The girl who would become the music industry’s most formidable force was born on a Christmas tree farm.

December 13, 1989. West Reading, Pennsylvania. Taylor Alison Swift arrived into a world that wasn’t ready for her — not yet. Her father, Scott, was a stockbroker. Her mother, Andrea, was a mutual fund marketing executive who stayed home to raise Taylor and her younger brother, Austin. They weren’t rich, not really. Comfortable, yes. But the Christmas tree farm her father bought from a client was more of a family project than a fortune.

Taylor was named after James Taylor. She identifies as Christian. She attended preschool and kindergarten at the Alvernia Montessori School, run by Bernardine Franciscan sisters. Then the family moved to Wyomissing, a suburban town where Taylor attended Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School.

At nine years old, she discovered musical theater. Four productions with the Berks Youth Theater Academy. Regular trips to New York City for vocal and acting lessons. She was a child who didn’t know how to do anything halfway.

Then she heard Shania Twain.

“I wanted to just run around the block four times and daydream about everything,” Swift later said. Shania’s songs made her feel something she couldn’t explain — a longing, a hunger, a certainty that music was the only thing that made sense.

She shifted her focus to country music. She spent weekends performing at local festivals and events. After watching a documentary about Faith Hill, she became convinced: she needed to move to Nashville.

She was eleven years old.

 

She traveled with her mother to Nashville, demo tapes in hand — karaoke covers of Dolly Parton and The Chicks. She knocked on doors. She submitted her work. Rejection after rejection after rejection.

“Everyone in that town wanted to do what I wanted to do,” she said. “So I kept thinking to myself: I need to figure out a way to be different.”

When she was twelve, a computer repairman and local musician named Ronnie Cremer taught her to play guitar. He helped with her first songwriting efforts. She wrote a song called “Lucky You.” It wasn’t great. But it was hers.

She and her parents started working with New York-based talent manager Dan Dymtrow. She modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch as part of their “Rising Stars” campaign. She had an original song included on a Maybelline compilation CD. She attended meetings with major labels.

At an RCA Records showcase, she performed her original songs. RCA gave her an artist development deal. She began making frequent trips to Nashville with her mother.

Her father transferred to Merrill Lynch’s Nashville office when she was fourteen. The family relocated to a lakefront house in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Taylor attended Hendersonville High School but transferred to the Aaron Academy after two years — homeschooling that could better accommodate her touring schedule. She graduated a year early.

In Nashville, she worked with experienced Music Row songwriters — Troy Verges, Brett Beavers, Brett James, Mac McAnally, The Warren Brothers. She formed a lasting partnership with Liz Rose. They met for two-hour writing sessions every Tuesday afternoon after school.

Rose later said: “Those 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.”

Swift became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house. But she left RCA Records at fourteen.

“I genuinely felt that I was running out of time,” she said. “I wanted to capture these years of my life on an album while they still represented what I was going through.”

 

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 an independent label called Big Machine Records. She had first met Borchetta in 2004.

Swift became one of Big Machine’s first signings. Her father purchased a 3% stake in the company for an estimated $120,000.

She began working on her debut album. She persuaded Big Machine to hire her demo producer, Nathan Chapman — the only person she felt had the right chemistry. She wrote three of the album’s songs alone. She co-wrote the remaining eight with Rose, Robert Ellis Orrall, Brian Maher, and Angelo Petraglia.

Taylor Swift was released on October 24, 2006.

Jon Caramanica of The New York Times described it as “a small masterpiece of pop-minded country, both wide-eyed and cynical, held together by Ms. Swift’s firm, pleading voice.”

The album peaked at number five on the Billboard 200. It spent 157 weeks on the chart — the longest stay by any release in the US that decade. As of August 2016, it had sold over 7.75 million copies worldwide.

Big Machine Records was still in its infancy during the June 2006 release of the lead single, “Tim McGraw.” Swift and her mother helped stuff CD singles into envelopes to send to radio stations.

She spent much of 2006 promoting the album — a radio tour, television appearances, opening for Rascal Flatts on select dates during their 2006 tour. Rascal Flatts had fired their previous opening act, Eric Church, for playing longer than his allotted time. Church jokingly told Swift she should give him her first gold record as thanks for getting fired.

She sent him her first gold record with a note: “Thanks for playing too long and too loud on the Flatts tour. I sincerely appreciate it. — Taylor.”

Borchetta said that although record industry peers initially disapproved of his signing a sixteen-year-old singer-songwriter, Swift had tapped into a previously unknown market: teenage girls who listened to country music.

Following “Tim McGraw,” four more singles were released throughout 2007 and 2008: “Teardrops on My Guitar,” “Our Song,” “Picture to Burn,” and “Should’ve Said No.” All appeared on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. “Our Song” and “Should’ve Said No” reached number one.

With “Our Song,” Swift became the youngest person to single-handedly write and sing a number one song on the chart.

She also released Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection in October 2007 and the EP Beautiful Eyes in July 2008. She promoted her debut album extensively as an opening act for other artists on their tours.

The accolades came fast. She was one of the recipients of the Nashville Songwriters Association’s “Songwriter/Artist of the Year” in 2007 — the youngest person ever honored with the title. She won the Country Music Association’s Horizon Award for Best New Artist. The Academy of Country Music’s Top New Female Vocalist. The American Music Awards’ Favorite Country Female Artist.

She was also nominated for Best New Artist at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards.

She opened for Rascal Flatts on their 2008 summer and fall tour. In July of that year, she began a romance with singer Joe Jonas. It ended three months later.

She would write about it. She always wrote about it.

Hinged sentence: The Christmas tree farm girl had planted something nobody could kill — but Nashville had no idea what was about to hit it.

 

Fearless was released on November 11, 2008.

The lead single, “Love Story,” had dropped in September. It peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one in Australia. Four more singles followed throughout 2008 and 2009: “White Horse,” “You Belong with Me,” “Fifteen,” and “Fearless.” “You Belong with Me” was the album’s highest-charting single on the Hot 100, peaking at number two.

The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. It was the top-selling album of 2009 in the United States.

Swift’s first concert tour — the Fearless Tour — promoted the album and grossed over $63 million. Journey to Fearless, a three-part documentary mini-series, aired on television and was later released on DVD and Blu-ray. She also performed as a supporting act for Keith Urban’s Escape Together World Tour in 2009.

At the CMT Music Awards, she won Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year for “Love Story.” She made a parody video of the song with rapper T-Pain called “Thug Story,” which aired during the show.

Then came the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

The music video for “You Belong with Me” was named Best Female Video. Swift was on stage, mid-acceptance speech, when Kanye West walked up, took the microphone, and said: “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.”

The crowd booed. Swift stood frozen. Beyoncé looked horrified.

The incident became the subject of controversy, widespread media attention, and countless internet memes. James Montgomery of MTV argued that the incident — and subsequent media attention — turned Swift into a bona fide mainstream celebrity.

That year, she won five American Music Awards, including Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album. Billboard named her 2009’s Artist of the Year. The album ranked number 99 on NPR’s 2017 list of the 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women.

At the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, Fearless was named Album of the Year and Best Country Album. “White Horse” won Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Swift was the youngest artist to win Album of the Year.

During the ceremony, she sang “You Belong with Me” and “Rhiannon” with Stevie Nicks. The performance received negative reviews and caused media backlash. But Caramanica of 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.”

She became the youngest artist to be named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association. Fearless also won the CMA Album of the Year award.

She contributed backing vocals to John Mayer’s “Half of My Heart.” She co-wrote and recorded “Best Days of Your Life” with Kellie Pickler. She co-wrote two songs for the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack: “You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home” and “Crazier.” She provided vocals and co-wrote for the rock band Boys Like Girls’ “Two Is Better Than One.”

She contributed two songs to the Valentine’s Day soundtrack, including “Today Was a Fairytale” — which became her first number one on the Canadian Hot 100 and her second number-two-peaking song in the United States.

While filming her cinematic debut in Valentine’s Day in October 2009, she began a romantic relationship with co-star Taylor Lautner. They broke up later that year.

The film saw her play the ditzy girlfriend of a high school jock — a role that The Los Angeles Times felt showed Swift had “serious comedic potential.” On the other hand, a critic for Variety deemed her “entirely undirected,” arguing she needed to find a skilled director “to tamper down and channel her obviously abundant energy.”

She made her TV acting debut in a 2009 episode of CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, playing a rebellious teenager. The New York Times noted the character allowed Swift to be “a little bit naughty — and credibly so.”

Later that year, she both hosted and performed as the musical guest on an episode of Saturday Night Live — and was the first host to write their own opening monologue. Entertainment Weekly described her as “this season’s best SNL host so far,” noting she was “always up for the challenge, seemed to be having fun, and helped the rest of the cast nail the punch lines.”

 

In August 2010, she released “Mine” — the lead single from her third studio album, Speak Now. It entered the US charts at number three, making Swift the second female artist in Hot 100 history (after Mariah Carey) to debut multiple tracks in the top five in one year. The other was “Today Was a Fairytale” at number two.

She wrote the album alone. She co-produced every track.

Speak Now was released on October 25, 2010. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and was the sixteenth album in chart history to achieve opening-week sales of one million copies. It became the fastest-selling digital album by a female artist, with 278,000 downloads in a week — earning Swift an entry in the 2010 Guinness World Records.

Three of the album’s singles — “Mine,” “Back to December,” and “Mean” — peaked in the top ten in Canada. In the US, the first two, along with the title track, peaked in the top ten of the Hot 100.

Later in 2010, she briefly dated actor Jake Gyllenhaal.

“Mean” won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. Swift performed it during the ceremony. Claire Suddath of Time felt she delivered “her comeback on key and with a vengeance.” Jamey D. Weather of USA Today wrote that the criticism in 2010 seemed to have made her “a better songwriter and live performer.”

She won other awards for Speak Now: Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association, Woman of the Year by Billboard, and Entertainer of the Year by both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association in 2011.

At the American Music Awards of 2011, she won Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album. Rolling Stone placed Speak Now at number 45 in its 2012 list of the 50 Best Female Albums of All Time.

The Speak Now World Tour ran from February 2011 to March 2012 and grossed over $123 million. In November 2011, she released her first live album, Speak Now World Tour – Live.

The following month, she contributed two original songs to The Hunger Games soundtrack: “Safe & Sound” (co-written and recorded with The Civil Wars and T-Bone Burnett) and “Eyes Open.” “Safe & Sound” won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media and was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.

She contributed vocals to rapper B.o.B’s “Both of Us,” released in May 2012.

From July to September 2012, she dated political heir Conor Kennedy.

Then came “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”

Hinged sentence: Every time they tried to write her off, she wrote a hit about it — and Nashville started realizing they were holding a tiger by the tail.

 

In August 2012, Swift released “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” — the lead single from her fourth studio album, Red. It became her first number one in the US and New Zealand. It reached the top slot on iTunes’ digital song sales chart fifty minutes after its release, earning a Guinness World Record for fastest-selling single in digital history.

She released the album’s second single, “Begin Again,” in October. It reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100. Other singles from the album included “I Knew You Were Trouble,” “22,” “Everything Has Changed,” “The Last Time,” and “Red.” “I Knew You Were Trouble” peaked at number two on the Hot 100.

Red was released on October 22, 2012. It incorporated new genres for Swift: heartland rock, dubstep, and dance pop. The album 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 in the United States and made Swift the first female to have two million-selling album openings — a record recognized by Guinness.

The Red Tour ran from March 2013 to June 2014 and grossed over $150 million. It broke the ticket sales record in China, with all 18,000 tickets sold in sixty seconds.

Red earned several accolades, including four nominations at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. Its single “I Knew You Were Trouble” won Best Female Video at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.

Swift was named Best Female Country Artist at the 2012 American Music Awards and Artist of the Year at the 2013 ceremony. She received the Nashville Songwriters Association’s Songwriter/Artist Award for the fifth and sixth consecutive years in 2012 and 2013. She was also honored by the association with a special Pinnacle Award — only the second recipient after Garth Brooks.

During this time, she had a short-term relationship with British singer Harry Styles.

In 2013, Swift co-wrote and co-produced “Sweeter Than Fiction” with Jack Antonoff for the One Chance film soundtrack and received a Best Original Song nomination at the 71st Golden Globe Awards.

She provided guest vocals for Tim McGraw’s song “Highway Don’t Care,” featuring guitar work by Keith Urban. She performed “As Tears Go By” with The Rolling Stones in Chicago as part of the band’s “50 & Counting” tour. After the performance, she stated that the band was a major influence on her career outlook. She also joined Florida Georgia Line on stage during their set at the 2013 Country Radio Seminar to sing “Cruise.”

She voiced Audrey — a tree lover — in the animated film The Lorax. She made a cameo in the sitcom New Girl. She had a supporting role in the film adaptation of The Giver.

In March 2014, Swift relocated to New York City. She was working on her fifth studio album, 1989. She promoted the album through various campaigns, including inviting fans to secret album-listening sessions.

Credited as her first “documented, official pop album,” it marked a departure from her country albums.

1989 was released on October 27, 2014. It sold 1.28 million copies in the US during its first week of release and debuted atop the Billboard 200. This made Swift the first act to have three albums sell more than one million copies in their opening week — another Guinness World Record.

As of June 2017, 1989 had sold over ten million copies worldwide.

The album was supported by three US number-one singles: “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” and “Bad Blood” (featuring Kendrick Lamar). Two US top-ten entries: “Style” and “Wildest Dreams.” Two US top-fifty entries: “Out of the Woods” and “New Romantics.”

“Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” and “Bad Blood” also topped the charts in Australia and Canada. The video for “Bad Blood” won Video of the Year and Best Collaboration at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards.

The 1989 World Tour ran from May to December 2015 and was the highest-grossing tour of the year, with $250 million in total revenue.

Prior to 1989’s release, Swift stressed the importance of albums to artists and fans. In November 2014, she removed her entire catalog from Spotify, arguing that the streaming company’s ad-supported free service undermined the premium service, which provides higher royalties for songwriters.

In a June 2015 open letter, she criticized Apple Music for not offering royalties to artists during the streaming service’s free three-month trial period and stated that she would pull 1989 from the catalog. The following day, Apple announced it would pay artists during the free trial period. Swift agreed to stream 1989 on the service.

Swift was named Billboard’s Woman of the Year in 2014 — becoming the first artist to win the award twice. At the 2014 American Music Awards, she received the inaugural Dick Clark Award for Excellence.

In 2015, she won the Brit Award for International Female Solo Artist. She was one of eight artists to receive a 50th Anniversary Milestone Award at the Academy of Country Music Awards.

She was the first woman — and fifth act overall — to win Album of the Year twice as a lead artist.

She dated Scottish DJ and producer Calvin Harris from March 2015 to June 2016. Prior to their breakup, Swift and Harris co-wrote the song “This Is What You Came For,” which featured vocals from Rihanna. Swift was initially credited under the pseudonym Nils Sjöberg.

She subsequently dated English actor Tom Hiddleston for a few months. She began dating English actor Joe Alwyn in September 2016.

She wrote the song “Better Man” for Little Big Town’s seventh album, The Breaker, released in November. The song earned Swift an award for Song of the Year at the 51st CMA Awards.

She and English singer Zayn Malik released a single together, “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever,” for the soundtrack of Fifty Shades Darker. The song reached number two in the US and won Best Collaboration at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards.

 

In August 2017, Swift successfully sued David Mueller, a former morning show personality for Denver’s KYGO-FM. Four years earlier, Swift had informed Mueller’s bosses that he had sexually assaulted her by groping her at an event. After being fired, Mueller accused Swift of lying and sued her for damages from his loss of employment. Swift counter-sued for sexual assault — for one dollar.

The jury rejected Mueller’s claims and ruled in favor of Swift.

She thereafter cleared her social media accounts. Then she released “Look What You Made Me Do” as the lead single from her sixth album, reputation. The song topped the charts in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, and the US.

reputation was released in November 2017. The album incorporated a heavier, darker electro-pop sound with hip-hop and EDM influences — new genres for Swift. It debuted atop the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 1.21 million copies. With this achievement, Swift became the first act to have four albums sell one million copies within one week in the US. The album topped the charts in the UK, Australia, and Canada.

It spawned six other singles, including the US top-five entry “Ready for It” and three top-twenty singles: “End Game” (featuring Ed Sheeran and rapper Future), “Gorgeous,” and “Delicate.” Other singles included “New Year’s Day” (exclusively released to US country radio) and “Getaway Car” (the final single in Australia).

In April 2018, Swift featured on Sugarland’s “Babe” from their album Bigger.

In support of reputation, she embarked on her Reputation Stadium Tour, which ran from May to November 2018. In the US, the tour grossed $266.1 million in box office and sold over two million tickets — breaking Swift’s own record for the highest-grossing US tour by a woman, previously held by her 1989 World Tour in 2015. Worldwide, the tour grossed $345.7 million, making it the second highest-grossing concert tour of the year.

At the American Music Awards of 2018, Swift won Tour of the Year, Artist of the Year, Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, and Favorite Pop/Rock Album for reputation. With a total of 23 awards, she became the most awarded female winner in AMA history — a record previously held by Whitney Houston.

reputation was Swift’s last album under her twelve-year contract with Big Machine Records.

In November 2018, she signed a new multi-album deal with Big Machine’s distributor, Universal Music Group, in the US. Her subsequent releases were promoted under the Republic Records imprint. Swift said the contract included a provision for her to maintain ownership of her master recordings. In addition, in the event that Universal sold any part of its stake in Spotify, Spotify agreed to distribute a non-recuperable portion of the proceeds among their artists.

In late November, Big Machine Records released a reputation Stadium Tour playlist for streaming services. On December 31, Swift released her reputation Stadium Tour’s accompanying concert film on Netflix.

 

Lover was released on August 23, 2019.

It was Swift’s sixth consecutive album to sell more than 500,000 copies in a single week — making her the first female artist to do so. All eighteen songs from the album charted on the Billboard Hot 100 the same week, setting a record for the most simultaneous entries by a woman. It was the world’s best-selling studio album of 2019, selling 3.2 million copies.

Three singles preceded the release: “ME!,” “You Need to Calm Down,” and “Lover.” All reached the top ten on the Hot 100. “ME!” debuted at number 100 and rose to number two a week later — scoring the biggest single-week jump in chart history.

At the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, “ME!” won Best Visual Effects, and “You Need to Calm Down” won Video of the Year and Video for Good. Swift was the first female — and second artist overall — to win Video of the Year for a video that she directed.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry honored Swift as the Global Best-Selling Artist of 2019. This made her the first woman to win the honor twice (she had previously won in 2014).

At the 2019 American Music Awards, she won six awards, including Artist of the Year and Artist of the Decade.

She was cast as Bombalurina in the movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats. She recorded and released “Beautiful Ghosts,” an original song she wrote with Webber for the film’s soundtrack, in November 2019. Although critics reviewed the film negatively, Swift’s role received positive feedback.

Her documentary Miss Americana, which chronicles part of Swift’s life and career, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was released on Netflix on January 31. The documentary features the song “Only the Young,” which Swift wrote after the 2018 United States elections.

In February 2020, Swift signed an exclusive global publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group after her sixteen-year contract with Sony/ATV Music Publishing expired.

Footage from Swift’s 2019 City of Lover concert in Paris — part of a promotional campaign for Lover — aired on ABC on May 17, 2020. Swift released live versions of the Lover tracks she performed at the concert after the television special’s premiere.

Hinged sentence: Just when she thought she’d finally won control of her own story, the industry reminded her that nothing she built was truly hers.

 

During promotion for Lover in 2019, Swift became embroiled in a publicized dispute with talent manager Scooter Braun and her former label, Big Machine, regarding the acquisition of the masters of her back catalog.

Swift disdained the transaction, stating she had been trying to buy her masters for years. She described Braun as an “incessant, manipulative bully.” She claimed that Braun offered her a chance at bidding on her masters on the condition of signing a non-disclosure agreement regarding her public statements about him — which she refused.

According to Swift, Braun and Big Machine founder Scott Borchetta blocked her from performing her older songs at the 2019 American Music Awards and from using older material for the documentary Miss Americana. These issues were later resolved.

In April 2020, Big Machine released Live from Clear Channel Stripped 2008 — a live album of Swift’s performances at a 2008 radio show — which Swift did not authorize.

In October, Braun sold Swift’s masters, videos, and artworks to Shamrock Holdings for $300 million. Swift began re-recording her back catalog in November 2020. She declined an offer by Shamrock to become an equity partner on the grounds that Braun would continue to profit from her work.

“I want to own the songs I wrote,” she said. “I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”

 

Then came folklore.

July 24, 2020. A surprise album. Written and recorded while Swift was in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The album included collaborations with Bon Iver, Aaron Dessner, and Jack Antonoff. Its indie-folk production and Swift’s vivid lyrics received critical acclaim — the best of her career, many said.

folklore sold two million units worldwide within its first week and broke the record for first-day album streams by a female artist on Spotify. The lead single, “cardigan,” debuted atop the Hot 100 — making Swift the first artist to debut atop both the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 in the same week. Other singles were top-ten entries “exile” and “the 1,” plus the country radio single “betty.”

At the 2020 American Music Awards, Swift won three awards, including Artist of the Year for a record third consecutive time.

On November 25, she released the self-directed concert film folklore: the long pond studio sessions on Disney+.

At the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, she received six nominations, including Album of the Year.

Then evermore. December 11, 2020. Another surprise album — described as a “sister record” to folklore. Once again, collaborations with Bon Iver, Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, as well as HAIM and The National.

According to Republic Records, evermore sold more than a million copies in its first week worldwide — Swift’s eighth consecutive studio album to achieve that. It was her eighth number-one debut on the Billboard 200 and spawned her seventh Hot 100 number-one single, “willow.” This made her the first act to concurrently debut an album and a single atop both charts twice.

 

One of Swift’s earliest musical memories is listening to her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, sing in church. As a child, she enjoyed Disney film soundtracks. She has said she owes her confidence to her mother, who helped her prepare for class presentations. She also attributes her fascination with writing and storytelling to her mother.

She was drawn to the storytelling aspect of country music. She was introduced to the genre listening to Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and The Chicks. Twain, both as a songwriter and performer, was her biggest musical influence. Hill was her childhood role model. She admired The Chicks’ defiant attitude and their ability to play their own instruments. “Cowboy Take Me Away” was the first song she learned to play on guitar.

She also explored older country stars: Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and Tammy Wynette. She believes Parton is “an amazing example to every female songwriter out there.” Alt-country artists like Patty Griffin and Lori McKenna have also inspired her.

She has also been influenced by pop and rock artists. She lists Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, and Carly Simon as her career role models.

Discussing McCartney and Harris, she said: “They’ve taken chances, but they’ve also been the same artist for their entire careers.” McCartney, both as a Beatle and a solo artist, makes her feel “as if I’ve been let into his heart and his mind.” Springsteen she likes for “being so musically relevant after such a long period of time.” She aspires to be like Harris as she grows older — prioritizing music over fame. Kristofferson “shines in songwriting.” Simon is “an emotional but a strong person.”

Her synth-pop album 1989 was influenced by some of her favorite 1980s pop acts: Peter Gabriel, Annie Lennox, Phil Collins, and Madonna. She named Pete Wentz and Lana Del Rey as her favorite lyricists.

Swift’s music consists primarily of elements of pop, synth-pop, country, country pop, rock, alternative rock, and indie folk. Her works also incorporate R&B, EDM, hip-hop, and trap. She described herself as a country artist until 1989, which she characterized as her first “sonically cohesive pop album.”

Rolling Stone wrote: “Swift might get played on the country station, but she’s one of the few genuine rock stars we’ve got these days.”

The New York Times noted: “There isn’t much in Ms. Swift’s music to indicate country — a few banjo strums, a pair of cowboy boots worn on stage, a bedazzled guitar — but there’s something in her winsome, vulnerable delivery that’s unique to Nashville.”

The Guardian wrote that she “cranks melodies out with the pitiless efficiency of a Scandinavian pop factory.”

Swift possesses a mezzo-soprano vocal range. The Hollywood Reporter described her singing voice as “sweet but soft.” The Los Angeles Times identified her 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.”

Rolling Stone, in a Speak Now review, wrote: “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.”

The Village Voice wrote 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.”

NPR Music described her singing as “personal and conversational thanks to her exceptional gift for inflection” but noted it “suffers from a wobbly pitch in tight, nasal delivery.”

The Hollywood Reporter wrote that her live vocals are “fine” but “do not match those of her peers.” Swift has been praised for refusing to correct her pitch with Auto-Tune.

In an interview with The New Yorker, she characterized herself primarily as a songwriter. A writer for The Tennessean conceded in 2010 that Swift is “not the best technical singer” but described her as “the best communicator that we’ve got.” Her vocal ability has often concerned Swift, and she has put considerable work into improving it. She continues to receive vocal coaching. She has said she only feels nervous performing live “if I’m not sure what the audience thinks of me, like at award shows.”

 

Swift uses her life experiences as inspiration. She often addressed the anonymous crushes of her high school years and celebrities in her early songs. She frequently criticizes ex-boyfriends — an aspect of her songwriting downplayed by The Village Voice: “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.”

New York believes the media scrutiny over her decision to mine her personal life for music is sexist — “and as much as it’s not asked of her male peers.”

Swift has said that not all of her songs are factual. Some are based on observations or fictional narratives. Aside from clues provided in her liner notes, she tries not to talk about song subjects specifically.

“These are real people,” she said. “You try to give insight as to where you are coming from as a writer without completely throwing somebody under the bus.”

“For a female to write about her feelings and then be portrayed as some clingy, insane, desperate girlfriend in need of making you marry her and have kids with her — I think that’s taking something that potentially should be celebrated — a woman writing about her feelings in a confessional way — that’s taking it and turning it and twisting it into something that is frankly a little sexist.”

The Guardian has praised her for writing about teenage years “with a kind of wistful sepia-tone nostalgia.” New York remarked that “many singer-songwriters have made great records as teens, but none made great records so explicitly about their teens.” The magazine compared her work to Brian Wilson’s.

In Fearless, Swift featured fairy tale imagery and explored the disconnect between fairy tales and the reality of love. Her later albums address more adult relationships. In addition to romance, her songs have discussed parent-child relationships, friendships, alienation, fame, and career ambitions.

She 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.” Rolling Stone describes her as a “songwriting savant with an intuitive gift for verse-chorus-bridge architecture.”

The Village Voice notes she often uses third-verse point-of-view reversals. Repetition is evident in her songwriting — in The Guardian’s words, “She spends so much time kissing in the rain that it seems a miracle she hasn’t developed trench foot.”

Although reviews of her work are almost uniformly positive, The New Yorker has said she is “generally portrayed more as a skilled technician than as a Dylan-esque visionary.”

 

Swift has collaborated with many directors to produce her music videos. Over time, she has become more involved with writing and directing. She has her own production house, Taylor Swift Productions, credited with producing videos for singles such as “ME!” She is known for hiding elaborate clues and Easter eggs in most of her work.

In 2010, she co-directed the video for “Mine” with Roman White. In 2011, she continued to collaborate with White on “Mean” and “Ours.” She developed the concept and treatment for “Mean.” White elaborated that she was “keenly involved” in writing the treatment, casting, and wardrobe — and stayed for both fifteen-hour shooting days even when she wasn’t in scenes.

She wrote the concept for the “RS” music video and brought in White to direct, describing her vision as “storylines.”

From 2014 to 2018, she collaborated with director Joseph Kahn on eight music videos — four each from 1989 and reputation. Kahn has praised her involvement in the craft.

In 2016, she worked with American Express for her “Blank Space” music video (directed by Kahn) and released the interactive app AMEX Unstaged: Taylor Swift Experience. She received starring and executive producer credit and won a Primetime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Interactive Program category for the app.

She received producing credit in the music video for “Bad Blood.” She developed the concept, wrote the treatment for, and starred in the music video for Sugarland’s song “Babe.”

She has emerged as a music video director, co-directing the videos for three Lover singles: “ME!” (with Dave Meyers), “You Need to Calm Down” and “Lover” (with Drew Kirsch). She co-executive produced the second with Todrick Hall. She was the sole director of “The Man” — for which she won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction — as well as “cardigan” and “willow.”

 

Swift’s personal life has been the subject of widespread media attention. In 2013, Abercrombie & Fitch marketed a slogan T-shirt with a slut-shaming remark directed at her. The New York Times asserted that her dating history had “begun to stir what feels like the beginning of a backlash,” questioning whether she was in the midst of a quarter-life crisis.

She is unwilling to publicly discuss her personal life. She believes that talking about it can be a career weakness.

In 2015, singer Ray Stevens released his album Here We Go Again, which included the single “Taylor Swift Is Stuck in My Head.”

In the 1989 single “Blank Space,” Swift parodies her own media-perceived persona: “a girl who’s crazy but seductive but glamorous but nuts but manipulative.”

Rolling Stone remarked upon her polite manner: “If this is Swift’s game face, it must be tattooed on — because it never drops.” The magazine noted her ease with “glad-handing.”

The Hollywood Reporter described her as “the best people person since Bill Clinton.”

While presenting her with an award for her humanitarian endeavors in 2012, Michelle Obama described Swift as “an artist 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 twenty-two-year-old can accomplish.” Swift considers Obama a role model.

According to The New York Times and marketing executive Matt B. Britton, Swift’s business savvy has helped her excel as “an authentic personality who establishes direct connections with her audience — touch as many people as possible and generate a kind of advocacy and excitement that no level of advertising could.”

She is one of the most followed people on social media. She is known for frequent and friendly online interactions with her fans. She has visited fans in hospitals and delivered holiday gifts to them by mail and in person — an event dubbed “Swiftmas.” She considers it her responsibility to be conscious of her influence on young fans. She has called her relationship with her fans “the longest and best I’ve ever had.”

Often labeled “America’s Sweetheart” — a sobriquet based on her down-to-earth personality and girl-next-door image — Swift insists she does not live by “all these rigid, weird rules that make me feel all fenced in. I just like the way that I feel, and that makes me feel very free.”

She refuses to take part in overtly sexualized photo shoots, although Bloomberg LP views her as a sex symbol. She has been recognized as a fashion icon. Vogue named her an “Icon of American Style” in 2011. In 2014, she topped People’s annual Best Dressed list. In 2015, she was named Woman of the Year at the L Style Awards and ranked first on Maxim’s Hot 100 list.

 

Swift’s early success as a country singer-songwriter played an important role in shaping the modern country music scene. New York journalist Jody Rosen asserts that Swift is the first country artist “whose success reaches the world beyond the United States.”

Following Swift’s rise to fame, country labels became more interested in signing young singers who write their own music. With her autobiographical narratives revolving around romance and heartbreak — which defied traditionally conservative values represented in country music — Swift introduced the genre to a younger generation that could relate to her personal struggles.

Her on-stage performance with guitars contributed to the “Taylor Swift factor” — a phenomenon to which media outlets attributed the rise in guitar sales to women, a previously ignored demographic.

Her success in the 2010s, particularly in terms of record sales, cemented her power as a leading figure in the music industry. Although her image has transitioned from country to pop, her narrative songwriting — nurtured by her country background — offers a sense of authenticity that retains significant devotion from young audiences.

Buoyed by her strong fan base, Swift is the only artist to have four albums sell over a million copies within one week since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking sales for the Billboard 200 in 1991. A remarkable feat following the decline of the album era.

For New York magazine, Swift’s million-selling albums — amidst an influx of streaming and a continuous decline in traditional album sales — proved that “she is the one bending the music industry to her will.”

According to Rolling Stone, Swift’s opposition to low-royalty streaming services and efforts to claim rights to her masters were two of the defining moments for the music industry in the 2010s. Her actions have fostered debate over reforms to on-demand music streaming and prompted awareness of intellectual property rights among younger musicians.

In 2019, Swift was named Woman of the Decade of the 2010s by Billboard and became the first woman to earn the title Artist of the Decade at the American Music Awards.

She and her work have influenced artists including Kelsea Ballerini, Shamir, Bailey Bryan, Ruth B, Camila Cabello, Sabrina Carpenter, The Chainsmokers, girl in red, Selena Gomez, Ellie Goulding, Conan Gray, Griff, Halsey, Niall Horan, Shawn Mendes, Maren Morris, Nina Nesbitt, NIKI, Phoebe Bridgers, Maisie Peters, Olivia Rodrigo, Tegan and Sara, Troye Sivan, Gracie Abrams, and The Vamps.

As of 2020, Swift has won ten Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, 32 American Music Awards (the most wins by an artist), 23 Billboard Music Awards (the most wins by a female artist), seven Guinness World Records, twelve Country Music Association Awards (including the Pinnacle Award), eight Academy of Country Music Awards, and a Brit Award.

As a songwriter, she has been honored by the Nashville Songwriters Association and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. She was the youngest person included on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time in 2015.

At the 64th BMI Awards in 2016, she was the first woman to be honored with an award named after its recipient.

Her albums Red and 1989 featured on Rolling Stone’s 2020 revision of their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

She has sold over 50 million albums — including 37.3 million in the US — and 150 million singles worldwide. She has amassed more than 97 million units in global album consumption, including 54 billion streams as of February 2020.

In 2019, Billboard placed Swift eighth on its “Greatest of All Time Artists” chart. She is the woman with the most cumulative weeks atop the Billboard 200 and the highest-certified female digital singles artist in the US, with a total of 134 million units certified by the RIAA.

She is the woman with the most Billboard Hot 100 entries in history — a total of 128. She is the first female artist to have both an album (Fearless) and a song (“Shake It Off”) certified Diamond by the RIAA.

The top female touring artist of the 2010s, she broke the record for the highest-grossing US tour of all time with her Reputation Stadium Tour.

 

Time included her on its annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in 2010, 2015, and 2019. She was one of the “Silence Breakers” who spoke up about sexual assault and were honored as Time Person of the Year in 2017.

From 2011 to 2020, she appeared in the top three on Forbes’ Top-Earning Women in Music list, topping the list in 2016 and 2019. She also topped the magazine’s list of the 100 Highest-Paid Celebrities in 2016 with $170 million — a figure recognized by Guinness — and again in 2019 with $185 million.

In 2014, she was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in the music category, and again in 2017 in its All-Star Alumni category. In 2015, she became the youngest woman to be included on Forbes’ list of the 100 Most Powerful Women, ranked number 64.

In June 2019, Forbes estimated Swift’s net worth at $360 million. She was the most Googled female music artist of 2019 and the highest-paid female musician of the 2010s, placing second on Forbes’ list of Top-Earning Musicians of the Decade with earnings of $825 million.

 

Hinged sentence: From a Christmas tree farm to the top of the world, she built an empire on her own terms — and when they tried to take it from her, she built it again.

 

Swift’s philanthropic efforts have been recognized by the Do Something Awards and the Tennessee Disaster Services. She has received the Big Help Award for her “dedication to helping others and inspiring others through action” and the Ripple of Hope Award for her “dedication to advocacy at such a young age.”

In 2008, she donated $100,000 to the Red Cross to help victims of the Iowa flood. She has performed at charity relief events, including Sydney’s Sound Relief concert. She recorded a song for the Hope for Haiti Now album.

In response to the May 2010 Tennessee floods, Swift donated $500,000 during a telethon hosted by WSMV. In 2011, she used a dress rehearsal of her Speak Now tour as a benefit concert for victims of recent tornadoes in the US, raising more than $750,000.

In 2016, she donated $1 million to Louisiana flood relief efforts and $100,000 to the Dolly Parton Fire Fund. She donated to the Houston Food Bank after Hurricane Harvey struck the city in 2017. In 2020, she donated $1 million for Tennessee tornado relief.

She is a supporter of the arts. She is a benefactor of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2010, she donated $75,000 to Hendersonville High School to help refurbish the school auditorium. 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. That year, she also partnered with textbook rental company Chegg to donate $60,000 to the music departments of six US colleges. In 2013, she donated $100,000 to the Nashville Symphony.

She also promotes children’s literacy. In 2009, she donated $250,000 to various schools around the country. She also donated thousands of books to the Reading Public Library in Pennsylvania, the Nashville Public Library in Tennessee, and New York City schools.

In 2007, she partnered with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police to launch a campaign to protect children from online predators. In 2009, she recorded a “Sound Matters” public service announcement to raise awareness of the importance of listening responsibly to prevent hearing impairment.

She has donated items to charities for auction, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the UNICEF Tap Project, MusiCares, and Feeding America.

As recipient of the Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer of the Year in 2011, she donated $25,000 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee.

In 2012, she 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.

She has also worked with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Habitat for Humanity.

In 2014, she donated $100,000 to the V Foundation for Cancer Research and $50,000 to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

She has encouraged young people to volunteer in their local communities as part of Global Youth Service Day.

She donated to Kesha to help with her legal battles against Dr. Luke and to actress Mariska Hargitay’s Joyful Heart Foundation organization.

In 2019, she donated $113,000 to the LGBT organization Tennessee Equality Project, as well as to GLAAD in support of Pride Month.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she donated to the World Health Organization and Feeding America. She offered one of her signed guitars as part of an auction to raise money for the National Health Service. She performed “Soon You’ll Get Better” during the One World: Together at Home television special — a benefit concert curated by Lady Gaga for Global Citizen to raise funds for the WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

In June 2020, she donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in light of the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, urging fans to do the same.

As well as charitable causes, she has made donations to many of her fans.

 

Swift identifies as a feminist and pro-choice.

During the 2008 United States presidential election, she promoted the “Every Woman Counts” campaign aimed at engaging women in the political process. She was one of many country stars to record a PSA for the “Vote for Your Country” campaign.

During her acceptance speech at the Billboard Women in Music summit in 2019, she spoke out against sexism and misogyny. She was one of the founding signatories of the Time’s Up movement against sexual harassment.

She has also spoken out against LGBT discrimination. Following the 2008 murder of openly gay teenager Larry King, she recorded a GLSEN PSA aimed at combating hate crimes. The music video for her anti-bullying song “Mean” deals in part with homophobia in high schools; it was nominated for an MTV VMA Social Activism Award in 2011.

After the Orlando nightclub shooting in June 2016, Swift penned a letter to honor the victims. She encouraged support for the Equality Act in a letter addressed to Senator Lamar Alexander and a petition on Change.org, which accumulated over 800,000 signatures and responses from the White House and various Democratic legislators. She called on the Trump administration to pass the Equality Act at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards and during Pride Live’s 2020 Stonewall Day livestream event, where she criticized the 2020 US Census for excluding transgender and non-binary people.

Swift avoided discussing politics in her early career but has become politically active since the 2018 United States elections. She has supported the March for Our Lives movement and gun control reform in the US.

She endorsed candidates for public office for the first time ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, declaring her support for two Democratic candidates to represent Tennessee in the House of Representatives and the Senate. In her endorsement, she expressed her desire for greater LGBT rights, gender and racial equality, condemned systemic racism, and encouraged her fans to vote according to their personal values.

In August 2020, she urged her fans to check their voter registration ahead of elections. Vote.org reported that 65,000 people registered to vote within 24 hours of her post — an unprecedented surge, even accounting for usual registration increases as deadlines approach.

She endorsed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the 2020 United States presidential election and was found to be one of the most influential celebrities in the polls. She lent her song “Only the Young” for use in an advertisement to increase voter turnout.

She is a vocal critic of white supremacy, systemic racism, and police brutality in the US. In May 2020, she called for justice in the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd. She shared resources to support the Black Lives Matter movement. In an essay written by former President Barack Obama on policy change in the wake of the George Floyd protests, she advocated for mail-in voting for the 2020 US elections during the COVID-19 pandemic. She called for the removal of racist Confederate monuments in Tennessee and advocated for Juneteenth to become a national holiday.

 

While promoting her debut album, Swift appeared as the face of Verizon Wireless’s “Mobile Music” campaign.

In the Fearless era, she launched a “l.e.i. sundress” range at Walmart and designed American Greetings cards and Jakks Pacific dolls. She became a spokesperson for the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League and Sony Cyber-shot digital cameras. She released a special edition of Speak Now through Target.

She became a CoverGirl spokesmodel. She launched two Elizabeth Arden fragrances: “Wonderstruck” and “Wonderstruck Enchanted.”

While promoting Red, she offered exclusive album promotions through Target, Papa John’s Pizza, and Walgreens. She became a spokesmodel for Diet Coke and Keds sneakers. She released her third Elizabeth Arden fragrance, “Taylor by Taylor Swift.” She continued her partnerships with Sony Electronics and American Greetings.

She released her fourth fragrance, “Taylor by Taylor Swift: Made of Starlight.” She partnered with AirAsia and Qantas during the Red Tour — the airlines served as official carriers for the Australian and Asian legs. Cornetto sponsored the Asian leg of the tour.

While promoting 1989, she had tie-ins with Subway, Keds, Target, Xfinity, and Diet Coke. In 2014, she released her fifth fragrance, “Incredible Things.”

In 2016, she worked with Apple Music to release a series of three commercials. She signed a multi-year deal with AT&T. She later headlined DirecTV’s “Super Saturday Night” event on the eve of Super Bowl 2017.

While promoting reputation, she released a series of behind-the-scenes videos showing the album’s recording process through DirecTV. In 2018, she released two commercials for AT&T. The same year, she partnered with UPS as an official delivery partner for reputation and with Fujifilm on a special-edition autographed Instax camera — featuring selfie mode and double exposure. The cameras showed massive growth in sales after the partnership.

In 2019, she signed a multi-year partnership with Capital One and released a sustainable fashion clothing line with Stella McCartney. Vogue regards Swift as one of the world’s most influential figures in sustainable fashion.

 

The girl who was told she wasn’t good enough, who was rejected by Nashville, who had a microphone ripped from her hand on live television, who was slut-shamed and bullied and counted out more times than anyone can remember — that girl never stopped writing.

She wrote her way out of Pennsylvania. She wrote her way into the hearts of millions. She wrote her way through heartbreak and betrayal and the loss of her own work. She wrote when they told her she couldn’t. She wrote when they told her she shouldn’t. She wrote when they told her she was finished.

And when they stole her masters, she wrote them again.

She is Taylor Swift. She is the music industry. She is the underdog who became the empire.

From a Christmas tree farm to the top of the world. From a girl with a guitar to the most powerful voice in pop. From “Tim McGraw” to “All Too Well (10 Minute Version).” From the girl who got booed at the VMAs to the woman who directed her own videos and won.

She kept showing up. She kept writing. She kept winning.

And she’s not done yet.