Taylor Swift

This article is about singer Taylor Swift. For her album of the same name, see Taylor Swift (album) .

Taylor Swift (2019)

Taylor Alison Swift (* 13. December 1989 in Reading , Pennsylvania ) is an American country pop - singer , guitarist , songwriter , record producer and actress . According to the IFPI, she has sold 170 million records worldwide (as of February 2015), making her one of the most successful artists in history .

Life

Swift was born in 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania into an upper-middle-class family from Wyomissing . Her mother Andrea Swift, née Finlay, was initially a manager in marketing and later a housewife . Her father, Scott Swift, is a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch . Her younger brother is the actor Austin Swift . Swift's parents ran a Christmas tree school . Her maternal grandmother was an opera singer . Swift grew up interested in country music by artists such as LeAnn Rimes , Patsy Cline , Dolly Parton , the Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain .

At the age of ten, Swift began participating in karaoke competitions and performing as a singer at festivals and fairs. She already wrote her own songs for this. At the age of eleven, she tried to get a contract with various record labels in Nashville . A short time later she learned to play the guitar. At the age of 14 she was discovered by Scott Borchetta , who hired her for his new record label Big Machine Records, while performing in the Bluebird Café . In the same year the family moved to Hendersonville , Tennessee . In 2010, Swift dated Taylor Lautner for a few months after filming Valentine's Day .

Music career

Taylor Swift (2012)

Taylor Swift

In 2006 Swift released her debut single, Tim McGraw , which reached number six in Hot Country Songs . Her debut album, Taylor Swift , was released on October 24, 2006 and climbed to number five on the Billboard 200 . It has been awarded five times platinum by the RIAA . Four singles from the album reached the top ten of the US country charts; on the Billboard Hot 100 , three of the singles made it into the top 40. All of the songs on this album were either written by Swift or co-written by Swift.

Fearless

In November 2008, Swift released her second album Fearless , which topped the album chart for eleven weeks with interruptions; no other album since 2000 has held this top spot longer, and it was the best-selling album of 2009 in the United States. In early February 2009, Taylor Swift's single Love Story from the album Fearless became the country song with the most paid downloads in history with 2,649,000 units. In September 2009 her title You Belong with Me was able to reach first place on the country charts. In 2010 Taylor Swift won the People's Choice Award for Best Artist . At the 2010 Grammy Awards , Taylor Swift received four awards. In February 2010 their Fearless Tour took them through five cities in Australia , where the country band Gloriana appeared in the opening act.

Speak Now

Swift's third album, Speak Now , which was released worldwide in October 2010, sold more than a million copies in the US in the first week. The songs on the album were written in Arkansas , New York City , Boston and Nashville and were written by Swift himself. Nathan Chapman , who already worked on Swift's first two albums, appeared as co-producer . The first single from the album was Mine . Back to December , Mean , The Story of Us , Sparks Fly and Ours were the other singles on the album. Swift received two Grammys for Mean .

Red

Swift's fourth studio album Red was released on October 22, 2012 and was produced by Nathan Chapman. The first single from this album was We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together . The second single Begin Again was released; but this could not reach a chart position in Germany. The third single, I Knew You Were Trouble , made it into the top 10 in Germany, and reached number two in Great Britain and the USA. The single sold more than three million times in the United States. The fourth single was 22 . The album sold more than six million times. Swift, who was the world's most financially successful musician in 2011 with revenues of over 35 million US dollars, plays an acoustic steel-string guitar from the Californian company Taylor Guitars made from koa acacia wood .

1989

On October 27, 2014, Universal Music released Swift's fifth studio album entitled 1989 , which they produced again at Big Machine Records with Max Martin , Shellback , Ryan Tedder , Jack Antonoff , Nathan Chapman, Imogen Heap and Greg Kurstin , among others . The name of the album refers to Swift's year of birth. With the album, the singer turned away from country music for the first time and only produced pop songs. A first glimpse of the new style gave the album on 18 August 2014 with the publication of the first single Shake It Off and as part of a live streaming - Events in New York and the release of the music video for the single. The second single, Blank Space , was released on November 10, 2014 as a music download and in Germany on January 2, 2015 as a CD single. Other singles from the album were Style on February 9, 2015, Bad Blood on May 19, 2015 and Wildest Dreams on August 25, 2015. On January 12, 2016 Out of the Woods , New Romantics on February 23, 2016 was released as a single.

reputation

Her sixth studio album Reputation was released on November 10, 2017. The first single, Look What You Made Me Do , was released in advance on August 25, 2017 and entered the top 10 of the German, Austrian and Swiss single charts. In the UK singles chart and on the Billboard Hot 100, Swift achieved a number one success with this song. The second decoupling followed … Ready for It? Swift himself acted as a producer along with Jack Antonoff, Max Martin and Shellback. In the song End Game , she collaborated with the rapper Future and the singer Ed Sheeran .

On the tour for her sixth studio album Reputation , the Reputation Stadium Tour , Swift grossed 345.5 million US dollars and had 2.88 million viewers during their 53 shows. The tour set the record for the highest revenue on a US tour.

Lover

With her new song You Need to Calm Down , she showed her support for the LGBT community . The song was released appropriately during Pride month . Celebrities such as Katy Perry , Ellen DeGeneres and Adam Lambert appeared in the music video . The associated seventh studio album Lover was released on August 23, 2019.

At the concert One World - Together At Home she sang the song Soon You'll Get Better .

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , Swift's appearances in the United States and Brazil have been postponed until 2021.

Recordings of their 2019 City of Lover concert were broadcast on ABC on May 17, 2020 . The concert film has since been available on the Hulu and Disney + streaming platforms . Swift also released the live versions of the Lover songs she performed at the concert.

Swift also appeared on YouTube's Dear Class of 2020 livestream on June 7, 2020.

folklore

Swift's eighth studio album Folklore was released on July 24, 2020 . With this and with the single cardigan , she is the first artist to be number one on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 in the same week.

Trademark rights

Swift not only had the rights to the titles and music protected on her album in 1989 , but also to individual lines of text. If you like the text pieces “This sick beat”, “Party like it's 1989” or “Nice to meet you. Where you been? ”Used without Swift's permission may be sued by Swift. The band Peculate criticized this as a direct "attack on free speech" and recorded a song entitled This Sick Beat , the text of which "consists solely of the phrase protected by Taylor Swift".

In July 2019 Scooter Braun bought the music label Big Machine Records, which owns all of Taylor Swift's albums. The Wall Street Journal valued the deal at $ 300 million. Swift called him a bully and this situation as her worst nightmare. She wants to acquire the rights to her music herself and at the age of 15 regrets having signed the contract with Big Machine Records.

Conflict with Apple

In June 2015, Swift prompted Apple to rethink artist pay and make it more generous. Apple had planned to grant users three free trial months as part of its new “ Apple Music ” streaming service , with artists going away empty-handed. By refusing to give Apple her album in 1989 , Swift caused a rethink. Apple will continue to offer the titles free of charge, but will now compensate the artists financially.

reception

Swift has received mostly positive reviews for her musical work since the beginning of her career. In the New York Times in 2008 she was certified as having good songwriting qualities with a lack of naivete .

In 2020, after its premiere at Sundance Festival, the documentary Taylor Swift: Miss Americana ( Miss Americana ) was released on Netflix .

Political position

Swift is revered as an icon by right-wing populist Milo Yiannopoulos and other representatives of the American New Right . Andre Anglin, author of the Nazi blog "The Daily Stormer", described the singer as a "pure Aryan goddess". Swift has taken no position on this. She was therefore accused of not distancing herself from neo-Nazis. In an interview with the US magazine TIME, Swift justified her reluctance to take part in politics by saying that she does not want to influence other people as long as she does not know enough in life to tell people who to vote.

In October 2018, Swift announced its support for the Democratic Party candidates in the congressional election.

In May 2020, Swift accused Donald Trump of having contributed to the death of George Floyd through his racism and of fueling the resulting conflicts. She tweeted, "We'll vote you out in November."

Awards

In 2015 Rolling Stone listed her as 97th of the 100 best songwriters of all time . She has received more than 50 awards since 2007, particularly in the country area. These include the Country Music Association Awards , the CMT Music Awards and the Academy of Country Music Awards , at which Swift has already received several awards. She received other awards at the BMI Awards , the American Music Awards , the Teen Choice Awards , the People's Choice Awards , the Emmy Awards and the Billboard Music Awards . In 2015 it won a total of eight of the 40 Billboard Awards to be given. From MTV she was also with the six-time Video Music Award and three times with the Europe Music Awards awarded. So far, she has received ten awards at the Grammy Awards :

Grammy Awards

• 2010 : Best Female Country Vocal Performance White Horse
• 2010 : Best Country Song White Horse
• 2010 : Best Country Album Fearless
• 2010 : Album of the Year Fearless
• 2012 : Best Country Solo Performance Mean
• 2012 : Best Country Song Mean
• 2013 : Best Song Written for Visual Media
• 2016 : Album of the Year 1989
• 2016 : Best Pop Vocal Album 1989
• 2016 : Best Music Video Bad Blood ( feat.Kendrick Lamar )

MTV Video Music Awards

• 2009 : in the Best Female Video category for You Belong with Me
• 2013 : in the Best Female Video category for I Knew You Were Trouble
• 2015 : in the Video of the Year category for Bad Blood
• 2015 : in the Best Female Video category for Blank Space
• 2015 : in the Best Pop Video category for Blank Space
• 2015 : in the Best Collaboration category for Bad Blood

MTV Europe Music Awards

• 2012 : in the Best Live Act category
• 2012 : in the Best Female category
• 2012 : in the Best Look category
• 2015 : in the Best Song category for Bad Blood
• 2015 : in the Best US Act category
• 2019 : in the Best Video category for ME!

Swift at the 2009 premiere of Hannah Montana: The Movie

Filmography

• 2009: Jonas Brothers - The 3D Concert
• 2009: CSI: Vegas ( CSI: Crime Scene Investigation , TV series, episode 9x16)
• 2009: Hannah Montana: The Movie
• 2010: Valentine's Day (Valentine's Day)
• 2012: Der Lorax ( The Lorax , speaking role)
• 2013: New Girl (TV series, episode 2x25 Elaine's Big Day )
• 2014: Keepers of Memory - The Giver (The Giver)
• 2019: Cats
• 2020: Miss Americana

Discography

→ Main article : Taylor Swift / Discography

Studio albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	Country
2006	Taylor Swift Big Machine Records	-	-	-	UK81 gold (3 weeks)UK	US5 × 7 Seven times platinum (275 weeks)US	Country1 (178 weeks) Country	First published: October 24, 2006 Sales: + 7,750,000
2008	Fearless Big Machine Records	DE12 gold (12 weeks)DE	AT14th gold (15 weeks)AT	CH35 (8 weeks) CH	UK5 × 2 Double platinum (64 weeks)UK	US1 diamond (257 weeks)US	Country1 (... week) Country	First published: November 11, 2008 Sales: +11,783,000
2010	Speak Now Big Machine Records	DE15 (4 weeks) DE	AT16 (4 weeks) AT	CH17 (7 weeks) CH	UK6th gold (9 weeks)UK	US1 × 6 Six-fold platinum (137 weeks)US	Country1 (... week) Country	First published: October 25, 2010 Sales: + 6,637,500
2012	Red Big Machine Records	DE5 gold (24 weeks)DE	AT3 (10 weeks) AT	CH9 (21 weeks) CH	UK1 × 2 Double platinum (82 weeks)UK	US1 × 7 Seven times platinum (160 weeks)US	Country1 (... week) Country	First published: October 22, 2012 Sales: + 8,715,000
2014	1989 Big Machine Records	DE4th platinum (53 weeks)DE	AT5 × 3 Triple platinum (56 weeks)AT	CH3 gold (53 weeks)CH	UK1 × 4 Quadruple platinum (… Where.)UK	US1 × 9 Nine-fold platinum (… Where.)US	-	First published: October 27, 2014 Sales: + 12,365,000
2017	Reputation Big Machine Records	DE2 (22 weeks) DE	AT1 platinum (17 weeks)AT	CH1 (11 weeks) CH	UK1 platinum (57 weeks)UK	US1 × 3 Triple platinum (… Where.)US	-	First published: November 10, 2017 Sales: + 4,500,000
2019	Lover Republic Records	DE2 (18 weeks) DE	AT2 (24 weeks) AT	CH2 (15 weeks) CH	UK1 gold (… Where.)UK	US1 × 2 Double platinum (… Where.)US	-	First published: August 23, 2019 Sales: + 3,200,000
2020	Folklore Republic Records	DE5 (... weeks) DE	AT2 (... weeks) AT	CH1 (... week) CH	UK1 silver (… Where.)UK	US1 (... week) US	-	First published: July 24th, 2020 Sales: +67,500

literature

• Chloe Govan: Taylor Swift: Her Story . Omnibus Press, London 2012, ISBN 978-1-78038-354-5
• Louisa Jepson: Taylor Swift . Simon & Schuster, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4711-3087-8
• Chas Newkey-Burden: Taylor Swift: The Whole Story . Harpercollins UK, London 2014, ISBN 978-0-00-754421-9
• Liv Spencer. Taylor Swift: The Platinum Edition . 2nd Edition. ECW Press, Toronto 2013, ISBN 978-1-77090-405-7 .

Web links

Commons : Taylor Swift  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

• Literature by and about Taylor Swift in the catalog of the German National Library
• Taylor Swift at the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Official Website of Taylor Swift (English)
• Taylor Swift on Universal Music Germany
• Taylor Swift on CountryMusicNews.de Detailed information with discography (in German)
• Taylor Swift's biography at country.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Taylor Swift named IFPI Global Recording Artist of 2014. International Federation of the Phonographic Industry , February 23, 2015, accessed September 28, 2015 . 
2. ↑ cutter; Kimberley: Taylor Swift's Rise to America's Sweetheart. In: Marie Claire. June 2, 2010, accessed February 7, 2014 . 
3. ^ Cohen, Erica: Taylor Swift's father is a Blue Hen. In: UDaily. September 23, 2009, accessed February 7, 2014 . 
4. ↑ Lizzie Widdicombe: "You Belong With Me" . In: The New Yorker , October 10, 2011. Retrieved October 11, 2011. 
5. ↑ Taylor Swift: Biography . In: TV Guide . Retrieved October 16, 2011.
6. ↑ http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/computer-tech-taught-taylor-swift-guitar-exclusive-article-1.2072638
7. ↑ Taylor Swift still in love with Taylor Lautner ?! In: starflash.de. October 15, 2010, accessed May 6, 2017 . 
8. ^ Artist Chart History: Taylor Swift - Tim McGraw . In: Billboard . Retrieved January 24, 2010.
9. ↑ Taylor Swift Continues Billboard 200 Dominance . In: Billboard . Retrieved January 30, 2010.
10. ↑ Taylor Swift Edges Susan Boyle For 2009's Top-Selling Album . In: Billboard . Retrieved January 30, 2010.
11. ↑ Week Ending Feb. 8, 2009: Shady's Back (Tell A Friend) . In: Yahoo Music Blog (by Paul Grein) . February 11, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
12. ↑ 36th People's Choice Awards - Favorite Female Artist . In: CBS . Retrieved January 31, 2010.
13. ^ Fearless Tour 2010 . In: Ticketk.com . Retrieved January 31, 2010.
14. ↑ Monica Herrera: Taylor Swift Announces New Album 'Speak Now,' Out Oct. 25 . Billboard. July 20, 2010. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
15. ↑ Chuck Dauphin: Taylor Swift Announces 'Red' Album, New Single . Billboard.com. August 13, 2012. Archived from the original on August 16, 2012. Retrieved on August 16, 2012.
16. ^ RIAA - Gold & Platinum - Searchable Database . Retrieved May 16, 2015.
17. ^ Billboard: Top Money Makers Music
18. ↑ Taylorguitars.com . Taylorguitars.com. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
19. ↑ 1989 at TaylorSwift.com . taylorswift.com. Archived from the original on December 10, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 16, 2015. 
20. ↑ Shake It Off at Universal-Music.de . universal-music.de. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
21. ↑ Joe Lynch: Taylor Swift Reveals New Album 'Reputation' Coming In Nov., First Single Out Thursday. In: Billboard . August 23, 2016. Retrieved September 7, 2017 . 
22. ↑ Taylor Swift Shares 'Reputation' Tracklist, Confirms Ed Sheeran & Future Collab . In: Billboard . ( billboard.com [accessed November 10, 2017]).
23. ^ Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour highest grossing in US history. In: The Music Network. December 2, 2018, accessed April 8, 2019 . 
24. ↑ https://www.vip.de/cms/taylor-swift-you-need-to-calm-down-musikvideo-mit-mega-starauflauf-4357195.html
25. ↑ Daniel Kreps, Daniel Kreps: Taylor Swift Cancels All 2020 Tour Dates Due to Coronavirus. In: Rolling Stone. April 17, 2020, accessed June 12, 2020 (American English). 
26. Jump up ↑ Madison Bloom: Listen to Taylor Swift's City of Lover Film Soundtrack. Retrieved June 12, 2020 (American English). 
27. ↑ Denise Petski, Denise Petski: YouTube Reschedules Virtual Commencement Ceremony With The Obamas, Beyoncé Due To George Floyd Memorial Service - Watch. In: Deadline. June 7, 2020, accessed June 12, 2020 . 
28. ↑ Denise Petski, Denise Petski: YouTube Reschedules Virtual Commencement Ceremony With The Obamas, Beyoncé Due To George Floyd Memorial Service - Watch. In: Deadline. June 7, 2020, accessed June 12, 2020 . 
29. ↑ GMA: Taylor Swift announces new album, 'Folklore,' debuts tonight. July 23, 2020, accessed on July 23, 2020 . 
30. ↑ Taylor Swift breaks the Billboard record. August 4, 2020, accessed August 5, 2020 . 
31. ↑ Trademark law for lines of text: Patented empty words. taz.de , February 2, 2015, accessed on February 6, 2015 . 
32. ↑ ^{a b} Kai Leichtlein: Metal band defends itself against Taylor Swift. Protest song against Swift. Metal Hammer , February 3, 2015, accessed February 6, 2015 . 
33. ↑ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-30/scooter-braun-s-ithaca-holdings-acquires-big-machine-label-group
34. ↑ Benjamin Schulz: Criticism of streaming service: Taylor Swift brings Apple to its knees. In: Spiegel Online. June 22, 2015, accessed June 29, 2015 . 
35. ↑ Chang, Bee-Shyuan: Taylor Swift Gets Some Mud on Her Boots. In: New York Times. March 15, 2013, accessed February 7, 2014 . 
36. ↑ Caramanica, Jon: Sounds of Swagger and Sob Stories. In: New York Times. December 19, 2008, accessed February 7, 2014 . 
37. ↑ Kanthak, Benjamin: How neo-Nazis make Taylor Swift their icon. In: Bayerischer Rundfunk, Puls, Filter. August 30, 2017, archived from the original on March 12, 2018 . 
38. ↑ Parry, Hannah: Taylor Swift hailed as 'Aryan goddess' by white supremacist groups in their bizarre claims she is a secret 'Nazi'. In: Daily Mail. May 26, 2016. Retrieved November 26, 2017 . 
39. ^ Andrews, Travis M .: 'Alt-right' white supremacists have chosen Taylor Swift as their 'Aryan goddess' icon, through no fault of her own. In: Washington Post. May 25, 2016. Retrieved November 26, 2017 . 
40. ^ Taylor Swift on Going Pop. In: Time . October 19, 2012, accessed October 10, 2018 . 
41. ↑ Taylor Swift makes political statements for the first time. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . October 8, 2018, accessed October 9, 2018 . 
42. ↑ edition.cnn.com: "Taylor Swift calls out Trump over late-night Minnesota tweet: 'You have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence?'"
43. ↑ The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Rolling Stone , August 2015, accessed August 7, 2017 . 
44. ↑ merkur.de : Taylor Swift Outstanding Winner of the Billboard Awards , accessed on May 19, 2015
45. ↑ Worldwide album sales on statisticbrain.com, October 8, 2015, English. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
46. ↑ Worldwide sales by Reputation 2017 on ifpi.org, 2018, English. Accessed May 31, 2018.
47. ↑ Global top albums of 2019. ifpi.org, accessed on April 2, 2020 (English).