It’s been almost 10 years since the release of her self-titled album, Taylor Swift in October of 2006. Which marks 10 years of being absolutely smitten for the curly-haired country pop star. Her rise to fame has undoubtedly been one of the largest and most transitional ones of all time. She’s released five albums, 34 music videos, won 234 awards and was nominated for 528.
Her success hasn’t mirrored the success of nearly any other artist of our time, she truly sits in a category of her own. Very few artists write all of their own music and maintain their personal integrity. Swift has done all of these things without taking her clothes off, without putting others down and while building one of the largest fan bases in the world. And the industry has rewarded her for it.
In 2006, as kids in elementary school, we sang along to “Our Song” and “Tim McGraw” unaware that the girl singing them had written these songs when she was only 14-years-old. The talent and creativity that stems from Swift is hard to deny, even by her critics.
We’re the generation that grew up with Taylor Swift, the generation that was lucky enough to be there through all the heartbreaks, all the heartbreak songs and all of the fame. We watched her rise to stardom, one #1 hit at a time.
But, we remember each album and each song that came at just the perfect time. Her lyrics are interpreted by everyone differently, but somehow managed to mold themselves to our own lives and how we were feeling at that exact time.
Fearless, released in 2008, did that during those uncomfortable middle school and early high school times. She went through all of those experiences with us and we could rely on her music to parallel just how we were feeling. Especially her obvious classic, “Fifteen," which likely brought you to tears. She was only 18 when she released and toured for this album.
Her lyrics are advice to girls everywhere, experiences that she knows we’ve all been through and feelings we’ve all felt. It’s been a privilege to watch her lyrics grow with her and with us. It’s been fun seeing her music change and being able to guess who she was singing about, if she didn’t name them in her songs of course.
She’s bold and instills confidence in girls everywhere, showing that people can tear you down, but that doesn’t mean that you should let them.
Her album, Speak Now, released in 2010 is considerably one of her all time best albums. It showed us that we didn’t have to sit back and watch as the things we wanted happened for other people, that if we wanted something we should get it. This album was bold with songs like “Better Than Revenge,” “Mean,” “Innocent” and “Back to December.”
She used this album to call people out, apologize to people and to express her feelings. And we all felt those feelings with her.
Skip forward to 2012 and Taylor Swift has made it, she’s gained a loyal fan base, has many sponsors and released three albums. But, she wasn't done, her album Red dropped in October.
In this album we can feel her transition and slight pull away from her traditional country background, she starts straightening her hair and finds a more mature voice. With songs like “Begin Again" and “State of Grace,” we had the pleasure to hear a more serious Swift than ever before. But, she also gave us edgy songs like “22” and “I Knew You Were Trouble.”
Red was definitely the album to prepare us for her dramatic crossover into pop music in 2014.
If you still standby me as a die-hard fan of Taylor Swift, than you know that her album 1989, while not her traditional sound, was still one of her greatest albums. You can still hear her voice in each song, regardless if it has a pop sound to it. The artistry is still present in every song. Especially in “Blank Space,” where she pocks fun at her false reputation by embodying the persona completely. Or “All You Had to Do was Stay,” where we hear her heartbreak and resonate with each lyric.
1989, has been her most popular album yet and captured the attentions of a new audience and generation. Over 10 years, Swift has been able to gain popularity with nearly every age group, something no other artist has done. She’s wildly successful because of this and her fans will continue to remain loyal through every album to come. And we’re hopeful there’s many many more.
