She stands high and tall over the rest of the women in the music industry. Her music captivates the minds of all who listen. I mean she has those platinum albums to her name. She’s just a few weeks from launching her third sold out world tour. She also has seven Grammys to her name.
Taylor Swift and her music are spreading like wildfire. I got caught up in hubbub and am a loyal Swiftie. Her music tells great stories of struggle. She talks as if she is someone much older than she is. She is only 23 years old. Let that sink in, as a sophomore in high school at just 16 she released an album. She wrote these songs as a freshman in high school. The album reached the top five of the Billboard 200; it featured songs about her observations of other people’s relationships before being in one her self. The album was launched with a release of five singles prior to the full album release. In the United States the album sold well with high praise from critics.
Two years later her next album Fearless debuted to more great response. Again like the prior album it made it to the top five of the Billboard 200. But this time, it made it to number one, and it stayed there for 11 consecutive weeks setting a record for longest stint at the top of the Billboard 200 for a country female singer. Fearless was the best selling album of 2009, and at 20 swift became the youngest to ever accomplish the feat. The album with so much success launched her first headline tour, the Fearless tour, which went from April 2009 to June 2010. As of December 2012 the album has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. This album was definitely the album that catapulted her to the fame she has now.
Two years after the bestseller Fearless launched, Swift was back at it again in 2010. The album Speak Now launched her into the ionosphere. In its debut week between album and digital sale it sold over one million copies. It debuted as the number one album on Billboard’s 200. Along with this success Swift launched another tour that captured America. Now stating this cleanly as opinion this is my favorite album of the last five years excluding Recovery (EMINEM) as Em is just an alien from another galaxy with regards to his music.
But speak now truly talks to me, I feel deeply sorry for her in some of these songs. In Back to December she tells about how her relationship with Taylor Lautner went south and ultimately ended on Christmas day with Swift dumping him. She deeply regrets breaking it off with him as she tells. But now in 2012 both of them have moved on, at the MTV Music Awards in the fall he seemed to be genuinely happy for her success. Also on Speak now were the singles Mean and Mine. Mean is personally my top five songs ever it is honestly the best way of telling off someone.
In the Song Swift tells a story about someone who has constantly criticized her. I found out from an interview she had on MTV that the song was about a critic. The entire song is her telling the critic to shove it. She tells how she is gonna be happy with the way she lives her life. That the critic is just an ass. The critic constantly rips her for the same thing over and over again. So Swift just doesn’t care that they are too busy ranting about the same old bitter things grumbling about how she can’t sing. The song is great. I could go on and on about how damn good speak now was but I’d be rambling.
Then after speak now, Swift caught lightning in a bottle and continued with her amazing story. At just 22 years old her fourth album launched to more of the same phenomenal success. The first song debuting in August which was “We are never ever Getting back together. The song is just flat awesome. The song tells a loose story about Swift’s relationship with actor Jake Gyllenhaal. As the story goes (via MTV Interview) she was in the studio just spitballing ideas for a song, that this song was just a spur of the moment thing. According to the story one of Gyllenhaal’s friends walked into the room and asked her when Jake and her were getting back together. She was just stunned and didn’t know how to react. But she replied “We are never ever getting back together……Like Ever.” Little did she know that statement would be the chorus to the song that would sell 623,000 copies in the first week.
That was the first song to the album Red which was launched through four singles culminating in the full album release on October 22, 2012. The album is good; it is consensus it is good. For me my second favorite album of Swift. Another song on this album was a great guess. The song “I knew you were Trouble” was in my guess written about one Direction artist Harry Styles. No confirmation or denial yet, but the song fits. She talks about how “when he walked in she knew he was trouble and that all she’d ever be is a new notch on his belt and that’s all Swift would ever be”
This album also reached the number one spot on Billboard’s 200. This album was Swift’s second platinum album. It prompted another tour, this time a worldwide tour. Which I am proud to say I will be going to in mid July.
My favorite story from that album is one that just recently happened. At the 2013 Grammy awards Swift opened the show. She not only opened the show, she stole the freakin show. It was by far the best performance of the night and she got snubbed for best album. Just my opinion, but back to the story she opened with “We are never ever getting back together. But during the chorus about how “ we are never ever getting back together…….Like Ever” she through on a British accent to call out her ex Harry Styles.
With all the success somehow the media and some of the public have found a way to hate on Swift. People, especially those in the adolescent community frequently label her with slut. For the record, in her lifetime she has only been confirmed in relationships with four people, John Mayer, Taylor Lautner, Jake Gyllenhaal and Harry Styles. Is it that ridiculous for her, in four years, to date four people ? So yeah, calling her a slut doesn’t make it any more likely you are getting with Harry Styles so you should just pipe down. Swift is entertaining millions and millions of fans with her talent. So can everyone leave her alone. Like hell she’s just trying to find someone out there. So let’s all act rational and plug in our headphones and listen to what we want.
Oh and if by chance you see this Taylor, yeah, Kinda love you, you should call me sometime. If you are new to Swift’s music below is a playlist of 10 of her better songs(she has no bad songs through four albums)
1)Mine
2)Mean
3)Fearless
4)Speak Now
5)We are never ever getting back together
6)I knew you were Trouble
7)Enchanted
8)TIm McGraw
9)Red
10)Begin Again
I’d also throw in back to December to hear the whole Taylor Lautner Story
Public. “Taylor Swift.” – Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.
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