Taylor Swift instrument acoustic guitar
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. She is a prominent cultural figure, widely recognized for her genre-spanning discography, songwriting and artistic reinventions. Born in West Reading, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville at age 14 to become a country artist, signed a songwriting deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 2004, and a recording contract with Big Machine Records in 2005. Her 2006 self-titled album made her the first female country artist to write a U.S. platinum-certified debut album.
Her next two albums, Fearless (2008) and Speak Now (2010), explored country pop. The former's "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me" were the first country songs to top the U.S. pop and all-genre airplay charts, respectively. She experimented with rock and electronic styles on Red (2012), which featured her first Billboard Hot 100 number-one song, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", and eschewed her country image in her synth-pop album 1989 (2014), supported by chart-topping songs "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", and "Bad Blood". Media scrutiny inspired her next album Reputation (2017) and its number-one single "Look What You Made Me Do".
Moving to Republic Records in 2018, Swift released her seventh album Lover (2019) and autobiographical documentary Miss Americana (2020), influenced by political disillusionment, and ventured into indie folk and alternative rock in her 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore, whose respective singles "Cardigan" and "Willow" topped the Hot 100. Swift began re-recording her first six albums after a dispute with Big Machine over the masters, having released Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version) in 2021; the latter's "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" became the longest song to top the Hot 100. Her 2022 album Midnights and single "Anti-Hero" broke multifarious records. Swift directed music videos and films such as All Too Well: The Short Film (2021), and played supporting roles in others.
Having sold over 200 million records globally, Swift is one of the best-selling musicians in history, the most streamed woman on Spotify and the only act to have five albums open with over one million copies sold in the US. She has also received critical acclaim, featuring in listicles such as Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, Billboard's Greatest of All Time Artists, the Time 100 and Forbes Celebrity 100. Among her accolades are 12 Grammy Awards, including three Album of the Year wins; a Primetime Emmy Award; 40 American Music Awards; 29 Billboard Music Awards; three IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year awards; and 92 Guinness World Records. Honored with titles such as Artist of the Decade and Woman of the Decade, Swift is an advocate for artists' rights and women's empowerment, and has inspired numerous music artists.
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