Taylor Swift has become one of the most successful pop music stars in history, combining chart-topping hits with a knack for storytelling. The 25-year-old alumna of Reading High School has built a global brand, commanding stadiums full of Swifties—her adoring fans—on international tours. And her savvy business acumen has made her a multimillionaire. She is credited with revolutionizing the way female artists are presented to the world and has taken on the biggest streaming services, arguing that their ad-supported free models undercut premium ones that offer higher royalty rates for songwriters.
Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in Reading, Pennsylvania, to Andrea (Finlay), a former marketing executive, and Scott Kingsley Swift, a financial adviser. She is of English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh descent.
At a showcase at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe in 2005, Taylor captured the attention of record producer Scott Borchetta, who had just formed his own independent label, Big Machine Records. Taylor was 14 at the time, and signed on as a member of the label’s first batch of signings.
In 2008, she released her debut studio album, Fearless. It spawned five singles, with “Love Story” peaking at number 4 on the US charts. The album reached number two in Australia and number one in the UK.
The release of her second album, Red, in 2012 marked a change in style for Swift. She wrote all the songs on the record, working with a new group of producers and songwriters including Max Martin, Shellback, Ed Sheeran, Liz Rose and Nathan Chapman, as well as longtime collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner. The album was a huge success, becoming the best-selling record of the year in the United States and earning Swift her first Grammy for Album of the Year.
When she went on her first world tour, the Red Tour, in 2013, she sold more tickets than any other musical artist in history. Swift’s sixth album, reputation, came out in 2016, and the lead single, “Look What You Made Me Do”, broke the record for most views on a YouTube video within 24 hours of its release. The album went on to sell over 800,000 copies in its first week of release, making it the highest-selling album of the year in the United States.
While some may think that Swift has gone off the rails with her recent actions, it is important to remember that she was only acting on her beliefs and fighting for what she believes in. The polarizing stances she has taken in the past are part of what makes her such an interesting figure: She is a multifaceted artist who can shift between genres with ease, while still managing to keep her millions of fans on their toes with every move.
