Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. She is known for narrative songs about her personal life, which have received widespread media coverage. At age 14, Swift became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house and, at 15, she signed her first record deal.
Her 2006 eponymous debut album was the longest-charting album of the 2000s in the US. Its third single, "Our Song", made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in 2008.
Buoyed by the pop crossover success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", it became the US' best-selling album of 2009 and was certified diamond in the US. The album won four Grammy Awards, and Swift became the youngest Album of the Year winner.
Our 25 favorite provocative pop songs
thefader.comPop music sounds more homogenous and inoffensive than ever before. Venture capital hoovers up publishing rights and record labels lean hard on TikTok trends, desperate to build as many data points as possible for a song that sells.
As a result, even most of the music that stirs up controversy or much-needed discussion feels designed to do so by a committee of suits.
The past few years have increased our appreciation for songs that reach a mass audience and organically push an issue from underground and into focus to the consternation of the majority and/or those who control the levers of power.
Whether that's women's rights, free speech, police brutality, or systemic racism, these songs remind us that popular music has a role in real change.
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