pressing play on a household name

WRITTEN BY PEYTON HALL ILLUSTRATED BY SIERRA BAKER DESIGNER MEGAN LEE

It’s time to press play on Taylor Swift, explore some of her musical eras, and continue the discussion about women in the music industry.

Swift’s published music era began in 2006, when she released her self-titled debut album with Big Machine Records. The album featured 15 tracks, including her first single, “Tim McGraw.” 16-year-old Swift almost immediately became a well-known name in country music, opening for big names like Rascal Flatts, George Strait, and Keith Urban.

Swift’s second era came about in 2008, with the release of her second album, Fearless. Hits like “Love Story,” “Fearless,” and “You Belong With Me” are notable, even to those who aren’t major Swifties. Swift’s sophomore album was also when she started picking up more criticism. A major example of this was the 2009 VMAs, where Swift won Best Video by a Female Artist and Kanye West took to the stage to interrupt her acceptance speech to say that Beyoncé should have won.

The superstar’s next era, aesthetically, is very similar to the first and second. Speak Now, Swift’s third studio album, was released in 2010. This era, which is characterized by the color purple and songs like “Dear John,” “Speak Now,” and “Enchanted,” was the first in which her album was solely written by herself.

After Speak Now, there was a slight shift in the genre of Swift’s music. Slowly, she evolved from country to a more pop-country sound, with her fourth studio album, Red. Songs like “22,” “We Are Never Getting Back Together,” and “Red” hit the Billboard top charts. This was also an era where her critics got louder, especially those saying that she should just stick to country music. Nevertheless, Swift continued to explore the bounds of the genre and beyond.

Named after her birth year, Swift’s fifth studio album, 1989, was a headfirst experiment into pop music for the singer-songwriter. And it paid off — the album accrued 10 Grammy nominations and 3 awards. After this era, Swift retreated from the public spotlight, partially due to controversy with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian and lyrics in West’s song “Famous.” Following over a year away from the public eye, Swift dropped Reputation.

Reputation, which was released in 2017, was largely deemed unsuccessful by critics in the industry, as it only received one Grammy nomination. Many fans today, however, disagree with this sentiment. And despite what critics say, her Reputation tour broke records as the most successful tour at the time (this would later be broken by her 2023 Eras tour).

Swift emerged into a new era with the release of her first album independent of Big Machine Records with her seventh studio album, Lover. In this era, Swift released her documentary, Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince, and finally broke her silence surrounding politics. For over a decade before, Swift had not involved herself in politics in an effort to be appealing to a large fan base. In this era, she took to social media to denounce GOP politicians Marsha Blackburn and Donald Trump. In addition to a direct statement via social media, the fourteenth track of Lover, “You Need to Calm Down,” seemed to make a direct statement to those in opposition of LBGTQ+ rights.

A prevalent critique of the pop star is that she only makes political statements when they seem to be beneficial to her career. Examples of this can be seen when Swift made her Lover era into her political era, yet did not make direct statements around prominent social movements and events later on, like the mass denial of COVID or the extreme advancement of antitrans legislation in recent years. Yes, musicians aren’t politicians, but Taylor Swift has the ability to influence millions of people, and letting her fanbase know that she supports things like human rights could create a more inclusive and welcoming environment.

Swift began writing her eighth album days into the pandemic. Releasing two albums within the course of a year, she dove into a more indie and folk sound, hence the album titles, Folklore and Evermore. Despite these albums taking a more fictional approach to songwriting, many argue that these albums are more personal than any of her previous works.

Most recently, Taylor Swift has released Midnights, her tenth album. Exploring a more electronic, synthetic pop sound, the album features hits like “Anti-Hero,” “Bejeweled,” and “Karma”. And shortly after releasing the album in October 2022, Swift began The Eras Tour, a live celebration of her music career so far. Playing to sold out stadiums, crowds of Swifties gather in community to scream-sing their favorite tunes, trade friendship bracelets, and cry to some of the songs that raised them.

Swift is a musical icon of our generation and holds a lot of weight within the music industry. Just look at the Ticketmaster war over unreasonable fees that brought upon numerous Senate hearings in an effort to evoke change in the monopolized industry. And as incredible as it is to have a woman over the age of 30 lead the popular music industry, it is important to recognize the privilege that she holds. The level of recognition that is brought to her work should also be brought to musicians of color, to openly queer and trans musicians, to disabled musicians, to musicians building work in non-mainstream genres.