Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is an American country/pop singer, who became the first country artist to top the United States pop radio charts since Kenny Rogers' "Lady" in 1980, with her hit song, "Love Story," in 2009.

History

Taylor Swift was born in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania to Scott Swift, a stock broker, and Andrea Swift, a homemaker. She also has a young brother, Austin Swift.

When Swift turned ten years old, she begin to write songs and sing karaoke at contests, festivals, and fairs near her hometown, and made her first major appearance at the Bloomsburg Fair, which was well-received.

Swift began to play guitar at a young age, when a computer repairman taught her three chords, which she used to write her first song, "Lucky You." Swift did not fit in at school, so she began to write songs more and more regularly, and many times they were about the kids at her school. They would react badly when they heard the songs, but that didn't stop her from doing it again and again.

Swift says her greatest musical influence is Shania Twain, which explains the country to pop crossover her career has brought. She also says other influences are LeAnn Rimes, Tina Turner, Dolly Parton, and her own grandmother. She also admits to being a fan of Patsy Cline and the Dixie Chicks, who she credits, along with Twain, for demonstrating how much impact can be made by "stretching boundaries," referring to their countless format crossovers.

When Swift turned 11, she made her first trip to Nashville, Tennessee, in hopes of getting a record deal by distributing a demo tape of her singing karaoke songs. She gave a copy to every label in town, but was rejected by all of them.

Depressed, she returned to Pennsylvania, where she was asked to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, which received a lot of Internet attention on sites like YouTube. At age 14, her family decided to move to the Nashville suburbs so she could work with local songwriters and hopefully have a better shot a pursuing her musical career.

At age 15, Swift was given a development deal by RCA Records, but she refused as she wanted an actual deal. She then performed at Nashville's songwriters' venue, The Bluebird Café. Scott Borchetta had just recently started a record company, and was in the audience that night. He immediately went up to her and signed her to Big Machine Records, who she is still with today.

In 2008, Swift began a relationship with pop singer Joe Jonas from the Jonas Brothers. The relationship ended in November of that year via text message from Jonas, which was heavily criticized by the media. The event inspired the song "Forever & Always" from her sophomore album, Fearless.

Music Career

2006-2008

Taylor Swift released her debut single in mid-2006, "Tim McGraw," which was a hit on country radio. It peaked at number five on Mediabase's country radio chart in January 2007, nearly three months after her debut album, Taylor Swift, was released. The album debuted at number 19 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart with 39,000 copies sold. It later went on to peak at number five. To date, the album has sold over 4,000,000 copies in the United States alone, certifying it four time platinum by the RIAA. Swift co-wrote all of the songs on the album.

The music video for "Tim McGraw" earned Swift an award for Breakthrough Video of the Year at the 2007 CMT Music Awards. The single became successful enough to catch the ear of country artist Tim McGraw, whom the song repeatedly talks about. He in turn, called Swift to tell her how much he appreciated being included in the song and how he thought she was very talented. This phone call ended up on the deluxe edition of the album.

The second single from the album, "Teardrops on My Guitar," was released in February 2007. The song went on top peak at number two on Mediabase's country radio chart in August 2007. It also went on to peak at number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2007. In late 2007, the song was sent to pop radio with a slightly faster remix, which peaked at number seven on the pop radio chart in February 2008, which helped the song re-peak at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song went on to help Swift get nominated for Best New Artist at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2008, although she lost to Tokio Hotel. In October 2007, Swift was also awarded Songwriter/Artist of the Year Award by the Nashville Songwriters Association International, making her the youngest artist ever to win the award. In February 2008, Taylor Swift was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, but lost to Amy Winehouse.

The third single from the album, "Our Song," was released in September 2007, and gave Swift her first number one on the Mediabase's country radio chart in December 2007/January 2008 for four weeks, plus two weeks at number one during the non-published charts of 2007. It went on to peak at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. It, too, was sent to pop radio, but only managed to peak at number 19 in May 2008.

The fourth single, "Picture to Burn," peaked at number three on Mediabase's country radio chart in May 2008. She also performed the song on the sixth season of Nashvilla Star, which helped digital sales, which in turn helped it peak at number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was originally planed for a pop release, but was canceled due to he poor chart run of "Our Song" on the pop charts. It did manage, however, to reach number 52 on the pop radio charts in August 2008.

The fifth and final single, "Should've Said No," was announced and performed on the 2008 Academy of Country Music Awards, which was received so well by her fans, the performance was made the official music video of the song. It went on to peak at number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent one week at number one on the Mediabase country radio chart in August 2008. Like "Tim McGraw," the song was not even considered for a pop release, but due to strong requests, the song still managed to peak at number 75 on the pop radio charts in September 2008.

2008-2010

Swift's sophomore studio album, Fearless, was released on November 11, 2008 to the United States. It debuted at number one on the Billboard Top 200 with sales over 592,000, making it the highest debut of any country artist in 2008, as well as the top debut of any female artist in the U.S. for 2008, and fourth biggest debut overall, behind Lil Wayne, AC/DC, and Coldplay.

The lead single from the album was called "Love Story." It was released on September 7, 2008 to radio airplay, and debuted at number 27 on the U.S. country airplay chart. It went on to peak at number one on that chart, as well as number one on the pop airplay chart, making Swift the first artist to have a country-pop crossover hit number one on both charts since Kenny Loggins. The song also was a success digitally, selling nearly 4,000,000 copies. The song's music video was released on September 12, 2008. The plot is based on The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet, a play by William Shakespeare, which the song also bases itself off from, with references such as "Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone" and "Marry me, Juliet, you'll never have to be alone." The song also became a success internationally. It was a number one hit in Australia, and was also a top ten hit in the U.K., Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, the U.S., Norway, and Sweden.

The second single from the album, "White Horse," was released solely to country radio in the United States. It peaked at number one on the country airplay charts, and despite not being officially released to pop radio, it managed to peak at 69 on the pop airplay charts. The song was also a digital success. It became her first song to hit number one on U.S. iTunes, as "Love Story" was blocked by P!nk's "So What," however, it only peaked at number two on the Hot Digital Songs chart. The song went platinum, and Swift was credited as a great actress in her music video for the song, which depicted a distraught teenage girl breaking up with her boyfriend over the phone.

Discography

Main article: Taylor Swift discography

Albums

• Taylor Swift (2006)

#5 U.S., #33 Australia

• Fearless (2008)

#1 U.S., #1 Australia, #5 U.K., #7 Ireland, #12 Germany, #26 France, #28 Spain, #37 Mexico

EPs

• Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection (2007)

#20 U.S.

• Beautiful Eyes (2008)

#9 U.S.

Singles

• "Title" (Year)

Country positions (summary)

U.S. radio positions (summary)

• "Tim McGraw" (2006)

#40 U.S.

#5 Country

• "Teardrops on My Guitar" (2006/2008)

#13 U.S., #45 Canada, #51 U.K.

#4 AC, #2 Country, #6 Hot AC, #7 Top 40

• "Our Song" (2007)

#16 U.S., #30 Canada

#1 Country, #19 Top 40

• "Picture to Burn" (2007)

#28 U.S., #48 Canada

#3 Country, #52 Top 40

• "Should've Said No" (2008)

#33 U.S., #18 New Zealand, #67 Canada

#1 Country

• "Love Story" (2008)

#4 U.S., #1 Australia, #2 U.K., #3 Ireland, #3 New Zealand, #4 Canada, #7 Norway, #10 Sweden, #13 Netherlands, #14 France, #16 Denmark, #22 Germany, #30 Austria, #47 Spain, #50 Switzerland

#1 AC, #1 Country, #2 Hot AC, #1 Top 40

• "White Horse" (2009)

#13 U.S., #41 Australia, #43 Canada, #60 U.K.

#1 Country

• "You Belong with Me" (2009)

#2 U.S., #3 Canada, #5 Australia, #5 New Zealand, #12 Ireland, #30 U.K., #32 Denmark, #47 Sweden, #58 Switzerland

#1 AC, #1 Country, #2 Hot AC, #35 Rhythmic, #1 Top 40

• "Fifteen" (2009)

#23 U.S., #19 Canada, #48 Australia

#11 AC, #6 Country, #17 Hot AC, #12 Top 40

• "Fearless" (2010)

#9 U.S., #32 Spain, #69 Canada

#8 Country

• "Today Was a Fairytale" (2010)

#2 U.S., #1 Canada, #3 Australia, #29 New Zealand, #41 Ireland, #57 U.K.

#48 Country, #21 Hot AC, #19 Top 40, #20 AC

• "Mine" (2010)

#3 U.S., #7 Canada, #9 Australia, #16 New Zealand, #48 Belgium, #48 Sweden

#11 Country, #15 Top 40, #19 Hot AC, #15 AC

Promotional Singles

• "I'm Only Me When I'm With You" (2007)

#70 Country

• "Change" (2008)

#10 U.S.

#56 AC, #62 Country

• "Crazier" (2008)

#17 U.S., #67 Canada

#71 Hot AC

• "You're Not Sorry" (2008)

#11 U.S., #11 Canada

#91 Country

• "The Best Day" (2009)

#62 AC, #68 Country