Taylor Swift

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Taylor Swift is an American singer and songwriter. She was born in Pennsylvania in 1989 and is named after the singer James Taylor. After a documentary about Faith Hill she wanted to become a country singer in Nashville. At eleven she visited record companies with her mother, but everyone turned her down. She therefore started to concentrate on writing and learned to play guitar at twelve. When she was fourteen the family moved to the Nashville area. After a performance at the Bluebird Cafe she signed with the new label Big Machine Records, on condition that she could write all her songs herself.

Music and breakthrough

Her debut Taylor Swift (2006) and Fearless (2008) were country records, but songs such as Teardrops on My Guitar, Love Story and You Belong with Me were also played on pop radio. On Red (2012) she worked for the first time with the Swedish producer Max Martin. With 1989 (2014) she made the move to synth-pop, with hits such as Shake It Off and Blank Space. Others followed, including Reputation (2017), Lover (2019), the subdued folk albums Folklore and Evermore (2020) and Midnights (2022). Her songs are often personal and tell, like a diary, of love, quarrels and growing up.

Influence

After a dispute with her old label Big Machine over the rights to her first albums, she re-recorded four of those albums, with the addition Taylor's Version. In this way she got the recordings into her own hands after all. Her Eras Tour (2023 and 2024) became the highest-grossing concert tour ever. Swift shows how a songwriter can keep reinventing herself and also stay in control in business.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 2006Taylor Swift
• 2008Fearless (Taylor's Version)
• 2010Speak Now
• 2012Red
• 20141989
• 2017reputation
• 2019Lover
• 2020evermore
• 2020folklore
• 2021Fearless (Taylor's Version)
• 2021Red (Taylor’s version)
• 2022Midnights
• 20231989 (Taylor’s version)
• 2023Speak Now (Taylor’s version)
• 2024THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT
• 2025The Life of a Showgirl

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 12: The Hit Factory^NL Reader
• Mixtape 13: From Cassette to Cloud^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Stockholm pop (Max Martin) GenreLater he wrote for Taylor Swift and The Weeknd, among others.

See also

• Speak Now
• reputation
• folklore
• THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT
• The Life of a Showgirl
• Stockholm pop (Max Martin)