page_title: Taylor Swift (album)
section_title: Development and music
hierarchical_section_title: Taylor Swift (album) / Development and music
caption_attribution_description: The American country singer/guitarist Taylor Swift, with her Taylor acoustic guitar made of Acacia koa wood, at the Maverick Saloon &amp; Grill in Santa Maria, California, June 16, 2006 by Dwight McCann / www.DwightMcCann.com.
context_page_description: Taylor Swift is the self-titled debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 24, 2006, by Big Machine Records. Swift was 16 years old the year of the album's release and wrote its songs during her freshman year of high school. Swift has writing credits on all of the album's songs, including those co-written with Liz Rose. Swift experimented with several producers, ultimately choosing Nathan Chapman, who had produced her demo album. Taylor Swift is a country album, with some tracks having pop and pop rock sensibilities. Lyrically, the album speaks of romantic relationships, a couple of which Swift wrote from observing them before being in one. It also touches on Swift's friends and her personal struggles in high school.
  Five singles were released from Taylor Swift, all of which reached the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and has been certified platinum or multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America —Swift's debut single and the album's lead single, "Tim McGraw", peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
context_section_description: Swift wrote "Tim McGraw" during her freshman year, knowing that she and her senior boyfriend, Brandon Borello, would break up at the end of the year when he left for college. Rose said Swift showed up at her after school job writing songs for Sony/ATV "with the idea and the melody. She knew exactly what she wanted." The nostalgic song describes a summer romance and Swift's hope that when Borello "think[s] Tim McGraw" he would "think [her] favorite song" – McGraw's "Can't Tell Me Nothin" – and remember her. Conversely, "Picture to Burn" describes a girl furious after a break-up. Swift says that while the song is about "just being mad" and is "completely, brutally honest"; she gave it a comedic edge. While at work after school, Swift "found [her]self just sitting there with [her] guitar going, 'I hate his stupid truck that he doesn't let me drive. He's such a redneck! Oh my God!'," a line which developed into the song's chorus. The up-tempo song is heavy with banjos and drums, while the chorus is marked by distorted guitars and big vocals.
  The singer penned the autobiographical song "The Outside" as an outlet at age twelve, the year she began writing her own songs. Like many of the other songs she wrote early on, the song describes the unhappiness and loneliness Swift felt when her love of country music alienated her from her peers. Swift wrote "Tied Together with a Smile" the day she learned one of her best friends was bulimic, a fact which shocked her. She recalled, "How can somebody that seems so strong have such a horrible, horrible weakness? Something that is killing her." The lyrics to "Tied Together with a Smile" describe a beautiful girl trying to hide her inner turbulence and mourn that "You're tied together with a smile/But you're coming undone". Swift commented, "I always thought that one of the biggest overlooked problems American girls face is insecurity." She wrote "Should've Said No" according to "something really, really dramatic and crazy happening to [her] and [her] needing to address it in the form of music". The song was a last minute addition to Taylor Swift: Swift had written it two days before mastering was scheduled and booklets were about to be printed; she then called her producer and completed the song overnight.
  "Mary's Song (Oh My My My)" was actually inspired by her next-door neighbors' long lasting marriage, being the opposite of what tabloids fixate on. Swift wrote "Our Song" for her freshman year of high school talent show with no intentions of including it on the album. She claimed she "just knew there was something about it" and chose to include it on Taylor Swift. "I wrote it about this guy I was dating, and how we didn't have a song. So I went ahead and wrote us one." The song is a narrative and describes a young couple who use the events in their lives in place of a regular song. The banjo-riddled song is placed at the end of the album due to its closing lyrics, a request to "play it again". "Invisible" is ballad describing loneliness and heartache of going unnoticed. Sean Dooley of About.com writes, the "piano-driven song [...] perfectly captures the awkward teenage angst we all endure—or have endured—at one time or another."
caption: Swift performing "Teardrops on My Guitar". The song became the best-charting single from Taylor Swift on the Billboard Hot 100.
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