This story starts on a Christmas tree farm in West Reading, Pennsylvania. Taylor Swift was born on Dec. 13, 1989, and up until she was 13 lived a quiet life with her parents Andrea and Scott Swift, and brother Austin Swift. But Swift always had a love for music and with the support of her family moved to Nashville in 2003 to pursue her musical career.
The move eventually paid off and Swift signed her first record deal with Big Machine Records. Most 15 year olds are busy getting used to the challenges that come along with high school, but Swift had to deal with the challenges of recording her first album. “Taylor Swift” or as fans call it “Debut” was released to the states in 2006, and though it didn’t win the album was nominated for CMA’s Album of the Year.
Over her 13-year recording contract with Big Machine, Swift recorded six albums five of which were nominated for album of the year at the Grammys, an award she’s won four times over the entire course of her career (with “Fearless,” “1989,” “Folklore,” and “Midnights”) making her the only artist to win that many albums of the year awards. Following her time at Big Machine, Swift has recorded four albums (“Lover,” “Folklore,” “Evermore,” and “Midnights”) at Republic Records at Universal Music Group, with her new album “The Tortured Poets Department” set to release this April.
Swift’s decision to leave Big Machine after her contract ended in 2018 was something that sparked a lot of discussion in the music world especially when after the split, Scott Borchetta who owned Big Machine at the time decided to sell the studio to Scooter Braun. By purchasing Big Machine, Braun also purchased the original masters to Swift’s first six albums that she recorded there, a situation described by Swift as her “worst case scenario” since she had been trying to buy back the masters herself. This sparked a huge feud between Swift and Big Machine but also resulted in Swift’s decision to re-record her old albums marking them as “Taylor’s Version” and including songs she had written for the albums but didn’t make the final cut in order to finally own her older music.
For the past 19 years, Swift has been delivering heartfelt music about love and life to her fans but, despite her massive success, has still suffered from a lot of hate. Her music has been criticized for including too many love songs, she’s been cast as a villain for writing too much about past boyfriends in a negative light, and some people have even gone as far to compare her weight on her current tour, “The Eras Tour,” to her weight on past tours. But Swift has held her head high, in 2019 when she won Billboard’s Women of the Decade award (making her the first person to win this award) she had this to say about her critics, “we shouldn’t let obstacles like criticism slow down the creative forces that drive us.”
Whether you’re a fan of her music or not, it’s hard to deny that she has become one of the most influential artists of our time. And with all the hard work she’s put into her career and the careers of other female musicians by continuously advocating for them, I’m inclined to agree.
