][178] At the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, the duo won the award for Best Collaboration for the song's music video.[179]
2017–2019: Reputation
In August 2017, Swift successfully sued David Mueller, a former morning show personality for Denver's KYGO-FM. Four years earlier, Swift had informed Mueller's bosses that he had sexually assaulted her by groping her at an event. After being fired, Mueller accused Swift of lying and sued her for damages from his loss of employment. Shortly after, Swift counter-sued for sexual assault. The jury rejected Mueller's claims and ruled in favor of Swift.[180] Swift thereafter cleared her social media accounts[181] and then released "Look What You Made Me Do" as the lead single from her sixth album, Reputation.[182] The song topped the charts in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[183][184] Its music video had over 43.2 million views during its first day on YouTube, breaking the site's record for the most-viewed music video in 24 hours.[185] In October, Swift released the album's second single "...Ready for It?",[186] which charted at number three in Australia and at number four in the United States
Two promotional singles were released from Reputation, "Gorgeous" and "Call It What You Want". "Gorgeous" later became the album's fifth single but was released as such only in Europe.[188] The album was released on November 10. It sold 1.216 million copies in the United States becoming 2017's the country's top-selling album (pure sales only). First-week worldwide sales amounted to two million copies.[189] With this achievement, she became the first act to have four albums sell one million copies within one week in the U.S.[190] The album topped the charts in several countries, including the U.S., the UK, Australia, and Canada.[191][192] Later that month, Swift performed "...Ready for It?" and "Call It What You Want" on Saturday Night Live.[193] "End Game", featuring Ed Sheeran and rapper Future, followed in November as the third single; it peaked at number 18 in the U.S.[194] Other singles from the album include "New Year's Day" released exclusively to country radio, and "Delicate".[195]
In April 2018, Swift featured on Sugarland's "Babe" from their album Bigger.[a] In support of Reputation, Swift embarked on her Reputation Stadium Tour from May to November 2018.[197] The tour broke multiple venue attendance and gross earnings records in the United States, taking in $266.1 million—selling more than two million tickets. Swift broke her own record for the highest-grossing domestic tour by a woman[b] and surpassed The Rolling Stones' $245 million-grossing A Bigger Bang Tour (2005–2007).[198] Worldwide, the tour grossed $345.7 million,[199] making it the second highest-grossing concert tour of the year.[200] At the American Music Awards of 2018, Swift won Tour of the Year award, Artist of the Year, Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, and Favorite Pop/Rock Album for Reputation. With a total of 23 awards, she became the most awarded female winner in AMA history, a record previously held by Whitney Houston.[201] Reputation was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Pop Vocal Album category.[202]
Reputation was Swift's last album under her 12-year contract with Big Machine Records. In November 2018, Swift signed a new multi-album deal with Big Machine's distributor Universal Music Group; in the United States, her future releases will be promoted under the Republic Records imprint. Swift said the contract included a provision for her to maintain ownership of her master recordings. In addition, in the event that Universal sells any part of its stake in Spotify, Spotify agreed to distribute a non-recoupable portion of the proceeds among their artists.[203] In late November, Big Machine Records released a Reputation Stadium Tour playlist for streaming services. The playlist includes every song performed on B-stages during the Reputation Stadium Tour.[204] On December 31, Reputation Stadium Tour, a concert film, was released on Netflix.[205]
2019: Lover
Swift released "Me!", featuring Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco on April 26, 2019, as the lead single from her seventh studio album, Lover.[206][207] The song debuted at number 100 on the Billboard Hot 100 three days after its release, and jumped to number two the following week—the biggest single-week jump in the Hot 100's history.[208] The music video for "Me!" broke a Vevo record by amassing 65.2 million views within its first day of release.[209] On June 14, she released the second single "You Need to Calm Down", which debuted and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100,[210][211] and gave a surprise performance at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, to commemorate Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019.[212] On July 23, she released a promotional single from the album, "The Archer".[213] The title track was released as the third single on August 16.[214]
Lover was released on August 23 to positive reviews,[215] and debuted atop the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 679,000 copies.[216] Upon the album's release, all of its 18 songs entered the Billboard Hot 100, setting the record for the most simultaneous chart entries for a female artist.[217] It also sold more copies than all the other 199 albums on the chart combined that week.[218] At the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, the videos for "Me!" and "You Need to Calm Down" received twelve nominations. "Me!" won Best Visual Effects, and "You Need to Calm Down" won Video of the Year and Video for Good.[219] Swift was cast as Bombalurina in the movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats, which will be released on December 20, 2019.[220] Swift and Lloyd Webber wrote the original song "Beautiful Ghosts" for the film, which was released on November 15.[221]
In June, Big Machine, Swift's former record label, was purchased by music manager Scooter Braun, including the masters for her first six albums.[222] Swift voiced her displeasure in a Tumblr post, saying she had been trying to buy the masters for years and describing Braun as an "incessant, manipulative bully".[222] In August, Swift announced plans to rerecord the albums in November 2020.[223] In November 2019, Swift said that Braun and Big Machine founder Scott Borchetta blocked her from performing her older songs at the 2019 American Music Awards, where she is to receive the Artist of the Decade award, as well as using older material for a Netflix documentary.[224] Big Machine denied the allegations in general terms in a statement, and accused Swift of owing "million of dollars and multiple assets" to the label.[225][226] In response, Swift's representatives released correspondence showing a Big Machine executive refusing to grant licenses for the documentary, and stated Big Machine owes Swift nearly $8 million in unpaid royalties.[227] On November 18, Big Machine issued a statement that it had "agreed to grant all licenses of their artists' performances to stream post show and for re-broadcast on mutually approved platforms" for the American Music Awards, though it did not mention Swift by name.[228]
Artistry
Influences
One of Swift's earliest musical memories is listening to her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, sing in church.[2] As a child, she enjoyed Disney film soundtracks: "My parents noticed that, once I had run out of words, I would just make up my own".[229] Swift has said she owes her confidence to her mother, who helped her prepare for class presentations as a child.[230] She also attributes her "fascination with writing and storytelling" to her mother.[231] Swift was drawn to the storytelling aspect of country music,[232] and was introduced to the genre listening to "the great female country artists of the '90s"—Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and the Dixie Chicks.[233][234] Twain, both as a songwriter and performer, was her biggest musical influence.[235] Hill was Swift's childhood role model: "Everything she said, did, wore, I tried to copy it".[236] She admired the Dixie Chicks' defiant attitude and their ability to play their own instruments.[237] The band's "Cowboy Take Me Away" was the first song Swift learned to play on the guitar.[238] Swift also explored the music of older country stars, including Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and Tammy Wynette.[15] She believes Parton is "an amazing example to every female songwriter out there".[239] Alt-country artists like Ryan Adams,[240] Patty Griffin[241] and Lori McKenna have also inspired Swift.[6]
Swift lists Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones,[132] Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, and Carly Simon as her career role models: "They've taken chances, but they've also been the same artist for their entire careers".[6][242] McCartney, both as a Beatle and a solo artist, makes Swift feel "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."[243] She admires Springsteen for being "so musically relevant after such a long period of time".[244] She aspires to be like Harris as she grows older: "It's not about fame for her, it's about music".[245] "[Kristofferson] shines in songwriting ... He's just one of those people who has been in this business for years but you can tell it hasn't chewed him up and spat him out", Swift says.[246] She admires Simon's "songwriting and honesty ... She's known as an emotional person but a strong person".[247]
Swift has been influenced by other non-country artists. As a pre-teen, she enjoyed bubblegum pop acts including Hanson and Britney Spears, for whom Swift has said she has an "unwavering devotion".[248][249] In her high school years, Swift listened to rock bands like Dashboard Confessional,[250] Fall Out Boy,[251] and Jimmy Eat World.[252] She has also spoken fondly of singers and songwriters like Michelle Branch,[252] Alanis Morissette,[253] Fefe Dobson,[252] Colbie Caillat,[254] Beyoncé,[255] Justin Timberlake,[256] Pete Wentz,[257] Lana Del Rey,[257] and Halsey,[258] as well as the 1960s acts The Shirelles, Doris Troy, and The Beach Boys.[259] Swift's fifth album, the pop-focused 1989, was influenced by some of her favorite 1980s pop acts, including Peter Gabriel,[260] Annie Lennox, Phil Collins and "Like a Prayer-era Madonna".[261] Discussing Madonna, Swift said: "One element of Madonna's career that really takes center stage is how many times she's reinvented herself. It's easier to stay in one look, one comfort zone, one musical style. It's inspiring to see someone whose only predictable quality is being unpredictable."[262]
Musical style
Swift was the sole writer of her 2010 album Speak Now. It debuted at number one in the U.S., and the single "Mean" won two Grammy Awards. Her fourth album, Red (2012), yielded the singles "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "I Knew You Were Trouble". For her fifth album, the pop-focused 1989 (2014), she received three Grammys and became the first woman and fifth act overall to win Album of the Year twice. Its singles "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", and "Bad Blood" reached number one in the U.S., Australia, and Canada. The first two made Swift the first woman in the Billboard Hot 100's history to succeed herself at the top spot. Her sixth album, Reputation (2017), and its lead single, "Look What You Made Me Do", topped the UK and U.S. charts; with the release of Reputation, Swift became the first act to have four albums sell one million copies within one week in the U.S. Her seventh album, Lover (2019), spawned two U.S. number-two singles, "Me!" and "You Need to Calm Down".
Having sold more than 50 million albums—including 32 million in the U.S.—and 150 million singles, Swift is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. As a songwriter, she has received awards from the Nashville Songwriters Association and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and was included in Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time in 2015. Her other accolades include 10 Grammy Awards, one Emmy, 29 American Music Awards, 23 Billboard Music Awards, six Guinness world records, and appearances in Time's 100 most influential people in the world (2010, 2015, 2019). She also ranked first in the Forbes Celebrity 100 (2016 and 2019), and was the youngest to be featured in the magazine's listing of the 100 most powerful women (2015). In 2019, Billboard placed Swift on number 8 of its list of Greatest of All Time Artists, the highest for an artist that started in the 21st century.
Life and career
1989–2003: Early life
Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in Reading, Pennsylvania.[1] Her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, was a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch; her mother, Andrea Gardner Swift (née Finlay), was a homemaker who had worked as a mutual fund marketing executive.[2] Swift, who has said she has Scottish heritage[3] was named after the singer-songwriter James Taylor.[4] She has a younger brother named Austin, who is an actor.[5] Swift spent her early years on a Christmas tree farm, which her father purchased from one of his clients.[6][7] She attended preschool and kindergarten at the Alvernia Montessori School, run by Franciscan nuns,[8] before transferring to The Wyndcroft School.[9] The family moved to a rented house in the suburban town of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania,[10] where she attended Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School.[11]
At age nine, Swift became interested in musical theater and performed in four Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions.[12] She also traveled regularly to New York City for vocal and acting lessons.[13] Swift later shifted her focus toward country music inspired by Shania Twain's songs, which made her "want to just run around the block four times and daydream about everything."[14] She spent her weekends performing at local festivals and events.[15][16] After watching a documentary about Faith Hill, Swift felt sure she needed to go to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a music career.[17] She traveled with her mother at age eleven to visit Nashville record labels and submitted a demo tape of Dolly Parton and Dixie Chicks karaoke covers.[18] She was rejected, however, because "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."[19]
When Swift was about 12 years old, computer repairman and local musician Ronnie Cremer taught her to play guitar. He helped with her first efforts as a songwriter, leading to her writing "Lucky You".[20] In 2003, Swift and her parents started working with New York-based music manager Dan Dymtrow. With his help, Swift modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch as part of their "Rising Stars" campaign, had an original song included on a Maybelline compilation CD, and attended meetings with major record labels.[21] After performing original songs at an RCA Records showcase, Swift was given an artist development deal and began making frequent trips to Nashville with her mother.[22][23]
To help Swift break into country music, her father transferred to Merrill Lynch's Nashville office when she was 14, and the family relocated to a lakefront house in Hendersonville, Tennessee.[6][24] Swift attended Hendersonville High School[25] but after two years transferred to the Aaron Academy, which through homeschooling could accommodate her touring schedule; she graduated a year early.[26]
2004–2008: Career beginnings and Taylor Swift
In Nashville, Swift worked with experienced Music Row songwriters such as Troy Verges, Brett Beavers, Brett James, Mac McAnally, and the Warren Brothers,[27][28] and formed a lasting working relationship with Liz Rose.[29] They began meeting for two-hour writing sessions every Tuesday afternoon after school.[30] Rose thought the sessions were "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 signed by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house[31] but left RCA Records when she was 14.[16] She later said: "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.
At an industry showcase at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe in 2005, Swift caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, a DreamWorks Records executive who was preparing to form an independent record label, Big Machine Records. She had first met Borchetta in 2004.[33] Swift became one of Big Machine's first signings, and her father purchased a three-percent stake in the company for an estimated $120,000.[34][35] She began working on her eponymous debut album shortly after. Swift persuaded Big Machine to hire her demo producer Nathan Chapman, with whom she felt she had the right "chemistry".[16] She wrote three of the album's songs alone, and co-wrote the remaining eight with Rose, Robert Ellis Orrall, Brian Maher, and Angelo Petraglia.[36] Taylor Swift was released on October 24, 2006.[37] Jon Caramanica of The New York Times described it as "a small masterpiece of pop-minded country, both wide-eyed and cynical, held together by Ms. Swift's firm, pleading voice."[38] Taylor Swift peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 albums chart in the United States, spending 157 weeks there—the longest stay on the chart by any release in the U.S. that decade.[39] As of August 2016, the album had sold over 7.75 million copies worldwide.[40]
Big Machine Records was still in its infancy during the June 2006 release of the lead single, "Tim McGraw". Swift and her mother helped "stuff the CD singles into envelopes to send to radio."[41] She spent much of 2006 promoting Taylor Swift with a radio tour, television appearances, and opening for Rascal Flatts on select dates during their 2006 tour[42][43] after they fired their previous opening act, Eric Church, for playing longer than his allotted time. Church jokingly told Swift she should give him her first gold record as thanks for getting fired. She sent him her first gold record with a note that said, "Thanks for playing too long and too loud on the Flatts tour. I sincerely appreciate it. Taylor."[44]
Borchetta said that record industry peers disapproved of his signing a 16-year-old singer-songwriter, but that Swift tapped into a previously unknown market—teenage girls who listen to country music.[6] Following "Tim McGraw", four more singles were released throughout 2007 and 2008: "Teardrops on My Guitar", "Our Song", "Picture to Burn" and "Should've Said No". All were successful on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart in the United States, with "Our Song", and "Should've Said No" reaching number one. With "Our Song", Swift became the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the chart.[45] "Teardrops on My Guitar" reached number thirteen on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart in the United States.[46] Swift also released the holiday album Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection in October 2007 and the EP Beautiful Eyes in July 2008.[47][48] She promoted her debut album extensively as the opening act for other artists on their tours.[49]
Swift won accolades for Taylor Swift. She was one of the recipients of the Nashville Songwriters Association's Songwriter/Artist of the Year in 2007, becoming the youngest person to be honored with the title.[50] She also won the Country Music Association's Horizon Award for Best New Artist,[51] the Academy of Country Music Awards' Top New Female Vocalist,[52] and the American Music Awards' Favorite Country Female Artist honor.[53] She was also nominated for Best New Artist at the 2008 Grammy Awards.[54] She opened for the Rascal Flatts on their 2008 summer and fall tour.[55] In July of that year, Swift began a romance with singer Joe Jonas that ended three months later.[56][57]
2008–2010: Fearless and acting
Swift's second studio album, Fearless, was released on November 11, 2008.[37] The lead single, "Love Story", was released in September 2008. It peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100[58] and number one in Australia.[59] Four more singles were released throughout 2008 and 2009: "White Horse", "You Belong with Me", "Fifteen" and "Fearless". "You Belong with Me" was the album's highest-charting single on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number two.[60] The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and was the top-selling album of 2009 in the United States.[61] Swift's first concert tour, the Fearless Tour, promoted the album;[62] it grossed over $63 million.[63] Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless, a concert film, was aired on television and later released on DVD and Blu-ray.[64] Swift also performed as a supporting act for Keith Urban's Escape Together World Tour
In 2009, the music video for "You Belong with Me" was named MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video.[68] Her acceptance speech was interrupted by rapper Kanye West.[69] The incident was the subject of controversy and widespread media attention, resulting in many Internet memes.[70] James Montgomery of MTV argued the incident and subsequent media attention turned Swift into "a bona-fide mainstream celebrity".[71] That year she won five American Music Awards, including Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album.[72] Billboard named her 2009's Artist of the Year.[73] The album ranked number 99 on NPR's 2017 list of the 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women.[74]
At the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, Fearless was named Album of the Year and Best Country Album, and "White Horse" was named Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Swift was the youngest artist to win Album of the Year.[75] During the ceremony, Swift sang "You Belong with Me" and "Rhiannon" with Stevie Nicks. Her performance received negative reviews and caused a media backlash.[71][76] Jon Caramanica of The New York Times found it "refreshing to see someone so gifted make the occasional flub" and described Swift as "the most important new pop star of the past few years".[77] Swift became the youngest artist to be named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association.[78] Fearless also won the Association's Album of the Year award.[79]
Swift contributed backing vocals to John Mayer's "Half of My Heart", a single featured on his fourth album, Battle Studies (2009).[80] She co-wrote and recorded "Best Days of Your Life" with Kellie Pickler,[81] and co-wrote two songs for the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack—"You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" and "Crazier".[67] Swift also provided vocals for Boys Like Girls' "Two Is Better Than One".[82] She contributed two songs to the Valentine's Day soundtrack, including "Today Was a Fairytale", which became her first number one on the Canadian Hot 100 chart.[83][84] While filming her cinematic debut Valentine's Day in October 2009, Swift began a romantic relationship with co-star Taylor Lautner; they broke up later that year.[85][86] The romantic comedy, released the following year, saw her play the ditzy girlfriend of a high school jock, a role which the Los Angeles Times felt showed Swift had "serious comedic potential".[87] In a scathing review, a critic for Variety deemed her "entirely undirected", arguing "she needs to find a skilled director to tamp her down and channel her obviously abundant energy".[88]
Swift made her TV acting debut in a 2009 episode of CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, playing a rebellious teenager. The New York Times noted the character allowed Swift to be "a little bit naughty, and credibly so".[89] Later that year, Swift both hosted and performed as the musical guest on an episode of Saturday Night Live.[90] Entertainment Weekly described her as "this season's best Saturday Night Live host so far", noting she "was always up for the challenge, seemed to be having fun, and helped the rest of the cast nail the punchlines".[91]
2010–2014: Speak Now and Red
In August 2010, Swift released "Mine", the lead single from her third studio album, Speak Now. It entered the U.S. charts at number three, making Swift the second female artist in the history of the Hot 100 (after Mariah Carey) to debut multiple tracks in the top five in one year; the other was "Today Was a Fairytale" at number two.[92] Swift wrote the album alone and co-produced every track.[93] Speak Now, released on October 25, 2010,[37] was a commercial success, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200, and becoming the 16th album to achieve opening week sales of one million copies.[94] It became the fastest-selling digital album by a female artist, with 278,000 downloads in a week, earning Swift an entry in the 2010 Guinness World Records. She earned a second entry after she became the first woman to achieve 10 track debuts on the Billboard Hot 100.[95][96] Three of the album's singles, "Mine", "Back to December", and "Mean", peaked in the top ten in Canada.[84] Later in 2010, she briefly dated actor Jake Gyllenhaal.[97]
"Mean" won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.[98] Swift performed it during the ceremony. Claire Suddath of Time felt she "delivered her comeback on-key and with a vengeance";[99] Jayme Deerwester of USA Today wrote that the criticism in 2010 seemed to have "made her a better songwriter and live performer".[100] Swift won other awards for Speak Now, including Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association (2010 and 2011),[101][102] Woman of the Year by Billboard (2011),[103] and Entertainer of the Year by the Academy of Country Music (2011 and 2012)[104] and the Country Music Association in 2011.[105] At the American Music Awards of 2011, Swift won Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album.[106] Rolling Stone placed Speak Now at number 45 in its 2012 list of the "50 Best Female Albums of All Time", writing: "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 to March 2012 and grossed over $123 million.[108] In November 2011, Swift released her first live album, Speak Now World Tour: Live.[109] The following month, she contributed two original songs to The Hunger Games soundtrack album: "Safe & Sound", cowritten and recorded with the Civil Wars and T-Bone Burnett, and "Eyes Open". "Safe & Sound" won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media.[110] Swift contributed vocals to rapper B.o.B's "Both of Us", released in May 2012.[111] From July to September 2012, Swift dated political heir Conor Kennedy.[112] In August, 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[113][114] and reached the top slot on iTunes' digital song sales chart 50 minutes after its release, earning the Fastest Selling Single in Digital History Guinness World Record.[115] Swift released the album's second single, "Begin Again", in October. It reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100.[116] Other singles released from the album include "I Knew You Were Trouble", "22", "Everything Has Changed", "The Last Time", and "Red". "I Knew You Were Trouble" was a major commercial success,[117] peaking at number two in the United States.[116]
Red was released on October 22, 2012,[37] incorporating new genres for Swift, such as heartland rock, dubstep and dance-pop. The album was a critical and commercial success,[14] and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 1.21 million copies. This marked the highest opening sales in a decade in the United States, and made Swift the first female to have two million-selling album openings, a record recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.[118][119] The Red Tour ran from March 2013 to June 2014 and grossed over $150 million; the tour broke the ticket sales record in China with all 18,000 tickets sold in 60 seconds.[120][121] Red earned several accolades, including four nominations at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.[122] Its single "I Knew You Were Trouble" won Best Female Video at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.[123] Swift was named Best Female Country Artist at the 2012 American Music Awards and Artist of the Year at the 2013 ceremony.[124][125] She received the Nashville Songwriters Association's Songwriter/Artist Award for the fifth and sixth consecutive years in 2012 and 2013.[126] Swift was also honored by the Association with a special Pinnacle Award, making her the second recipient of the accolade after Garth Brooks.[127] During this time, she had a short-term relationship with British singer Harry Styles.[128]
In 2013, Swift co-wrote and co-produced "Sweeter than Fiction" with Jack Antonoff for the One Chance soundtrack, and received a Best Original Song nomination at the 71st Golden Globe Awards.[129] She provided guest vocals for Tim McGraw's song "Highway Don't Care", featuring guitar work by Keith Urban.[130] Swift performed "As Tears Go By" with the Rolling Stones in Chicago, Illinois as part of their 50 & Counting tour,[131] and said that the band was a major influence on her career outlook.[132] She also joined Florida Georgia Line on stage during their set at the 2013 Country Radio Seminar to sing "Cruise".[133] Swift voiced Audrey, a tree lover, in the animated film The Lorax (2012),[134] made a cameo in the sitcom New Girl (2013),[135] and had a supporting role in the film adaptation of The Giver (2014).[136]
2014–2017: 1989
In March 2014, Swift relocated to New York City.[137] Around this time, she was working on her fifth studio album, 1989, with co-writers Antonoff, Max Martin, Shellback, Imogen Heap, Ryan Tedder, and Ali Payami.[138] She promoted the album through various campaigns, including inviting fans to secret album-listening sessions.[139] Credited as her "first documented, official pop album", it marked a departure from her country albums.[140] The album was released on October 27, 2014, to positive reviews
1989 sold 1.28 million copies in the U.S. during the first week of its release and debuted atop the Billboard 200. This made Swift the first act to have three albums sell more than one million copies in their opening release week, for which she earned another Guinness World Record.[142][143] As of June 2017, 1989 had sold over 10 million copies worldwide.[144] The lead single, "Shake It Off", was released in August 2014 and debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.[145] The album generated two additional number-one singles—"Blank Space" and "Bad Blood" (featuring Kendrick Lamar)—as well as the top-ten entries "Style" and "Wildest Dreams", and other singles "Out of the Woods" and "New Romantics".[146] "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", and "Bad Blood" also topped the charts in Australia and Canada.[59][84] After "Blank Space" reached number one in the U.S. following "Shake It Off", Swift became the first woman in the Hot 100's history to "succeed herself at the top spot".[147] The music video for "Blank Space" was briefly the fastest video to reach one billion views on Vevo.[148] The videos for "Blank Space" and "Bad Blood" earned four nominations at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards. "Bad Blood" won Video of the Year and Best Collaboration.[149] Swift's headlining tour, the 1989 World Tour, running from May to December 2015, grossed over $250 million, and was highest-grossing tour of the year.[150]
Swift was named Billboard's Woman of the Year in 2014—the first artist to win the award twice.[151] That year she also received the Dick Clark Award for Excellence at the American Music Awards.[152] In 2015, "Shake It Off" was nominated for three Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year; Swift won the Brit Award for International Female Solo Artist.[153][154] Swift was one of eight artists to receive a 50th Anniversary Milestone Award at the 2015 Academy of Country Music Awards.[155] In 2016, she won three Grammy Awards for 1989—Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Music Video for "Bad Blood". She became the first woman, and the fifth act, to win the first of these twice.[156]
Prior to 1989's release, Swift stressed the importance of albums to artists and fans.[157] In November 2014, she removed her entire catalog from the streaming service Spotify, arguing that its ad-supported free service undermined the premium service, which provides higher royalties for songwriters.[158] In a June 2015 open letter, Swift criticized Apple Music for not offering royalties to artists during their free three-month trial period and said she would pull 1989 from the catalog.[159] The following day, Apple announced it would pay artists during the free trial period,[160] and Swift agreed to stream 1989 on their streaming service.[161] Swift's intellectual property rights management and holding company, TAS Rights Management, filed for 73 trademarks related to Swift and the 1989 era memes.[162] She re-released her entire catalog plus 1989 to Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Play and other digital streaming platforms in June 2017.[163]
In 2015, Swift performed "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Shake It Off" with Paul McCartney at the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special after-party.[164] She joined Kenny Chesney to sing "Big Star" on the opening night of his Big Revival Tour in Nashville.[165] In March 2015, Swift started dating Scottish DJ and record producer Calvin Harris.[166] By June 2015, the duo were ranked as the highest-paid celebrity couple over the past year by Forbes with combined earnings of over $146 million.[167] Before Swift and Harris announced the end of their relationship in June 2016,[168] they co-wrote his song "This Is What You Came For" (featuring Rihanna), for which she was initially credited under the pseudonym Nils Sjöberg.[169] The same month Swift began dating English actor Tom Hiddleston;[170] the relationship ended several months later. In August, Swift addressed her mother's cancer diagnosis and encouraged others to get a medical checkup.[171] In September 2016, Swift began dating British actor Joe Alwyn.[172][173] In October, Little Big Town released "Better Man", written solely by Swift, for their seventh album, The Breaker.[174] She had emailed them the song and offered it to them, having their vocal harmonies in mind.[175] The song earned Swift an award for Song of the Year at the 51st CMA Awards.[176] Two months later, Swift and British singer Zayn Malik released a single together called "I Don't Wanna Live Forever", for the soundtrack of the film Fifty Shades Darker (2017). The song reached number one in Sweden and peaked at number two in the United States.[177][178] At the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, the duo won the award for Best Collaboration for the song's music video.[179]
2017–2019: Reputation
In August 2017, Swift successfully sued David Mueller, a former morning show personality for Denver's KYGO-FM. Four years earlier, Swift had informed Mueller's bosses that he had sexually assaulted her by groping her at an event. After being fired, Mueller accused Swift of lying and sued her for damages from his loss of employment. Shortly after, Swift counter-sued for sexual assault. The jury rejected Mueller's claims and ruled in favor of Swift.[180] Swift thereafter cleared her social media accounts[181] and then released "Look What You Made Me Do" as the lead single from her sixth album, Reputation.[182] The song topped the charts in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[183][184] Its music video had over 43.2 million views during its first day on YouTube, breaking the site's record for the most-viewed music video in 24 hours.[185] In October, Swift released the album's second single "...Ready for It?",[186] which charted at number three in Australia and at number four in the United States
Two promotional singles were released from Reputation, "Gorgeous" and "Call It What You Want". "Gorgeous" later became the album's fifth single but was released as such only in Europe.[188] The album was released on November 10. It sold 1.216 million copies in the United States becoming 2017's the country's top-selling album (pure sales only). First-week worldwide sales amounted to two million copies.[189] With this achievement, she became the first act to have four albums sell one million copies within one week in the U.S.[190] The album topped the charts in several countries, including the U.S., the UK, Australia, and Canada.[191][192] Later that month, Swift performed "...Ready for It?" and "Call It What You Want" on Saturday Night Live.[193] "End Game", featuring Ed Sheeran and rapper Future, followed in November as the third single; it peaked at number 18 in the U.S.[194] Other singles from the album include "New Year's Day" released exclusively to country radio, and "Delicate".[195]
In April 2018, Swift featured on Sugarland's "Babe" from their album Bigger.[a] In support of Reputation, Swift embarked on her Reputation Stadium Tour from May to November 2018.[197] The tour broke multiple venue attendance and gross earnings records in the United States, taking in $266.1 million—selling more than two million tickets. Swift broke her own record for the highest-grossing domestic tour by a woman[b] and surpassed The Rolling Stones' $245 million-grossing A Bigger Bang Tour (2005–2007).[198] Worldwide, the tour grossed $345.7 million,[199] making it the second highest-grossing concert tour of the year.[200] At the American Music Awards of 2018, Swift won Tour of the Year award, Artist of the Year, Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, and Favorite Pop/Rock Album for Reputation. With a total of 23 awards, she became the most awarded female winner in AMA history, a record previously held by Whitney Houston.[201] Reputation was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Pop Vocal Album category.[202]
Reputation was Swift's last album under her 12-year contract with Big Machine Records. In November 2018, Swift signed a new multi-album deal with Big Machine's distributor Universal Music Group; in the United States, her future releases will be promoted under the Republic Records imprint. Swift said the contract included a provision for her to maintain ownership of her master recordings. In addition, in the event that Universal sells any part of its stake in Spotify, Spotify agreed to distribute a non-recoupable portion of the proceeds among their artists.[203] In late November, Big Machine Records released a Reputation Stadium Tour playlist for streaming services. The playlist includes every song performed on B-stages during the Reputation Stadium Tour.[204] On December 31, Reputation Stadium Tour, a concert film, was released on Netflix.[205]
2019: Lover
Swift released "Me!", featuring Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco on April 26, 2019, as the lead single from her seventh studio album, Lover.[206][207] The song debuted at number 100 on the Billboard Hot 100 three days after its release, and jumped to number two the following week—the biggest single-week jump in the Hot 100's history.[208] The music video for "Me!" broke a Vevo record by amassing 65.2 million views within its first day of release.[209] On June 14, she released the second single "You Need to Calm Down", which debuted and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100,[210][211] and gave a surprise performance at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, to commemorate Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019.[212] On July 23, she released a promotional single from the album, "The Archer".[213] The title track was released as the third single on August 16.[214]
Lover was released on August 23 to positive reviews,[215] and debuted atop the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 679,000 copies.[216] Upon the album's release, all of its 18 songs entered the Billboard Hot 100, setting the record for the most simultaneous chart entries for a female artist.[217] It also sold more copies than all the other 199 albums on the chart combined that week.[218] At the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, the videos for "Me!" and "You Need to Calm Down" received twelve nominations. "Me!" won Best Visual Effects, and "You Need to Calm Down" won Video of the Year and Video for Good.[219] Swift was cast as Bombalurina in the movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats, which will be released on December 20, 2019.[220] Swift and Lloyd Webber wrote the original song "Beautiful Ghosts" for the film, which was released on November 15.[221]
In June, Big Machine, Swift's former record label, was purchased by music manager Scooter Braun, including the masters for her first six albums.[222] Swift voiced her displeasure in a Tumblr post, saying she had been trying to buy the masters for years and describing Braun as an "incessant, manipulative bully".[222] In August, Swift announced plans to rerecord the albums in November 2020.[223] In November 2019, Swift said that Braun and Big Machine founder Scott Borchetta blocked her from performing her older songs at the 2019 American Music Awards, where she is to receive the Artist of the Decade award, as well as using older material for a Netflix documentary.[224] Big Machine denied the allegations in general terms in a statement, and accused Swift of owing "million of dollars and multiple assets" to the label.[225][226] In response, Swift's representatives released correspondence showing a Big Machine executive refusing to grant licenses for the documentary, and stated Big Machine owes Swift nearly $8 million in unpaid royalties.[227] On November 18, Big Machine issued a statement that it had "agreed to grant all licenses of their artists' performances to stream post show and for re-broadcast on mutually approved platforms" for the American Music Awards, though it did not mention Swift by name.[228]
Artistry
Influences
One of Swift's earliest musical memories is listening to her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, sing in church.[2] As a child, she enjoyed Disney film soundtracks: "My parents noticed that, once I had run out of words, I would just make up my own".[229] Swift has said she owes her confidence to her mother, who helped her prepare for class presentations as a child.[230] She also attributes her "fascination with writing and storytelling" to her mother.[231] Swift was drawn to the storytelling aspect of country music,[232] and was introduced to the genre listening to "the great female country artists of the '90s"—Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and the Dixie Chicks.[233][234] Twain, both as a songwriter and performer, was her biggest musical influence.[235] Hill was Swift's childhood role model: "Everything she said, did, wore, I tried to copy it".[236] She admired the Dixie Chicks' defiant attitude and their ability to play their own instruments.[237] The band's "Cowboy Take Me Away" was the first song Swift learned to play on the guitar.[238] Swift also explored the music of older country stars, including Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and Tammy Wynette.[15] She believes Parton is "an amazing example to every female songwriter out there".[239] Alt-country artists like Ryan Adams,[240] Patty Griffin[241] and Lori McKenna have also inspired Swift.[6]
Swift lists Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones,[132] Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, and Carly Simon as her career role models: "They've taken chances, but they've also been the same artist for their entire careers".[6][242] McCartney, both as a Beatle and a solo artist, makes Swift feel "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."[243] She admires Springsteen for being "so musically relevant after such a long period of time".[244] She aspires to be like Harris as she grows older: "It's not about fame for her, it's about music".[245] "[Kristofferson] shines in songwriting ... He's just one of those people who has been in this business for years but you can tell it hasn't chewed him up and spat him out", Swift says.[246] She admires Simon's "songwriting and honesty ... She's known as an emotional person but a strong person".[247]
Swift has been influenced by other non-country artists. As a pre-teen, she enjoyed bubblegum pop acts including Hanson and Britney Spears, for whom Swift has said she has an "unwavering devotion".[248][249] In her high school years, Swift listened to rock bands like Dashboard Confessional,[250] Fall Out Boy,[251] and Jimmy Eat World.[252] She has also spoken fondly of singers and songwriters like Michelle Branch,[252] Alanis Morissette,[253] Fefe Dobson,[252] Colbie Caillat,[254] Beyoncé,[255] Justin Timberlake,[256] Pete Wentz,[257] Lana Del Rey,[257] and Halsey,[258] as well as the 1960s acts The Shirelles, Doris Troy, and The Beach Boys.[259] Swift's fifth album, the pop-focused 1989, was influenced by some of her favorite 1980s pop acts, including Peter Gabriel,[260] Annie Lennox, Phil Collins and "Like a Prayer-era Madonna".[261] Discussing Madonna, Swift said: "One element of Madonna's career that really takes center stage is how many times she's reinvented herself. It's easier to stay in one look, one comfort zone, one musical style. It's inspiring to see someone whose only predictable quality is being unpredictable."[262]
Musical style
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