Taylor Swift

Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter

Here is Taylor Swift with one of her songs-Mean

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 14 to pursue a career in country music. She signed with the independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. The release of Swift's self-titled debut album in 2006 established her as a country music star. "Our Song", her third single, made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number one song on the Hot Country Songs chart. She received a Best New Artist nomination at the 2008 Grammy Awards.

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", Fearless became the best-selling album of 2009 in the US. The album won four Grammy Awards, with Swift becoming the youngest ever Album of the Year winner. Swift's third album, 2010's Speak Now, sold over one million copies in its first week of US release. The album's third single, "Mean", won two Grammy Awards. In 2012, Swift released her fourth album, Red. Its opening US sales of 1.2 million were the highest recorded in a decade, with Swift becoming the only female artist to have two million-plus opening weeks. The singles "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "I Knew You Were Trouble" were worldwide hits.

Swift is known for narrative songs about her personal experiences. As a songwriter, she has been honored by the Nashville Songwriters Association and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Swift's other achievements include seven Grammy Awards, twelve Billboard Music Awards, eleven Country Music Association Awards and seven Academy of Country Music Awards. To date, she has sold over 26 million albums and 75 million digital single downloads. In addition to her music career, Swift has appeared as an actress in the ensemble comedy Valentine's Day (2010) and the animated film The Lorax (2012). As a philanthropist, Swift supports arts education, children's literacy, natural disaster relief, LGBT anti-discrimination efforts, and charities for sick children.

2014: Upcoming fifth studio album

Swift began writing songs for her fifth studio album in July 2013; it is expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2014. In November 2013, the singer told Billboard that, "There are probably seven or eight songs that I know I want on the record. It's already evolved into a new sound, and that's all I wanted." She is again working with Max Martin and Shellback, this time writing "a lot more than three songs together." Diane Warren and Ryan Tedder have also worked on the album, with Tedder remarking: "For anyone who doubts it, she writes her own stuff ... She's probably the fastest songwriter I've ever met in my life."Swift has also expressed an interest in collaborating with Sia Furler, Jack Antonoff and Imogen Heap for the album. She is also in talks with Harvey Weinstein to write the score for an upcoming stage musical. Swift hired a new publicist after parting ways with her long time spokeswoman, Paula Erickson, in early 2014.

Musical and vocal style

Swift music contains elements of country, country pop, pop and pop rock. She self-identifies as a country artist. Rolling Stone asserts that, "she might get played on the country station, but she's one of the few genuine rock stars we've got these days." Swift's own definition of country music "is really pretty simple. It's when someone sings about their life and what they know, from an authentic place ... One guy will write about how he grew up on a farm and fell in love and raised kids on that same farm. Some people sing about how, when they get sad, they go to the bar and drink whiskey.

I write songs about how I can't seem to figure out relationships and how I'm fascinated by love." She has said there will be "a huge temptation" to make an alt-country record as her career progresses. The New York Times notes that, "There isn't much in Ms. Swift's music to indicate country – a few banjo strums, a pair of cowboy boots worn onstage, a bedazzled guitar – but there's something in her winsome, vulnerable delivery that's unique to Nashville." The New Yorker believes she is "considered part of Nashville's country-pop tradition only because she writes narrative songs with melodic clarity and dramatic shape—Nashville's stock-in-trade." The Guardian has said that Swift "cranks melodies out with the pitiless efficiency of a Scandinavian pop factory."

Swift's voice has been described as "sweet, but soft." In studio recordings, the Los Angeles Times identifies Swift's "defining" vocal gesture as "the line that slides down like a contented sigh or up like a raised eyebrow, giving her beloved girl-time hits their air of easy intimacy." Rolling Stone, in a Speak Now review, remarked: "Swift's voice is unaffected enough to mask how masterful she has become as a singer; she lowers her voice for the payoff lines in the classic mode of a shy girl trying to talk tough." In another review of Speak Now, The Village Voice noted that her phrasing was previously "bland and muddled, but that's changed. She can still sound strained and thin, and often strays into a pitch that drives some people crazy; but she's learned how to make words sound like what they mean."

In a live setting, Swift, according to The Hollywood Reporter, "does her best, but certainly doesn't have the pipes to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Christina Aguilera or Carrie Underwood." Her live vocals have been described as "flat," "thin, and sometimes as wobbly as a newborn colt." However, Swift has received praise for refusing to correct her pitch with Auto-Tune. In an interview with The New Yorker, Swift characterized herself primarily as a songwriter: "I write songs, and my voice is just a way to get those lyrics across." Scott Borchetta of Big Machine Records has conceded that Swift is "not the best technical singer" but describes her as the "best communicator that we've got." Swift's vocal presence is something that concerns her and she has "put a lot of work" into improving it.It was reported in 2010 that she continues to take vocal lessons. She has said that she only feels nervous performing "if I'm not sure what the audience thinks of me, like at award shows."

Personal life

Wealth

Swift lives between a duplex penthouse in Tribeca, New York City, a three-bedroom cottage in Beverly Hills, California and a duplex penthouse in Midtown Nashville, Tennessee. She owns an eight-bedroom summer home in coastal Watch Hill, Rhode Island. In addition, Swift purchased a four-bedroom mansion in Belle Meade, Tennessee for her parents. She owns a Dassault Falcon 900 private jet and an airport hangar at Nashville International Airport. According to Forbes's Celebrity 100 list, released annually in the month of May, Swift earned $18 million in 2009, $45 million in 2010, $45 million in 2011, $57 million in 2012 and $55 million in 2013.

Relationships

Swift dated singer Joe Jonas from July to October 2008, and actor Taylor Lautner from October to December 2009. She was romantically linked to musician John Mayer from late 2009 until early 2010. She dated actor Jake Gyllenhaal from October to December 2010. Following their break-up, they were seen together in January and February 2011. Swift dated political heir Conor Kennedy from July to September 2012. She dated One Direction singer Harry Styles from October 2012 to January 2013. Jonas and Mayer have both written songs about Swift.

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