Taylor Swift The #34 Female Artist of the Rock Era

Swift was born in Reading, Pennsylvania.  When Taylor was nine, the family moved to Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, where she went to Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School.  Taylor became interested in musical theatre; she performed in many local productions and traveled to Broadway for vocal and acting lessons.  Swift began performing at local festivals, fairs and coffeehouses.  When she was eleven, Taylor won a local talent competition and got to appear as the opening act for Charlie Daniels.   

Swift recorded a demo tape and presented it to record labels in Nashville, Tennessee.  When everyone rejected her, Swift learned to play guitar and wrote her first song, "Lucky You".  Taylor started to focus on songwriting and worked with New York-based music manager Dan Dymtrow.  With Dymtrow's help, Swift modelled for Abercrombie and Fitch and had one of her songs included in a Maybelline Cosmetics compilation CD.

 She had tremendously supportive parents.  Her father transferred to Nashville so Taylor could pursue a career in Country music.  She went to Hendersonville High School for her first two years of high school, before transferring to the Aaron Academy, a private Christian school.  Taylor earned her diploma in 2008, having completed her final two years of course work in twelve months.

Swift first signed an artist development deal with RCA Records and had songwriting sessions with several RCA artists.  She began writing with Liz Rose and recording demos with producer Nathan Chapman.  After performing at a BMI Songwriter's event at The Bitter End in New York City, Swift became the youngest songwriter ever to be hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. 

Swift left RCA because they wanted her to wait until she was eighteen to release an album.  At the same time, she parted ways with manager Dymtrow.  In 2005, Swift performed at an industry event in Nashville.  Scott Borchetta, an executive at DreamWorks Records, saw her and was impressed.  Borchetta was about to form his own record label, Big Machine Records.  Swift signed a recording contract with Big Machine.

In 2006, Swift released her eponymous debut album, and did radio tours for six months to help get her music off the ground.  She also appeared on television programs including the Grand Ole Opry and Good Morning America.  She used the Internet website Myspace to build a fan base.  Swift released the singles "Tim McGraw" and "Teardrops On My Guitar", which became Top 10 Country hits. The former captured a BMI Award for Award-Winning Song, while "Teardrops on My Guitar" was cited by BMI for the President's Award, Country Song of the Year and Award-Winning Song--Pop.

Swift's third single, "Our Song", made Taylor the youngest person (at age 17) to write and perform a #1 song on the Country chart.  The single also hit #16 overall, and helped Swift earn a nomination for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards.  Swift won another BMI Award for Award-Winning Song.

Swift toured extensively to support her own material.  She conducted meet-and-greet sessions with fans before and after her concerts, sometimes lasting up to four hours.  She opened for other artists including George Strait, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley.

Swift and Alan Jackson were jointly named the Nashville Songwriters Association's Songwriter/Artist of the Year.  "Should've Said No" also hit #1 Country for Taylor, who captured the American Music Award for Favorite Country Female Artist. .  Her debut album has now sold over five million copies in the United States alone, and earned her a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist.  Swift was also nominated for Best New Artist at the MTV Video Music Awards.

  Swift also released a Christmas album Sounds of the Season:  The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection.  

In 2008, Swift released Fearless, which, thanks to crossover success, became the top album of 2009. She wrote seven of the songs by herself, and co-wrote the remaining six, and also co-produced the album along with Nathan Chapman.  The first single, "Love Story", peaked at #4 overall and #1 Country in the U.S., and went to #1 in Australia, #2 in the U.K., #3 in New Zealand, Ireland and Japan and #4 in Canada.  It became the second best-selling Country single of all-time, was awarded Country Song of the Year by BMI and was nominated for Favorite Country Song at the People's Choice Awards.

Fearless debuted at #1 on the Album chart with first-week sales of over 592,000.  Taylor went on an extensive tour to support the album, headlining for the first time.  She invited John Mayer, Faith Hill and Katy Perry to perform one-off duets with her at various stops along the way. Swift's tour grossed over $63 million.  The second single, "White Horse", just missed the Top 10 at #13, and won Grammy Awards for Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance.

Swift released "You Belong With Me" as the next release, and it promptly jumped up to #2 in the United States, #3 in Canada and #5 in New Zealand.  The song captured a BMI Award for Country Song of the Year and helped Taylor win the award for Country Songwriter of the Year.  The accompanying video was named Best Female Video of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards. 

Swift became the youngest person to ever win the prestigious Album of the Year honor at the Grammy Awards; she was nominated for four other Grammys from Fearless (Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "You Belong With Me" and Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals for "Breathe", a duet with Colbie Caillat). 

Taylor won American Music Awards for Artist of the Year, Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, Favorite Female Country Artist and Favorite Country Album.  The title track reached #9, making Fearless one of the top Country albums of all-time.  Fearless became the top-selling album of 2009 and has now gone over the eight-million mark in sales worldwide.

Swift won not only Album of the Year but Entertainer of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards.  Taylor was awarded the Hal David Starlight Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and was included in Time's annual list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2010.  She was also nominated for World's Best Pop/Rock Artist and World's Best Album at the World Music Awards.  At the end of 2009, The Associated Press named Taylor Entertainer of the Year.  

Swift sang backing vocals on Mayer's "Half Of My Heart", a single on his fourth album.  She also wrote songs for the Hannah Montana  and Valentine's Day soundtrack albums.  "Today Was A Fairytale" from the latter movie in which she made her feature film debut hit #2 in the U.S., #3 in Canada and #5 in both Australia and New Zealand.

Taylor released her third studio album Speak Now in 2010.  She wrote all fourteen songs and co-produced the album along with Chapman.  She appeared on several talk shows and morning shows, and gave free mini-concerts in locations such as an open-decker bus on Hollywood Boulevard and a departure lounge at JFK airport in New York City.  "Mine" peaked at #3 in the United States, #6 in Japan, #7 in Canada and #9 in Australia.

"Mine" captured Grammy Awards for Best Country Song and Best Solo Country Performance, and Taylor received another for Best Country Album.  Speak Now became the sixteenth album in U.S. history to sell one million copies in a single week.  Taylor was on a roll now, and she continued her hot streak with the single "Back To December", which reached #6 in the United States and #7 in Canada.

Swift toured throughout 2011 and early in 2012 in a 111-date world tour.  Artists such as James Taylor, Jason Mraz, Usher, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Nelly, Shawn Colvin, Tal Bachman, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Nicki Minaj and Darius Rucker joined her on stage at various dates.  The highly successful tour was seen by over 1.6 million fans and grossed over $123 million.  

"Speak Now" hit #8 in both the United States and Canada.

The singles "Sparks Fly" and "Ours" reached #1 on the Country chart and reached #17 and #13, respectively, overall.

Swift also won Favorite Female Artist in 2010 and Favorite Country Artist in 2011 and 2012 at the People's Choice Awards and she was named Entertainer of the Year by the Academy of Country Music in both 2011 and 2012.  

Speak Now has sold over 5.7 million copies worldwide to date.  Swift peaked at #10 in Canada and a much underrated #11 in the U.S. with "Mean".  

Taylor won the American Music Award for Artist of the Year and Speak Now was named Favorite Country Album. Billboard named Swift Woman of the Year, and Taylor won three other Billboard Awards (Top Billboard 200 Artist, Country Artist of the Year and Country Album of the Year).  In addition to those categories, Taylor was nominated for Artist of the Year, Female Artist of the Year, Billboard 200 Album of the Year, Country Song of the Year (for "Mean") and Top Touring Artist. 

Swift was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Video with a Message for "Mean".  BMI cited "Fearless", "Back to December" and "Mine" as "Award-Winning Songs", and "Mine" picked up another award in the Pop category. 

In 2012, Swift co-chaired the National Education Association's "Read Across America" campaign.  Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States, presented Swift with The Big Help Award for her "dedication to helping others" and "inspiring others through action".  Also, Kerry Kennedy of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights presented Taylor with the Ripple of Hope Award because of her "dedication to advocacy at such a young age...Taylor is just the kind of woman we want our daughters to be."

  

James Taylor invited Swift to appear as a special guest during his Tanglewood set.  Taylor also contributed two songs to "The Hunger Games" Soundtrack.  "Safe & Sound" reached #11 in New Zealand and has sold over 1.4 million copies in the United States.  It captured the Grammy Award for Best Song Written For Visual Media and was nominated for Best Original Song at the Golden Globe Awards. 

Swift released the album Red in 2012.  To promote the album, representatives from 72 worldwide radio stations were flown to Nashville for individual interviews with Swift.  She appeared on many television programs and performed at award ceremonies in the United States, the U.K., Australia, Germany, France and Spain.  Taylor released the single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", which became her first #1 song in the United States, Canada and New Zealand, #2 in Japan, #3 in Australia and #4 in the U.K. and Ireland.

The song was nominated for the prestigious Record of the Year honor at the Grammy Awards.  Red became her second album to debut at #1 with first-week sales of 1.21 million copies, the highest opening sales in a decade in the music business.  This made Swift the only female in music history to have two million-selling album openings.  "Begin Again" was lined up next, and it peaked at #4 in Canada and #7 in the U.S.

Taylor's next single, "I Knew You Were Trouble", was a worldwide smash.  It shot up to #2 in the United States, the U.K. and Canada, #3 in Australia and New Zealand and #4 in Ireland.  The video won Best Female Video and was nominated for Video of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Swift played 66 dates across North America before heading to England and Germany in 2014.  Swift has invited such stars as Carly Simon, Jennifer Lopez, Train, Rascal Flatts, Luke Bryan, Nelly, Ellie Goulding and Hunter Hayes to join her at various shows.  Red has now gone over six million in sales worldwide.  The title song hit #5 in Canada and #6 in the United States.      

Swift won an incredible eight Billboard Music Awards out of 12 nominations.  She won trophies for Artist of the Year, Top Female Artist, Top Billboard 200 Artist, Top Billboard 200 Album, Top Country Album and Top Country Song ("We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together") and Top Digital Songs Artist.  Taylor's other nominations came from Top Hot 100 Artist, Top Social Artist, Billboard Milestone Award and Top Streaming Video Song (for "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together").  

Taylor won an American Music Award for Best Female Country Artist.  Swift has collaborated with artists such as Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, and performed "As Tears Go By" with the Rolling Stones on tour in Chicago. 

With Red, Swift is now the first artist since the Beatles to log six or more weeks at #1 with three consecutive albums on the Album chart.

Swift won American Music Awards for her work on Red--Artist of the Year, Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, Favorite Country Female Artist and Favorite Country Album, and she was nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Album.  She was nominated for five World Music Awards:  World's Best Female Artist, World's Best Song and World's Best Video (for "I Knew You Were Trouble"), World's Best Live Act and World's Best Entertainer of the Year in the ceremony that takes place later this year.  Meanwhile, Swift is working on songs for her fifth album.

Swift has received praise from peers like Neil Young and Stephen Stills, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, James Taylor, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys, Jon Bon Jovi, Katy Perry, John Mayer, Lady Gaga, Dolly Parton, Melissa Etheridge, Judy Collins, Drake, Janis Ian and Kris Kristofferson.

Swift already has become one of the most honored artists of all-time.  She has won seven Grammy Awards (with 15 nominations), 11 American Music Awards and 12 Billboard Music Awards.  Taylor has sold over 26 million albums worldwide and has charted 43 Top 40 hits, with 15 going Top 10.