Highlights
- Taylor Swift has had a trailblazing career with different musical eras, starting with her country debut album in 2006 and transitioning to pop with the release of "Fearless" in 2008.
- Swift's "1989" album marked her domination of the pop genre and solidified her status as a worldwide pop icon, with hits like "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space."
- "Reputation" was Swift's villain era, where she shed her clean image and released an album that addressed controversies and criticism she faced, resulting in the highest-grossing tour in U.S. history.
With an impressive twelve Grammy wins, Taylor Swift is set to take fans on a journey like never before. Marking a big moment in history, the Eras Tour is slated to be the “highest-grossing tour of all time,” and the first of its kind to gross more than $1 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
AMC is expected to stage a theatrical release of Eras, which is scheduled for a worldwide release on October 13th in over 100 countries. Here’s an analysis of Taylor Swift’s musical eras throughout her trailblazing career.
Country Debut: "Taylor Swift" (2006)
When Taylor Swift was just 16 years old, she released her self-titled country album – which helped garner her first Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. She belted out hit songs like "Our Song," "Tim McGraw," and "Teardrops on My Guitar."
"Our Song" earned her the accolade of the youngest artist in history to write and perform a number-one song on the Hit Country Songs Chart.
Transition From Country To Pop: “Fearless” (2008 To 2010)
Swift’s second album Fearless deviated from country music and solidified her standing as a crossover pop artist. It debuted popular hits such as “You Belong to Me” and “Love Story.”
The Fearless album racked up a multitude of awards and accolades, including Best Country Album and Album of the Year. Many may remember the infamous feud between Kanye West and Swift during this era.
It all started in 2009, when Swift was accepting an MTV Video Music Award for Best Video by a Female Artist. West rushed on stage, ruining Swift’s moment by saying “I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!”
Glammed Up In Purple: “Speak Now” (2010)
Swift wore a purple dress on the original Speak Now album cover, created a perfume called “Wonderstruck” (encased in a purple bottle), and wore a purple dress on the Speak Now World Tour. Swift solely wrote the Speak Now album, which was a response to critics who claimed that she didn’t pen her own lyrics.
Pulling herself up by her bootstraps, she told Rolling Stone back in 2019, "When I was 18, they were like, 'She doesn't really write those songs.' So my third album I wrote by myself as a reaction to that."
While many of the songs on the album are based on the experiences of others, she also wrote several songs that focused on her enemies and public breakups. Each song demonstrates a confession that’s tied to a different person with hits such as “Dear John," “Mean," and “Revenge.”
According to People.com, Swift said: “The songs that came from this time in my life were marked by their brutal honesty, unfiltered diaristic confessions, and wild wistfulness.”
It’s Vintage: “Red” (2012)
During Swift’s Red era, she showcased a plethora of red colors as she explored more with her sound and style. The vintage style was apparent throughout all of her looks, from 1950s dresses to bangs and red lips.
Collaborating with producers such as Shellback and Max Martin, this unforgettable era was coupled with recordings including “I Knew You Were Trouble'" “We Are Never Getting Back Together," and “All Too Well.”
Domination Of The Pop Genre: “1989” (2014)
The 1989 album cemented Swift’s status as a worldwide pop icon. Named after the year she was born, the album featured hits like “Shake It Off," “Blank Space," and “Bad Blood.”
Completely leaving her country roots behind, 1989 was the quickest-selling album in the last decade and earned three Grammys, including the Album of the Year.
The album is considerably influenced by 1980s pop. In an interview with On Air With Ryan Seacrest in 2014, she said: “If you want to continue to evolve, I think eventually you have to pick a lane, and I just picked the one that felt more natural to me at this point in my life."
Squad members comprised of Selena Gomez, Karlie Kloss, Gigi Hadid, Cara Delevingne, and others were featured in the music video for “Bad Blood.”
It’s All About Her Character: “Reputation” (2017)
Also touted as her villain era, Swift left her clean image behind to release the Reputation album as a statement. During this period, her beef with Kanye West reentered the gossip news cycle, and she was the subject of criticism for her brief relationship with Calvin Harris and other men she’d dated.
With hit songs like “Don’t Blame Me” and “Look What You Made Me Do," her position was: "There will be no further explanation. There will just be reputation." Her Reputation Stadium tour broke records as the highest-grossing tour in U.S. history, with over $266 million in ticket sales.
It also earned her another Grammy nomination, for Best Pop Vocal Album.
Love And Pastels: “Lover” (2019)
Following her Reputation album, Lover was a stark contrast from snakes and dark colors. With a pastel color palette, this era was unfortunateld cut short short due to the then-looming COVID-19 pandemic.
The album includes songs such as “Cruel Summer,” released in June 2023. Swift included political activism in her album with the song and visual for “You Need To Calm Down," which championed LGBTQ+ rights.
Lover won four MTV Video Music Awards and earned three Grammy nominations.
Storytelling With Folklore: “Folklore” (2020)
In collaboration with Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff, Swift was able to tap into a new game plan for songwriting. Rather than being fixated on autobiographical songs, she explored folk songs and themes of escapism.
In an Instagram post that announced Folklore, Swift wrote: “I've told these stories to the best of my ability with all the love, wonder, and whimsy they deserve."
Inspired By The 1970s: “Midnights” (2022)
Midnights is Swift's most recent album, which veers away from the fluffiness of Folklore. With inspiration drawn from the 1970s, Midnights was dubbed a concept album that focuses on the loneliness and isolation that kept her up for 13 sleepless nights.
Some of the top songs on this album include “Karma," “Anti-Hero," and “Bejeweled," and the album landed in the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100. On her Instagram, Swift wrote: "This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams.”
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