Gabby Comeau

Taylor Swift’s Different Eras

In 2002, a girl had to get her computer fixed by a computer repairman. Little did that girl know, that repairman would change her life forever. That girl is Taylor Swift, who is a well-known American singer around the world. She is known for her cultural impact, musical evolution, controversy, and public image.

She is the most hated but loved artist in the world. For many years, the media has shamed Taylor Swift for her singing, dating life, body, etc. She is known for her signature red lipstick, the number 13, and literary in her songs.

Taylor Swift was born in West Reading, Pennsylvania on December 13, 1989. Swift was raised on an 11-acre Christmas tree farm but later moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Swift’s mother, Andrea Gardner Swift, is a fund market executive. Her Father, Scott Kingsley Swift, is a stockbroker for Merill Lynch. Her younger brother, Austin Kingsley Swift, is an actor. 

Taylor Swift’s career began when she was just 12 years old. A computer repairman, Ronnie Cremer, went to her house to fix her computer. According to, “Life And Career”,theswiftmuseum.com, by The Editors, “Ronnie Cremer taught her to play guitar and helped with her first efforts as a songwriter, leading Taylor to write “Lucky You”, her first song ever.” This occurrence caused Taylor Swift to find her passion for music and inspired her to be a country singer. 

When Taylor Swift turned 14, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee to start her music career. She signed a musical publishing deal with Sony/ATV to pursue her dream of becoming a musician. She became the youngest music artist to sign with the Sony Company in history. 

On June 16, 2006, Swift released her first song, “Tim McGraw”, which became a lead single for her first self-titled album, Taylor Swift, on October 24, 2006. Statistics from, “Taylor Swift (album)”, taylorswift.fandom.com, by The Editors, “The album enjoyed commercial success; in the United States, it peaked at number five on the Billboard 200, topped the Top Country Albums Chart for twenty-four non-consecutive weeks”.

The lyrics in the album reference her teenage relationships and friendships since she was in her sophomore year of high school. That same year Taylor Swift was an opener for other country musicians and toured with a radio tour. A year later Taylor Swift won her first music award, “The Horizon Award”, for Best New Artist.

Being in the music industry at such a young age was a huge success for Swift. But, how did she get famous so easily? Oakmont student, Juliette Gelinas, said, “I think Taylor Swift became a huge celebrity at such a young age because her music appealed to people of her age group.”

In July of 2008, Taylor Swift started dating Joe Jonas, but the couple later broke up in October of that same year, which led to the release of her second album, Fearless, on November 11, 2008. The album had 13 songs, with two international top-10 singles, “You Belong with Me” and “Love Story”. 

Taylor Swift became the top-selling artist in 2008 and won her first American Music Award. Swift slowly transitioned to pop music in this album while staying true to her country singing. In March-April 2009, Taylor Swift started dating Lucas Till who was featured in her “You Belong with Me” music video.

Even though their relationship was short-lived, they liked each other a lot. Therefore, the two ended things on good terms and stayed friends. Swift began The Fearless Tour on April 23, 2009, and gained lots of success, with 1.1 million fans attending. The tour later ended on July 11, 2010.

The hate began on September 13, 2009, when Taylor Swift won “Best Female Video” at the MTV VMAs for the song “You Belong with Me”. Taylor Swift walked on stage with pure happiness, Taylor Lautner and Shakira handed her the award. As she began her acceptance speech, she was interrupted by Kanye West when he stormed on stage with anger as he took the microphone away from Taylor Swift. Based on, “Revisiting Taylor Swift and Kanye West’s MTV VMAs Feud 15 Years Later”, eonline.com, Elyse Dupre wrote what Kanye West said, “Yo, Taylor,” the rapper said. “I’m really happy for you. Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.”  

The whole crowd started booing, at the time Taylor Swift didn’t know they were booing for him, she thought they were booing for her. Swift walked off the stage with sadness after watching her first VMA award get ruined. A few days after the incident, Taylor Swift told “ABC News Radio” that Kanye West called her and apologized for his actions. According to “Revisiting Taylor Swift and Kanye West’s MTV VMAs Feud 15 Years Later”, eonline.com, written by Elyse Dupre, stated: “As for West, he told Jay Leno shortly after the 2009 VMAs that his behavior was “wrong” and “rude period.” This quote implies that West was very sincere in his apology to Swift.

Taylor Swift and actor Taylor Lautner were spotted on a few dates in October 2009. However, the couple broke up in December of the same year because they figured it would be better if they stayed friends and are still friends to this day. After the couple broke up, Swift was seen with musician John Mayer in December 2009.

However, this relationship led to lots of criticism because Taylor Swift was only 18 and John Mayer was 32. The two gained much hate and backlash for their age gap. The couple later broke up in February 2010. The break up led Taylor Swift to release her song, “Dear John”, on her third studio album, Speak Now, on October 25, 2010.

The song lyrics in, “Dear John”, hinted that Swift was in love with Mayor, but he played games with her. The song also implies that Taylor Swift was warned by other people not to get involved with John Mayor but she chose to ignore them. Another song, “Innocent”, on the album was very controversial. It’s allegedly about Kanye West, there were mixed reviews for the song, and some people said it was a message of forgiving Kanye West. However, some reviews stated that the song would ruin Swift’s reputation because it was condescending.

Other than the controversial songs, the Speak Now album was a huge accomplishment for Swift’s career. From February 9, 2011, to March 18, 2012, Speak Now was released as a tour. The tour was earning over a hundred million dollars in selling out most of the stadiums. There were 1,640,000 attendees at The Speak Now tour.

Actor Jack Gyllenhaal was a major factor in Taylor Swift’s life, from October 2010 to January 2011. Gyllenhaal and Swift were allegedly in love from the very beginning. But, in January 2011, Gyllenhaal told Swift he felt like they weren’t going to work out, leading them to break up.

According to a news article, “Presenting: A Quick Refresher on Taylor Swift’s Complete Dating History and Exes”, Cosmopolitan.com, The Editors stated, “She doesn’t know what she did for him to stop it. She feels really burned by him.” This statement shows that Taylor Swift felt very hurt after the break-up, which made her want to start writing about it. 

By October 22, 2012, Swift had released her fourth album, Red. This was considered Swift’s turning point in her career because the album sold over 1.2 million copies in its first week of release. The Red Tour started on March 13, 2013, and ended on June 14, 2014. 

After the album Red became a major global success, Taylor Swift gained millions of dollars from her Speak Now Tour and Fearless Tour. In November 2012, Taylor Swift met musician Harry Styles, and they started dating just a little after meeting. But in January 2013, the couple agreed that they only saw each other as friends. They are still best friends to this day. 

On October 17, 2014, Taylor Swift released her fifth album, 1989, which was considered Swift’s first “official pop album.” More than 5 million copies of the album were sold in the U.S. She began her 1989 World Tour in May 2015 and ended it in December 2015. The tour was the highest-grossing tour of 2015.

At the 2015 MTV VMAs, Taylor Swift presented Kanye West with an award for the “MTV Video Vanguard”. Based on, “A Timeline of Ye & Taylor Swift’s Relationship”, Billboard.com, by Heran Mamo, Anna Chan, and Hannah Dailey, Swift allegedly stated, “So I guess I have to say to all the other winners tonight: I’m really happy for you, and I’mma let you finish, but Kanye West has had one of the greatest careers of all time!” This quote by Taylor Swift is referring back to what Kanye West did to her at the 2009 MTV VMAs.

May to September 2016, Taylor Swift and actor Tom Hiddleston started dating. It was a very short-lived relationship because Hiddleston wanted the relationship public while Swift didn’t want that. 

The hate continued, as another feud with Kanye West and Taylor Swift happened. In 2016, West released a song titled “Famous”, the song contained the lyrics, “I made that b**** famous”, implying that he made Taylor Swift famous. This made Taylor Swift very angry because she never approved of the lyrics.

After Swift denied her approval, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West’s wife at the time, released an edited, secretly recorded phone call showing Swift approved of the lyrics. Kim Kardashian leaked this video on her Snapchat story and the media turned on Taylor Swift. 

Everyone said that Swift’s “reputation” was ruined and her career was “over”. People were filling her comment sections on Twitter and Instagram calling her a snake and a liar. In an opinion comment on, “The Public Shaming of Taylor Swift (2016)”, Medium.com, Kristen S. wrote, “I thought I’d written a balanced assessment of the situation, but it was paired with a headline I did not write: “Taylor Swift Isn’t Like Other Celebrities, She’s Worse.” People decided Taylor Swift was, “Evil” and “Wicked”. The criticism got so bad nobody physically saw Taylor Swift for a year. 

This was the worst hate Taylor Swift has ever gotten in the years she’s been in the music industry. The hate and backlash got so bad, but did she deserve it? Oakmont math teacher, Ms. Isabel Pitney stated, “Because she does what she wants and doesn’t need to give any explanation. She earned what she got and people hate her for that.” 

During her disappearance, she fell in love with actor Joe Alwyn, who she met at the 2016 Met Gala. Swift and Alwyn kept their relationship private but were so in love. Just a year after disappearing, Swift released her sixth studio album, Reputation, on November 10, 2017.

Reputation has 15 songs and it was her “revenge” album. Since Swift wrote all her feelings in her songs, this album was intended to get back at everyone who criticized her. The album represents a snake which implies that people called her one. 

When Swift revealed she would go back on tour on May 8, 2018, most people had doubts about the tour’s success considering the amount of hate she got. Little did those people know, that The Reputation Stadium Tour grossed over 347.7 million dollars and made it the highest-grossing tour of that time. The tour ended on November 21, 2018. 

At this point, all of Taylor Swift’s albums were being released by “Big Machine Records”. However, in 2018, her contract with the record label company was about to expire. After the contract expired she wanted the masters to sell back to her. But, the company would only agree if she made new albums with them and renewed her contract.

Taylor Swift and “Big Machine Records” both disagreed with each other. Shortly after, she signed up with a new company called “Republic Records”. Unfortunately, Swift couldn’t make her past albums be in her name so she had to re-release them in upcoming years to make them, “Taylor’s Version”. 

In 2019, Scooter Braun purchased Taylor Swift’s 6 studio albums for 300 million dollars. Taylor Swift was very unhappy because “Big Machine” didn’t give her a chance to buy all of the work she made on the albums. On August 23, 2019, Swift released her seventh album, Lover, her first album released with the new company she was working with, “Republic Records”.

The album has 18 songs and most of the songs reference her boyfriend Joe Alwyn. In August 2020, a tour called, Lover Fest was supposed to be released. However, it ended up getting canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

In 2020, Taylor Swift had a lot of time to write as much music as she wanted during the pandemic. On July 24, 2020, Taylor produced her eighth album, Folklore, with the help of her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. The album has 15 songs on it. It was the best-selling album of 2020 and sold 2.3 million units, with 1.276 million sales.

On December 11, of that same year, Swift released her album, Evermore, also known as Folklore’s “Sister album”. The album sold over 1 million copies in its first week and was number one on Billboard 200 for multiple weeks. 

Her album, Evermore, became a huge success and Swift became Billboard’s greatest pop star of 2021 with her album. According to, “From re-records to Global Awards: A Taylor Swift’s 2021 Retrospective”, Theswiftmuesum.com, written by The Editors, stated, “the album re-peaked at the top of the Billboard 200, breaking her tie with Garth Brooks and officially making her the third act with most cumulative weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 history.” 

On April 9, 2021, Swift was able to re-record her album Fearless and named it “Fearless (Taylor’s Version).” Swift added an additional six unreleased songs to the album, making it 26 tracks. Later that year, on November 12, Taylor Swift released Red (Taylor’s Version), with 30 songs, including the nine songs she added. 

Taylor Swift released her first 10-minute song, “All Too Well”. The song was a major success and fans loved the song for its descriptive and deeply emotional lyrics. Oakmont math teacher, Ms. Isabel Pitney stated, “All Too Well 10-minute version is probably Taylor’s best song.”

Swift released her tenth studio album, Midnights, on October 21, 2022. The album has 13 tracks and was the best-selling album of 2022. It sold over six million global units and marked Swift’s 11th consecutive number-one album on Billboard 200. On November 1, 2022, Swift announced she was going back on tour. The tour is called The Eras Tour, and it is a journey through Taylor Swift’s different music eras. 

The Eras Tour’s setlist includes 40 songs and is 3 hours long. The tour broke world records for ticket sales, dates, attendance, and more. Oakmont math teacher Ms. Isabell Pitney said, “I feel like it brought a lot of Swifties back together since COVID. It brought not only huge fans together but a lot of old Taylor Swift haters, too.”

As The Eras Tour continues it will have 152 shows, 10.1 million attendees, 517 hours performed, and 5 continents played in. Once The Eras Tour is over she will make 4.1 billion dollars and make history as the highest-earning tour by any music artist.

In April of 2023, Joe Alwyn and Taylor Swift broke up. This was one of Swift’s biggest heartbreaks since she and Alwyn had been together for six years. Based on a news article, “Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn Breakup: Everything you need to know”, People.com, by Kelsie Gibson stated, “Harriet actor told people their split was largely caused by “differences in their personalities” that became “harder to ignore after years together.”

However, after the break-up, Swift was spotted with musician Matty Healy in May 2023. However, according to “Taylor Swift and Matty Healy’s Full Relationship Timeline,” harpersbazaar.com, the relationship only lasted a month. Sabrina Pink wrote, “They are both extremely busy and realized they’re not really compatible with each other.” 

On July 7, 2023, Taylor Swift re-recorded Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). The album has 22 songs on it, including 6 new tracks. The album spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 and all 22 tracks were on the Billboard Hot 100.

Just a few months later 1989 (Taylor’s Version) came out on October 27, 2023. The album has 21 tracks with 5 being new songs. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) sold 693,000 copies on vinyl, this was the largest week of sales since 1991. In the first week of the album’s release, it had 375 million streams and sold 554,000 copies on CD. 

In September 2023, Swift confirmed she and Travis Kelce were dating and they have been inseparable since. The couple is very open about their relationship and they are always seen together. Kelce goes to Swift’s concerts and Swift goes to his football games. 

On April 19, 2024, Taylor Swift released her eleventh studio album. The album is called, “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology”, which has 31 songs. The album has not only deep emotional songs but also positive uplifting songs as well. The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology marked one of the biggest debut weeks in history. The album is considered her most successful album and broke records by having 2.6 million units sold in its first week. 

Taylor Swift has made a significant impact on the world through her music, influence, and charity. An opinion by Oakmont student, Stella Deschenes, stated, “She has brought together a community, and helped so many people out there to feel seen and heard with her writing and that they are not alone.” This statement shows how Swift helps people through her songwriting and creates deep connections with her fans. 

Over her 18-year career in the music industry, Taylor Swift has won 14 Grammy Awards, 40 American Music Awards, 39 Billboard Music Awards, and 30 MTV Video Music Awards. As time goes on, Taylor Swift is likely to continue breaking award records and be the most famous musician in history.