About Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. Recognized for her genre-spanning discography, songwriting, and artistic reinventions, Swift is a prominent cultural figure who has been cited as an influence on a generation of music artists.
Swift began songwriting professionally at age 14 and signed with Big Machine Records in 2005 to become a country musician. Under Big Machine, she released six studio albums, four of which to country radio, starting with her self-titled album . Her next record, Fearless , explored country pop, and its singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me" catapulted her to mainstream fame. Speak Now incorporated rock influences, and Red experimented with electronic elements and featured Swift's first Billboard Hot 100 number-one song, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together". She abandoned her country image with 1989 , a synth-pop album supported by chart-topping songs "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", and "Bad Blood". Media scrutiny inspired her next album, the hip-hop-flavored Reputation , and its number-one single "Look What You Made Me Do".
Swift signed a new contract with Republic Records in 2018, releasing her seventh album Lover and autobiographical documentary Miss Americana , influenced by political disillusionment. She embraced indie folk and alternative rock on her 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore and incorporated chill-out styles on Midnights . The albums broke multifarious records, led by the respective number-one singles "Cardigan", "Willow", and "Anti-Hero". After a dispute with Big Machine led to Swift re-recording her back catalog, she released two re-recorded albums, Fearless and Red , in 2021; the latter's "All Too Well " became the longest song to top the Hot 100. Swift has directed music videos and films such as All Too Well: The Short Film and played supporting roles in others.
Having sold over 200 million records, Swift is one of the best-selling musicians, the most streamed woman on Spotify, and the only act to have five albums open with over one million copies sold in the US. She has been featured in critical listicles such as Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, Billboard's Greatest of All Time Artists, the Time 100, and Forbes Celebrity 100. Among her accolades are 12 Grammy Awards, including three Album of the Year wins; a Primetime Emmy Award; 40 American Music Awards; 29 Billboard Music Awards; 12 Country Music Association Awards; three IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year awards; and 94 Guinness World Records. Honored with titles such as Artist of the Decade and Woman of the Decade, Swift is an advocate for artists' rights and women's empowerment.
Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in West Reading, Pennsylvania. Her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, is a former stockbroker for Merrill Lynch and her mother, Andrea Gardner Swift , is a former homemaker who previously worked as a mutual fund marketing executive. Her younger brother, Austin, is an actor. She was named after singer-songwriter James Taylor, and has Scottish and German heritage. Her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, was an opera singer. Swift spent her early years on a Christmas tree farm that her father had purchased from one of his clients. Swift identifies as a Christian. She attended preschool and kindergarten at the Alvernia Montessori School, run by the Bernadine Franciscan sisters, before transferring to The Wyndcroft School. The family moved to a rented house in the suburban town of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, where Swift attended Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School. She spent her summers at the beach in Stone Harbor, New Jersey, and performed in a local coffee shop.
At age nine, Swift became interested in musical theater and performed in four Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions. She also traveled regularly to New York City for vocal and acting lessons. Swift later shifted her focus toward country music, inspired by Shania Twain's songs, which made her "want to just run around the block four times and daydream about everything." She spent weekends performing at local festivals and events. After watching a documentary about Faith Hill, Swift felt sure she needed to move to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a career in music. She traveled with her mother at age eleven to visit Nashville record labels and submitted demo tapes of Dolly Parton and The Chicks karaoke covers. She was rejected, however, because "everyone in that town wanted to do what I wanted to do. So, I kept thinking to myself, I need to figure out a way to be different."
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