Taylor Swift is an American singer-songwriter. She signed a record deal with the then-independent label Big Machine Records in 2005 and, with the exception of several cover performances and two guest features, has subsequently written or co-written every song she has released and has also contributed as a writer to songs released by other artists. Swift released her eponymous debut album in 2006.[1] She wrote three of the album's tracks: "Our Song", "Should've Said No", and "The Outside" alone. The remaining eight were co-written with Liz Rose, Robert Ellis Orrall, Brian Maher, and Angelo Petraglia.[2] In 2007, she released her first extended play (EP), Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, which includes two original self-written tracks: "Christmases When You Were Mine" and "Christmas Must Be Something More".
Beautiful Eyes, Swift's second EP, was released in 2008 and features alternate takes of songs from her debut album, as well as two new tracks; the title track and "I Heart ?".[3] Swift wrote most of her songs from her second album, Fearless (2008) while she promoted her debut album as opening act for country artists. Seeing as collaborators were not available on the road, Swift self-penned eight of her second album's tracks while the rest were co-written with Rose, Hillary Lindsey, Colbie Caillat, and John Rich.[4][5] She contributed two songs, "Today Was a Fairytale" and "Jump Then Fall", to the Valentine's Day soundtrack, and recorded a cover of Better Than Ezra's "Breathless" for the Hope for Haiti Now album. Swift wrote every track of her Speak Now (2010) album without any co-writers. The album expands on the country pop style of her previous work and touches on themes of love, romance, and heartbreak.[6] In late 2011, Swift contributed two original songs—"Safe & Sound", featuring duo The Civil Wars, and "Eyes Open"—to The Hunger Games soundtrack album.
Swift's fourth album Red (2012) marked a change in her musical style with the experimentation of heartland rock, dubstep, and dance-pop.[7] In addition to collaborating with producer Nathan Chapman—who also recorded her first three albums—she worked with new producers such as Dann Huff, Max Martin, and Shellback; the latter two also co-wrote the album with her.[8] In 2013, she provided guest vocals for Tim McGraw's "Highway Don't Care", which features guitar work by Keith Urban, and penned "Sweeter than Fiction" for the One Chance soundtrack album.
Swift released her fifth album 1989 in 2014. Credited as her "first documented, official pop album", it marks a departure from her previous country albums.[9] It incorporates musical genres, such as dance-pop, electropop and synth-pop, and is described as an album "driven by synths and drums in lieu of guitar".[10] For the album, Swift worked with new co-writers, including Jack Antonoff, Ryan Tedder, and Ali Payami. Swift and Martin served as the executive producer. She enlisted her long-time collaborators Chapman, Martin, Shellback, and for the first time Noel Zancanella, Mattman & Robin, and Greg Kurstin.[11] In December 2016, Swift recorded the song "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" for the film Fifty Shades Darker with British singer Zayn Malik. On her sixth album Reputation (2017), Swift served as the executive producer, and worked with long-time collaborators Antonoff, Martin, Shellback, alongside new collaborators such as Oscar Görres and Oscar Holter, and Future as featured artists on the album.[12]
On Swift's seventh studio album Lover (2019), she served as the executive producer and worked with long-time collaborator Antonoff alongside new collaborators Joel Little, Louis Bell, Frank Dukes, Sounwave, St. Vincent and Cautious Clay. The album featured Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco and the Dixie Chicks.[13] The title track remix was released featuring guest vocals and lyrics from Shawn Mendes. In November 2019, Swift released "Beautiful Ghosts", a song written with British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber for the Cats motion picture soundtrack. The week before her birthday in 2019, Swift released a non-album Christmas single titled "Christmas Tree Farm". In January 2020, she released the politically-themed track "Only the Young" alongside Miss Americana, a Netflix documentary following her life and career over the course of several years.
Swift released her eighth studio album Folklore in July 2020; the surprise release included sixteen standard tracks and one bonus track on the physical deluxe edition. She collaborated with Antonoff, Aaron Dessner of The National, William Bowery, and Bon Iver, the latter featuring on "Exile".[14] In December 2020, five months after Swift released Folklore, she surprise released her ninth studio album, Evermore, including fifteen tracks and two bonus tracks on the physical deluxe edition. On Evermore, Swift collaborated with Bon Iver, the National and Haim.[15] In 2021, Swift and Haim released "Gasoline" from the expanded edition of Haim's 2020 album Women in Music Pt. III.[16]
Starting with Fearless in 2020, Swift began re-recording her old music after losing the ownership of her masters from her first six studio albums. In April 2021 Swift released Fearless (Taylor's Version) as the first re-recorded album. The album release was preceded with the three singles; "Love Story (Taylor's Version)", "You All Over Me" and "Mr. Perfectly Fine".[17]
Jun 27, 2021
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AureliusReyes
