Taylor Swift is a music sensation, a seven-time Grammy winner and the friend we all want to have, and she’s back at it with the release of her fifth studio album, “1989,” on Oct. 27.
Swift is your typical girl’s girl; she uses her social media accounts with upwards of 12 million followers to post pictures of her cats, cookies and letters to her best friends. She even comments encouraging notes on her fan’s pictures, and she once wrote an uplifting comment on a young, bullied fan’s Instagram, saying, “Let them keep living in the darkness and we’ll keep walking in the sunlight. Forever on your side, Taylor.”
Swift is unabashedly her true self, and her positive and creative outlook on life has kept her a humble yet record-breaking artist.
Swift signed with her record company at age 14 and released her first album, self-titled “Taylor Swift,” at age 16. She was driven and ambitious, and Rolling Stone described her as “bright-eyed, but remarkably seasoned.”
Her song, “Our Song,” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs Chart, making her the youngest artist to write and sing a No. 1 country song.
Her next album, “Fearless,” was the highest-selling album of 2009, and the album won the Album of the Year and Best Country Album award at the Grammy Awards. Next, Swift came out with the albums “Speak Now” and “Red,” both of which were hugely popular and evolved toward more mature lyrics. Her song “Mean” won Best Country Song at the 2010 Grammys. Taylor identifies as a country singer, but her recent albums and songs verge more on pop.
Swift is known for using her personal love life and stories as inspiration for great songs. Fans obsessively trace songs back to Swift’s previous boyfriends and wager their best guesses at which relationship the song is about. However, some songs, such as “Dear John,” written after Swift’s short-lived relationship with singer John Mayer, don’t require much head-scratching.
Though she often receives criticism for using break-ups and relationships to write hit songs, Swift is vigilant in her belief that songs should come from personal and real experiences, and that is what makes her songs so relatable for girls.
She claims her inspiration for songs is the uncertainty and mystery of love. Her honest and genuine song writing gives listeners a connection to the songs and a story to which they can relate.
Her albums and songs are her diary and record of her life and love experiences. Stevie Nicks, one of Swift’s musical inspirations, describes Swift’s songs as “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.”
Two songs from her latest album, “1989,” “Shake It Off” and “Out of the Woods” have already been released, and “Shake It Off” debuted as No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 100.
Swift has released a line of lyrics from the album for the past five days and will presumably continue to post lyrics until the album is released. Swift veers from her country-pop roots in this album ,and she describes “1989” as her “first documented, official pop album.” Named after her birth year, “1989” promises new hit ballads and love stories that girls (and secretly boys) can sing and relate to.
Writer and photographer Whitney Pastorek nailed a description of Swift on the official Taylor Swift website when she said, “She is awkwardly honest and powerfully empathetic; a brazen superfan, loyal friend, fierce protector of hearts; and one of the world’s greatest ambassadors for the power of just being yourself.”
In short, Swift is multi-faceted, and her latest pop album is sure to captivate listeners with its new style.
