Everything Has Changed
"Everything Has Changed" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift featuring the English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran from Swift's fourth studio album, Red (2012). It was released as the sixth single from the album on July 14, 2013, by Big Machine Records. A music video for the song was released earlier on June 6, 2013. Produced by Butch Walker, "Everything Has Changed" is a guitar-led folk-pop ballad. Its lyrics are about wanting to know a new lover better. The song received mixed reviews from critics, who either complimented or criticized the production.
For the Best Coast song, see Always Tomorrow (album)."Everything Has Changed"
"Everything Has Changed" peaked at number 32 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It reached the top 10 on the charts in Ireland and Sheeran's native United Kingdom, and was certified platinum in the UK. Swift included it on the set list of the Red Tour (2013–2014). A re-recorded version, "Everything Has Changed (Taylor's Version)", was released as part of Swift's re-recorded album Red (Taylor's Version) on November 12, 2021.
Background and composition[edit]
Swift released her third studio album, Speak Now, in October 2010.[1] She wrote the album by herself and co-produced it with Nathan Chapman.[2][3] Speak Now was similar to Swift's previous album, Fearless (2008), in its country pop production style.[4][5] On her fourth studio album, Red (2012), Swift wanted to experiment with other musical styles.[6] To this end, she approached different producers other than Chapman, beyond her career base in Nashville, Tennessee.[2]
Swift wrote "Everything Has Changed" with Sheeran on a trampoline in Swift's backyard.[7] It was produced by Butch Walker, a prominent contemporary hip hop producer.[8] Swift initially worked with Walker and Sheeran on separate songs, but brought "Everything Has Changed" to Walker because she "knew he would approach it from an organic place, which is where [Sheeran] comes from".[9] She chose Walker as a new collaborator on Red because she admired his "emotionally charged" production.[10][11]
"Everything Has Changed" is a midtempo ballad driven by guitar.[8][12] Critics described it as a folk-pop song.[13][14] The track extensively uses syncopation at the sixteenth-note level, which musicologist James E. Perone deemed a trademark style of Swift's music and reminiscent of her self-titled debut album (2006).[8] Perone commented that "Everything Has Changed" incorporates hip-hop influences with the deep bass drum beats in its production.[8] Lyrically, the song is about two new lovers wanting to get to know each other better.[12] Both Swift and Sheeran provide lead vocals, alternating between the verses.[8]
Release and commercial performance[edit]
"Everything Has Changed" is track number 14 on Red, which was released on October 22, 2012, by Big Machine Records.[15] On June 8, 2013, Swift and Sheeran performed the song on the season finale of the seventh series of Britain's Got Talent.[16] It was included on the set list of Swift's the Red Tour (2013–2014), with Sheeran.[17] At the July 22, 2023, show in Seattle, she performed "Everything Has Changed" as a "surprise song" for the Eras Tour (2023–2024).[18]
In April 2013, Swift announced that "Everything Has Changed" would be released as a single in the United Kingdom.[19] It was released in the UK on July 14,[20] and then the United States two days later.[21] In the US, "Everything Has Changed" peaked at number 32 on the US Billboard Hot 100. On Billboard airplay charts, it peaked at number eight on the Adult Pop Songs,[22] number 11 on Adult Contemporary,[23] and number 14 on Mainstream Top 40.[24] The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the song double platinum for surpassing two million units based on sales and streaming.[25] Elsewhere, "Everything Has Changed" entered in other English-speaking territories, including Ireland (5),[26] the United Kingdom (7),[27] New Zealand (22),[28] Australia (28),[29] and Canada (28).[30] The song was certified gold in New Zealand,[31] and platinum in Australia and the UK.[32][33] It is Swift's most-downloaded collaborative single in the UK, selling 373,400 downloads as of July 2021.[34]
Music video[edit]
A music video for "Everything Has Changed" was released on Swift's Vevo channel on YouTube on June 6, 2013.[46] It was directed by Philip Andelman and filmed in Oak Park, California at Medea Creek Middle School and San Antonio, Texas. The video begins with two children who initially appear to be Swift and Sheeran when they were much younger, meeting each other on a bus to elementary school.[47] Throughout the video, the two children engage in many activities at school together, including painting their faces with crayons, pretending to be a princess and knight, and dancing with each other in the empty school gym.[48] At the end, Swift and Sheeran appear and are revealed to actually be the parents of their child counterparts, arriving at the school to pick them up and take them back to their respective homes.[49]
Jason Lipshutz from Billboard labelled the video as "impossibly adorable",[50] while Ray Rahman from Entertainment Weekly compared the video's synopsis to Forrest Gump, but "much more gentle than that".[47] The two actors who starred in the "Everything Has Changed" video appeared together again in the music video of "The Joker and the Queen" (2022), a song by Sheeran featuring Swift. To this extent, some media publications deemed "The Joker and the Queen" a sequel to the "Everything Has Changed" video.[51][52]