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IST 605: Taylor Swift

This guide is for anyone interested in learning about Taylor Swift, her accomplishments, and her music.

Biography

1989-2005: Taylor Alison Swift was born December 13th 1989 in Reading Pennsylvania.  She was always interested in music and began to write music and play the guitar at age 12.  Her family moved to Nashville to help her achieve her dream of being a singer at 13 and by 14 she had signed with Sony/ATV as a song writer.  She was scouted when performing in Nashville by the head of Big Machine Records and signed (Ray, n.d.).

2006: Taylor released her first single titled "Tim McGraw" in 2006. Her debut album Taylor Swift came out later in 2006 and by 2007 it was a platinum million selling album (Ray, n.d.)

2008: In 2008, she released her second album Fearless which debut at number 1 on the billboard 200 Chart.  Her songs "You Belong With Me" and "Love Story" off of the album were massive hits as well (Ray, n.d.)

2009: In 2009, Taylor headlined her first North American Tour and won many awards for Fearless.  She won the Video Music Award for Best Female Music Video of the year, 4 Country Music Awards and 3 Grammy awards, including album of the year (Ray, n.d.)

2010: In 2010, she starred in the feature film Valentine's Day and released her third studio album Speak Now (Ray, n.d.)

2011: She won entertainer of the year at the CMAs (Ray, n.d.).

2012: She voice acted in the movie The Lorax and released her 4th studio album titled Red.  Red sold 1.2 million copies and the single "We Are Never Getting Back Together" went to number (Ray, n.d.).  

2014: In 2014, according to Taylor Swift, she released her first "official pop album" titled 1989 which was a massive success.  The album went on to sell 5 million copies in the United States and she won album of the year at the Grammys for the second time.  She also starred in the movie The Giver (Ray, n.d.).

2017: Taylor released her 6th studio album Reputation and went on her first world wide stadium tour (Ray, n.d.).

2018: Taylor left Big Machine Records and signed with Universal Music Group's Republic Records.  Big Machine Records then sold the original master recordings of the work she did under the label to Scooter Braun, leaving Taylor without control of her music.  Taylor decided to rerecord her previous works so she can have ownership of her music (Ray, n.d.).  

2019: Taylor released the first album she owns the master for titled Lover. She also appeared in the movie Cats and wrote a song for the movie titled "Beautiful Ghosts" (Ray, n.d.). 

2020: She released two albums Folklore and EvermoreFolklore won album of the year at the Grammys (Ray, n.d.).  

2021: Taylor started her album rerecord project and rerecorded both Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version) which released to great success.  

2022: Taylor released her 10th studio album Midnights, which was a massive hit. She received 6 Grammy nominations for the 2023 Grammy award ceremony (Ray, n.d.).  

2023: Taylor Swift embarks on a massive sold out world wide stadium tour called the Eras Tour which, would be celebrating all of her previous albums or "Eras" in one show.  She also continued her rerecord project by releasing the rerecords of Speak Now (Taylor's Version) and 1989 (Taylor's Version).  Taylor Swift was also named Times' Person of the Year (Ray, n.d.).  

2024: She is announced as the winner of two Grammys: best pop vocal album and album of the year for Midnights.  This makes her the only artist to have ever won album of the year at the Grammys 4 times.  Taylor also released her new double album The Tortured Poets Department and The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology (Ray, n.d.)

 

Ray, M. (n.d.). Taylor Swift. Shibboleth authentication request. https://academic-eb-com.libproxy.albany.edu/levels/collegiate/article/Taylor-Swift/482985