1. Taylor Swift
By Julienne Jensen

2. Biography Born December 13, 1989 Grew up on family Christmas Tree farm
Started performing at age 5
Grandmother professional Opera Singer
Started learning Guitar and composing music at age 12
Taylor Allison Swift was born on December 13, 1989 in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. She spent her early years, on her family’s Christmas tree farm. Music was a big part of Swift’s life growing up and her grandmother was a professional opera singer. Swift started her music career at a young age, when she was 10 years old, she was singing at a variety of local events, including fairs and contests. When Swift was 11 years old she sang “The Star Spangled Banner” at a Philadelphia 76ers game and when she was 12 years old she began learning to play the guitar and started writing her own music.

3. Nashville Tennessee
At age 11 started performing in Nashville to pursue a career in country music.
Moved to Hendersonville Tennessee
Started Contract with Big Machine Records
Released First Single “Tim Mcgraw”
Swift dreamed about becoming a county music star and to help pursue her music career, she often visited Nashville, Tennessee, the country music capital of the world. Swift’s parents were very supportive of Taylor Swifts desire to land a recording contract so they decided to move to Hendersonville, Tennessee, in an attempt to further Swift’s career. While performing at the Bluebird Café in Nashville Swift had a stellar performance which helped her get a contract with Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine records. Shortly after landing this contract she released her first single, “Tim Mcgraw,” which became a top 10 hit on the country charts.

4. Taylor Swift Debut Album – released October 2006 at age 16
Sold 39,000 copies during first week
Favorite Songs
Teardrops on My Guitar
Tim McGraw
Our Song
At age 16, Taylor Swift released her debut album “Taylor Swift” which included hits like “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me”.

5. Fearless Second Album – released November 2008
Album of the year: Top of Country and Pop Charts
Helped Swift to become Highest-Selling country artist of 2008
White Horse – named best country song
Favorite Songs
Love Story
White Horse
You Belong with Me
Around this same time Swift released her second album “Fearless,” which hit the top of both the country and pop charts and stayed there for 11 weeks. By the end of year, Swift had become the highest-selling country artist of In 2009, swift won several awards for her work on Fearless, including “Video of the Year” and “Female of the Year” for “Love Story” at the CMT Music Awards. Also during 2009 Swift won the MTV video music award for “Best Female Video,” making her the first country music star to win an MTV video music award. In 2010, Swift won 4 Grammy awards from a total of 8 nominations. Fearless was named Album of the year and Best Country album, while “White Horse” was named best country song and best female vocal performance.

6. Speak Now Swift’s third Album – released October 2010
Sold over 5.7 million copies worldwide
Favorite Songs
Mine
Enchanted
Back to December
In 2010, Swift released her third album “Speak Now”. The album has sold over 5.7 million copies worldwide.

7. Red Forth Album – released October 2012
Sold over 1 million copies in first week.
We are Never Getting Back Together – #1 on US Billboard Hot 100 Chart
Favorite Songs
We are Never Getting Back Together
I knew You Were Trouble
The Last Time
In October 2012, Swift released her fourth album “Red”. She wrote 9 of the 16 songs alone while the rest were co-written. The album’s lead single “We are never getting back together”, became Swift’s first number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. With her fourth album Swift became the first woman ever to release 2 albums that sold more than one million copies in their opening week. In 2012, she was ranked No. 1 as Forbes magazine’s highest paid celebrity under 30.

8. Music Awards Horizon Award from Country Music Association
Top New Female Vocalist (Academy of Country Music)
2008 Grammy Award – Best New Artist
Female Vocalist of the Year (American Music Association)
In October 2006, Swift sold more than 2.5 million copies of her debut album becoming very popular and well liked by her fans at a young age. In 2007, Swift won the Horizon Award from the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music Award for top new female vocalist. In 2008, Swift was nominated for a Grammy Award in the best new artist category, and won the Academy of Country Music’s “Female Vocalist of the Year” award, and the American Music Association’s “Horizon” award.

9. Swift 2012 to Present
In 2012 Swift funded the 4 million dollar Taylor Swift Education Center in Nashville
Swift is working on her 5th Album to be released 4th quarter 2014
Wants to evolve this album with new sound
Swift is currently working on her 5th album which is expected to be released during the fourth quarter of With a lot of critics saying that the songs all have a similar sound she has been working hard to evolve this record with a new sound. Taylor is well liked by the public and strives hard to be a good role model. Taylor recently shared some of her fortune to help others where she funded a $4 million dollar Taylor Swift Education Center at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.

10. Composition History: Love Story
Released in September with album “Fearless”
The Song started Taylor’s fame and got her career to pick up
Lyrics similar to the story “Romeo and Juliet”
Song about a guy Swift was dating who wasn’t a popular choice
“Love Story” was a lead hit in one of her albums. It is from the album Fearless and was released in September of This song started Taylor Swift’s fame and got her career to pick up. She wrote about it when she was dating a guy and this guy wasn’t a popular choice but she still loved him. The lyrics of this song are exactly like the story of “Romeo and Juliet” everything compares, and is in a present time.

11. Composition History: “We are Never Getting Back Together”
Released as lead single to album Red on August 13, 2012
Written by Swift and produced by Max Martin and Shellback
Lyrics describe Swift’s frustrations at an ex- lover who wants to re- kindle their relationship
“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” is a song by Taylor Swift’s fourth album, Red (2012). The song was written by Taylor and produced with Max Martin and Shellback. The song was released as the lead single for the Red album on August 13, Its lyrics describe Taylor’s frustrations at an ex-lover who wants to re-kindle their relationship. It has received a Grammy Award nomination for Record of the Year. It also received a People’s Choice Awards nomination for Favorite Song of the Year.

12. Composition History: “I knew You Were Trouble”
Released 27 November, 2012 as the third single from the album Red
Co-written and produced by Max Martin and Shellback
Lyrics about being frustrated with yourself because you are heart broken after seeing all these red flags from the beginning
“I Knew You Were Trouble” is a song by Taylor Swift from her fourth album Red. The song was released as the third single from Red on November 27, The song was written by Taylor herself and was co-written and produced by Max Martin and Shellback.  Taylor said the song was about being frustrated with yourself because here you are heart-broken and you knew when you first saw that person you saw all these red flags and you just went for it anyway, so shame on me.

13. Composition History: “You Belong with Me”
Released April 18, 2009 by Big Machine Records as the third single from “Fearless”
Co-written by Swift and Liz Rose and produced by Nathan Chapman with Swift’s aid
Inspired to write song after overhearing a male friend of hers arguing with his girlfriend through a phone call
“You belong with Me” was co-written by Swift and Liz Rose and produced by Nathan Chapman with Swift’s aid. The song was released on April 18, 2009 by Big Machine Records as the third single from Swift’s second studio album “Fearless”. Swift was inspired to write "You Belong with Me" after overhearing a male friend of hers arguing with his girlfriend through a phone call; she continued to develop a story line afterward. The song contains many pop music elements and its lyrics have Swift desiring an out-of-reach love interest.

14. Listening Guides: “Love Story”
0:00 the song begins in major mode and the melody played by the acoustic guitar
0:30 the drums start playing on certain beats of the song and cymbals are heard very faintly
1:03 the chorus: the resolution occurs, chorus is in the major mode, and drums in triple meter
1:24 verse 2: the tempo is back to the original speed and the original melody is being played
2:14 chorus-add on: the music stays the same, with extra lyrics added in
2:43 verse 3: the tempo has slowed, the dynamics of each instrument becoming softer
3:17 chorus 3 begins: the resolution has now occurred, and the original melody is now being played where the timbre of the violin is heard more.
3:56 the song ends

15. Listening Guides: “We are Never Getting Back Together”
0:00   the intro starts out with an acoustic guitar playing catchy notes
0:07   the vocalist comes in  and the drummer comes in
0:30   the pace of the drums starts to pick up a little bit
0:45   the drummer and guitar comes in with faster and louder beats
1:05   the song goes back to the pace from the beginning with just the guitar playing
1:28   the song starts to speed up
1:30   then the drummer and guitar pick up the pace and beat once again 
2:04   the guitar stops and its just the drummer drumming a slow soft pace
2:26   everyone comes in again at once at a fast upbeat pace
3:12   the song ends

16. Listening Guides: “I knew You Were Trouble”
0:00   the intro starts with just a guitar playing a couple of cords in a fast tempo
0:05   the vocalist comes in at a medium tempo
0:42   the drums stop and pace slows down 
1:07   the drums come in hard and loud as does the vocalist to speed up the pace
1:18   the pace slows down with the guitar playing, the drums and vocalist both come in
1:50   the instruments start to fade
1:55   all the instruments come in hard again as the pace of the song picks up again
2:35   the pace slows down once again as only the guitar is playing just a couple of cords
2:48   the drums come in with a hard loud beat as the song begins to pick up its pace
3:40   song ends

17. Listening Guides: “You Belong With Me”
0:00 the intro begins with the guitar, bass and drums
0:37 the chorus begins, the dynamics increase, there’s a banjo, piano and violin included with the
guitar, bass, drums and vocals
1:35 the chorus ends, the dynamics decrease and then begin increasing towards the beginning of
the chorus
2:30 there’s no singing just instruments playing
2:56 the dynamics slow and the singing gets softer
3:42 song ends

18. Works Cited
Ferrin, Craig E. Listen to the Music. Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 2009.
Taylor Alison Swift. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 09:49, May 03, 2014, from
Song Facts, List of Songs by Taylor Swift. ‎
Taylor Swift, 2014 Taylor Swift.