Taylor Swift is a worldwide phenomenon. Not only is she that, but she is also a genius. In 2023 alone, Swift went on her groundbreaking (literally) Eras Tour, came out with the Eras Tour movie, and was Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. Swift is now a billionaire and is loved by millions around the world. Swift’s first big hit was “Tim McGraw” from her debut album Taylor Swift in 2006, but her fame started to pick up in 2008 with the song “Love Story” from the Fearless album.
Two years later in 2010, Swift released Speak Now, and started to transition to pop instead of country. Her song “Innocent” from the album Speak Now was written about Kanye West. At the 2009 MTV VMAs when Swift was accepting her award for best female music video, West took the mic from Swift and started talking about Beyoncé’s music video. This hurt her a lot and caused her to not trust West.
Red was released next in 2012, and it focused on Swift’s personal life and falling out of love. This was her third album in a row to be on the Billboard 200. Two years later Swift released 1989 which sold ten million copies and was her first real pop album. 1989 was based on her relationship with Harry Styles.
The next album wasn’t released until 2017. Reputation described Swift’s frustration and anger with critics and different people who she had interacted with during those five years in the dark. In this album, there is a song called “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.” This song was also written about Kanye West. After the incident at the VMAs, West and Swift became friends again. In the song the phrase “but you stabbed me in the back while shakin’ my hand” stands out as a nod towards West and how he manipulated her. Brian Rush, a Swiftie who attended the Eras Tour, told the Los Angeles Times: “How she came back, in a sense, from all the negativity and everything like that,” Rush said. “We all go through that in life, when people have something to say about us.”
After Reputation, Swift broke off from the record label Big Machine which was owned by Scooter Braun. In 2019, Swift released the Lover album which was a big transition from Reputation. Lover was in part dedicated to her fans who had supported her even when others didn’t.
In 2020, COVID-19 hit the U.S. and caused Swift to cancel her Lover tour. She then released Folklore which became an instant hit with her fans. A lot of the songs on this album were made up stories that involved made up characters such as “Betty.” Although one song, called “My Tears Ricochet,” is about Scooter Braun. The song is about trusting someone but they then go behind your back and hurt you. Braun sold Swift’s masters without her permission and without her knowing. A lot of the song expresses her hurt towards Braun. She had known him since she was a kid and considered him family. Then, just five months after the Folklore release, Swift came out with Evermore, the sister album of Folklore. In this album, Swift continued her folk style and story telling.
Because of Swift’s feud with Braun, she wanted to re-release her previous albums to gain ownership of them. Fearless (Taylor’s Version) was released in 2021 with new songs added to the original album called “From The Vault” songs. The album reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart. Also released in 2021 was Red (Taylor’s Version). This album has 30 songs on it and has the song “All Too Well (10-minute Version)” which is also a vault song.
In 2022, Swift released Midnights. In the first week, a million copies were sold and it also made it to number one of the Billboard 200 chart. After the release of Midnights, Swift announced her Eras Tour which made Ticketmaster crash when everyone tried to buy their tickets. The tour made 1.04 billion dollars and sold 4.3 million tickets in just the U.S. only. The Eras Tour movie came out in October 2023. In just the first three days the movie was out, it made 92.8 million dollars and was the highest-grossing concert in film history.
During the tour, Swift announced her third Taylor’s Version album, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). There are six vault tracks and a few lyric changes in the original songs including “Better Than Revenge.” Then in late October of 2023, Swift released 1989 (Taylor’s Version). The album was released exactly nine years after the original release. Seven of the songs, including some of the vault songs, made the Billboard top 10 all at once.
As mentioned before, 2023 was a big year for Swift. She started the Eras Tour in March of 2023 and came to Arlington for three nights in April. Then in July, Swift came out with Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), which was then followed by the Eras Tour movie in October. Later in October, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was released along with Swift being named Person of the Year by Times Magazine. Swift also caused many Swifties to start watching the NFL and looking for Swift’s frequent appearances at the Kansas City Chiefs games.
Swift started writing music when she was only 12 years old. She created an empire from the ground up and continues to gain more and more fans. She is an idol to many and is an example and inspiration to women and girls all over the world. Megan Vo told the LA Times; “…she just gets it. She knows what heartbreak is at every stage in life.”
