The Rise and Rise of Taylor Swift
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Born in Reading, PA on December 13, 1989, Taylor had an interest in music ever since she was young. Her interest in country music led to her and her family moving to Nashville, Tennessee at 13. Scott Borchetta signed Taylor to Big Machine Records, and the country image of Taylor Swift was established when she released her first album entitled Taylor Swift with Big Machine Records. Taylor Swift was certified platinum in 2007, and received the award for best new artist from the CMA. In 2008, she released her second album, Fearless, and stayed at the top of the country and pop charts for 11 weeks. This album included two of her biggest hits that made her a global sensation, which were ‘Love Story’ and ‘You Belong with Me’. She became the highest selling country artist of 2008.
The 2009 VMAs were a big turning point in Swift’s career, as there was a controversial incident that had occured between Swift and Kanye West. During Taylor’s acceptance speech for MTV Video Music Award’s Best Female Video, West interrupted her and declared that Beyonce should’ve won the award instead. Kanye eventually apologized to Swift for what he did, and they were able to forgive each other.
In 2010, Swift became the youngest person to win a grammy for album of the year for her album Fearless. Additionally this year, Swift released her 3rd studio album Speak Now, which was a success since it debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200, and sold more than 1 million copies the first week. In 2012, she released Red which exceeded 1 million sales in the first week, and featured her hit singles “We are Never Ever Getting Back Together”, “22”, and “I Knew You Were Trouble”.
Taylor Swift was ranked Forbes highest-paid celebrity in 2012, and she funded the Taylor Swift Education Center at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, TN the same year. In 2013, Swift received the AMA award for Artist of the Year for the third consecutive year. She also won many other awards at the CMA awards for her collaborations with Tim McGraw and Keith Urban.
Swift eventually backed away from the country scene in 2014 when she released 1989, her 5th album which was named after her birth year. 1989 was a turning point in her career since the singles on this album were some of her most popular songs including “Shake It Off”, and “Blank Space”. The album sold more than 1.2 million copies in the first week, and she became the first artist to pass the 1 million mark in opening-week sales for 3 albums. She then went on to win album of the year at the grammys, making her the first woman to win the award twice.
In 2017, Swift testified in a trial against David Mueller, who Swift accused of groping her in 2013. After he sued her, Swift countersued him for $1 for alleged assault and battery, and after winning the trial, she was awarded $1. She only countersued for $1 as a symbolic gesture since she didn’t need the money, and she just wanted to make a point. After her horrific experience with sexual assault, she decided to use her money to donate to causes that advocate for sexual assault victims.
Taylor’s reputation was tarnished in 2017 after online drama between Swift, Kim Kardashian, and Kanye West. In Kanye West’s song “Famous”, he used Taylor’s name in a bad connotation, and after the song was released, Kanye West claimed that Taylor gave him permission to use her name in his song. Edited footage was released online by Kim Kardashian, to try to portray Taylor Swift in a bad way, making her seem like she was in the wrong. Taylor Swift was continuously bashed on the internet with the hashtag, #TaylorSwiftisOverParty. She was bashed for multiple things, like the amount of boyfriends she has had, the abundant amount of breakup songs she has, and people calling her a “snake” because of the edited phone call with West. After this feud with Kanye West, she disappeared from the public eye for 2 years.
During the fall of her career and reputation, she released her sixth album, Reputation, after the tarnishing of her reputation. The music video for “Look What You Made Me Do” was released on August 24, and she played characters of her misrepresentations in the video. The video received more than 19 million views in the first day. Reputation sold 1.05 million copies in the U.S. over the first 4 days. Reputation was the best-selling album of 2017, and she received awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Album at the AMAs and Top Selling Album at the Billboard Music Awards.
On April 26, 2019, Taylor Swift released ME!, which was a single she recorded with Brendon Urie. It was the first single for her next album, Lover, which included the other singles “You Need to Calm Down” which spoke about LGBTQ+ rights, “Lover”, and “The Man”, which addressed the privileges of white, wealthy, men, and how she doesn’t get the same treatment as an artist. Lover was the only album in 2019 to sell 1 million copies in the U.S. This same year, she won the award for woman of the decade at the Billboard Awards. She was also named Artist of the Decade at the AMA’s.
In June of 2019, Swift revealed that her first 6 albums were sold by her first label, Big Machine Records, to Scooter Braun. Swift said, “Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy,” she wrote on Tumblr. “Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.” She confirmed she would re-record her old music to gain rights for her own music, since she wasn’t able to regain her masters by buying it back. Her first album that she re-recorded was Fearless, and it was released April 9, 2021. These albums that are being re-recorded are titled as their original name, with the addition of (Taylor’s Version) at the end of the album title and each song.
Swift came out with a documentary on Netflix in 2019 called Miss Americana, which highlighted her recent albums and events that have been going on in her life, including her sexual assault trial. During the pandemic Swift released two albums, Folklore and Evermore. On July 24, 2020, she released Folklore, and on December 11, 2020, she released Evermore. She won a grammy for album of the year for Folklore at the 2021 Grammy’s, where she became the only female artist to win the award 3 times. Later in the year, she won the award for Brit Global Icon, and she is the only woman and the youngest person to receive this award.
About a month ago, Taylor Swift released Red (Taylor’s Version), which included the vault track “All Too Well (10 minute version)”. This song is the original version of her song “All Too Well” which was released in 2012, and it has become the longest song to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. She wrote and directed a short film for the song, which featured actors Dylan O’ Brien and Sadie Sink. Red (Taylor’s Version) reached number one on the Billboard Hot 200, and is still at number 2 a month later. 26 of the songs for the album made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 charts, making her the female artist with the most charted songs in the U.S.
As an artist who has been around for over a decade, Taylor Swift has faced multiple adversaries and will continue to face adversaries, but she has still managed to succeed and become one of the most successful and influential artists in the World. Her music has become an outlet for many, including me, and her songwriting ability is something that I haven’t found in many other artist. Altogether, her music has become a big part of Gen Z and will be remembered by generations to come, and her rise to fame as well as her fall in the music industry, has shaped her into the great artist she is today.
“Never believe anyone who says you don’t deserve what you want.”~ Taylor Swift
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