When does an artist know that he or she has achieved a lot? For example, when a world-famous newspaper or magazine hires someone to write only about that person. Beyoncé, for example, already has such “own” journalists, and Swift recently joined her. Even as a child, Taylor knew what she wanted to do in life – be on stage. As a teenager, she started performing in children’s theater and became interested in musicals.
She took singing and acting lessons, performed at local events, and when she was just 11, she went with her mother to record labels to deliver her demo tapes. The problem is that they contained covers of Dolly Parton songs, just like several hundred other tapes that were lying on the desks of employees of such companies at the time. Then Taylor realized that she had to do something different than everyone else, so the 13-year-old artist came back with her own songs – and it was a hit. Today, Swift has dozens of hits under her belt, and although at first Taylor was loved mainly in the United States, in recent years “swiftomania” has taken over much of the world. Three sold-out concerts at PGE Narodowy speak for themselves.
The beginnings of Taylor’s career were not as easy as it might seem. Of course, the singer got a big chance at a young age, but nothing would have come of it if not for the huge effort. This has stayed with her to this day, because Swift is famous for the fact that “she is not afraid of any work”, so she spends hours in the studio, writes something non-stop, and can practice dance routines all day long if she needs to learn them. It was like that from the beginning of her career, maybe without dancing, because Swift started her career on stage with country music. The teenage singer listened to Shania Twain’s albums all the time, so it’s no wonder that this musical love translated into what she played.
“Tim McGraw” is Taylor’s debut single, which became a big hit, but not immediately. The singer and her mother still remember sitting on the floor at the record company’s headquarters. The furniture had not yet arrived at the office, and the women were helping to pack promotional CDs for radio stations. Swift later toured local radio stations across the US for several months to promote the song and debut album. At the beginning, not everyone was convinced of Taylor’s work, a young girl singing country did not fit this scene. However, it soon turned out that Swift was gaining a lot of fans – her peers, who were not among other artists of this genre – and no translations were needed anymore.
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Taylor Swift
Tim McGraw
“Romeo and Juliet” in a new version, with a happy ending? In 2008, when this song was released, reviewers turned up their noses a bit at the Shakespeare references. Critics have theirs and listeners have theirs, because the song did well on the charts, even those that had nothing to do with country music. After all, years later, the same reviewers said that it was a good song after all, and maybe they assessed it a little too harshly at the beginning.
The next years of Swift’s career will show that the singer loves writing and singing about her former loves, but here we have the story of an imaginary relationship. Probably many musicians who spend weeks trying to create a song will not like this information, but “Love Story” was created in less than half an hour. Taylor already had a lot of songs for the “Fearless” album, but she came up with an idea for one more and decided she had to work on it right away. You already know the effects.
With this and many other Swift songs, you will definitely come across songs and albums marked as “Taylor’s Version”. In 2019, the artist entered into a dispute with the stars’ manager Scooter Braun, who bought her former label and with it the rights to six of the singer’s albums. Trouble was, Taylor had no idea.
When Braun refused to sell her the material after the entire transaction, the artist came up with the clever idea that she would record the albums again and then she would have the rights to them. This maneuver was previously used by, among others, Electric Light Orchestra and Def Leppard. Thanks to this, artists have an influence on how and where their music is used, and they have the right to remuneration if, for example, a given song is used in advertising. Taylor Swift – Scooter Braun: 1-0.
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Taylor Swift
Love Story (Taylor’s Version) [Lyric Video]
Forget Taylor in the country version. The album “1989” is pop in all its glory, and what’s more, it seems programmed to conquer the charts. Moreover, the artist worked on this song with Shellback and Max Martin, producers and creators who have a proven track record of creating pop hits. Suffice it to say that Martin is signed to several Britney Spears songs and I guess there’s no need to say anything more. The more popularity Swift gained at that time, the more the media became interested in her private life.
The less she talked about him, the more made-up stories she heard about herself. At one point, gossip magazines only wrote about the artist’s relationships and how much of a heartbreaker Taylor was. Some media even claimed that the singer was suffering from a “25-year-old crisis”. Swift – instead of straightening out and explaining these reports – decided to ridicule them in a song. The artist did not hide the fact that gossip was painful for her, but only until she realized that it was actually a funny situation. In an interview for “GQ”, Taylor said that the media considered her “an unpredictable girl who, however, likes to seduce, is also charming, but at the same time crazy and manipulates people.” This was just asking for satire. Not everyone understood the joke hidden in “Blank Space”, but it does not change the fact that the song instantly became a hit.
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Taylor Swift
Blank Space
Just like in “Blank Space” Taylor dealt with nosy gossipers, in “Shake It Off” she took on the haters. Every artist who achieves considerable popularity must also take into account a wave of criticism. Some people won’t like a certain album, while others will be disturbed by the way a given artist dresses. Is there any point in fighting it? Swift herself argues that you need to learn to avoid attacks, and when that is impossible, you simply need to know how to deal with them. The singer had to learn this herself, and she had many opportunities to do so, so if Taylor tells you that it’s best to ignore haters or old friends who can’t cope with jealousy, listen to her. It must also be admitted that there is no better way to hit critics than to record an extremely catchy dance hit. “Shake It Off” did not leave the top ten of the Billboard charts for almost half a year. This is what I call sweet revenge.
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Taylor Swift
Shake It Off
Inquisitive fans bet that the song was about Katy Perry. Where do these suspicions come from? The text is written by a disloyal friend who also works in the music industry. Swift did not want to reveal her name, but admitted that a colleague tried to poach her employees and thus ruin her tour. Quite “by accident”, the negative heroine in the music video wears an outfit that closely resembles one of Perry’s outfits. That’s right, a music video. It wasn’t enough for Swift to have Kendrick Lamar guest on the song, so she decided to create a star-studded video. The singer invited her friends and acquaintances, let’s add: famous friends, to the set. Selena Gomez, Gigi Hadid, Ellie Goulding, Zendaya and Cindy Crawford – among others, these people appear on the screen. Each of them could choose their hero and his style. No wonder the music video broke Nicki Minaj’s record and the clip was watched by over 20 million people in the first 24 hours. Taylor, who should have been used to success by then, couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
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Taylor Swift
Bad Blood ft. Kendrick Lamar
In August 2017, all of Taylor’s social media posts disappeared. A few days later, clips with a snake appeared there, and soon the artist announced her new album “Reputation”. The album was promoted by the song “Look What You Made Me Do”. To some people, the song seemed familiar the first time they heard it, because the song includes a fragment of “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred. The musicians found out about their “participation” in the single a week before its premiere, but the record company did not want to tell them who would use their song.
The artists received only a few pieces of information about the star, and their suspicions were confirmed when “Look What You Made Me Do” was released. Right Said Fred really liked Taylor’s song – and not because it caused some confusion around them and, of course, allowed them to earn good money. “Look What You Made Me Do” turned out to be Swift’s response to reports of her conflicts with celebrities. The artist was the heroine of the scandal with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian in the main roles, but the media also wrote about her failed relationship with Calvin Harris. If anyone was looking for evidence, – as usual with Taylor – you can count on a hint in the music video. In one of the scenes of the clip, you can see a tombstone with the inscription Nils Sjöberg. This was Swift’s nickname as the co-writer of Harris’ hit “This Is What You Came For.”
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Taylor Swift
Look What You Made Me Do
“Folklore” was unlike anything Swift had ever done before. Nothing unusual. This album was released during the pandemic and was the perfect soundtrack for the new reality, lockdown and a world where time moves a little slower than usual. Taylor engaged, among others, Aaron Dessner from The National, Jack Antonoff, Justin Vernon from Bon Iver, and even Joe Alwyn, her then-boyfriend, to work on the album. Dessner recalled that one evening he sent Swift a catalog with some song ideas. A few hours later, in the morning, he received the finished song, which fans knew as “Cardigan”. Many people were surprised by this incarnation of Taylor, but rather positively, because the album received great reviews. The single and album also provided Swift with many new fans who might not have listened to her previous work on a regular basis, but were delighted with Taylor’s folk and alternative version.
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Taylor Swift
cardigan
“It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me” – it was hard not to hear this song at least once, anywhere over the last year. The single may be a little different from the typical pop hits that Swift knows how to create, but try listening to this song, say, three times in a row, and then not hum the chorus. It’s not possible. “Anti-Hero” is one of the singer’s favorite songs throughout her career, and let’s face it, Taylor has a lot to choose from. At the same time, it is a very sincere song that jokes a bit and yet takes all the fears, complexes and moments of uncertainty in the artist’s life a bit seriously. For example, the fact that Swift, with such enormous popularity, cannot always feel like a human being and finds it difficult to establish relationships with others, that she also has moments of doubt, and that she does not like all the things about herself. It is not known whether it was due to the sincerity or the unobtrusive hit nature of the song, but “Anti-Hero” turned out to be the biggest hit in Taylor’s career, at least in the United States.
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Taylor Swift
Anti-Hero
2023-10-15 04:00:00
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