Taylor Swift (album)
Taylor Swift is the eponymous debut studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Under Big Machine Records, it was released in North America on October 24, 2006, and elsewhere on March 18, 2008. Swift had signed with Sony/ATV Tree publishing house in 2004, at age 14, to pursue a career as a country musician. Her contract with Big Machine Records in 2005 enabled her to work on the album during her second year of high school.
This article is about the self-titled debut album by Taylor Swift. For other albums by Swift, see Taylor Swift albums discography.Taylor Swift
October 24, 2006
2005
40:28
Swift is credited as a writer on all 11 of the album's tracks, three of which solely; Robert Ellis Orrall, Brian Maher, Angelo Petraglia, and Liz Rose have co-writing credits. Drawing on her personal life, the songs reflect Swift's outlook on life as a teenager, dealing with romantic relationships, friendships, and insecurity. Produced by Orrall and Nathan Chapman, Taylor Swift is a country record with pop and pop rock elements, incorporating acoustic instruments such as guitars, banjos, and fiddles.
Five singles supported Taylor Swift, including the Hot Country Songs number-ones "Our Song" and "Should've Said No", and Swift's first top-15 entry on the Billboard Hot 100, "Teardrops on My Guitar". Swift promoted the album through social network Myspace, which journalists found atypical for a country musician's marketing strategy. She embarked on a six-month radio tour in 2006 and opened tours for other country artists throughout 2006 and 2007. Critics praised the album's mainstream sensibility and Swift's songwriting at a young age for earnestly depicting adolescent sentiments. Taylor Swift was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2008 Academy of Country Music Awards.
The album spent 24 weeks at number one on Top Country Albums and peaked at number five on the Billboard 200, where it became the longest-charting album of the 2000s decade. Certified seven times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), it made Swift the first solo female country artist to write or co-write every song on a platinum debut album. Journalists attributed Taylor Swift's success to Swift's online marketing via Myspace, which ushered in a younger demographic in-country audiences who had mainly consisted of middle-aged listeners. The album's crossover appeal shaped the country pop style of Swift's next two albums, and its autobiographical narratives about love and heartbreak inspired a subsequent generation of singer-songwriters.
Background[edit]
Swift developed an early interest in the performing arts.[1][2] After watching a documentary about country singer Faith Hill, Swift felt sure she needed to move to Nashville, Tennessee—widely regarded as the home of country music[3][4]—to pursue a career as a country singer.[5] At age eleven, Swift traveled to Nashville with her mother to pitch demo tapes of karaoke covers to record labels for a contract.[6][7] She was rejected because record labels believed country music's middle-aged demographic would not listen to music by a teenage girl, which Swift firmly disbelieved.[8][9]
Returning to her hometown in Pennsylvania, Swift realized she had to distinguish herself from other aspiring country singers.[8] To this end, at age 12, she started writing songs herself and learned to play the guitar with the help of a computer repairman who had fixed her family's computer on one occasion.[9] Swift's love for country music alienated her from her peers.[10] Her performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the 2003 US Open caught the attention of music manager Dan Dymtrow, who helped 13-year-old Swift get an artist development deal with RCA Records in Nashville.[11] To assist Swift's artistic endeavors, her father transferred his job to Nashville, and her family relocated to Hendersonville, a city close to Nashville, in 2004.[12][13]
Development and production[edit]
Among Swift's inspirations were 1990s female country musicians—Shania Twain, the Chicks, Faith Hill, and LeAnn Rimes.[14] She signed with the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house at age 14 to become a professional songwriter, the youngest signee in its history.[15] After the signing, Swift commuted from Hendersonville to Nashville every afternoon to practice with experienced Music Row songwriters.[16] Liz Rose became an important collaborator and formed a lasting working relationship with Swift in her future career.[17] Swift had productive sessions with Rose because she respected Swift's vision and did not want to put her in the "Nashville cookie-cutter songwriting mold".[18] Rose spoke highly of Swift's songwriting abilities: "Basically, I was just her editor...She had such a clear vision of what she was trying to say. And she'd come in with the most incredible hooks."[19]
After one year on RCA's development deal, Swift was held off an official record deal; she felt the label was not confident in her self-written material.[20][21] Swift parted ways with RCA: "I figured if they didn't believe in me then, they weren't ever going to believe in me."[11] She recalled in 2009 in The Daily Telegraph: "I genuinely felt that I was running out of time. I wanted to capture these years of my life on an album while they still represented what I was going through."[22] At an industry showcase at Nashville's Bluebird Café in 2005, Swift caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, a DreamWorks Records executive who was preparing to form an independent record label, Big Machine Records. She had first met Borchetta in 2004.[23] Swift became one of Big Machine's first signings, and her father purchased a three-percent stake in the company.[24]
Of the standard edition's eleven songs, Swift is the sole writer of three and a co-writer of eight. Rose shares the writing credit on seven. Robert Ellis Orrall and Angelo Petraglia co-wrote "A Place in This World", and Brian Maher co-wrote "Mary's Song (Oh My My My)".[25] After experimenting with different producers, Swift persuaded Big Machine to recruit Nathan Chapman, who had produced her demo album in a "little shed" behind the Sony/ATV offices.[7][26] Big Machine was skeptical about hiring Chapman because he had never produced a commercially released studio album, but ultimately agreed because Swift felt they had the "right chemistry".[7] Before approaching Chapman, Swift conceptualized how her songs should sound: "I know exactly where I want the hook to be and ... what instruments I want to use."[27] Chapman was confident in Swift's abilities, saying that she "knows what she wants to say with her music".[27] He has sole production credits on all songs but one, "The Outside", on which he is credited as an additional producer, and Orrall as the main producer.[7] Recording took place for four months near the end of 2005.[7] When the recording and production wrapped, Swift had finished her first high school year.[28]
Composition[edit]
Lyrics[edit]
Swift wrote Taylor Swift from her personal life experiences as a teenager. While she adhered to the confessional songwriting associated with country music, she did not write about stereotypical themes such as "tractors and hay bales because that's not really the way I grew up".[29] She instead wrote about her observations and reflections on matters from romantic relationships to friendships, striving to convey her teenage perspectives as honestly and personally as possible.[30] Because her inspirations came from immediate feelings and emotions, Swift wrote songs anytime and anywhere, from studio sessions to school breaks.[17] This practice resulted in straightforward lyrics, which The Daily Telegraph noted were "brimming with an earnest naiveté".[31]
The songs on Taylor Swift are from the perspectives of a girl in an American small town, within the bounds from high school hallways to rural backroads; Billboard noted that Swift's personal thoughts within a small confinement fostered a contemplative nature.[32] Most songs on the album are about romantic relationships, some of which were based on Swift's observations rather than real experiences.[7][16] The lead single and first track, "Tim McGraw", was inspired by Swift's relationship with a senior boyfriend during her first year of high school. The song is about Swift's hope that the boyfriend, after ending the relationship and leaving for college, would reminisce about her every time he hears their mutual favorite Tim McGraw song;[33] according to Swift, "Tim McGraw" was inspired by McGraw's 2004 song "Can't Tell Me Nothin'".[34] Swift wrote "Our Song" for her high school talent show.[35] She talked about the inspiration: "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."[36]
The songs "Picture to Burn" and "Should've Said No" depict a vengeful attitude toward those who do not reciprocate the protagonist's feelings;[39] on "Picture to Burn", Swift sings about burning photographic evidence of an ex-boyfriend's existence.[40] The original version included the lyrics, "Go and tell your friends that I'm obsessive and crazy / That's fine; I'll tell mine you're gay."[38] On the radio edit and subsequent versions, Swift modified the lyric to "That's fine; You won't mind if I say."[41] Heartbreak is another aspect Swift explored—"Teardrops on My Guitar" was about her experience with a classmate whom she had feelings for, but this classmate was in love with someone else.[40] On "Cold as You", Swift laments a fruitless relationship: "I've never been anywhere cold as you." She said it was her favorite song lyrically on the album: "I love a line in a song where afterward you're just like... burn."[38]
In other songs, Swift sings about insecurity and self-consciousness. "The Outside", which Swift wrote at age 12, describes the loneliness she felt when her love of country music alienated her from her peers.[42] In a similar sentiment, "A Place in This World" expresses Swift's uncertainty about where she truly belongs.[32] Swift wrote "Tied Together with a Smile" the day she learned one of her best friends had an eating disorder.[43] The lyrics describe a girl hiding her inner turbulence; Swift commented, "I always thought that one of the biggest overlooked problems American girls face is insecurity."[43]
Commercial performance[edit]
Taylor Swift was a sleeper success in the United States.[16][94] It debuted at number 19 on the Billboard 200 chart dated November 11, 2006, with first-week sales of 40,000 copies.[95] Because albums often drop in sales after their initial release, Swift did not expect her album to remain long on the chart: "I would be incredibly lucky to see this album certified Gold."[16] Contrary to her expectations, Taylor Swift kept selling at a fairly consistent pace.[16] By November 2007, the album had sold over a million copies.[96] It reached its highest sales week on the Billboard 200 chart dated January 5, 2008, when it sold 187,000 copies and charted at number eight.[97]
The album reached its peak at number five on the chart dated January 19, 2008, in its 63rd week of charting.[98] Spending 157 weeks on the Billboard 200 by October 2009, Taylor Swift marked the longest stay on the chart by any album released in the 2000s decade.[99] It has spent a total of 280 weeks on the chart as of August 2023.[100] On Top Country Albums, Taylor Swift peaked at number one for 24 non-consecutive weeks.[101] By January 2024, the album had sold 5.871 million pure copies in the United States.[102] It had been certified seven times Platinum by the RIAA for earning over seven million album-equivalent units in the nation.[103]
In Canada, Taylor Swift peaked at number 14 on the Canadian Albums Chart[104] and was certified Platinum by Music Canada (MC).[105] The album peaked at number 33 on the Australian Albums Chart in March 2010,[106] and was certified Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).[107] In the United Kingdom, it peaked at number 81 on the Albums Chart[108] and was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales of more than 100,000 copies.[109] The album had sold 198,000 units in the United Kingdom by October 2022.[110] It appeared on albums charts in New Zealand (peaking at number 38),[111] Japan (53),[112] Ireland (59),[113] and Scotland (34).[114]