Taylor Swift has just recently celebrated the 10 year anniversary of the release of her first self-titled album. For the last ten years, we have grown up with her into young adults, we’ve celebrated the good times with her music, as well as the hard times. She has been there for us through break-ups, through losing friends, and basically any other situation we could have possibly gone through. She has a song for every feeling and mood, and for that, we are grateful.
If you have ever wondered how Taylor gets her inspiration or even just how she got started, KEEP READING!
Taylor Swift is a twenty-six year old singer/songwriter from Pennsylvania. She started writing songs at age five and has been doing it with passion ever since. When she wasn’t on her family’s Christmas tree farm, Taylor was in Nashville, where she helped co-write songs while trying to land a record deal. With how much time she was spending in Nashville, Swift’s family eventually moved to Tennessee, realizing her love, passion, and talent for music. Taylor Swift’s grandmother was a professional opera singer, so her family quickly supported her in everything she wanted to do.
On a fateful day in Nashville, Taylor performed at the Bluebird Cafe, and it is there that she finally landed the record deal with Big Machine Records she had been working so hard for. She was sixteen years old at the time, making her one of the youngest country singers to ever get a record deal. In October of 2006, Taylor Swift released her self titled album, which contained her first single, Tim McGraw. Since 2006, Taylor has released five albums and is now number one on Forbe’s highest paid celebrity under thirty years old.
Recently, Taylor Swift opened up a four million dollar Taylor Swift Education Center at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. This Education Center contains three classrooms, a learning lab, and space for childrens’ exhibits. Her reasoning behind opening this stemmed from her own experience of how important it is to learn and practice music and creativity, knowing that there are not enough hours in the school day to do it successfully.
Taylor Swift’s creative process includes multiple ways of finding inspiration for her songs. A lot of her songs come to her in dreams. Her song “Stay” was from a dream about a man that showed up to her door and she couldn’t stop wailing “stay” at him.
She also watches John Hughes movies for inspiration. She will pause the movie at random points and try to think of and capture what that character would be thinking at that point in the movie. She also keeps a running note on her iPhone with witty observations to save for a rainy day. Her line “darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream” from her hit single, “Blank Space,” was one of those witty observations. Her process is almost like a word cloud. She will get the inspiration, brainstorm, and add things here or there until she is ready to fine tune it and record.
Taylor Swift is probably the most influential artist of this generation. She won the Horizon Country Music Award from the CMAs, as well as the Top New Female Vocalist award in 2007. She was the youngest artist to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2010 for her Fearless Album. She is the first woman in history to release more the three albums that sold more than one million copies in their opening week. In 2013, Swift won the Pinnacle Award for her achievements as a country music performer and she is the first female ever to win Album of the Year twice.
Taylor Swift was one of the first artists to be spotlighted as a teen and stay in the spotlight for this many years. She recently celebrated the 10 year anniversary of her very first album. It is said that Taylor is the first “bona fide country superstar of the MySpace generation.” She uses social media to her advantage by being actively engaged with her fans.
Taylor Swift changed the music game by fusing two musical genres together. She started out with country music, and then gradually went pop. This was monumental as most artists never venture outside of their genre safeguards. Taylor is also very old fashioned and still believes in the importance of buying a physical album. She urged fans to purchase her albums and it worked. Three out of five of her albums sold over one million copies in their release week.
She also recently took on Apple with for their controversial three month free trial of Apple music, in which they do not pay the artists for the free three months a user gets to listen. She said no to them and pulled her music from Apple Music. Swift says that she did not fight the system because she wasn’t getting paid. She fought the system for the little guys who rely on any and all sources of income, and she won.
Her latest album, 1989 is an album full of singles. Most albums have only a few hits, but this one is home to top hit after top hit. Taylor Swift has brought generations together with her followers. The people who loved her at the beginning are now ten years older, and her latest fans are young girls as well. Her music videos have become like short films as she casts her friends for certain roles and brings her songs to life.
Taylor Swift truly is the most iconic female artist of this generation. She played a huge part in the hipster movement of this generation and she has broken so many records with her life changing albums. She is my favorite artist of all time and I am proud to say that I have been to every single tour she has put on. She is a role model for girls and women everywhere.
Cheers to another ten years, Taylor, and let’s hope for many more!
Photos:
http://www.vulture.com/2014/10/how-much-is-taylor-swift-worth.html
http://www.hollywood.com/celebrities/taylor-swift-opens-education-center…
http://stuffpoint.com/taylor-swift/image/419020/young-taylor-picture/
http://www.justjared.com/2016/02/15/taylor-swift-blasts-kanye-west-in-gr…
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/6753848/theres-anothe…
Sources:
http://www.biography.com/people/taylor-swift-369608
http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/1108845/how-taylor-swifts-1989-changed-the-world