| Taylor Swift |
|---|
Swift performing on the Speak Now World Tourin 2012 |
| Background information |
|---|
| Birth name | Taylor Alison Swift |
|---|
| Born | December 13, 1989 (age 22)
Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
|---|
| Genres | Pop, pop rock, country, country pop, electronic |
|---|
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, musician, actress |
|---|
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, banjo guitar, ukulele, piano |
|---|
| Years active | 2006–present |
|---|
| Labels | Big Machine |
|---|
| Website | taylorswift.com |
|---|
Swift's second album,
Fearless, was released in 2008. Buoyed by the
crossoversuccess of the singles "
Love Story" and "
You Belong with Me",
Fearless became the top-selling album of 2009 and was supported by an
extensive concert tour. The record won four
Grammy Awards, with Swift becoming the youngest ever
Album of the Year winner. Swift's third album, 2010's
Speak Now, sold over one million copies in its first week of US release and was supported by the thirteen-month
Speak Now World Tour. The album's third single, "
Mean", won two Grammy Awards. Swift's fourth album,
Red, was released in 2012. Its opening US sales of 1.21 million were the highest recorded in a decade, with Swift becoming the only female artist to have two million-plus opening weeks. The lead single, "
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", was Swift's first number one on the
BillboardHot 100 chart and became a worldwide hit. The
Red Tour is scheduled to begin in March 2013.
Swift is known for her
hook-laden, narrative songs about her experiences as a teenager and young adult. As a songwriter, she has been honored by the
Nashville Songwriters Association and the
Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Swift's other achievements include six Grammy Awards, eleven
American Music Awards, seven
Country Music Association Awards, six
Academy of Country Music Awards and thirteen
BMI Awards. She has sold over 26 million albums and 70 million song downloads worldwide. In addition to her music career, Swift has appeared as an actress in the crime drama
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2009), the ensemble comedy
Valentine's Day (2010) and the animated film
The Lorax (2012).
Forbesestimates that she is worth over $165 million. As a philanthropist, Swift supports arts education, children's literacy, natural disaster relief,
LGBT rights, and charities for sick children.
Early life
Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989 in
Reading, Pennsylvania.
[1] Her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, is a
Merrill Lynch financial adviser.
[2][3] He was raised in Pennsylvania and is the descendant of three generations of bank presidents.
[1][4]Her mother, Andrea (née Finlay), is a homemaker who previously worked as a
mutual fund marketing executive.
[5] Andrea spent the first ten years of her life in
Singapore, before settling in
Texas; her father was an oil rig engineer who worked throughout
Southeast Asia.
[4] Swift was named after singer
James Taylor; her mother believed a gender-neutral name would help her forge a successful business career.
[6][7] She has a younger brother, Austin, who attends the
University of Notre Dame.
[8] She spent the early years of her life on an eleven-acre
Christmas tree farm in
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and was educated at the fee-paying
Wyndcroft School.
[9] When Swift was nine years old, the family moved to
Wyomissing, Pennsylvania,
[10] where she attended West Reading Elementary Center and
Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School.
[11] She spent her summers at her parents' vacation home in
Stone Harbor, New Jersey and has described it as the place "where most of my childhood memories were formed".
[12]
Swift's first hobby was
English horse riding. Her mother put her in a saddle when she was nine months old; Swift later competed in
horse shows.
[13][14] Her family owned several
Quarter horses and a
Shetland pony.
[14] At the age of nine, Swift turned her attention to musical theatre and performed in Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions of
Grease,
Annie,
Bye Bye Birdie and
The Sound of Music.
[15] She traveled regularly to
Broadway, New York for vocal and acting lessons. However, "after a few years of auditioning in New York and not getting anything", Swift became interested in country music.
[16] She spent her weekends performing at local festivals, fairs, coffeehouses, karaoke contests, garden clubs, Boy Scout meetings and hospitals.
[5][17][18] At the age of eleven, after many attempts,
[19] Swift won a local talent competition by singing a rendition of
LeAnn Rimes's "
Big Deal", and was given the opportunity to appear as the opening act for
Charlie Daniels at a
Strausstown amphitheater.
[15] This growing ambition and interest in country music began to isolate Swift from her middle school peers.
[1]
After watching a
Behind the Music episode about
Faith Hill, Swift felt sure that she needed to go to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue a music career.
[10] She traveled with her mother to Nashville for spring break to leave a demo of
Dolly Parton and
Dixie Chicks karaoke covers with record labels along
Music Row.
[20] She received label rejections and realized that "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".
[21] She began performing the
"The Star Spangled Banner" at sporting events because it was an opportunity to "get in front of 20,000 people without even having a record deal".
[4] At the age of twelve, Swift was shown by a computer repairman how to play three chords on a guitar, inspiring her to write her first song, "Lucky You".
[22] She had previously won a national poetry contest with a poem entitled "Monster in My Closet" but now began to focus on songwriting.
[23] In 2003, Swift and her parents started working with New York-based music manager Dan Dymtrow. With Dymtrow's help, Swift modelled for
Abercrombie and Fitch as part of their "Rising Stars" campaign, had an original song included in a
Maybelline Cosmetics compilation CD and took meetings with major record labels.
[24] After performing original songs at an
RCA Records showcase, the eight-grader was given an
artist development dealand began making frequent trips to Nashville.
[25]
When Swift was fourteen, her father transferred to the Nashville office of Merrill Lynch and the family relocated to a lake-shore house in
Hendersonville, Tennessee.
[1] Swift later described this as "an incredible sacrifice" for her family to make.
[20] Her parents "presented it as a move to a nice community" rather than as her chance to become a star,
[26] and her mother has said, "We've always told her that this is not about putting food on our table or making our dreams come true."
[27] In Tennessee, Swift attended
Hendersonville High School for her freshman and sophomore years.
[28] Later, to accommodate her touring schedule, Swift transferred to the Aaron Academy, a private Christian school which offered homeschooling services. She earned her high school diploma in 2008, having finished her final two years of course work in twelve months.
[29][30]
Music career
2004–08: Career beginnings and Taylor Swift
Swift moved to Nashville at the age of fourteen. As part of her artist development deal with RCA Records, she had writing sessions with experienced
Music Row songwriters such as
Troy Verges,
Brett Beavers,
Brett James,
Mac McAnally and
The Warren Brothers.
[31][32] She eventually formed a lasting working relationship with
Liz Rose.
[33] Swift saw Rose performing at an RCA songwriter event and suggested that they write together.
[34] They began meeting for two-hour writing sessions every Tuesday afternoon after school.
[35] Rose has said that 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".
[36] Swift also began recording demos with producer
Nathan Chapman.
[34] After performing at a
BMI Songwriter's Circle showcase at
The Bitter End, New York,
[32] Swift became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the
Sony/ATV Tree publishing house.
[37] She left RCA Records when she was fifteen; the company wanted her to record the work of other songwriters and wait until she was eighteen to release an album, but she felt ready to launch her career with her own material.
[19][38] She also parted ways with manager Dan Dymtrow, who later took legal action against Swift and her parents.
[24] "'I genuinely felt that I was running out of time," Swift later recalled. "I wanted to capture these years of my life on an album while they still represented what I was going through."
[39] At an industry showcase at Nashville's
Bluebird Café in 2005, Swift caught the attention of
Scott Borchetta, a
Dreamworks Records executive who was preparing to form his own independent record label,
Big Machine Records. She became one of the label's first signings,
[33] with her father purchasing a three per cent stake in the fledgling company.
[40] As an introduction to the country music business, Borchetta arranged for Swift to intern as an artist escort at the
CMA Music Festival.
[41]
Swift began working on her
eponymous debut album shortly after signing her record deal. After experimenting with veteran Nashville producers, Swift persuaded Big Machine to hire her demo producer Nathan Chapman. It was his first time to record a studio album but Swift felt they had the right "chemistry".
[19] In the end, Chapman produced all but one of the tracks on
Taylor Swift. She has described the album as the "diary" of her early teens.
[42] She has said that, although "it sounds like I've had 500 boyfriends", a lot of the songs are observational.
[19] Swift wrote three of the album's songs alone, including two singles, and co-wrote the remaining eight with writers such as Liz Rose,
Robert Ellis Orrall and
Angelo Petraglia.
[43] Musically, the album has been described as "a mix of trad-country instruments and spry rock guitars".
[44] Taylor Swift was released in October 2006.
The New York Timesdescribed it as "a small masterpiece of pop-minded country, both wide-eyed and cynical, held together by Ms. Swift's firm, pleading voice."
[45] PopMatters hoped Swift would be "able to find an accomodation between the country tradition and her very obvious pop sensibilities, because
Taylor Swift suggests she has much to offer".
[46]The New Yorker's
Sasha Frere-Jones described Swift as a "prodigy". He noted that "
Our Song" "stop[ed] me in my tracks" and praised the lyrics: "He's got a one-hand feel on the steering wheel, the other on my heart".
[47] Country Weekly felt that "the more thoughtful material suggests a talent poised to last well past high school".
[48] Rolling Stone described Swift as "bright-eyed but remarkably seasoned", and admired "Our Song"'s "insanely hooky sing-song melody that's as
Britney as it is
Patsy".
[44]
Big Machine Records was still in its infancy upon the release of the lead single "
Tim McGraw" in June 2006, and Swift and her mother helped "stuff the CD singles into envelopes to send to radio".
[27] She spent much of 2006 promoting
Taylor Swift in a radio tour and later commented, "Radio tours for most artists last six weeks. Mine lasted six months."
[19] Swift baked cookies and painted canvases (inspired by
Jackson Pollock) to gift to radio station programmers who played her music.
[49] She made many television appearances, including on the
Grand Ole Opry,
[50] Good Morning America,
[51] and
TRL.
[52] She also signed endorsement deals, appearing as a spokesmodel for
l.e.i. jeans and as the face of
Verizon Wireless' Mobile Music campaign.
[53][54] Swift, a self-described "kid of the internet", used
MySpace to build a fanbase.
[55] She wrote her own blog posts, left comments on her fans' accounts and personally respond to the messages that were sent to her.
[56] This was, at the time, "revolutionary in country music".
[57] Borchetta has said that his decision to sign a sixteen-year-old singer-songwriter initially raised eyebrows among his record industry peers but Swift tapped into a previously unknown market: teenage girls who listen to country music.
[57] Following "Tim McGraw", four further singles were released throughout 2007 and 2008: "
Teardrops on My Guitar", "Our Song", "
Picture to Burn" and "
Should've Said No". All were highly successful on the Billboard
Hot Country Songs chart, with "Our Song" and "Should've Said No" both reaching number one. "Our Song" made Swift the youngest person to single-handedly write and sing a number one country song.
[58] "Teardrops on My Guitar" became a minor pop hit; it reached number thirteen on the
Billboard Hot 100.
[59] The album sold 39,000 copies during its first week of release
[60] and, as of March 2011, has sold over 5.5 million copies worldwide.
[61] Swift also released a holiday album,
Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, in October 2007 and an EP,
Beautiful Eyes, in July 2008.
[62][63]
Swift toured extensively in support of
Taylor Swift. In addition to festival and theater dates, Swift performed as an opening act for several country artists' concert tours. In late 2006, she opened for
Rascal Flatts on the final nine dates of their Me & My Gang Tour, after the previous supporting act
Eric Church was fired.
[51] Swift later sent Church her first gold record with a note: "Thanks for playing too long and too loud on the Flatts tour. I sincerely appreciate it. Taylor".
[64] In 2007, she served as the opening act on twenty dates for
George Strait's tour,
[65] several dates on
Kenny Chesney's Flip-Flop Summer Tour,
[66] selected dates on
Brad Paisley's Bonfires & Amplifiers Tour
[67] and several dates for
Tim McGraw and
Faith Hill's joint
Soul2Soul II Tour.
[68] Swift again opened for Rascal Flatts on their Still Feels Good Tour in 2008.
[69] In addition to performing her own material, Swift played covers of songs by
Beyoncé,
Rihanna,
John Waite,
Lynyrd Skynyrd and
Eminem.
[70][71][72] She conducted meet-and-greet sessions with fans before and after her concerts; these lasted for up to four hours.
[73]
2008–10: Fearless, VMA controversy and Grammy backlash
Swift's second studio album,
Fearless, was released in November 2008. Swift wrote seven of the album's songs alone, including two singles, and co-wrote the remaining six with songwriters Liz Rose,
John Rich,
Colbie Caillat and
Hillary Lindsey.
[80] She co-produced the album with Nathan Chapman.
[80] Musically, it has been said that the record is characterized by "loud, lean guitars and rousing choruses", with the occasional "bit of fiddle and banjo tucked into the mix".
[81] The New York Times described Swift as "one of pop's finest songwriters, country's foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults".
[82] The Village Voice felt she displayed "preternatural wisdom and inclusiveness", "masterfully avoiding the typical diarist's pitfalls of trite banality and pseudo-profound bullshit".
[83] Rolling Stone described her as "a songwriting savant with an intuitive gift for verse-chorus-bridge architecture" whose "squirmingly intimate and true" songs seemed to be "literally ripped from a suburban girl's diary".
[81] USA Today found it "a pleasure to hear a gifted teenager who sounds like a gifted teenager, rather than a mouthpiece for a bunch of older pros' collective notion of adolescent yearning."
[84] The New Yorker described it as an album "without a bad track", adding that "the album's finest effort, "
Fifteen", will feature in yearbook quotes for years".
[85] Entertainment Weekly noted that the album would appeal mainly to young girls – "she sounds like a real teen, not some manufactured vixen-Lolita" – but predicted it would be "exciting to watch her precocious talent grow".
[86] Music critic
Robert Christgau described Swift as "an uncommonly-to-impossibly strong and gifted teenage girl".
[87]
Swift promoted
Fearless heavily upon its release. An episode of
The Ellen DeGeneres Show was dedicated to the album launch
[57] and Swift appeared on many other chat shows.
[88] She communicated with fans using social media platforms such as Twitter and personal video blogs.
[57] She launched a
l.e.i. sundress range at
Wal-Mart,
[89] as well as a line of
American Greetings cards and
Jakks Pacific dolls.
[90][91] She became a spokesperson for the NHL's
Nashville Predators and
Sony Cyber-shot digital cameras,
[92][93] and performed in a commercial for the
Band Hero video game, with
Rivers Cuomo,
Pete Wentz and
Travis Barker appearing as her backing band.
[94] The singer paid tribute to a number of fellow artists in televised performances: she performed a cover of Alan Jackson's "
Drive (For Daddy Gene)" at the
CMT Giants: Alan Jackson event,
[95] took part in a
joint, televised concert with rock band
Def Leppard in Nashville,
[96][97] and performed a cover of George Strait's "
Run" at a televised ACM event honoring Strait as the Artist of the Decade.
[98] Swift sang her song "Fifteen" with
Miley Cyrus at the
51st Grammy Awards,
[99] performed a self-penned rap skit with
T-Pain at the CMT Awards
[100] and hosted
Saturday Night Live.
[101] The lead single from the album, "
Love Story", was released in September 2008 and became the second best-selling country single of all time, peaking at number four on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart.
[102] 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, peaking at number two on the
Billboard Hot 100.
[103] The album debuted at number one on the
Billboard 200 Album Chart with sales of 592,304 and has since sold over 8.6 million copies worldwide.
[104] It was the top-selling album of 2009 and brought Swift much
crossover success.
[105]
In September 2009, Swift became the first country music artist to win an
MTV Video Music Award when "You Belong with Me" was named
Best Female Video.
[116] Her
acceptance speech was interrupted by rapper
Kanye West, who had been involved in a number of other
award show incidents.
[117] West declared Beyoncé's video for "
Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", nominated in the same category, to be "one of the best videos of all time." Many audience members booed West,
[118] prompting him to
flip offthe crowd.
[119] He then handed the microphone back to a speechless Swift.
[118] Backstage, Swift was seen "hysterically crying".
[118] According to
Rolling Stone, when Swift's mother confronted West, he gave "a half-hearted apology in which he added he still thought Beyoncé's video was superior".
[120] West was removed from the event.
[118] When Beyoncé later won the award for Video of the Year, she invited Swift onstage to finish her speech.
[118] In the event's press room, Swift, who in 2008 had expressed a desire to sing a hook on a Kanye West rap song,
[121] was asked if she had "any hard feelings" towards West: "I don't know him, and I've never met him, so... I don't want to start anything because I had a great night tonight."
[120][122] The incident received much media attention and inspired many
Internet memes.
[123] President Barack Obama, in an off the record comment, called West a "jackass".
[124] Former US
President Jimmy Carter said West's interruption was "completely uncalled for".
[125] West's behavior was criticized by celebrities, including
Eminem,
Snoop Dogg and
Madonna.
[126][127][128] West apologized for his verbal outburst in two blog entries and during an appearance on
The Jay Leno Show.
[118][129] He maintained that, while Swift was "very talented", "Beyoncé's video was the best of this decade!!!! ... I gave my awards to
Outkast when they deserved it over me ... I'm not crazy y'all, I'm just real."
[130] Two days after the VMAs, Swift told an interviewer that West had not spoken to her since the ceremony.
[131] West then contacted her to offer a personal apology, which Swift accepted: "Kanye did call me, and he was very sincere in his apology."
[116] She refused to discuss the incident in subsequent interviews so as not to make a "bigger deal" of it: "It happened on TV, so everybody saw what happened ... It's not something I feel like we need to keep talking about."
[132] It has been said that the incident and subsequent media attention turned Swift into "a bona-fide mainstream celebrity".
[133]
Swift at the 2010
Time 100Gala, where she was honored
Swift won four
Grammy Awards in January 2010, from a total of eight nominations.
[142]Fearless was named
Album of the Year and
Best Country Album, while "White Horse" was named
Best Country Song and
Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
[143] She was the youngest ever artist to win Album of the Year.
[144] During the ceremony, Swift sang "
Rhiannon" and "You Belong with Me" with
Stevie Nicks. Her vocal performance received negative reviews and sparked a widespread media backlash.
[133][145] Her vocals were described variously as "badly off-key", "strikingly bad" and "incredibly wretched".
[146][147]While
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",
[144] music analyst
Bob Lefsetz predicted that her career would end "overnight" and publicly appealed to Swift's father to hire a "crisis publicity agent" to manage the story because "Taylor's too young and dumb to understand the mistake she made".
[148][149] In April 2010, Stevie Nicks, writing in
Time, defended the singer: "Taylor reminds me of myself in her determination and her childlike nature. It's an innocence that's so special and so rare. This girl writes the songs that make the whole world sing, like
Neil Diamond or
Elton John ... The female rock-'n'-roll-country-pop songwriter is back, and her name is Taylor Swift. And it's women like her who are going to save the music business."
[150] Fearless won many
other accolades and has become the most awarded album in country music history.
[151] Swift became the youngest ever artist and one of only six women to be named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association.
[152] Fearless also won the Association's Album of the Year award.
[152] She was the youngest ever artist to win the Academy of Country Music's Album of the Year honor.
[153] The American Music Awards honored Swift with Artist of the Year and
Favorite Country Album plaudits.
[154] She was awarded the
Hal David Starlight Award by the
Songwriters Hall of Fame[155] and was named Songwriter/Artists of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association.
[156] She won four BMI Awards.
[157] Billboard named her 2009's
Artist of the Year.
[158] Swift was included in
Time's annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in 2010.
[150]
2010–12: Speak Now; live and studio collaborations
Swift released her third studio album,
Speak Now, in October 2010. She wrote all twelve songs alone.
[159] Swift, who co-produced the record with longtime collaborator Nathan Chapman,
[160] has described it as "a collection of confessions—things I wish I had said when I was in the moment".
[161] She originally intended to call the album
Enchanted but Scott Borchetta, her record label's CEO, felt the title did not reflect the album's more adult themes.
[162] Musically, it has been said that the album "expands beyond country-pop to border both alternative rock and dirty bubblegum pop".
[163] USA Today felt that Swift's songwriting skills would remind listeners "what all the fuss was about in the first place", with the album capturing "the sweet ache of becoming an adult".
[164] The
Los Angeles Times praised her ability as a songwriter to "hit on common experiences that feel unique".
[163] The New York Times described the album as savage, musically diverse and "excellent too, possibly her best".
[160]The Village Voice found that the album demanded "a true appreciation of Swift's talent, which is not confessional, but dramatic: Like a procession of country songwriters before her, she creates characters and situations—some from life—and finds potent ways to describe them."
[165] Entertainment Weekly noted that, while love may confound her, "the art of expert songcraft clearly doesn't".
[166] Music critic John Christgau found the album's songs "overlong and overworked" but remarked that "they evince an effort that bears a remarkable resemblance to care—that is, to caring in the best, broadest, and most emotional sense".
[87]Rolling Stone described Swift as one of the best songwriters in "pop, rock or country": "Swift might be a clever Nashville pro who knows all the hitmaking tricks, but she's also a high-strung, hyper-romantic gal with a melodramatic streak the size of the
Atchafalaya Swamp".
[167]
Swift carried out an extensive promotional campaign prior to
Speak Now's release.
[168] She appeared on various talk shows and morning shows, and gave free mini-concerts in unusual locations, including an open-decker bus on
Hollywood Boulevard and a departure lounge at
JFK airport.
[169][170] She took part in a "guitar pull" alongside
Kris Kristofferson,
Emmylou Harris,
Vince Gill and
Lionel Ritchie at LA's
Club Nokia; the musicians shared the stage and took turns introducing and playing acoustic versions of their songs to raise money for the
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
[171][172] In addition to her pre-existing Sony Electronics and American Greetings endorsements, Swift also became a
CoverGirlspokesmodel,
[173] launched an
Elizabeth Arden fragrance entitled
Wonderstruck[174] and released a special edition of
Speak Now through
Target.
[175] The album's lead single, "
Mine", was released in August 2010 and five further singles were released throughout 2010 and 2011: "
Back to December", "
Mean", "
The Story of Us", "
Sparks Fly" and "
Ours".
[176] Speak Now was a major commercial success, debuting at number one on the US
Billboard 200 chart. Its sales of 1,047,000 copies made it the sixteenth album in US history to sell one million copies in a single week.
[177] As of February 2012,
Speak Now has sold over 5.7 million copies worldwide.
[178][179]
In September 2010, Kanye West used his Twitter account to apologize to Swift for his 2009 VMA interruption, referring to her as "just a lil girl with dreams like the rest of us": "I wrote a song for Taylor Swift that's so beautiful and I want her to have it. If she won't take it then I'll perform it for her."
[180] At the 2010 VMAs later that month, Swift sang "Innocent", a song widely believed to be about West, which
The Washington Post described as "a small masterpiece of passive aggressiveness, a vivisection dressed up as a peace offering".
[181] Music critics found Swift's performance overly serious and "petty".
[182][183] In October 2010, West remarked that it was "inaccurate" for Swift's
Fearless to have been named Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards earlier that year.
[184] Speaking in November 2010, West said he failed to see what was "so arrogant" about his VMA interruption and described his actions as "selfless".
[185][186] He argued it was "just disrespectful" and "retarded" for Swift to be included in the same award category as Beyoncé.
[187] He added that "if it was the other way around" and Swift were an established artist who had "made the video of her career, do you think she would have lost to a brand new artist? Hell no!"
[185][186] He claimed that his interruption caused Swift to "have 100 magazine covers and sell a million first week".
[187] Also that month, he claimed that, "If I wasn't drunk, I would have been on stage longer ... Taylor never came to my defense at any interview. And rode the waves and rode it and rode it".
[188][189] At the
Costume Institute Gala in May 2011, Swift and West came face-to-face on the red carpet. West was observed to hold "a hand out, and the two exchanged a studiedly casual, "down low" high five".
[1]
Swift toured throughout 2011 and early 2012 in support of
Speak Now. As part of the thirteen-month, 111-date
world tour, Swift played seven shows in Asia, twelve shows in Europe, 80 shows in North America and twelve shows in Australasia.
[190] The stage show was inspired by Broadway musical theatre, with choreographed routines, elaborate set-pieces, pyrotechnics and numerous costume changes.
[191][192] Swift invited many musicians to join her for one-off duets during the North American tour. Appearances were made by
James Taylor,
Jason Mraz,
Shawn Colvin,
Johnny Rzeznik,
Andy Grammer,
Tal Bachman,
Justin Bieber,
Selena Gomez,
Nicki Minaj,
Nelly,
B.o.B,
Usher,
Flo Rida,
T.I.,
Jon Foreman,
Jim Adkins,
Hayley Williams,
Hot Chelle Rae,
Ronnie Dunn,
Darius Rucker, Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney.
[193][194] During the North American tour leg, Swift wrote different
song lyrics on her left arm for each performance and has said that the lyrics should be viewed as a nightly "mood ring".
[195][196] Swift performed
many acoustic cover versions during her North American tour. In each city, she paid tribute to a homegrown artist.
[197] She has said the cover versions allowed her to be "spontaneous" in an otherwise well-rehearsed show.
[198] The tour was attended by over 1.6 million fans and grossed over $123 million.
[190] Swift's first live album,
Speak Now World Tour: Live, featuring all seventeen performances from the North American leg of the tour, was released in November 2011.
[199] In July 2012, James Taylor invited Swift to appear as a special guest during his
Tanglewood set; they performed "
Fire and Rain", "Love Story" and "Ours" together.
[200] Taylor, who first met Swift when she was eighteen, has said that, "we just hit it off. I loved her songs, and her presence on stage was so great".
[201][202]
Swift speaking during a
YouTube interview in 2011
At the
54th Grammy Awards in February 2012, Swift's song "Mean" won Best Country Song and
Best Country Solo Performance.
[203] She also performed the song during the ceremony. Bob Lefsetz, one of the most vocal critics of her 2010 Grammy performance, believes the song is addressed to him.
[204][205] Lefsetz had previously been a supporter of the singer's career,
[206] and Swift and Lefsetz had corresponded occasionally by email and telephone.
[204] Time felt she "delivered her comeback on-key and with a vengeance"
[207]while
USA Today remarked that the criticism in 2010 seemed to have "made her a better songwriter and live performer".
[208] Swift was named Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association in both 2010 and 2011.
[209][210] Swift won various
other awards for
Speak Now. She was named Entertainer of the Year by the Academy of Country Music in both 2011 and 2012
[211] and was named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association in 2011.
[212] Swift was the American Music Awards's Artist of the Year in 2011, and
Speak Now was named Favorite Country Album.
[213] She was also the recipient of three BMI Awards.
[214] Billboard named Swift 2011's Woman of the Year.
[215] Also that year,
Billboard ranked her at number 15 in a list of the Top 20 Hot 100 Songwriters 2000–2011; she was the second highest ranking woman.
[216] Swift was ranked second on
Rolling Stone's list of the Top 16 "Queen Of Pops" of the decade.
[217]
Swift contributed two original songs to
The Hunger Games soundtrack album in March 2012.
"Safe & Sound" was co-written and recorded with
The Civil Wars and
T-Bone Burnett.
[218] John Paul White has said working with Swift was "a revelation. She had some great ideas. We had complete freedom. It truly was a collaboration. We brought the melancholy and the darker angle. Taylor was bringing the melody and the chords."
[219] Rolling Stone described the song as "Swift's prettiest ballad" and wondered whether the alt-country folk song was "a one-off novelty, a trial balloon cred-move, or the stirrings of a "grown-up" style".
[220] Swift and The Civil Wars debuted a live version of the song at the
Ryman Auditorium, Nashville in January 2012.
[221] It was released as the album's lead single and, as of July 2012, has sold over one million copies in the United States.
[222] Swift's second contribution to the album,
"Eyes Open", was written solely by the singer and produced by Nathan Chapman.
[223] In May 2012, Swift contributed vocals to "
Both of Us", a
Dr. Luke-produced single from B.o.B's second album
Strange Clouds.
[224]
2012: Red
Swift's fourth studio album,
Red, was released in October 2012.
[225] She wrote nine of the album's sixteen songs alone; the remaining seven were co-written with
Max Martin,
Liz Rose,
Dan Wilson,
Ed Sheeran and
Gary Lightbody. Nathan Chapman served as the album's lead producer but
Jeff Bhasker,
Butch Walker,
Jacknife Lee,
Dann Huff and
Shellback also produced individual tracks. Chapman has said he encouraged Swift "to branch out and to test herself in other situations".
[226] She has described the collaborative process as "an apprenticeship" which taught her to "paint with different colors".
[226][227] Redexamines Swift's attraction to drama-filled relationships; she believes that, since writing the record, such relationships no longer appeal to her.
[226] Musically, while there is experimentation with "slick, electronic beats", it is "limited to a handful of tracks sprinkled among more recognisably Swiftian fare".
[228] The Guardian described Swift as a "
Brünnhilde of a rockstar" and the album as "another chapter in one of the finest fantasies pop music has ever constructed."
[229] The New York Times considered it as "a transitional album" in which Swift addresses her sexual life and own culpability in relationships.
[230] The Times praised her "sublime" lyrics, particularly those on the "brooding" "All Too Well".
[231] Rolling Stone enjoyed "watching Swift find her pony-footing on Great Songwriter Mountain. She often succeeds in joining the Joni/
Carole King tradition of stark-relief emotional mapping ... Her self-discovery project is one of the best stories in pop."
[232] However,
Salon asserted that, "more than the token Serious Female Singer Songwriters (Joni Mitchell,
Lucinda Williams, Carole King,) Swift reminds me of masters of quirky pop sincerity like
Alex Chilton and
Jonathan Richman."
[233]
As part of the
Red promotional campaign, representatives from 72 worldwide radio stations were flown to Nashville during release week for individual interviews with Swift.
[234] She also appeared on many television chat shows and performed at award ceremonies in the US, the UK, Germany and Australia.
[235] Swift offered exclusive album promotions through Target,
[236] Papa John's[234] and Walgreens.
[237] She became a spokesmodel for
Keds sneakers,
[238] released her sophomore Elizabeth Arden fragrance,
[239] and continued her partnerships with Covergirl, Sony Electronics and American Greetings, as well as her unofficial brand tie-ins with
Ralph Lauren and Shellys.
[240] The album's lead single, "
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", was released in August 2012. The song became Swift's first number one on the US
Billboard Hot 100 chart, recording the highest ever one-week sales figures for a female artist.
[241] Two further singles have been released: "
Begin Again" (to country radio) and "
I Knew You Were Trouble" (to pop and international radio).
[242][243] Red 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 and made Swift the first female to have two million-selling album openings.
[244] The album also topped international sales charts in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Japan, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.
[245] As of November 2012,
Red had sold 2.8 million copies worldwide.
[246]In her career, as of November 2012, she had sold in excess of 26 million albums and 75 million song downloads.
[246] Swift will embark on the first leg of the
Red Tour from March to September 2013, which will see her play 62 dates across North America.
[247][246]
Swift won three
MTV Europe Music Awards in 2012, including the honors for Best Female and Best Live Act.
[248] She was named Best Female Country Artist at the 2012 American Music Awards.
[249] The Nashville Songwriters Association's 2012 Songwriter/Artist Award went to Swift for the fifth year in a row.
[250]
Artistry
Influences
One of Swift's earliest musical memories is listening to her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay (née Moehlenkamp), sing.
[9] In her youth, Finlay was a recording star in
Puerto Rico and performed in operas in
Singapore: "She was in
The Bartered Bride,
The Barber of Seville and musicals like
West Side Story".
[4] As a very young child, Swift enjoyed Disney movie soundtracks: "My parents noticed that, once I had run out of words, I would just make up my own".
[20][251] Later, her parents exposed her to artists including
James Taylor,
Simon & Garfunkel and
Def Leppard.
[252][253] Swift has said she owes her confidence to her mother, who helped her prepare for class presentations as a child: "We would stay up that whole night before, just practicing different things to say."
[254] She also attributes her "fascination with writing and storytelling" to her mother: "When I was little, she would indulge my imagination and tell me stories."
[255] Swift enjoyed both reading and writing poetry and was particularly drawn to the works of
Shel Silverstein and
Dr. Seuss.
[4][256] She remains interested "in any writing from a child's perspective" and has cited
To Kill a Mockingbird as one of her favorite books.
[49]
Swift was introduced to country music by "the great female country artists of the '90s ...
Shania,
Faith, the
Dixie Chicks".
[70][26] Those three artists "really sealed the deal" for Swift and she became "infatuated with the sound, with the storytelling" of country music.
[9][257]Shania Twain was her biggest musical influence: "She was just so strong and so independent and wrote all her own songs".
[258] As an artist, Swift has said she "can only aspire to be like her" and, in 2009, she named Twain's
Come On Over as her favorite album.
[259][260] She has spent time with Twain,
[261] who later expressed an interest in writing with the younger singer.
[262] Faith Hill was Swift's childhood role model and she tried to copy "everything she said, did, wore".
[263][264] She admired Hill for "taking country music to bigger audiences, and her grace in the spotlight".
[263] Hill has become a "welcoming and warm presence" in Swift's life since her rise to fame.
[263] On one occasion, Hill and her husband
Tim McGraw gave Swift the use of their Los Angeles house while she was working in the area.
[265] Swift admired the Dixie Chicks's "we don't care what you think" attitude and was inspired by the way they played their own instruments.
[4][266] The band's "
Cowboy Take Me Away" was the first song Swift learned to play on the guitar.
[267] LeAnn Rimes served as another introduction to country music.
[4] Swift found it "motivating" to observe another young artist find success.
[268] She then began to explore the music of older country stars, including
Patsy Cline,
Loretta Lynn,
Tammy Wynette and
Dolly Parton.
[4][269] Lynn's "
Fist City" is one of Swift's favorite country songs.
[4] She has said Parton is "an amazing example to every female songwriter out there ... There's so much about Dolly Parton that every female artist should look to".
[264] She respects
Kenny Chesney, particularly from "a business standpoint": "He's one of the only artists playing stadiums ... He's always been a huge hero of mine".
[263][264] Other mainstream country influences include
George Strait,
[4] Garth Brooks,
[70] Reba McEntire,
[270] Alan Jackson,
[4] Martina McBride,
[271] Tim McGraw[272] and
Brad Paisley.
[273] Swift also admires
alt-country artists such as
Ryan Adams,
[274] Patty Griffin,
[275] Lori McKenna[276] and
Bon Iver.
[277]
Swift has been influenced by many artists outside the country genre.
[278] As a pre-teen, she enjoyed
bubblegum pop acts including
Hanson,
[279] the
Backstreet Boys[280] and
Britney Spears; she still has "unwavering devotion" for Spears.
[281] In her high school years, Swift listened to
emo bands such as
Dashboard Confessional,
[282] Fall Out Boy,
[283] The All-American Rejects,
[284] Death Cab for Cutie[285] and
Jimmy Eat World.
[286] She was also a fan of female singer-songwriters including
Michelle Branch,
[286] Pink,
[287] Alanis Morisette,
[288] Ashlee Simpson,
[289] Kelly Clarkson,
[280] Fefe Dobson[286] and
Avril Lavigne.
[280] Swift closely followed the
musical supervision on the television dramas
The O.C. and
Grey's Anatomy, downloading "every" song featured.
[277][290] She was a fan of
hip hop music, particularly the rhyming patterns used by artists such as
Eminem: "Country and hip-hop are two of the most honest genres because we just like to sing about our lifestyle ... Pride is something that both country and hip-hop share".
[4] Swift also drew inspiration from the catalogues of veteran artists.
Tom Petty, she has said, "is on a pedestal for me".
[14] She is "obsessed" with Sixties acts like
The Shirelles,
Doris Troy and
The Beach Boys,
[196][284] and admires
Bon Jovi because "there's just a melodic stickiness to their songs that I've always been drawn to".
[196] Influence also came from older female
pop rock singers including
Pat Benatar,
[280][291] Stevie Nicks,
[291] Melissa Etheridge,
[291] Sarah McLachlan,
[288] Sheryl Crow[292] and
Shawn Colvin.
[293]
Swift lists
Paul McCartney,
Bruce Springsteen,
Emmylou Harris and
Kris Kristofferson as her career role models: "They've taken chances, but they've also been the same artist for their entire careers."
[294][295][296] McCartney, both as a
Beatle and a solo artist, makes Swift feel "as if I've been let into his heart and his mind": "Any musician could only dream of a legacy like that."
[297] She admires Springsteen because he is "so musically relevant after such a long period of time".
[298] Swift says of Kristofferson: "He 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".
[299]
Neil Young describes Swift as "a great writer": "I like listening to her. I kind of like watching her respond to all the attacks. I like the ways she's defining herself. So I keep my eye on it".
[300][301] Kris Kristofferson claims that "she blows me away. It's amazing to me that someone so young is writing such great songs. She's got a great career ahead of her".
[302][303] Dolly Parton is "extremely impressed with her, especially with her songwriting .... I'm real impressed with the depth of her sometimes": "She's got the qualities that could last a long time".
[304][305] Stevie Nicks believes Swift writes "songs that make the whole world sing, like
Neil Diamond or
Elton John ... It's women like her who are going to save the music business".
[150] Swift has also received songwriting praise from contemporaries including
Alicia Keys,
[306] Kelly Clarkson
[307] and
Lady Gaga.
[308] Christopher Owens, the songwriter and former frontman of
Girls, describes Swift as his "favourite artist out of anybody", and has expressed a desire to work with her.
[309][310] The New York Times has noted similarities in the songwriting approach of Owens and Swift.
[311] Ryan Adams has said that "every tune of hers is like the one you wait a whole lifetime to write".
[312] Lena Dunham, the creator and star of HBO's television series
Girls, has described Swift as her "artistic kindred spirit ... the way she uses autobiography in her work and the way she calls out guys who have, you know, fronted on her before. But at the same time there is something sort of affectionate and non-judgmental about her music that I appreciate."
[313][314][315]
Lyrical themes and style
Thematically,
The Guardian has noted that Swift was "fantastically good at regarding teenage life with a kind of wistful, sepia-toned nostalgia" over the course of her first two albums.
[316] New York Magazine has remarked that few singer-songwriters have written "great records so explicitly about their teens ... Her nearest antecedent might be sixties-era
Brian Wilson, the one true adolescent auteur before she came along".
[317] Comparisons have also been drawn with
Janis Ian.
[294] Fairytale imagery featured on Swift's second album,
Fearless. She explored the disconnect "between fairy tales and the reality of love": "We're raised as little girls to think that we're a princess and that Prince Charming is going to sweep us off our feet".
[318][319] Her third and fourth albums addressed more adult relationships.
[295] In addition to romance and love, Swift's songs have discussed parent-child relationships ("The Best Day", "Never Grow Up", "Ronan"), friendships ("Fifteen", "Breathe", "22"),
[320][321] alienation ("The Outside", "A Place In This World", "Tied Together with a Smile", "Mean") and career ambitions ("Change", "Long Live", "The Lucky One").
[322][323] Her defining quality as a songwriter, it has been said, is "a determination to register and hang onto fleeting feelings and impressions, a pre-emptive nostalgia for a present (and sometimes even a future) that she knows will some day be in the past".
[324] Swift frequently includes "a tossed-off phrase to suggest large and serious things that won't fit in the song, things that enhance or subvert the surface narrative".
[325] The New Yorker has said that her songs, "though they are not subversive, have a certain sophistication ... Sentimental songs are laced with intimations of future disillusionment".
[326]
Structurally,
Slate notes that Swift has "effortless, preternatural mastery of pop conventions: Very few songwriters can build better bridges than she does."
[327] Rolling Stone has described her as "a songwriting savant with an intuitive gift for verse-chorus-bridge architecture".
[328] The Village Voice has noted that Swift uses third-verse POV reversals frequently.
[325] She has a tendency to use the same images repeatedly. In the words of
The Guardian, "she spends so much time kissin' in the rain that it seems a miracle she hasn't developed
trenchfoot".
[316] American Songwriter describes Swift as "a great songwriter, who writes with an unmatched and almost unnatural acuity ... Even her earliest material is characterized by thoughtful – perhaps meticulous – word choice and deliberate melodic construction, with nary a lazy rhyme or aimless tune to be found."
[329][330] While reviews of Swift's work are "almost uniformly positive",
The New Yorker has said she is generally portrayed "more as a skilled technician than as a
Dylanesque visionary".
[294]
Swift uses autobiographical detail in her work.
[331] Listening to music as a child, she felt confused "when I knew something was going on in someone's personal life and they didn't address it in their music".
[332] The New York Times believes that "righting wrongs is Ms. Swift's raison d'être".
[333] In her songs, Swift often addresses the "anonymous crushes of her high school years" and, more recently, fellow celebrities.
[333] Entertainment Weekly remarked that
Speak Now was sometimes "an exercise in name-that-celebrity
Whac-a-Mole".
[334] John Mayer, the presumed subject of "Dear John", has said the song "humiliated" him: "I think it's kind of cheap songwriting. I know she's the biggest thing in the world, and I'm not trying to sink anybody's ship, but I think it's abusing your talent to rub your hands together and go, 'Wait till he gets a load of this!'"
[335] The Village Voice has downplayed this aspect of Swift's songwriting: "Being told What Songs Mean is like having a really pushy professor. And it imperils a true appreciation of Swift's talent, which is not confessional, but dramatic."
[336] New York Magazine believes the media scrutiny over her decision to use autobiographical detail "is sexist, inasmuch as it’s not asked of her male peers": "It’s a relief to see Swift, the ur-nice-girl, refuse to give the
mea culpa that many journalists she's talked to have sought ... I would hate for her to get shamed into discretion."
[337] The singer herself has said that all her songs are not factual
[338] and are often based on observations.
[339]Aside from her liner note clues, Swift tries not to talk specifically about song subjects "because these are real people. You try to give insight as to where you were coming from as a writer without completely throwing somebody under the bus."
[340]
Musical and vocal style
Swift's music contains elements of pop, pop rock, country and country-pop.
[341][341][342] She self-identifies as a country artist.
[343] Rolling Stone asserts that, "she might get played on the country station, but she's one of the few genuine rock stars we've got these days".
[344] Swift's own definition of country music "is really pretty simple. It's when someone sings about their life and what they know, from an authentic place ... One guy will write about how he grew up on a farm and fell in love and raised kids on that same farm. Some people sing about how, when they get sad, they go to the bar and drink whiskey. I write songs about how I can't seem to figure out relationships and how I'm fascinated by love".
[343] She has said there will be "a huge temptation" to make an alt-country record as her career progresses.
[45] The New York Times notes that, "There isn't much in Ms. Swift's music to indicate country – a few banjo strums, a pair of cowboy boots worn onstage, a bedazzled guitar – but there's something in her winsome, vulnerable delivery that's unique to Nashville."
[345] The New Yorker believes she is "considered part of Nashville's country-pop tradition only because she writes narrative songs with melodic clarity and dramatic shape—Nashville's stock-in-trade."
[346] The Guardian has said that Swift "cranks melodies out with the pitiless efficiency of a Scandinavian pop factory".
[316]Similarly,
Rolling Stone has noted that her melodies call to mind "Swedish pop gods Dr. Luke and
Max Martin".
[328]
Swift's voice has been described as "sweet but soft".
[347] In studio recordings, the
Los Angeles Times identifies Swift's "defining" vocal gesture as "the line that slides down like a contented sigh or up like a raised eyebrow, giving her beloved girl-time hits their air of easy intimacy".
[163] Rolling Stone, in a
Speak Now review, remarked: "Swift's voice is unaffected enough to mask how masterful she has become as a singer; she lowers her voice for the payoff lines in the classic mode of a shy girl trying to talk tough".
[348] In another review of
Speak Now,
The Village Voice noted that her phrasing was previously "bland and muddled, but that's changed. She can still sound strained and thin, and often strays into a pitch that drives some people crazy; but she's learned how to make words sound like what they mean".
[165] Slate, reviewing
Speak Now, described Swift as "a technically poor singer": "Though she does vary her phrasing in ways that attempt to mask her limited voice (the way she sneers, "She looks at me like I'm a trend/And she's so over it," on "Better Than Revenge" is especially effective), Swift is still noticeably off-pitch at least once on every song on the album".
[349] In a live setting, Swift, according to
The Hollywood Reporter, "does her best, but certainly doesn't have the pipes to go toe-to-toe with the likes of
Christina Aguilera or
Carrie Underwood".
[347] Her live vocals have been described as "flat", "thin, and sometimes as wobbly as a newborn colt".
[350][351] However, Swift has received praise for refusing to correct her pitch with
Auto-Tune.
[352][353][354] In an interview with
The New Yorker, Swift characterized herself primarily as a songwriter: "I write songs, and my voice is just a way to get those lyrics across".
[1][355] Scott Borchetta of Big Machine Records has conceded that Swift is "not the best technical singer" but describes her as the "best communicator that we've got".
[356] Swift's vocal presence is something that concerns her and she has "put a lot of work" into improving it.
[357] It was reported in 2010 that she continues to take vocal lessons.
[358][359] She has said that she only feels nervous performing "if I'm not sure what the audience thinks of me, like at award shows".
[360]
Public image
Swift has been described as "America's sweetheart" and "a role model".
[361][362] She has high
Q Score and
Davie-Brown Indexratings, reflecting a high level of public awareness (90 percent) and popularity (80 percent) in the United States.
[363] The singer considers it her "responsibility" to be conscious of her influence on young fans.
[364] A
Rolling Stone journalist who profiled Swift in 2009 remarked upon her polite manners: "If this is Swift's game face, it must be tattooed on because it never drops".
[49][365] In 2012,
Rolling Stone remarked upon Swift's "ease with glad-handing ... it's not hard to imagine her running for office someday"
[366] while
The Hollywood Reporter referred to her as "the Best People Person Since
Bill Clinton".
[367] It has been said that she is "the kind of driven, intensely ambitious person who’d thrive regardless of her profession".
[368] A 2012
Vogue cover story described Swift as "clever and funny and occasionally downright bawdy" in person.
[369] Grantland describes Swift as "dorky" and "openly neurotic in a way you'd never see from a blonde country princess like Faith Hill or Carrie Underwood. She is more like
Diane Keaton in
Annie Hall: overly gracious and eager to please but full of a nonstop, nervous, fluttering energy".
[370]
In the early years of her career, Swift's signature look consisted of sundresses and cowboy boots.
[371][372] This fashion style is still copied by many of the young fans who attend her concerts.
[371][373] At formal events, Swift became known for "sparkly, beaded dresses".
[371] Her naturally curly hairstyle is replicated by fans, and Swift has remarked: "I remember straightening my hair because I wanted to be like everybody else, and now the fact that anybody would emulate what I do? It's just funny."
[373] She was asked by
Vogue to cut bangs for a cover shoot in late 2011, and now straightens her hair.
[374] Swift favors
retro style and it has been said that she has the look of "a nineteen-thirties movie siren ... red lipstick, thick mascara."
[375][376] She was named an Icon of American Style by
Vogue in 2011.
[377] She has named
Françoise Hardy,
Jane Birkin,
Brigitte Bardot, and
Audrey Hepburn as her own style inspirations.
[378]
There has been much media commentary about Swift's reactions when she is recognized at award ceremonies.
[379][380] In 2011,
The Hollywood Reporter remarked that Swift "seems to be consistently shocked and wonderstruck by each awards win, despite racking up an ever-growing collection of Grammys, CMAs, MTV Moonmen and AMAs".
[379] Kristen Wiig parodied Swift's surprised facial expressions during a
Saturday Night Live sketch in February 2012.
[381] Swift later said she had seen the sketch: "I was laughing the entire time and then I realized that, as I was watching it, I was making the face she was making".
[382] At the Academy of Country Music Awards in April 2012, the ceremony's host
Blake Shelton joked in his opening monologue that Swift should release a perfume called "I can't believe I smell this good". When Swift later presented Shelton with the Academy's Best Male Vocalist award, "the two faced off, showing each other their ultra-surprised looks".
[383][384]
Feminist discussion
The merits of Swift as a
feminist have been widely discussed.
[385] She has been described by
Jezebel as "a feminist's nightmare": "Her image of being good and pure plays right into how much the
patriarchy fetishizes virginity, loves purity, and celebrates women who know their place as delicate flowers".
[386] A
Village Voice music critic, using supporting evidence from Swift's body of work, dismissed such criticisms as "shallow and gross, in that special way that things get gross when you cram shaded and living work through an ideological sieve like you're mechanically separating chicken".
[387] It has been said that anti-Swift feminists "criticize Taylor for being repressive and perpetuating a patriarchal virgin/whore dichotomy by being repressive and perpetuating a virgin/whore dichotomy ... When people dismiss the stories that Taylor Swift writes as unrealistic, unfeminist pap or dismiss Taylor Swift herself as a sexist figure – even if we take them at face value, even if we pretend that Taylor Swift is indeed a virgin who thinks having sex is a bad thing and falling in love and having babies is the best experience a girl can have, they're still wrong. They're still wrong to dismiss her. Because by dismissing her, they're saying that those experiences and those beliefs are invalid and girls shouldn't have them – and that if girls do have them, then they're inferior in some way (unfeminist, unintelligent, uncool, whatever) ... It's the opposite of slut-shaming. It's prude-shaming, and it's no better or more enlightened or more feminist than slut-shaming, because it's still shaming."
[388]
The song "
Fifteen" has been the subject of particular scrutiny. It has been said that the song contains a "feminist message" in the lyrics "Back then I swore I was gonna marry him some day, but I realized some bigger dreams of mine" and "In your life, you'll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team".
[389] Feminist critics claim the use of the word "everything" in the lyric "Abigail gave everything she had to a boy, who changed his mind, and we both cried" is a reference to virginity: "Songs like 'Fifteen' dig up the ancient Puritan ideal that girls can only access power by confidently and heterosexually denying access to their pants."
[390] However, others interpret "everything" as trust: "Abigail trusted and opened up to a boy for the first time, only to be let down. Maybe that includes sex, maybe it doesn't."
[389]
When asked by
The New York Times in 2010 whether she considered herself a feminist, Swift replied, "I have never really thought about that".
[391] In 2012, when again asked her position, she said that she was "raised by parents who brought me up to think if you work as hard as guys, you can go far in life." She added that she hoped her music was empowering to women: "There’s strength when you’re baring your emotions."
[392] Later that year, Swift told
Elle Canada that feminism was something "I have a lot to learn about ... I want to end up really educated about all these really big topics."
[393]
Acting career
Swift made her acting debut in a 2009 episode of CBS's
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, playing a rebellious teenager.
[394] The New York Times noted that the character allowed Swift to be "a little bit naughty, and credibly so".
[395] Rolling Stone felt she "held her own" and "does a good job with the script"
[396] while the
Chicago Tribune said she "acquits herself well".
[397] Later that year, Swift both hosted and performed as the musical guest for an episode of
Saturday Night Live.
[398] Entertainment Weeklydescribed her as "this season's best Saturday Night Live host so far", noting that she "was always up for the challenge, seemed to be having fun, and helped the rest of the cast nail the punchlines". Proving "admirably resilient in a wide variety of sketch roles", "Swift inspired more of a female, girly-in-the-best-sense sensibility in SNL than it's shown since the
Tina Fey-
Amy Poehlerdays".
[399]
Swift made her feature film acting debut in the 2010 ensemble comedy
Valentine's Day, playing the ditzy
Valley girlfriend of a high school jock.
[400] The
Los Angeles Times felt the performance suggested "serious comedic potential"
[401] while the
San Francisco Chronicle found her "very funny".
[402] Time remarked that Swift portrayed her character "rather charmingly";
[403] The Boston Globe described her as "adorably dorky".
[404] Salon asserted that she was "one of the few actors not wasted in "Valentine's Day". Her overgrown-pixie look and odd, widely set eyes lend her a little bit of
Marilyn and a little bit of
Lucille Ball: She's Taylor-made for comic greatness."
[405] However,
Variety found her "entirely undirected ... she needs to find a skilled director to tamp her down and channel her obviously abundant energy".
[406] The
Daily News described her performance as "painfully clunky" while
Slant Magazine found her "unwatchable".
[407][408] In 2012, Swift voiced the character of Audrey, a tree lover, in the animated film
The Lorax.
[409]
Philanthropy
Arts education
Swift is a supporter of arts education. In 2010, she donated $75,000 to Nashville's Hendersonville High School to help refurbish the school auditorium's sound and lighting systems.
[415] In 2012, she pledged $4 million to fund the building of a new education center at the
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville.
[416] The 7,500-square-foot building is scheduled to open in 2014 and will facilitate new programs and workshops for teenagers and senior citizens.
[417][418] The space will include three classrooms and an exhibit space, and will house interactive activities such as a musical petting zoo and a "wet" classroom space to make concert posters and other art projects.
[419] Museum officials have decided to name it The Taylor Swift Education Center and the singer will be involved in an advisory capacity.
[420] Also in 2012, Swift partnered with textbook rental company
Chegg to donate $60,000 to the music departments of six US colleges.
[421][422]
Children's literacy
Swift promotes children's literacy. In 2009, she donated $250,000 to various schools around the country that she had either attended or had other associations with. The money was used to buy books, fund educational programs and help pay teachers' salaries.
[423] In 2010, she took part in a live webcast,
Read Now! with Taylor Swift, broadcast exclusively in US schools to celebrate
Scholastic's Read Every Day campaign.
[424][425] In 2011, Swift donated 6,000 Scholastic books to
Reading Public Library, Pennsylvania
[426] and, in 2012, she donated 14,000 books to
Nashville Public Library, Tennessee.
[427] Most of the books were placed in circulation; the rest were gifted to children from low-income families, preschools and daycare centers.
[427] In 2012, she co-chaired the
National Education Association's Read Across America campaign and recorded a
PSA encouraging children to read.
[428][429] Also in 2012, Swift promoted the "power of reading" in a second live Scholastic webcast, broadcast directly to US classrooms.
[430]
Natural disaster relief
Throughout her career, Swift has donated money to help victims of natural disasters. In 2008, she donated the proceeds from her merchandise sales at the Country Music Festival to the
Red Cross's disaster relief fund.
[431] Later that year, she donated $100,000 to the Red Cross to help the victims of the
Iowa flood of 2008.
[432] In 2009, Swift supported the
Victorian Bushfire Appeal by joining the lineup at Sydney's
Sound Relief concert,
[433] reportedly making the biggest contribution of any artist to the Australian
Red Cross.
[434] In 2010, she took part in the
Hope for Haiti telethon; she performed and answered phone calls from viewers wishing to donate money.
[435] She also recorded a song for the
Hope for Haiti Now album.
[436] In response to the
May 2010 Tennessee floods, Swift donated $500,000 during a telethon hosted by
WSMV.
[437] Later that year, she donated $100,000 to help rebuild a playground in Hendersonville, Tennessee which was damaged by floodwater.
[438] In 2011, Swift used the final dress rehearsal for the North American leg of her Speak Now tour as a benefit concert for victims of
recent tornadoes in the United States, raising more than $750,000.
[439] She also donated $250,000 to
Alabama football coach
Nick Saban's charity, Nick's Kids, to aid in the tornado relief efforts of West Alabama.
[440] In 2012, Swift supported
Architecture for Humanity's Restore the Shore MTV telethon in the aftermath of
Hurricane Sandy.
[441]
LGBT support
Swift opposes
LGBT discrimination. Following the 2008
murder of Larry King, she recorded a
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network PSA to combat hate crimes.
[442] On the first anniversary of King's death, Swift told
Seventeen that her parents taught her "never to judge others based on whom they love, what color their skin is, or their religion".
[443] In 2011, the music video for Swift's anti-bullying song "Mean" dealt in part with homophobia in high schools; the video was later nominated for an MTV VMA social activism award.
[444][445][446] The New York Times believes she is part of "a new wave of young (and mostly straight) women who are providing the soundtrack for a generation of gay fans coming to terms with their identity in a time of turbulent and confusing cultural messages".
[444]
Charities for sick children
The singer is involved with a number of charities which provide services to sick children. In 2008, she donated a pink Chevy pick-up truck to the
Victory Junction Gang Camp; the truck is used to transport sick children from the airport to the camp.
[447] In 2009, after performing at the
BBC Children in Need annual telethon, she donated $20,000 to the cause.
[448] In 2011, as the Academy of Country Music's Entertainer of the Year, Swift donated $25,000 to
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Tennessee. This figure was matched by the Academy.
[449] In 2012, Swift participated in the
Stand Up to Cancer telethon, performing "
Ronan", a song she wrote in memory of a four-year-old boy who died of
neuroblastoma. The song was made available for digital download, with all proceeds donated to cancer-related charities.
[450] Swift has met with many sick fans through the
Make-A-Wish Foundation.
[451][452][453][454] She has also made private visits to hospitals such as St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the
Ronald McDonald House.
[455][456][457]
Other charitable endeavors
Swift has encouraged young people to volunteer in their local community as part of
Global Youth Service Day[18] and has promoted The @15 Fund, a social change platform underwritten by
Best Buy, which gives teenagers the opportunity to direct the company's philanthropy.
[458] In 2007, she launched a campaign to protect children from online predators, in partnership with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police.
[459] Also in 2007, she supported an
Allstate campaign which promotes safe teenage driving.
[460] In 2009, Swift recorded a Sound Matters PSA to make listeners aware of the importance of listening "
responsibly".
[461] She appeared in a
Got Milk? campaign in 2010.
[462] Swift has donated auctionable items to a large number of charities, including the
Elton John AIDS Foundation,
[463] the
UNICEF Tap Project,
[464] Oxfam International,
[465] Habitat For Humanity,
[466] MusiCares[467] and
Feeding America.
[468] She has also performed at a number of benefit concerts, including for the
Food Bank For New York City,
[469] the Reading, Writing & Rhythm Foundation,
[470] Christmas for Kids
[471] and
Shriners Hospitals for Children.
[472]
Personal life
Swift's main residence is a duplex penthouse in Midtown Nashville, Tennessee.
[1][473] She also maintains a residence in
Beverly Hills, California.
[474][475] In addition, she owns a house, purchased for her parents' use, in
Brentwood, Tennessee.
[476][477]According to
Forbes's Celebrity 100 list, released annually in the month of May, Swift earned $18 million in 2009,
[478] $45 million in 2010,
[479] $45 million in 2011
[480] and $57 million in 2012.
[481]
Relationships
Politics
On her eighteenth birthday, "the first thing" Swift did was register to vote.
[501][502] During the
2008 presidential campaign, she supported the Every Woman Counts campaign, aimed at engaging women in the political process, and was one of many country stars to record a
public service announcement for the Vote (For Your) Country campaign.
[503] She stated: "I don't think it's my job to try and influence people which way they should vote."
[4] Following President Obama's inauguration, she told
Rolling Stone that she supported the president: "I've never seen this country so happy about a political decision in my entire time of being alive. I'm so glad this was my first election."
[504]
In 2010, former U.S. President
George H. W. Bush attended the taping of a Swift television special in
Kennebunkport, Maine,
[505]and later described Swift as "unspoiled" and "very nice".
[506] In 2012, Swift was presented with a
Kids' Choice Award in recognition of her charitable work by
Michelle Obama, who praised her as someone who "has rocketed to the top of the music industry but still keeps her feet on the ground, someone who has shattered every expectation of what a 22-year old can accomplish".
[507] Swift later described the First Lady as "a role model".
[508] In a 2012 interview, Swift remarked that, although she tries to keep herself “as educated and informed as possible”, she doesn’t “talk about politics because it might influence other people."
[509] She has spoken of her interest in American history and has read books about
Abraham Lincoln,
John Adams, the
Founding Fathers and
Ellis Island.
[510]
Swift is a friend of the
Kennedy family. "She's a great friend of all of ours,"
Rory Kennedy has said. "She's awesome and we love her".
[511] The singer has spoken of her admiration for
Ethel Kennedy[512] and, when asked about her friendship with Swift, Ethel replied, "Oh, she is amazing! Such good company."
[513] Rory has said, "There is a mutual admiration society between my mother and Taylor Swift and I just love it! I think it says so much about Taylor – she has that ability to connect and cross generations ... She's terrific and such a great role model for young girls, as well as for all women, really ... She's just so curious and interested".
[513]
Awards and nominations
Discography
Concert tours
Filmography
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External links
