Alex Pepin
When she was 12 years old, Taylor Alison Swift learned her first song with a guitar. Now, at 33 years old, she is described as “The Music Industry”.
Before I start, I thought I should give some context about Taylor’s early work. If you see “(Taylor’s Version)” after an album, it means it has been re-recorded to make sure Taylor gets all the credit and masters from it. Her former record label sold her back catalog, leaving her with no control over how the songs are used which is why I always push people to listen to the new recordings of the album to benefit the amazing singer and songwriter of this article.
Taylor has gone through numerous music styles during her career, starting out by testing the waters with country. Her first album, Taylor Swift, was published in 2006 when she was just 16 years old. The tracklist contains 15 songs, which include the popular Teardrops on My Guitar and Our Song. For this album, the young artist showed us her perspective on life as a teenager as she dealt with romantic relationships, friendship and insecurities.
You are probably all familiar with You Belong With Me from Taylor’s 2008 album. The album Fearless originally has 13 songs, but Fearless (Taylor’s Version) has 26. It is about boys, love, relationships and most importantly, Joe Jonas breaking up with her on a 25 seconds phone call. She said, and I quote, “‘Fearless’ is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, ‘Fearless’ is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. ‘Fearless’ is falling madly in love again, even though you’ve been hurt before.” The most popular are Love Story and You Belong With Me but I definitely have a soft spot for The Way I Loved You, and Mr. Perfectly Fine.
The third album she published is my favorite at the moment, Speak Now. From here on out, her music style will change but we also see a new side of her from this masterpiece to Midnights. This album is the turning point from country to pop, which some people might consider a miss. To me, this album is like a bandaid; it heals all my wounds and my, deep down, hopeless romantic heart. The 2010 album became the fastest-selling digital album by a female artist with 280 000 downloads in a week. Taylor won multiple awards for this album; a Grammy for Mean in 2012, Woman of the Year by Billboard, Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association, and finally, Entertainer of the Year by the Academy of Country Music. It’s so incredibly difficult to pick a favorite song, or even a top 3! That being said, if I could only listen to 6 songs for the rest of my life, it would be Sparks Fly, Dear John, Better Than Revenge, Haunted, Last Kiss, and Long Live. I, however, heavily recommend listening to the entire album.
I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 22 everytime I listen to Red (TV)! Just like Fearless (TV), this re-record was made and published in 2021. All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version), paired with the short film written and directed by Taylor, became extremely popular, earning the number 1 spot on Hot 100. The short film also won Video of the Year at the 2022 MTV Music Video Awards where she announced her brand new album coming out on October 21st 2022. I’d say the most popular songs would be the ones she released in 2012, the classics; We Are Never Getting Back Together (the lead single), 22, I Knew You Were Trouble, and evidently, All Too Well. My favorite songs happen to be (From The Vault), meaning she kept them to herself for 9 years and decided to release it on the re-record. Thanks to those 9 (From The Vault) songs, Red (Taylor’s Version) contains 30 songs as opposed to 16. Babe and I Bet You Think About Me (TV) (FTV) are both lyrical gems, especially the bridges.
Now onto a very underappreciated album, 1989 which is titled after her birth year. At the time, a lot of haters said that they were tired of songs about Taylor’s ex-boyfriends, that all she sings about are boys. She took that as constructive criticism and wrote 1989, an album about friendships, living in New York City, and she called it a “symbolic rebirth of her image and artistry”. I’m convinced everyone knows Shake It Off as well as Blank Space and Bad Blood since these singles reached number 1 in Australia, Canada and the U.S. 1989 won Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 58th Grammy Awards in 2016, making her the first woman to win Album of the Year twice as a lead artist. My favorite songs are Clean and New Romantics.
After a year of being M.I.A (missing in action) because of the Kanye West and Kim Kardashian drama, she released Look What You Made Me Do as the lead single of Reputation. For context, you probably remember how Kanye ran up on the stage as Taylor received her award in 2009, interrupting her speech to say Beyoncé should have won instead. Later on, he released Famous, calling Taylor the B-word and saying he “made her famous”. She says she was aware he was writing a song with her name in it but not that he called her a bad word. Kim then posted a video of the phone call with Taylor that made her go into hiding for a year. Her answer to all the drama was to, in my opinion, write the most iconic album ever produced. The Reputation Tour grossed a total of 345,7 million dollars worldwide, followed by a concert film on Netflix, and it is a must watch! Look What You Made Me Do prepared the fans for the rest of the upcoming album, which was not characteristically to Taylor at all. As expected, I will gladly tell you my 5 favorites; I Did Something Bad, Getaway Car, Gorgeous, Dress, and Call It What You Want.
After the last two albums, Taylor went back to the relationship songs when she published Lover in 2019. The singles were ME!, You Need To Calm Down, Lover, and The Man. You Need To Calm Down’s first verse is about trolls and cancel culture whereas the second verse is about homophobes. I think this song is very important because, for years, the singer kept quiet about politics and her stance on the matter. Marsha Blackburn was running for Senate in the state of Tennessee, where Taylor at the time. She voted against equal pay for women, the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and she is publicly homophobic. “These are not MY Tennessee values,” she voiced in the viral Instagram post from 2018. I suggest watching the documentary “Miss Americana” on Netflix for more information on her political views. Onto the album itself, out of 18 songs, 15 are about love and relationships. The other 3 are about sexism (The Man), homophobia (You Need To Calm Down), and her mother’s cancer (Soon You’ll Get Better). I really enjoy listening to London Boy, YNTCD, and The Man.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Taylor released two surprise albums with only 5 months between them; folklore and evermore (stylized in all lowercase). The singles from folklore are cardigan, betty, and exile, two of them are part of the Teenage Love Triangle. Cardigan is from Betty’s point of view 20 years after being cheated on and she’s reminiscing about her lost love. The song betty is from James’ point of view, about how the affair started and their attempts to win Betty back by showing up at her house and apologizing. August is from “the other woman’s” perspective, who was originally nameless but fans decided to call her Augustine. Similar to cardigan, this song is told in the future. James usually called the affair “a summer thing” but Augustine talks about the strong romantic feelings she had for him. She does realize they were never in a serious relationship and he wasn’t “hers to lose”. August is actually one of my most treasured songs from this album, as well as this is me trying and illicit affairs.
Evermore’s singles were willow, no body, no crime, and coney island. Taylor considers folklore and evermore sisters; folklore is the youngest, it’s about high school romance and nostalgia. That would make evermore the oldest, seeing as this album is about marriage, infidelity, grief, and exploring the complexities of human emotions. I’m aware this is an extremely unpopular opinion because everyone I know has evermore in their top 5, but I don’t enjoy this album all that much. I only like three songs; no body, no crime, dorothea and gold rush.
Fun fact, on October 21st 2022 at midnight, Spotify glitched because too many people were eager to listen to Midnights. This album experiments with electronica and chill-out music styles. Midnights became Spotify’s most-streamed album in one day with 185 million plays. Its lead single, Anti-Hero, got 17,4 million plays. Taylor also surprised us with Midnights (3am Edition) which includes 7 bonus songs to the original 13. Snow On the Beach (Ft. Lana Del Rey), You’re On Your Own, Kid, Mastermind, and Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve hold a special place in my heart, but they are all exceptional. Stream Midnights!
BIBLIOGRAPHIE
WIKIPEDIA. Taylor Swift https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Swift, page consultée le 10 janvier 2023.
BILLBOARD. A Timeline of Taylor Swift’s Political Evolution https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/taylor-swift-political-evolution-timeline-8528527/, page consultée le 15 janvier 2023.
Journal L'AccROCHEur 