title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: A writer for the magazine "Popular Science" pointed out that Chipotle had publicly acknowledged that they "may be at a higher risk for food-borne illness outbreaks than some competitors due to our use of fresh produce and meats rather than frozen, and our reliance on employees cooking with traditional methods rather than automation." Other observers have argued that the variety of pathogens implicated in different incidents (Salmonella, "E. coli", and norovirus) points towards a systemic problem, and that the use of manure to grow organic food can increase the risk of spreading bacteria like "E. coli".


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: In December 2015, Seattle health officials closed a Seattle-area Chipotle for a day after it had repeatedly had small numbers of violations during recent consecutive inspections that previously would not have generated a closure order. On December 10, 2015, CEO Steve Ells released a press statement apologizing for 2015 outbreaks and promised changes to minimize the risks of future outbreaks.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: In March and April 2008, the Community Epidemiology Branch of the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency traced a hepatitis A outbreak in San Diego County to a single Chipotle restaurant located in La Mesa, California in which 22 customers were infected with the virus.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: In 2008, Chipotle was implicated in a norovirus outbreak in Kent, Ohio, where over 400 people became ill after eating at a Chipotle restaurant. Officials at the Ohio Department of Health said that the outbreak was caused by "Norovirus Genotype G2". Many of the victims were students at Kent State University. The initial source of the outbreak was never found.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: In early November 2015, "The Oregonian" reported that there was a little-known "E. coli" outbreak that had occurred earlier in July in which five people were infected with the . The outbreak was traced to a single Chipotle location in Seattle and that the incident was not publicized at that time. Seattle public health officials defended their actions at that time by saying that the outbreak was over by the time they made an association with Chipotle. Health officials were unable to trace the source of the July outbreak and said that the cause of the July outbreak is unrelated to the October/November outbreak.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: Another norovirus outbreak was confirmed to have occurred in August 2015 at a Simi Valley, California location in which 80 customers and 18 employees reported becoming ill. Ventura County health inspectors found various health violations during two inspections following the outbreak report. Despite those violations, the county health officials did not close the restaurant and allowed it to continue to operate. In a January 2016 article, "The New York Times" reported that the number of victims involved in the Simi Valley norovirus outbreak was actually 207, twice the number that was reported earlier.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: In an unusual move, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California in conjunction with the Food and Drug Administration had gotten a federal grand jury to issue a subpoena in January 2016 as part of a criminal investigation seeking documents and information from Chipotle concerning the Simi Valley norovirus outbreak. , it is too early to tell which organization is the actual target of the investigation. In most cases involving norovirus outbreaks that involved a single location, state and/or local authorities are the usual jurisdiction responsible in the investigation and prosecution of those type of cases. However, Ventura County officials had been criticized for their handling of parts of their investigation, and for allowing the restaurant to continue to operate after finding health violations during consecutive inspections.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: Less than two weeks later, a federal class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California claiming that Chipotle knowingly allowed an ill kitchen manager to work for two days before sending that person home. Then, the restaurant actively deep-cleaned the restaurant to remove all traces of contamination prior to notifying the Ventura County Environmental Health Division of the existing outbreak, hindering their investigation. The lawsuit also claimed that the number of known victims was as high as 234 and estimates that the number of meals that the infected employee may have come in contact with could be as high 3,000.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: At almost the same time as the Simi Valley norovirus outbreak, Minnesota health officials confirmed a "Salmonella" outbreak that affected 17 Minneapolis-area Chipotle restaurants in mid-August 2015. The source of the outbreak was traced back to contaminated tomatoes that were grown in Mexico. The Minnesota Department of Health reported that samples from 45 victims were tested and found that their illness was caused by the "Salmonella" Newport bacterium as determined by DNA profiling. Later, the state officials reported that the total of persons who became infected was increased to 64 and the number Chipotle locations in which they had acquired the bacterium was increased to 22, all located within the state of Minnesota.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: In October 2015, at least 22 people were reported to have gotten sick after eating at several different Chipotle locations in the states of Washington and Oregon. At that time, an epidemiologist for the Washington State Department of Health said the culprit appeared to be a Shiga toxin-producing "Escherichia coli" bacterium, but they were still waiting the outcome of several laboratory tests before they could give a definitive result. As a precaution, Chipotle had closed 43 stores in Washington and Oregon pending the results and recommendations of the involved health authorities. On November 5, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had reported that the number of persons reported ill had risen to 40 known cases and that the bacteria samples taken from 7 infected persons in Washington and 3 persons in Oregon states were confirmed to be infected by the same strain of "E. coli", the Shiga toxin-producing STEC O26 strain, as determined by DNA profiling. At least 12 persons required hospitalization, but no fatalities. As of November 2015, Health authorities were still trying to trace the exact source of the bacterial contamination, but suspected fresh produce.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: On November 12, the CDC increased the number of known cases to 50, the number of persons requiring hospitalization to 14, and the number of DNA fingerprint confirmations to 33. Through a match via Pulsenet, the DNA fingerprint also matched a recent case in Minnesota, but the ill person did not eat at Chipotle. The source of the bacteria infection still had not yet been determined at the time of the report released by the CDC and the CDC is trying to use the more definitive, but more time-consuming whole genome sequencing procedure to see if they are able to determine the relationships between all of the STEC O26 cases. In the meantime, Chipotle reopened the closed restaurants on November 11 after disposing all of the food within the closed facilities and deep cleaning those facilities.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: On November 20, the CDC reported that the number of STEC O26 cases, as determined by DNA fingerprinting, had increased to 45 with 16 persons requiring hospitalization and the total number states being affected had increased to six. Besides Oregon and Washington, new cases were reported in the states of Minnesota, California, New York, and Ohio. 43 out of 45 of the affected individuals had reported that they had eaten at a Chipotle in the week before they had become sick.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: On December 4, the CDC reported that the number of STEC O26 cases, as determined by DNA fingerprinting, had increased to 52 with 20 persons requiring hospitalization and the total number states being affected had increased to nine. New cases were reported in the states of California (1), Illinois (1), Maryland (1), Ohio (2), Pennsylvania (1), and Washington (1).


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: The price of shares for Chipotle stock dropped a further 12% immediately after the CDC had issued their update on November 20. Share prices had been dropping since the initial announcement of the "E. coli" outbreak in late October with investors unsure if the drop in share prices just a temporary aberration and that Chipotle management is handling the incident as well as they could. Chipotle has since hired a consultant to improve their food safety program and have their program reviewed by both the CDC and FDA.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: On February 1, 2016, the CDC official closed their investigations on the larger "E. coli" that started in Pacific Northwest in October 2015 and also the smaller outbreak that started in Kansas and Oklahoma in November since no new cases were reported since December 1. In their final report, the CDC stated that 55 persons in 11 states were infected with the same strain of STEC O26 during the major outbreak with 21 of those persons requiring hospitalization. The five persons infected in the later outbreak were made ill by a genetically different strain of STEC O26. The CDC also reported that federal and local health and food safety authorities were unable to detect traces of the microorganisms in any of the food samples taken from the suspected restaurants or from their supply chain. The CDC, FDA, and the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service were unable to determine a point source that was in common in the meals that were consumed by all the victims since some of the restaurants were located far apart and had obtained some of their ingredients from different suppliers while other consumers of the suspected suppliers were not affected.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on December 21 that five more people became ill after eating at two Chipotle restaurants located in Kansas and Oklahoma in late November. Preliminary DNA fingerprinting results appear to indicated that the newer cases were caused by a different strain of Shiga toxin-producing "E. coli" O26. Scientists are waiting for the results of the more definitive whole genome sequencing analyses to determine if the organisms responsible for this outbreak are genetically related to the "E. coli" that are responsible for causing the outbreak that had started in Oregon and Washington in late October and thus an extension of that outbreak. The agency has not yet determined which food is responsible for the outbreak. The Food and Drug Administration reported that they are trying to determine how the bacteria in these cases, along with the earlier Oregon, Washington, and other multi-state cases, might have been propagated through the food supply chain.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: In December 2015, eighty students at Boston College, including members of the men's basketball team, were sickened after eating at a single Chipotle restaurant. Affected students had been tested for both "E. coli" and norovirus in order to determine the cause of the illnesses. Although it would take as long as two days before the results of more definitive tests became known, public health investigators reported that preliminary tests pointed to the presence of norovirus. The health inspectors for the City of Boston had since closed this particular location on December 7 for a number of health violations that included maintaining meats at a too low of a temperature on the serving line and for allowing a sick employee to work at the time of the inspection.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: On December 10, officials from the Boston Public Health Commission reported that tests had identified a single strain of norovirus that was responsible for this particular outbreak. Boston Globe reported on December 10 that 141 persons were reported to have gotten ill and that some of the newer victims had not visited Chipotle before contracting the virus and most likely became infected by being in close proximity to someone who had gotten ill at Chipotle, such as a roommate or dorm-mate. Boston authorities traced the cause of the outbreak to a sick employee who was allowed to work on the day of the outbreak. Chipotle has since fired the employee and also the manager who knowingly allowed the ill worker to complete his shift instead of following health codes.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: On February 8, 2016, Chipotle closed all of its eateries nationwide for a few hours during the morning for an all-staff meeting on food safety. The company hired a new head of food safety, who instituted changes including having all employees wash hands every half hour, having two employees verify that produce like onions, jalapeños and avocados have been immersed in hot water for five seconds to kill germs on their exteriors, and using Pascalization to pre-treat food ingredients.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: Since the series of food-poisoning outbreaks in 2015 lowered trust in the product, Chipotle has tried to lure back its customers with free food and heavier advertising. Same-store sales increased 17.8% percent in the first quarter of 2017.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: Despite corrective actions, the company faced another setback in implementing their safe food policies in July 2017. A norovirus outbreak is being investigated in Virginia. More than 130 people reported having norovirus-like symptoms and two individuals had tested positive for the virus after eating at a Chipotle restaurant in Sterling, Virginia. The Loudoun County Health Department confirmed the illnesses from July 13–16, 2017. Shares of Chipotle's stock stumbled more than 10% on this news. On July 25, several news agencies reported that Chipotle officials confirmed that the "recent norovirus outbreak in Virginia was the result of lax sick policy enforcement by store managers" and that the company believed that an employee was the cause of the outbreak.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: In late July 2018, Ohio public health officials launched an investigation after receiving 368 complaints from customers after they had eaten at a Powell, Ohio, location. By mid-August, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified the bacteria that cause the outbreak which had affected over 700 people as "Clostridium perfringens". This food borne outbreak has been called the worst incident to date that can be traced to a single restaurant location.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: In April 2017, Chipotle first announced that their point of sale payment system was compromised during a three-week period from late March to mid-April but gave very little information about the incident. The following month, the company later revealed that 2,250 restaurants in 47 states were involved which could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of customers who may had their credit or debit card account information with security codes stolen. A few restaurants in Canada were also affected. Some security experts criticized the way Chipotle had downplayed the incident. During the same month, a credit union in New Hampshire filed a class action lawsuit on the behalf of banks and credit unions against Chipotle for failure to provide elementary credit card data security in the most recent data breach after a similar data breach that had occurred in 2004. In July 2017, Gainesville, Florida, police reported that an unidentified person took more than $17,000 from an ATM at a local credit union by stealing from 40 different accounts that can be traced directly to the data breach.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: A number of Chipotle mobile ordering app customers claim that their mobile ordering app accounts had been hacked and reported fraudulent orders charged to their credit cards. Chipotle claim that the customers were using unsecured passwords and is the customer's fault while many customers claim that is not the case since they claim to use strong passwords that were not used on other sites and the problem was at the server end.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: In November 2016, three men filed a class-action lawsuit against Chipotle alleging that a burrito was listed as containing only 300 calories, when in fact it contained more. They are seeking "unspecified damages and for an injunction against the company to prevent it from posting what it calls misleading information on its food."


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: In January 2020 the company received a $1.3 million fine from the state of Massachusetts for 13,000 child labor violations.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: In May 2019, Chipotle was in the news for having dismissed a manager who had been falsely accused of racism. In June 2022, Chipotle closed a Maine restaurant whose staff was trying to unionize, ostensibly due to staffing difficulties. In August 2022, a restaurant in Lansing, Michigan, became the chain’s first location to vote to unionize with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. This follows an attempt by workers at a store in Augusta, Maine, trying to do the same under Chipotle United in June.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: In the past, Chipotle mainly relied on billboards, radio advertisements, and word of mouth to advertise. In 2012, Chipotle aired its first nationally televised commercial during the 54th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony. In 2010, the company initiated an ad campaign that mocks advice given to Chipotle by advertising agencies. Chipotle has run many promotions giving out free food to potential customers, especially when opening a new store. Stores also give out free burritos on certain holidays; for instance, on Halloween, some locations have had promotions in which free burritos are given to people who come dressed as a burrito. Chipotle gave away free burritos to reporters during the 1997 trial of Timothy McVeigh, which took place in Chipotle's hometown of Denver. In addition, stores offered free burritos to those displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Chipotle received attention when Ozzy Osbourne's reality show "The Osbournes" featured the company's burritos heavily. For Halloween 2010, Chipotle announced that customers dressed as a processed food product would receive a burrito for $2. The event was part of a $1 million fundraiser for "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" called "Boorito 2010: The Horrors of Processed Food." For "Boorito 2011", customers dressed in costumes "inspired by family farms" will receive a menu item for $2, with proceeds from the promotion going to The Chipotle Cultivate Foundation and Farm Aid. The promotion is aimed to increase awareness of family farms. Also in support of family farms, Chipotle released music videos of Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Willie Nelson. On September 12, 2013, Chipotle released an animated short called "The Scarecrow", with a companion mobile video game; both feature a narrative heavily critical of industrial farming, but little in the way of direct marketing for the chain. The short features a cover of "Pure Imagination" from "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory", sung by Fiona Apple. It was named one of the worst advertisements of 2013 by The Wall Street Journal.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: In 2011, Chipotle created the "Farm Team", which is a rewards program available only by invitation from restaurant managers. The Farm Team members have access to a special Chipotle website, where members can earn rewards, i.e. free food and T-shirts. The site offers members to, "learn where Chipotle’s food comes from, take quizzes and polls, play games and watch videos about the company". In April 2014, the Farm Team program was shut down.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: Chipotle sponsors Team Garmin-Barracuda (formerly Team Garmin-Chipotle, Team Garmin-Slipstream, Team Garmin-Transitions and Team Garmin-Cervélo) of the International Cycling Union, and is an official team partner of the Boston Celtics, and the Boston Bruins. In June 2009, Chipotle sponsored free screenings of "Food, Inc.", a film that criticizes the corporate food industry. Founder Steve Ells stated that he hoped the film would make customers appreciate Chipotle's "Food With Integrity" policy. From May until September 2009, Chipotle ran a contest on mychipotle.com, a microsite which had a competition for the best user-created audio and video presentations about different combinations of ingredients. In July 2010, Chipotle began a campaign to support healthier lunch alternatives for students, in which money will be donated to The Lunch Box program based on how many spam E-mails consumers forward to a company E-mail address. For Chipotle's 18th anniversary, the company began wrapping its burritos in gold foil as part of a larger promotion to draw attention to its "Food With Integrity" mantra. Also as part of the gold foil campaign, Chipotle is offering prizes for customer-created pictures of items wrapped in gold foil. Chipotle hired comedian Amy Sedaris to create a comedic how-to video on wrapping with gold foil, and spread the video using Twitter. In March 2013, Chipotle pulled its sponsorship of a Boy Scouts of America event, citing that organization's ban on LGBT members.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: On March 14, 2016, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge concluded that Chipotle's social media policy, and more specifically its application towards an employee who posted tweets regarding wages and working conditions, violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). A former Chipotle employee in Havertown, Pennsylvania, wrote a series of tweets from his personal account about hourly workers being required to work on snow days. Chipotle instructed the employee to delete the tweets. The NLRB judge determined that Chipotle's request to delete the tweets violated the NLRA even though the employee was not disciplined as a result of his tweets.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: In July 2021, Chipotle rolled out limited edition gold foil at participating locations to celebrate American athletes competing in Tokyo at the 2020 Summer Olympics.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: On October 28 2021, Chipotle announced $1 million of burritos to be given away for free for the first 30,000 people to order from the video game Roblox.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: Architecturally, all Chipotle restaurants are built using most of the same material finishes (plywood, corrugated metal, stainless steel, exposed ductwork), although each store is unique. The interiors have been described as having an "industrial, sheet metal look". Chipotle has built restaurants using white ceramic tile instead of stainless steel. It costs the company approximately $850,000 to open a new restaurant. When the first Chipotle opened, Steve Ells asked his friend, sculptor Bruce Gueswel, to design the chairs and a styled Mayan king whose face was loosely based on that of civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr., a personal inspiration of Gueswel, for the restaurant. Both items were made from wood and metal. Gueswel has continued to design and build the art and chairs for all subsequent Chipotle restaurants.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: Most Chipotle locations display a photograph of the original restaurant, which is near the University of Denver campus on Evans Avenue. Instead of a photograph of itself, the original location has a photograph of the Dolly Madison Ice Cream that previously occupied the location. In 2010, Chipotle began opening smaller concept locations that have lower costs of development and occupancy. Chipotle uses environmentally friendly packaging, with bowls made from recycled newsprint, unbleached tray liners, and napkins and cups made from postconsumer waste.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: Chipotle's architectural design team incorporates the principles of sustainable architecture in their projects. The "green" restaurant in Gurnee, Illinois features an on-site six kilowatt wind turbine, which generates about 10% of the restaurant's electrical needs. The Gurnee restaurant has received Platinum level LEED certification from U.S. Green Building Council. A restaurant in Tulsa, Oklahoma, uses recycled drywall, low-VOC paint, and energy-efficient appliances. A Chipotle restaurant in Austin, Texas was the first to receive a four-star rating from the city's Green Building Program. Additionally, Chipotle has made arrangements to add solar panels to 75 of its restaurants. Chipotle has contracted to clean its stores in the New York metropolitan area, with "plant-based, environmentally preferable cleaning supplies and technologies." The cleansers are readily biodegradable and non-toxic to humans or aquatic life.


title: Chipotle Mexican Grill

text: Chipotle was the defendant in a lawsuit for failure to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Maurizio Antoninetti, a customer who used a wheelchair, claimed he was denied the "Chipotle Experience", because he was unable to see the food preparation. The case against the company was upheld in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear Chipotle's appeal, leaving the Ninth Circuit's ruling intact. Chipotle has "an official disability policy of bringing ingredients to the tables of diners with disabilities and doing tableside preparation." Chipotle is retrofitting restaurants affected by the ruling, replacing the walls in front of the food preparation area with lower ones or transparent panels. They are incorporating the new design elements into new restaurants. The case was one of over twenty ADA-related lawsuits filed by Antoninetti, who died in 2011.


title: Cretaceous

text: The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of the entire Phanerozoic. The name is derived from the Latin "creta", "chalk", which is abundant in the latter half of the period. It is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation "Kreide".


title: Cretaceous

text: The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now-extinct marine reptiles, ammonites, and rudists, while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land. The world was ice free, and forests extended to the poles. During this time, new groups of mammals and birds appeared. During the Early Cretaceous, flowering plants appeared and began to rapidly diversify, becoming the dominant group of plants across the Earth by the end of the Cretaceous, coincident with the decline and extinction of previously widespread gymnosperm groups.


title: Cretaceous

text: The Cretaceous (along with the Mesozoic) ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, a large mass extinction in which many groups, including non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and large marine reptiles, died out. The end of the Cretaceous is defined by the abrupt Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–Pg boundary), a geologic signature associated with the mass extinction that lies between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras.


title: Cretaceous

text: The Cretaceous as a separate period was first defined by Belgian geologist Jean d'Omalius d'Halloy in 1822 as the "Terrain Crétacé", using strata in the Paris Basin and named for the extensive beds of chalk (calcium carbonate deposited by the shells of marine invertebrates, principally coccoliths), found in the upper Cretaceous of Western Europe. The name Cretaceous was derived from Latin "creta", meaning "chalk". The twofold division of the Cretaceous was implemented by Conybeare and Phillips in 1822. Alcide d'Orbigny in 1840 divided the French Cretaceous into five "étages" (stages): the Neocomian, Aptian, Albian, Turonian, and Senonian, later adding the "Urgonian" between Neocomian and Aptian and the Cenomanian between the Albian and Turonian.


title: Cretaceous

text: The Cretaceous is divided into Early and Late Cretaceous epochs, or Lower and Upper Cretaceous series. In older literature, the Cretaceous is sometimes divided into three series: Neocomian (lower/early), Gallic (middle) and Senonian (upper/late). A subdivision into 12 stages, all originating from European stratigraphy, is now used worldwide. In many parts of the world, alternative local subdivisions are still in use.


title: Cretaceous

text: The lower boundary of the Cretaceous is currently undefined, and the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary is currently the only system boundary to lack a defined Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP). Placing a GSSP for this boundary has been difficult because of the strong regionality of most biostratigraphic markers, and the lack of any chemostratigraphic events, such as isotope excursions (large sudden changes in ratios of isotopes) that could be used to define or correlate a boundary. Calpionellids, an enigmatic group of planktonic protists with urn-shaped calcitic tests briefly abundant during the latest Jurassic to earliest Cretaceous, have been suggested as the most promising candidates for fixing the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary. In particular, the first appearance "Calpionella alpina", coinciding with the base of the eponymous Alpina subzone, has been proposed as the definition of the base of the Cretaceous. The working definition for the boundary has often been placed as the first appearance of the ammonite "Strambergella jacobi", formerly placed in the genus "Berriasella", but its use as a stratigraphic indicator has been questioned, as its first appearance does not correlate with that of "C. alpina". The boundary is officially considered by the International Commission on Stratigraphy to be approximately 145 million years ago, but other estimates have been proposed based on U-Pb geochronology, ranging as young as 140 million years ago.


title: Cretaceous

text: The upper boundary of the Cretaceous is sharply defined, being placed at an iridium-rich layer found worldwide that is believed to be associated with the Chicxulub impact crater, with its boundaries circumscribing parts of the Yucatán Peninsula and extending into the Gulf of Mexico. This layer has been dated at 66.043 Mya.


title: Cretaceous

text: At the end of the Cretaceous, the impact of a large body with the Earth may have been the punctuation mark at the end of a progressive decline in biodiversity during the Maastrichtian age. The result was the extinction of three-quarters of Earth's plant and animal species. The impact created the sharp break known as the K–Pg boundary (formerly known as the K–T boundary). Earth's biodiversity required substantial time to recover from this event, despite the probable existence of an abundance of vacant ecological niches.


title: Cretaceous

text: Despite the severity of the K-Pg extinction event, there were significant variations in the rate of extinction between and within different clades. Species that depended on photosynthesis declined or became extinct as atmospheric particles blocked solar energy. As is the case today, photosynthesizing organisms, such as phytoplankton and land plants, formed the primary part of the food chain in the late Cretaceous, and all else that depended on them suffered, as well. Herbivorous animals, which depended on plants and plankton as their food, died out as their food sources became scarce; consequently, the top predators, such as "Tyrannosaurus rex", also perished. Yet only three major groups of tetrapods disappeared completely; the nonavian dinosaurs, the plesiosaurs and the pterosaurs. The other Cretaceous groups that did not survive into the Cenozoic the ichthyosaurs, last remaining temnospondyls (Koolasuchus), and nonmammalian were already extinct millions of years before the event occurred.


title: Cretaceous

text: Coccolithophorids and molluscs, including ammonites, rudists, freshwater snails, and mussels, as well as organisms whose food chain included these shell builders, became extinct or suffered heavy losses. For example, ammonites are thought to have been the principal food of mosasaurs, a group of giant marine lizards related to snakes that became extinct at the boundary.


title: Cretaceous

text: Omnivores, insectivores, and carrion-eaters survived the extinction event, perhaps because of the increased availability of their food sources. At the end of the Cretaceous, there seem to have been no purely herbivorous or carnivorous mammals. Mammals and birds that survived the extinction fed on insects, larvae, worms, and snails, which in turn fed on dead plant and animal matter. Scientists theorise that these organisms survived the collapse of plant-based food chains because they fed on detritus.


title: Cretaceous

text: In stream communities, few groups of animals became extinct. Stream communities rely less on food from living plants and more on detritus that washes in from land. This particular ecological niche buffered them from extinction. Similar, but more complex patterns have been found in the oceans. Extinction was more severe among animals living in the water column than among animals living on or in the seafloor. Animals in the water column are almost entirely dependent on primary production from living phytoplankton, while animals living on or in the ocean floor feed on detritus or can switch to detritus feeding.


title: Cretaceous

text: The largest air-breathing survivors of the event, crocodilians and champsosaurs, were semiaquatic and had access to detritus. Modern crocodilians can live as scavengers and can survive for months without food and go into hibernation when conditions are unfavorable, and their young are small, grow slowly, and feed largely on invertebrates and dead organisms or fragments of organisms for their first few years. These characteristics have been linked to crocodilian survival at the end of the Cretaceous.


title: Cretaceous

text: The high sea level and warm climate of the Cretaceous meant large areas of the continents were covered by warm, shallow seas, providing habitat for many marine organisms. The Cretaceous was named for the extensive chalk deposits of this age in Europe, but in many parts of the world, the deposits from the Cretaceous are of marine limestone, a rock type that is formed under warm, shallow marine conditions. Due to the high sea level, there was extensive space for such sedimentation. Because of the relatively young age and great thickness of the system, Cretaceous rocks are evident in many areas worldwide.


title: Cretaceous

text: Chalk is a rock type characteristic for (but not restricted to) the Cretaceous. It consists of coccoliths, microscopically small calcite skeletons of coccolithophores, a type of algae that prospered in the Cretaceous seas.


title: Cretaceous

text: Stagnation of deep sea currents in middle Cretaceous times caused anoxic conditions in the sea water leaving the deposited organic matter undecomposed. Half of the world's petroleum reserves were laid down at this time in the anoxic conditions of what would become the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Mexico. In many places around the world, dark anoxic shales were formed during this interval, such as the Mancos Shale of western North America. These shales are an important source rock for oil and gas, for example in the subsurface of the North Sea.


title: Cretaceous

text: In northwestern Europe, chalk deposits from the Upper Cretaceous are characteristic for the Chalk Group, which forms the white cliffs of Dover on the south coast of England and similar cliffs on the French Normandian coast. The group is found in England, northern France, the low countries, northern Germany, Denmark and in the subsurface of the southern part of the North Sea. Chalk is not easily consolidated and the Chalk Group still consists of loose sediments in many places. The group also has other limestones and arenites. Among the fossils it contains are sea urchins, belemnites, ammonites and sea reptiles such as "Mosasaurus".


title: Cretaceous

text: In southern Europe, the Cretaceous is usually a marine system consisting of competent limestone beds or incompetent marls. Because the Alpine mountain chains did not yet exist in the Cretaceous, these deposits formed on the southern edge of the European continental shelf, at the margin of the Tethys Ocean.


title: Cretaceous

text: During the Cretaceous, the present North American continent was isolated from the other continents. In the Jurassic, the North Atlantic already opened, leaving a proto-ocean between Europe and North America. From north to south across the continent, the Western Interior Seaway started forming. This inland sea separated the elevated areas of Laramidia in the west and Appalachia in the east. Three dinosaur clades found in Laramidia (troodontids, therizinosaurids and oviraptorosaurs) are absent from Appalachia from the Coniacian through the Maastrichtian.


title: Cretaceous

text: During the Cretaceous, the late-Paleozoic-to-early-Mesozoic supercontinent of Pangaea completed its tectonic breakup into the present-day continents, although their positions were substantially different at the time. As the Atlantic Ocean widened, the convergent-margin mountain building (orogenies) that had begun during the Jurassic continued in the North American Cordillera, as the Nevadan orogeny was followed by the Sevier and Laramide orogenies.


title: Cretaceous

text: Gondwana had begun to break up during the Jurassic Period, but its fragmentation accelerated during the Cretaceous and was largely complete by the end of the period. South America, Antarctica, and Australia rifted away from Africa (though India and Madagascar remained attached to each other until around 80 million years ago); thus, the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans were newly formed. Such active rifting lifted great undersea mountain chains along the welts, raising eustatic sea levels worldwide. To the north of Africa the Tethys Sea continued to narrow. During the most of the Late Cretaceous, North America would be divided in two by the Western Interior Seaway, a large interior sea, separating Laramidia to the west and Appalachia to the east, then receded late in the period, leaving thick marine deposits sandwiched between coal beds. At the peak of the Cretaceous transgression, one-third of Earth's present land area was submerged.


title: Cretaceous

text: The Cretaceous is justly famous for its chalk; indeed, more chalk formed in the Cretaceous than in any other period in the Phanerozoic. Mid-ocean ridge activity—or rather, the circulation of seawater through the enlarged ridges—enriched the oceans in calcium; this made the oceans more saturated, as well as increased the bioavailability of the element for calcareous nanoplankton. These widespread carbonates and other sedimentary deposits make the Cretaceous rock record especially fine. Famous formations from North America include the rich marine fossils of Kansas's Smoky Hill Chalk Member and the terrestrial fauna of the late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation. Other important Cretaceous exposures occur in Europe (e.g., the Weald) and China (the Yixian Formation). In the area that is now India, massive lava beds called the Deccan Traps were erupted in the very late Cretaceous and early Paleocene.


title: Cretaceous

text: Palynological evidence indicates the Cretaceous climate had three broad phases: a Berriasian–Barremian warm-dry phase, a Aptian–Santonian warm-wet phase, and a Campanian–Maastrichtian cool-dry phase. The cooling trend of the last epoch of the Jurassic continued into the Berriasian, the first age of the Cretaceous. There is evidence that snowfalls were common in the higher latitudes during this age, and the tropics became wetter than during the Triassic and Jurassic. Glaciation was however restricted to high-latitude mountains, though seasonal snow may have existed farther from the poles. Rafting by ice of stones into marine environments occurred during much of the Cretaceous, but evidence of deposition directly from glaciers is limited to the Early Cretaceous of the Eromanga Basin in southern Australia.


title: Cretaceous

text: After the end of the first age, however, temperatures increased again, and these conditions were almost constant until the end of the period. The warming may have been due to intense volcanic activity which produced large quantities of carbon dioxide. Between 70 and 69 Ma and 66–65 Ma, isotopic ratios indicate elevated atmospheric CO pressures with levels of 1000–1400 ppmV and mean annual temperatures in west Texas between . Atmospheric CO and temperature relations indicate a doubling of pCO was accompanied by a ~0.6 °C increase in temperature. The production of large quantities of magma, variously attributed to mantle plumes or to extensional tectonics, further pushed sea levels up, so that large areas of the continental crust were covered with shallow seas. The Tethys Sea connecting the tropical oceans east to west also helped to warm the global climate. Warm-adapted plant fossils are known from localities as far north as Alaska and Greenland, while dinosaur fossils have been found within 15 degrees of the Cretaceous south pole. It was suggested that there was Antarctic marine glaciation in the Turonian Age, based on isotopic evidence. However, this has subsequently been suggested to be the result of inconsistent isotopic proxies, with evidence of polar rainforests during this time interval at 82° S.


title: Cretaceous

text: A very gentle temperature gradient from the equator to the poles meant weaker global winds, which drive the ocean currents, resulted in less upwelling and more stagnant oceans than today. This is evidenced by widespread black shale deposition and frequent anoxic events. Sediment cores show that tropical sea surface temperatures may have briefly been as warm as , warmer than at present, and that they averaged around . Meanwhile, deep ocean temperatures were as much as warmer than today's.


title: Cretaceous

text: Flowering plants (angiosperms) make up around 90% of living plant species today. Prior to the rise of angiosperms, during the Jurassic and the Early Cretaceous, the higher flora was dominated by gymnosperm groups, including cycads, conifers, ginkgophytes, gnetophytes and close relatives, as well as the extinct Bennettitales. Other groups of plants included pteridosperms or "seed ferns", a collective term that refers to disparate groups of extinct seed plants with fern-like foliage, including groups such as Corystospermaceae and Caytoniales. The exact origins of angiosperms are uncertain, although molecular evidence suggests that they are not closely related to any living group of gymnosperms.


title: Cretaceous

text: The earliest widely accepted evidence of flowering plants are monosulcate (single-grooved) pollen grains from the late Valanginian (~ 134 million years ago) found in Israel and Italy, initially at low abundance. Molecular clock estimates conflict with fossil estimates, suggesting the diversification of crown-group angiosperms during the Upper Triassic or Jurassic, but such estimates are difficult to reconcile with the heavily sampled pollen record and the distinctive tricolpate to tricolporoidate (triple grooved) pollen of eudicot angiosperms. Among the oldest records of Angiosperm macrofossils are "Montsechia" from the Barremian aged Las Hoyas beds of Spain and "Archaefructus" from the Barremian-Aptian boundary Yixian Formation in China. Tricolpate pollen distinctive of eudicots first appears in the Late Barremian, while the earliest remains of monocots are known from the Aptian. Flowering plants underwent a rapid radiation beginning during the middle Cretaceous, becoming the dominant group of land plants by the end of the period, coincident with the decline of previously dominant groups such as conifers. The oldest known fossils of grasses are from the Albian, with the family having diversified into modern groups by the end of the Cretaceous. The oldest large angiosperm trees are known from the Turonian (c. 90 Mya) of New Jersey, with the trunk having a preserved diameter of and an estimated height of .


title: Cretaceous

text: During the Cretaceous, Polypodiales ferns, which make up 80% of living fern species, would also begin to diversify.


title: Cretaceous

text: On land, mammals were generally small sized, but a very relevant component of the fauna, with cimolodont multituberculates outnumbering dinosaurs in some sites. Neither true marsupials nor placentals existed until the very end, but a variety of non-marsupial metatherians and non-placental eutherians had already begun to diversify greatly, ranging as carnivores (Deltatheroida), aquatic foragers (Stagodontidae) and herbivores ("Schowalteria", Zhelestidae). Various "archaic" groups like eutriconodonts were common in the Early Cretaceous, but by the Late Cretaceous northern mammalian faunas were dominated by multituberculates and therians, with dryolestoids dominating South America.


title: Cretaceous

text: The apex predators were archosaurian reptiles, especially dinosaurs, which were at their most diverse stage. Avians such as the ancestors of modern-day birds also diversified. They inhabited every continent, and were even found in cold polar latitudes. Pterosaurs were common in the early and middle Cretaceous, but as the Cretaceous proceeded they declined for poorly understood reasons (once thought to be due to competition with early birds, but now it is understood avian adaptive radiation is not consistent with pterosaur decline). By the end of the period only three highly specialized families remained; Pteranodontidae, Nyctosauridae, and Azhdarchidae.


title: Cretaceous

text: The Liaoning lagerstätte (Yixian Formation) in China is an important site, full of preserved remains of numerous types of small dinosaurs, birds and mammals, that provides a glimpse of life in the Early Cretaceous. The coelurosaur dinosaurs found there represent types of the group Maniraptora, which includes modern birds and their closest non-avian relatives, such as dromaeosaurs, oviraptorosaurs, therizinosaurs, troodontids along with other avialans. Fossils of these dinosaurs from the Liaoning lagerstätte are notable for the presence of hair-like feathers.


title: Cretaceous

text: Insects diversified during the Cretaceous, and the oldest known ants, termites and some lepidopterans, akin to butterflies and moths, appeared. Aphids, grasshoppers and gall wasps appeared.


title: Cretaceous

text: Rhynchocephalians (which today only includes the Tuatara) disappeared from North America and Europe after the Early Cretaceous, and were absent from North Africa and northern South America by the early Late Cretaceous. The cause of the decline of Rhynchocephalia remains unclear, but has often been suggested to be due to competition with advanced lizards and mammals. They appear to have remained diverse in high-latitude southern South America during the Late Cretaceous, where lizards remained rare, with their remains outnumbering terrestrial lizards 200:1.


title: Cretaceous

text: Choristoderes, a group of freshwater aquatic reptiles that first appeared during the preceding Jurassic, underwent a major evolutionary radiation in Asia during the Early Cretaceous, which represents the high point of choristoderan diversity, including long necked forms such as "Hyphalosaurus" and the first records of the gharial-like Neochoristodera, which appear to have evolved in the regional absence of aquatic neosuchian crocodyliformes. During the Late Cretaceous the neochoristodere "Champsosaurus" was widely distributed across western North America.


title: Cretaceous

text: In the seas, rays, modern sharks and teleosts became common. Marine reptiles included ichthyosaurs in the early and mid-Cretaceous (becoming extinct during the late Cretaceous Cenomanian-Turonian anoxic event), plesiosaurs throughout the entire period, and mosasaurs appearing in the Late Cretaceous. Sea turtles in the form of Cheloniidae and Panchelonioidea lived during the period and survived the extinction event. Panchelonioidea is today represented by a single species; the leatherback sea turtle.


title: Cretaceous

text: "Baculites", an ammonite genus with a straight shell, flourished in the seas along with reef-building rudist clams. The Hesperornithiformes were flightless, marine diving birds that swam like grebes. Globotruncanid Foraminifera and echinoderms such as sea urchins and starfish (sea stars) thrived. Thylacocephala, a class of crustaceans, went extinct in the Late Cretaceous. The first radiation of the diatoms (generally siliceous shelled, rather than calcareous) in the oceans occurred during the Cretaceous; freshwater diatoms did not appear until the Miocene. The Cretaceous was also an important interval in the evolution of bioerosion, the production of borings and scrapings in rocks, hardgrounds and shells.


title: Andhadhun

text: Andhadhun () is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language black comedy crime thriller film co-written and directed by Sriram Raghavan. It stars Tabu, Ayushmann Khurrana, Radhika Apte and Anil Dhawan. The film tells the story of a blind piano player who unwittingly becomes embroiled in the murder of a retired actor.


title: Andhadhun

text: The script of "Andhadhun" was written by Raghavan, Arijit Biswas, Pooja Ladha Surti, Yogesh Chandekar and Hemanth M. Rao. The film was edited by Surti, and K. U. Mohanan was its director of photography. Amit Trivedi composed songs for the film and Jaideep Sahni wrote the lyrics. Raftaar and Girish Nakod co-wrote the title song as guest composers.


title: Andhadhun

text: Rao suggested to Raghavan in 2013 that he watch "L'Accordeur" ("The Piano Tuner"), a 2010 French short film about a blind pianist, written and directed by Olivier Treiner, which received internationally more than 70 prizes in more than 100 short movie festivals, including the 2012 César prize for short movie in France. Raghavan liked the film and was inspired from it. Khurrana was cast in the lead role after he contacted Raghavan and expressed an interest in working with him. The film was shot in Pune in 44 days spread over more than a year; principal photography began in June 2017 and ended on 17 July 2018.


title: Andhadhun

text: "Andhadhun" was released by Viacom18 Motion Pictures theatrically in India on 5 October 2018 to critical acclaim. Critics highlighted the writing, and Khurrana and Tabu's performances. It won four awards, including Best Director and Best Screenplay, at the Screen Awards ceremony and five Filmfare Awards, including Best Film (Critics) and Best Actor (Critics) for Khurrana. It also won three National Film Awards: Best Feature Film in Hindi, Best Actor for Khurrana, and Best Screenplay. The film has grossed over at the worldwide box office, including from India and from China, becoming the 18th highest grossing Indian film of all time. The film was remade in Telugu as "Maestro" (2021) and in Malayalam as "Bhramam" (2021) while the Tamil remake "Andhagan" is under production.


title: Andhadhun

text: Residing in Pune, Akash Saraf is an up-and-coming pianist who fakes being blind to improve his piano skills. While crossing the street, he is knocked over by Sophie. She takes care of Akash and soon they begin an intimate romantic relationship. Sophie is impressed by Akash's talent and gets him an engagement at her father's diner. At the diner, a retired actor, Pramod Sinha, notices Akash and invites him to perform for his wedding anniversary.


title: Andhadhun

text: Akash arrives at the Sinhas' flat and Pramod's wife Simi opens the door. Simi, convinced that Akash is blind, lets him play the piano. Akash sees Pramod's dead body nearby but feigns ignorance and continues to play; he also sees Manohar, Simi's paramour, hiding in the bathroom. Simi and Manohar clean the body and stuff it into a suitcase while Akash plays.


title: Andhadhun

text: Akash tries to report the murder to the police, but discovers that Manohar is a police inspector. Meanwhile, Simi overhears her elderly neighbour, Mrs. D'Sa, talking to a police officer about Pramod's murder. Simi later kills Mrs. D'Sa by pushing her off the ledge of their apartment. Akash sees the murder but is forced to continue feigning blindness. Later when Simi brings poisonous offerings for him after her husband's last rites and pulls out a gun, Akash admits to faking his blindness as an experiment to help his piano playing. He says he will leave for London and will keep Simi's secret, but she drugs him.


title: Andhadhun

text: A neighbour's child, suspicious of Akash's blindness, records a video of Akash fully able to see and shows it to Sophie. As she arrives, Simi arranges things to look like she and Akash are having sex. Furious and heartbroken, Sophie leaves Akash. When he wakes up, he realizes he has been blinded from the drug Simi gave him. Manohar comes to Akash's home to kill him. Akash barely escapes, but he faints after hitting a telephone pole.


title: Andhadhun

text: Akash wakes up in an illegal organ harvesting clinic. Dr. Swami and his assistants Murli and Sakhu decide to spare Akash when he reveals he has information that will make them millions. They kidnap Simi, stage a suicide scene, and blackmail Manohar. However, Murli and Sakhu double-cross Akash, tie him up with Simi, and plan to take the money themselves. Manohar shoots Murli but is trapped in an elevator and accidentally shoots and kills himself. The money is revealed to be counterfeit.


title: Andhadhun

text: Simi helps Akash free himself and he removes Simi's blindfold. He tries to escape, while Simi frees herself and attacks him. Dr. Swami enters; after a brief fight, he and Akash knock Simi out, tie her up in the boot of a car, and drive away. Dr. Swami reveals that Simi has a rare blood type and that her organs would sell for millions; he also plans to use her corneas to restore Akash's sight.


title: Andhadhun

text: When Simi awakes in the car boot and begins making noise, Dr. Swami stops the car to kill her, but she overpowers him and seizes the wheel. Akash, thinking Dr. Swami is still driving, tries to persuade him to release Simi. She drops Akash off and tries to run him over. A nearby hunter who is trying to kill a hare misses, causing the hare to jump and hit the windshield; Simi loses control of the car and is killed.


title: Andhadhun

text: Two years later at a gig in Kraków, Sophie finds Akash, who still appears to be blind. After Akash tells her the whole story, Sophie tells Akash he should have accepted Dr. Swami's offer to restore his sight as well as part of the reward money of ten million dollars. After a while, when Akash is walking, he uses his cane to knock a can out of his path.


title: Andhadhun

text: Director-writer Sriram Raghavan saw "L'Accordeur" ("The Piano Tuner"), a 2010 French short film about a blind pianist, in 2013 at the recommendation of his friend, filmmaker Hemanth M Rao. Raghavan said although his film is different, the French film was its "basic germ". He wanted Rao to write a script based on the short but Rao was directing a film of his own. Raghavan then worked on "Badlapur" (2015) and had the "gist of the story". After reading about "Kaabil", which is also about a blind man, he was about to start writing but stopped, thinking having two films about blind people would be "crazy". Raghavan later resumed the script, taking a different approach.


title: Andhadhun

text: The idea of a blind pianist performing while a body is being dumped and a crime scene cleaned up fascinated Raghavan, who had written a similar scene for his previous film, "Agent Vinod" (2012), in which a blind girl plays the piano while surrounded by mayhem. Raghavan wrote the script with Arijit Biswas, Yogesh Chandekar, Rao and Pooja Ladha Surti. He gave the story idea to Varun Dhawan while they were working on "Badlapur" but Dhawan became busy with other films and the script was left unfinished. Raghavan discussed the scenes with the writers, who reacted as viewers.


title: Andhadhun

text: Raghavan and Biswas were unhappy while translating the dialogue from English to Hindi because they thought in English. Raghavan told Biswas to write the dramatic dialogue in Bengali, which was "at least the Indian idiom". Surti wrote another version of the dialogue because her Hindi was better than that of the others. Raghavan cited the 1996 film "Fargo" and the eponymous television series as an inspiration, calling them "realistic and yet ... bizarre". One of his friends was in a situation similar to one in the film; he then realised old Hindi films use "piano songs" and decided make the blind pianist the main character.


title: Andhadhun

text: Ayushmann Khurrana heard about the film from casting director Mukesh Chhabra and contacted Raghavan, expressing interest in working on it. Raghavan conducted screen tests of the scene in which the protagonist wakes up blind: "There were two pieces – when you are acting blind and when you are actually blind, and we tried both. I wanted to see what the difference in his body language would be." Khurrana, who played the piano in the film, met several blind students and observed "how [a blind pianist] plays, conducts and moves his hands". Khurrana studied piano for four hours daily under Akshay Verma, a pianist based in Los Angeles, and did not use a body double in the film. He called it the "most challenging role" of his career.


title: Andhadhun

text: Raghavan told Khurrana not to watch films with a blind protagonist and took him to the National School of the Blind. He said, "Since no two persons are the same, I picked up the nuances, learnt how to hold the stick and climb the stairs". Khurrana made omelettes and walked on the street blindfolded. He was given a pair of special lenses that impaired his vision by around 80 percent. His body language changed because he could no longer see properly. After wearing the black glasses, his vision was affected by 90 percent and he shot the entire film like that. Raghavan called Radhika Apte, who agreed to play Khurrana's love interest. Several scenes were improvised. Tabu was Raghavan's first choice for Simi. He did not brief her about scenes and they "kept developing [the character] as it went". Anil Dhawan played a former actor, a version of himself.


title: Andhadhun

text: Raghavan said he wanted to make a "fun sort of thriller" to follow "Badlapur". According to him, "Andhadhun" is not a whodunit; " ... The audience knows all along what's happening and why. It's the characters who don't." The film was shot in Pune; filming took 44 days over more than a year because none of the actors were available for a long shooting schedule. Principal photography began in June 2017 and ended on 17 July 2018. Raghavan and the film's director of photography K. U. Mohanan decided to "restrict everything to Akash's point of view" so the audience could see what Akash sees. There were no close-ups in the piano-playing scene, which was extensively rehearsed with several assistants to fit its timing into the four-minute piano piece. It was not rehearsed with the actors; Raghavan told them to "just do the scene" and gave them a time frame; "We didn't want it to look practiced; we needed that uncertainty". The film's first shot was rehearsed with Khurrana for three months. Raghavan called "Andhadhun" "a fun film in the macabre sense of the word", with moments of "wickedness and brutality".


title: Andhadhun

text: Raghavan wanted the film to have an open ending and considered several options. Both the Viacom 18 and Matchbox Pictures production teams were apprehensive about the audience acceptance of an open ending but Raghavan persuaded them. Its working title was "Shoot the Piano Player", which was changed because the producers felt an English title would "alienate people". The title is a play on the word "andhadhund", which means reckless or relentless, and "a play on blind tune and trance". The film was edited by Pooja Ladha Surti, and Snigdha Karmahe, Pankaj Pol and Anita Donald were its production designers.


title: Andhadhun

text: The title track of the soundtrack of "Andhadhun" was composed by Raftaar and Girish Nakod, and Amit Trivedi composed the remainder of it. The album's lyrics were written by Jaideep Sahni, Raftaar and Nakod. It was released on 5 September 2018 on the Zee Music Company record label. Vocals were provided by Trivedi, Raftaar, Ayushmann Khurrana, Arijit Singh, Abhijeet Srivastava, Aakansha Sharma, Shadab Faridi and Altamash Faridi. The background score was composed by Daniel B. George. The album received a mainly positive response from critics.


title: Andhadhun

text: "Andhadhun" was scheduled for release on 31 August 2018 but its release was postponed until 5 October; the producers announced the delay in a trailer. Raghavan originally wanted the film's trailer to only contain sounds because it is the story of a blind man but the studio was "shocked" at his suggestion. After several discussions, they agreed on a trailer. Raghavan "didn't want to give away too many things about the film" in the trailer and the studio eventually accepted his view. The trailer was released on 2 September 2018.


title: Andhadhun

text: The film was released on 800 screens across India, and is available on Netflix. It was screened at the 2019 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles where Tabu was honoured. "Andhadhun" was released in China as "Piano Player" on 3 April 2019. On 28 August 2019, the film was released in South Korea in over 90 screens.


title: Andhadhun

text: "Andhadhun" was critically acclaimed. Raja Sen of "The Hindustan Times" rated the film 5 out of 5 stars and called it a "rare treat" and a film that is "so compelling that it may universally be considered irresistible". Anna M.M. Vetticad of "Firstpost" rated the film 4.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Sriram Raghavan's "Andhadhun" should rank among the most fascinating and fun suspense thrillers ever to emerge from Bollywood". Sukanya Verma of "Rediff" rated the film 4.5 out of 5 stars and wrote ""Andhadhun" is a stunning, comic, grisly, absurd, intense, cold, crazy". Saibal Chatterjee of "NDTV" rated the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Watch "Andhadhun" with your ears, eyes and minds open. You will come away with your senses heightened." Rajeev Masand of "News 18" rated the film 4 out of 5 stars and called it a film with "many pleasures ... chief among them is the thrill of being constantly surprised". He praised Khurrana's and Tabu's performances, calling them "in solid form" and "towering". Renuka Vyavahare of "The Times of India" rated the film 4 out of 5 stars and gave the film a positive review, calling it an "engaging thriller that keeps you on your toes and leaves you guessing all the way". Umesh Punwani of "Koimoi" rated the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote ""Andhadhun" also proves one thing why no high budget is required when you've such a strong script in hand". IANS of "The Free Press Journal" rated the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "Director Sriram Raghavan’s "Andhadhun" is a taut, skillful and surgically effective murder mystery". Ankur Pathak of HuffPost cited it as "the best film of 2018 so far" and "a film worth watching and then rewatching".


title: Andhadhun

text: Shilajit Mitra of "The New Indian Express" rated the film 4 out of 5 stars and said in a review that "Raghavan creates a world interchangeably familiar and pulpy" in which he "strings together ingenious set-pieces and populates them with wryly-written characters". Shubhra Gupta of "The Indian Express" rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and called "Andhadhun" "racy, pacy and appropriately pulpy" but said it becomes a "tad heavy-handed and dull" after a while. Devesh Shamrma of "Filmfare" rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote ""Andhadhun" has a zig zag storyline and spot on acting by the entire cast. It"s one of those mysteries which you"ll like to go back to despite knowing the ending". Shibaji Roychoudhury of "Times Now" said the second half was predictable and "falls flat" but called the film "thrilling, full of compelling performances and exceptional sound design that will keep you at the edge of your seat". Sushant Mehta of "India Today" rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Raghavan's ability to shock an entire cinema hall including the most immovable, emotionless fan coupled with his ability to make the audience laugh during these moments where your heart is in your mouth defines his unique brand of cinema". Nandini Ramnath of "Scroll.in" rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote that the film has a "strong flavour of the Coen brothers at their peak, but also enough nods to Raghavan's longstanding interest in the dynamics of the perfect crime and the hustlers and flimflam artists who populate pulp detective stories". She said although the film's runtime was a stretch, it "slides into place as smoothly as one of Akash's piano pieces".


title: Andhadhun

text: Anupama Chopra wrote, "The surroundings – high-rises, leafy streets and old houses in Pune – seem perfectly normal but what's happening inside is deliciously twisted. There's murder, betrayal, sex and a mountain of lies. In short, you can't look away." Udita Jhunjhunwala of "Mint" praised Khurrana's acting, calling it a "taut performance that balances vulnerability with craftiness", and said Tabu "runs away with the show". Shaheen Irani of "Deccan Chronicle" wrote, "Sriram has done a fab job in keeping dark humour intact with several quirky and surprise elements that will make you cover your face too".


title: Andhadhun

text: Troy Ribeiro of Indo-Asian News Service called the film a "taut, skillful and surgically effective murder mystery" and said; "For most of its length, "Andhadhun" functions so efficiently that we put the cause and its effects on hold and go with the action". Manjusha Radhakrishnan of "Gulf News" described the film as an "unapologetic celebration of vitriol, darkness and mean-spiritedness". Namrata Joshi wrote, "While seemingly giving things away, Raghavan is actually always a step ahead of the viewers in the cat-and-mouse game".


title: Andhadhun

text: Poulomi Das of Arre also gave "Andhadhun" a positive review, saying; "The film is all about clever writing, top-notch execution, and hard-hitting social commentary – but it is also a triumph of casting, and an ode to actors". Shilpa Jamkhandikar of Reuters said ""Andhadhun" ticks all the right boxes" that should be "savoured." Kumar Shyam of "The National" wrote, "Drawing the viewers into multiple situations of right and wrong, black and white and then shades of grey, the climax also ends on a similar note with a deliberate climax, typical Hitchcockian, between salvation and revelation". Stutee Ghosh of The Quint said, ""Andhadhun" deserves praise and full attention ... Make sure to not miss anything, not the opening scene nor the end credits". Anita Iyer of "Khaleej Times" called the film a "crisply-edited, fast-paced narrative that keeps you on the edge of the seat throughout". J. Hurtado of Screen Anarchy said; ""Andhadhun" shows that this veteran director knows how to make this kind of twisty genre gem better than almost anyone in India". He included it in his list of 14 Favorite Indian Films of 2018.


title: Andhadhun

text: Made on a budget of , "Andhadhun" earned on its first day of release. The film's box office take increased with positive word of mouth and it grossed on its second day. It earned in its first weekend and grossed in ten days. The film became profitable before its theatrical release through the sale of its satellite television rights, which were sold to Colors. At the end of its six-week theatrical run, "Andhadhun" had earned at the box office, mainly from Mumbai. The film also did well internationally, earning .


title: Andhadhun

text: Prior to its release in China, "Andhadhun" had grossed worldwide, including in India and overseas. In China, the film surpassed its Indian lifetime collection within six days. "Andhadhun" has grossed in China, for a worldwide total of .


title: Andhadhun

text: In 2021, "Andhadhun" was remade in Telugu as "Maestro" and in Malayalam as "Bhramam". A Tamil remake, "Andhagan", is in production.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Red is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released on October 22, 2012, by Big Machine Records. The album's title refers to the tumultuous, "red" emotions Swift experienced during the album's conception; its songs discuss the complex and conflicting feelings resulting from fading romance.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Hoping to experiment with new sounds beyond her previous albums' country pop style, Swift engaged new producers Dann Huff, Max Martin, Shellback, Jeff Bhasker, Dan Wilson, Jacknife Lee, Butch Walker, alongside her long-time collaborator Nathan Chapman. The record combines styles of pop, country, and rock, with eclectic elements including arena rock, Britrock, dance-pop, hip hop, and dubstep. Big Machine promoted "Red" as a country album but many critics disputed this categorization and deemed it a pop record. The album was supported with seven singles, including the US "Billboard" Hot 100 number-one lead single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and the Mainstream Top 40 number-one single "I Knew You Were Trouble".


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: In the US, "Red" spent seven weeks atop the "Billboard" 200—making Swift the first female artist and the second act since the Beatles to have three consecutive albums each spend at least six weeks at number one, and was certified seven-times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It topped the charts and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The album received nominations for Album of the Year at the 2013 Country Music Association Awards, and Album of the Year and Best Country Album at the 2014 Grammy Awards. Swift promoted the album with the Red Tour (2013–2014), which grossed $150 million.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Critics praised Swift's songwriting in "Red" but they were divided on the album's sonic range; praise was directed at the album's versatility but criticism targeted its inconsistency. Retrospectively, many critics have regarded "Red" as Swift's best album and a transitional record bridging her country roots to mainstream pop. It appeared in publications' lists of the best albums of the 2010s decade, and ranked at number 99 in the 2020 revision of "Rolling Stone" 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Following the 2019 dispute regarding the ownership of Swift's back catalog, she released a re-recording, "Red (Taylor's Version)" to critical acclaim, in November 2021.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift released her third studio album, "Speak Now", in October 2010. "Rolling Stone" reported in 2020 that Swift wrote the music to "Speak Now" alone to prove to critics she was capable; Swift herself says it happened by accident as she would write songs in early morning hours and did not have a co-writer around before she finished the songs. "Speak Now", which was co-produced by Swift and her longtime collaborator Nathan Chapman, expands on her characteristic country pop sound with increasingly frequent elements of radio-friendly pop crossover, which are evident on its predecessor, "Fearless" (2008). It incorporates various rock styles, including pop rock, arena rock, and new wave rock. "Speak Now" was the fastest-selling digital album by a female artist, with 278,000 downloads in a week, earning Swift an entry in the 2010 "Guinness World Records". At the 54th Grammy Awards in 2012, the album was nominated for Best Country Album, and its single "Mean" won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: After the release of "Speak Now", Swift planned to continue collaborating with Chapman for its follow-up. By October 2011, she had written around 25 songs. Executives at Swift's label Big Machine congratulated her on having finalized the album within one year. Swift said she had been repeating the same songwriting process she used for "Speak Now", which diminished her creativity. She sought to collaborate with Chapman and new producers to venture outside of her comfort zone of writing songs alone. While "Speak Now" was Swift's statement as a songwriter, she envisioned her fourth studio album as a statement of her "thirst for learning". She reworked the new album while touring "Speak Now".


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Swift, aiming to experiment with as many styles as she could, decided her fourth studio album would not follow one coherent genre. To this end, she recruited musicians whose works she admired, hoping to learn from them. Although Swift wanted to experiment with various musical styles, she prioritized the lyrics over the production and strove to capture her emotions, as she had done on her previous songs. Songwriting would start by identifying an emotion with a song, and production would follow. On songs Swift co-wrote, she first presented her co-writers with the feelings she had been going through, played a rough demo on her guitar, and asked for their ideas on ways to better convey the story. Each song's production corresponded to the emotion it portrayed, resulting in an eclectic mix of styles.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: The first song written for the album was "All Too Well", which Swift began writing in February 2011 during a rehearsal of the "Speak Now" tour. Having recently ended a relationship, Swift began ad-libbing self-written lyrics about heartbreak on a four-chord guitar riff as her touring band spontaneously played backing instruments. A critical point during a recording session with Chapman was the song "Red", on which her creativity "started wandering to all the places [she] could go". Big Machine's president Scott Borchetta overheard Chapman's original production and suggested a more pop-oriented sound. After several failed attempts to get the desired sound, Swift asked Borchetta to recruit Swedish producer Max Martin, whose ability to "just land a chorus" for his chart-topping pop songs intrigued Swift. Martin and his frequent collaborator Shellback produced the songs "22", "I Knew You Were Trouble", and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", all of which are characterized by Martin's and Shellback's trademark synthesizers and electronic production. The final version of "Red" was produced by Swift, Chapman, and Dann Huff. Huff, who had produced for several country artists, worked with Swift and Chapman on "Starlight" and "Begin Again".


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Another new collaborator was Jeff Bhasker, whose production of "We Are Young" (2011) by indie band Fun captivated Swift by its drum instrumentation. Bhasker produced two songs: "Holy Ground" and "The Lucky One". Swift worked with Butch Walker on the song "Everything Has Changed", a duet with English singer Ed Sheeran. She admired Walker for the way "he creates this really organic but emotionally charged music". "Treacherous" was produced by Dan Wilson, whose work with his band Semisonic inspired Swift. She engaged musicians Gary Lightbody and Jacknife Lee of the Irish-Scottish band Snow Patrol, saying, "they can just hit you when they are singing about loss or longing". Lee produced "The Last Time", on which Lightbody sings. Swift wrote more than 30 songs for the album, 16 of which made the final cut of the standard edition. Of those 16 tracks, Swift was the sole writer of 10 and co-wrote the other six.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: "Red" spans genres and departs from Swift's previous country-pop sound; it incorporates eclectic elements of styles such as dance-pop, dubstep, Britrock, arena rock, and hip hop. Swift called its diverse musical styles a "metaphor for how messy a real breakup is" and described it as her "only true breakup album". The album's first half consists of country and pop songs intertwined with each other; three tracks—"22", "I Knew You Were Trouble", and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"—embrace a pure pop production, electronic vocal processing, and hip-hop-influenced bass drums. The rock stylings of "Speak Now" expand on tracks "State of Grace" and "Holy Ground", which musicologist James E. Perone found reminiscent of 1980s arena rock. Other tracks including "I Almost Do", "Stay Stay Stay", "Sad Beautiful Tragic", and "Begin Again", embrace the country sound of Swift's earlier music.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Critics were divided on the album's genre classification. Jon Dolan's review for "Rolling Stone" appeared in their column for country music, but he described Swift's musical foundation as "post-country rock". For some reviewers, "Red" blurs the divide between country and pop; "Billboard" likened it to Canadian singer-songwriter Shania Twain's country-pop crossover "Up!" (2002). Other reviews, such as those by AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine and "Slant Magazine"'s Jonathan Keefe, called it a straightforward pop album with little trace of country. In "The New York Times", Jon Caramanica commented Swift had been "a pop star in a country context" and "Red" contributes to her inevitable move in mainstream pop. For "American Songwriter"'s Jewly Hight, debating Swift's genre was pointless because her work is meant for a young audience who thinks of music "iPod shuffle-fluidly".


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Although "Red" transcends Swift's country roots, her storytelling ability, nurtured by this country background, remains intact in her songwriting. The album's title refers to what Swift termed the tumultuous, extreme, "red" emotions that were evoked by unhealthy romantic relationships she was experiencing during the album's conception phase; such emotions ranged "from intense love, intense frustration, jealousy, confusion" and shaped the lyrics. "Pitchfork"'s Brad Nelson summed up the album's theme as disappearances, from lost romance and relationships to Swift's old country sound. For Nelson, this serves as the influence for the album cover, on which Swift is looking downward with her face partially shadowed from her brimmed hat. Reviewers observed the similarities between the cover of "Red" and that of Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell's 1971 album "Blue", which inspired Swift's songwriting on "Red".


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Whereas Swift's previous songs contain fantasy-driven narratives with happy endings, "Red" realizes the uneasy reality of how a seemingly enduring relationship can painfully end. In the album's liner notes, Swift quotes a line from Pablo Neruda's poetry collection "Tonight I Can Write (The Saddest Lines)", "Love is so short, forgetting is so long", which she deems simultaneously relatable and simple, appropriate for the album's overarching theme. Critics observed a sign of maturity in Swift's perspectives and recognized additional themes—wide-eyed optimism, insecurity about one's perceived image, and the pressure of stardom. Hints of sex, absent from Swift's earlier music, are apparent on "Red", which coincided with her outgrowing of her public image as an innocent sweetheart.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: "The A.V. Club"'s Michael Gallucci acknowledged the deeper observations of "Red"'s songs but did not appreciate their criticism of Swift's ex-lovers. NPR's J. English, meanwhile, noted the album portrays Swift at her most vulnerable and maturity for recognizing her coming of age in "plaintive, reflective tones". "Billboard" similarly noted the album's portrayal of maturity through vulnerability, saying "she most effectively lays bare her emotional life in all its messy complexity". Most of the songs on "Red" were inspired by one ex-boyfriend who, according to Swift, contacted her after listening to the album and described the experience as "bittersweet".


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: "Red" opens with "State of Grace", an arena-rock song featuring chiming guitars, dynamic drums, and lyrics about the tumultuous feelings that are evoked by the first sights of love. The title track, "Red", incorporates acoustic banjo, guitars, and electronic voice manipulation. It combines soft rock, country, and mainstream pop. Its refrain relates the stages of love to colors; "losing him" is blue, "missing him" is dark gray, and "loving him" is red. The third track, "Treacherous", begins with slow guitar strumming and percussion and gradually builds up, with lyrics about fighting to protect a dangerous relationship. "I Knew You Were Trouble", which Swift said was a completely new style for her, begins with a pop-rock production before building into a dubstep-tinged refrain with aggressive synthesizer backing. Its narrator blames herself for a toxic relationship that has ended. Critics considered the track Swift's most radical sonic change on "Red", with Perone viewing the syncopated bass drums as exemplary of her experimenting with hip hop, and Caramanica saying the dubstep drop was "a wrecking ball, changing the course not just of the song but also of Ms. Swift's career".


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Critics regarded "All Too Well" as the album's emotional centerpiece. It features a slow-burning production blending country, folk, and arena rock, with overdubs of acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, drums, and background vocals. The lyrics chronicle a lost relationship from the peak of romance to the lingering memories after it has ended. The imagery of a scarf left in a drawer became a symbol associated with the song; according to critic Rob Sheffield of "Rolling Stone," "no other song does such a stellar job of showing off her ability to blow up a trivial little detail into a legendary heartache". "All Too Well" is followed by "22", a pop song featuring pulsing synthesizers that recall 1980s pop. The lyrics of "22" celebrate the joys of being young and confident while acknowledging the uncertainty of adulthood, and the heartache the narrator and her friends endured in the past. "I Almost Do" is a country-pop and soft-rock ballad featuring gentle guitar strums. In the song, a narrator struggles to decide if she should rekindle with a former lover. It is followed by "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", in which the narrator promises her ex-lover they will never rekindle their broken relationship. The song is a gleeful dance-pop tune with pulsing synthesizers, processed guitar sounds, and hip-hop-influenced bass drums. "Stay Stay Stay" is a fast-tempo song combining country with elements of 1980s pop. It is instrumented with a toy piano, ukulele, mandolin, and hand claps, and has lyrics about two lovers trying to reconcile after a fight.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: "The Last Time", a duet with Gary Lightbody, has a melancholic production backed by string instruments; Perone compared its production with the music of late-1970s and early-1980s rock bands but with a muted texture. Both Swift and Lightbody sing lead vocals; in the first verse, Lightbody sings about his character's perspective on a failing long-term relationship and in the second verse, Swift presents her character's view. The refrain is backed by strings and brass, intensifying the emotional tension between the two. In "Holy Ground", a narrator reminisces about an absent lover and the fleeting moments of their past. It is a country rock and heartland rock track with persistent drums and a recurring guitar riff. The next track, "Sad Beautiful Tragic", is a melancholic, slow, folk-oriented waltz about a doomed love affair. The soft-rock "The Lucky One" is a cautionary tale about the perils of celebrity. Narrated from a third-person perspective, it references the story of a successful singer who "chose the rose garden over Madison Square". "Everything Has Changed" featuring Ed Sheeran is a stripped-back guitar ballad about a blossoming new romance, and "Starlight" is an uptempo, dance-pop song about Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy's relationship. The standard edition's final track, "Begin Again", is a gentle country song expressing a narrator's vulnerability post-breakup and willingness to start over. Perone noted "Red", after exploring other genres, concludes with a country song, confirming the importance of Swift's musical roots.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: The deluxe edition of "Red" includes the extra original songs "The Moment I Knew", "Come Back ... Be Here", and "Girl at Home"; and three alternative versions of "Treacherous", "Red", and "State of Grace". "The Moment I Knew" is a somber piano ballad and narrates a story of a woman's birthday party from which, despite a Christmas theme and good friends, her boyfriend is absent, signaling a failing relationship. The 2000s-adult-contemporary-oriented "Come Back... Be Here" has lyrics about a long-distance relationship with few chances to endure. "Girl at Home", a song combining country with 1980s music elements, is about a woman's feelings when her boyfriend is out and flirting with other women.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Swift and Big Machine implemented an extensive marketing plan for "Red". On August 13, 2012, Swift announced the album's details through a live webchat via Google Hangouts, and released the lead single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", which was her first number-one song on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. An alternative version of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was released to US country radio; it spent ten weeks atop Hot Country Songs. On September 22, Swift announced on "Good Morning America" a four-week song release countdown from September 24 until the album's release week. The four songs—"Begin Again", "Red", "I Knew You Were Trouble", and "State of Grace"—were released for digital download onto the iTunes Store. "Begin Again", which peaked at number seven on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, was later released as a single to US country radio on October 1, 2012.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Both the standard and deluxe versions of "Red" were released on October 22, 2012. In the US, the standard edition was available in digital and physical formats, and the deluxe edition containing six extra tracks was available exclusively for physical purchase at Target. Swift had tie-ins with corporations including Keds, Walmart, and Papa John's. A day after the release, she began a cycle of television appearances, starting with a live performance on "Good Morning America," which was followed by pre-recorded television appearances on such talk shows as The Ellen DeGeneres Show and "20/20". She gave interviews to as many as 72 radio stations, mostly in the US and some international outlets from South Africa, New Zealand, Spain, Germany, and Mexico. Her live performances at awards shows included the MTV Video Music Awards, the Country Music Association Awards, and the American Music Awards.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: "Red" was further promoted with a string of singles. "I Knew You Were Trouble" was released as an official single to pop radio on November 27, 2012; it was a big hit on pop radio, peaking for seven weeks atop Mainstream Top 40. The single peaked at number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and was a top-ten hit in Oceania and Europe. "22" was released to pop radio in March 2013 and "Red" was released to country radio in June 2013. The singles peaked at number 20 and number six on the "Billboard" Hot 100, respectively. Tracks "Everything Has Changed" and "The Last Time" were also released as singles, with the latter having a UK-exclusive release. Despite "Red"'s promotion as a country album, its diverse musical styles sparked a media debate over Swift's status as a country artist. "Spin" argued "Red" is difficult to categorize because country music is "the most dynamically vibrant pop genre of the last decade or so". Other critics commented Swift had always been more pop-oriented than country and described "Red" as her inevitable move to mainstream pop. In an interview with the "Wall Street Journal", Swift responded country music "feels like home" and dismissed the debate, saying "I leave the genre labeling to other people".


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Swift announced the album's accompanying world tour, the Red Tour, shortly after the album's release. On October 26, 2012, she announced the first 58 dates for the North American leg, beginning in Omaha, Nebraska, visiting Canada and the US throughout the spring and summer of 2013, and concluding in Nashville, Tennessee, in September. To support a high demand, Swift held the concerts mostly in sports arenas and stadiums. After the North American leg, the Red Tour visited Australasia, the UK, and Asia.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: The Red Tour was a box office success. The four shows at Staples Center in Los Angeles extended Swift's total of sold-out shows to 11, making her the solo artist with the most sold-out shows at Staples Center. She was the first female artist to sell out the Sydney Football Stadium since its opening in 1988. Tickets for the Shanghai show sold out within 60 seconds, setting the Chinese record for the fastest sellout. When it ended in June 2014, the tour had grossed $150.2 million and became the highest-grossing tour by a country artist of all time.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: In the US, "Red" debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200 with first-week sales of 1,208,000 copies, surpassing Garth Brooks's "Double Live" (1998) as the fastest-selling country album. With "Speak Now" and "Red", Swift was recognized in the "Guinness World Records" as the "First Solo Female with Two Million-Selling Weeks on the U.S. Albums Chart". "Red" spent seven non-consecutive weeks at number one on the "Billboard" 200, and made Swift the first female artist, and the second after the Beatles, to have three consecutive studio albums each spend six or more weeks atop the chart. It was the third consecutive time—after "Fearless" (2008) and "Speak Now" (2010)—that Swift had a number-one album during the last week before Christmas, traditionally the most competitive week of the year. On "Billboard" Top Country Albums chart, it spent 16 weeks at number one, and was the year-end number-one album of both 2012 and 2013. Surpassing 3.11 million copies after two months of sales, "Red" was the second-highest-selling album of 2012. As of October 2020, its US sales stood at 4.49 million copies. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the album seven-times Platinum for surpassing seven million album-equivalent units.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: The album reached number one on the record charts of European and Oceanic countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, and Scotland. It received multi-platinum certifications in Australia (4× Platinum), Canada (4× Platinum), and New Zealand (2× Platinum). In the UK, "Red" was Swift's first number one on the Albums Chart and had four number-one songs on the Singles Chart, the most of Swift's albums; it was certified 2× Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and sold 772,000 copies . Less than a month after its release, "Red" sold 2.8 million copies worldwide. By the end of 2012, "Red" finished as the global second-best-selling album with 5.2 million copies. By August 2014, it had sold over eight million copies.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: "Red" generally received positive reviews from contemporary critics, most of whom commended Swift's songwriting. Jon Dolan from "Rolling Stone" called the album "a 16-song geyser of willful eclecticism", said Swift "often succeeds in joining the Joni [Mitchell]/Carole King tradition of stark-relief emotional mapping", and that "When she's really on, her songs are like tattoos". "Pitchfork"s Brad Nelson lauded the "newfound patience to Swift's observations" and deeper exploration of emotion in "Red"s songwriting.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: The album's production polarized critics. "Billboard" praised "Red" radio-friendly tunes that catapulted Swift to even greater fame. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic asserted that although Swift's lyrics about romantic relationships and social anxiety sound somewhat clumsy, they add substance to "the pristine pop confections", which makes "Red" a compelling album. "The Guardian" Kate Mossman described the album as "one of the finest fantasies pop music has ever constructed". Writing for the "Los Angeles Times", Randall Roberts was impressed by the different musical styles as Swift "strives for something much more grand and accomplished". Jon Caramanica from "The New York Times" agreed, calling the production a striking feature of "Red" that proves Swift is more of a pop star than a country singer.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Critics often considered "Red" to be a sign of Swift growing up. "Billboard" considered "Red" to be her first adult pop album, describing her previous works as that of "an accomplished teenager". Caramanica stated that her growth was "largely musical, not experiential." He noted that she was beginning to show more maturity as a strategist and adult. Caramanica asserted that there are indications that "Red" shows her "body is as alive as her mind," which was "territory she’s generally skipped before now." Dolan considered the album part "Joni Mitchell-influenced maturity binge" and part pop, describing the combination as "not just inevitable but natural." "Spin" Michael Robbins characterized the album as a record "full of adult pleasures".


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Some reviewers were more reserved in their praise. Jonathan Keefe from "Slant Magazine" considered "Red" not consistent enough to be "truly great" but asserted that some of the songs were "career-best work for Swift, who now sounds like the pop star she was destined to be all along". Michael Gallucci from "The A.V. Club" argued the music was more ambitious than Swift's previous records but considered the album as a whole "complicated and sometimes unfocused". He considered the duets boring and the occasional use of Auto-Tune to "sound like any number of indistinguishable female pop singers". Writing for "MSN Music", Robert Christgau viewed "Red" as an inferior version of the Magnetic Fields' 1999 album "69 Love Songs" but appreciated "Begin Again" and "Stay Stay Stay", considering them to "stay happy and hit just as hard" as songs on "69 Love Songs". "The Daily Telegraph" James Lachno found the production bloated and commented the album would be better had Swift fully embraced mainstream pop and abandoned her old country sound. Mesfin Fekadu of the Associated Press asserted that the album "sounded empty" compared to "Fearless" (2008) and "Speak Now" (2010), but praised "I Almost Do" and the duets.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: "Red" received accolades in terms of both critical and popular recognition. Mainstream publications featuring "Red" on their lists of the best albums of 2012 included "Billboard", "The Daily Beast", "The Guardian", "Idolator", MTV News, "Newsday", "PopMatters", "Rolling Stone", "Spin", and "Stereogum". Critic Jon Caramanica ranked the album second on his list of 2012's best albums for "The New York Times". "Red" was placed at number 17 on the 2012 Pazz & Jop, an annual mass critics' poll conducted by "The Village Voice". "Spin" proclaimed "Red" one of 2012's best country albums.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: At the 56th Grammy Awards in 2014, "Red" was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Country Album. The album received nominations at US country music awards, including two nominations for Album of the Year at the 2013 Country Music Association Awards and the 2013 Academy of Country Music Awards. It won Favorite Country Album at the 2013 American Music Awards, Top Album and Top Country Album at the 2013 "Billboard" Music Awards, Top Selling Album at the 2013 Canadian Country Music Association Awards, and Top Selling International Album of the Year at the 2014 Country Music Awards of Australia.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: "Red" appeared on many publications' lists of the best albums of the 2010s. According to Metacritic, it was the fifteenth-most-acclaimed album of the decade. It featured on "Atwood Magazine" unranked list, and was included on lists of "The Independent" and "Pitchfork". It was ranked within the top 10 by " Insider" (first), "Uproxx" (third), "Billboard" (fourth), "Rolling Stone" (fourth), the "Tampa Bay Times" (ninth), and "Stereogum" (tenth). "Taste of Country" ranked "Red" as one of the best country albums of the decade. In 2020, "Rolling Stone" ranked "Red" at number 99 on its revised list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: The album's production straddling country and pop inspired Swift to venture into genres she had not tried before. The successful pop radio singles, specifically the dubstep-infused "I Knew You Were Trouble", served as a "signal flare" for Swift to collaborate with pop producers Max Martin and Shellback, who are known for radio-friendly pop, again. Upon reading reviews calling "Red" an inconsistent album, Swift fully embraced the electropop sound, transcending her earlier country image. Its upbeat pop production laid the groundwork for the electropop and synth-pop sound of her next album, "1989" (2014). Swift continued to explore pop with its successors "Reputation" (2017) and "Lover" (2019).


title: Red (Taylor Swift album)

text: Many critics claim "Red" as Swift's best body of work. According to "Pitchfork", "Red" progressed Swift's sound "to meet the highest aspirations of her songwriting", watching her push herself outside of traditional boundaries "to stray into the interzone between pop and country". "Clash" demarcated "Red" as the turning point of Swift's career—it "was the first time Taylor actively stepped away from the pretty dresses and southern girl chic" to the outrage of "old fashioned listeners". According to the magazine, "Red" proved an album can be "both ground-breaking and wildly commercial", because avant-garde is not the only way to experiment with music, as Swift "opened a door for every other musician" in 2012 to coalesce multiple genres. Jordan Sargent of "Spin" named "Red" "one of the best pop albums of our time".