Biography

Taylor Swift, in full Taylor Alison Swift was born on 13th December 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA. Her parents' names are Scott and Andrea Swift (born Finlay). She has a younger brother Austin (*1992). 

Taylor's childhood

Taylor was growing up on a christmas tree farm in Montgomery County. When Taylor was 9, her family moved to Wyomissing, Pensylvania, where she studied at Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School.

Taylor has been interested in music since she was a little child. Music wasn't her only hobby - she had ridden a horse since she was 9. It's possible that she was also affected by her grandmother Marjorie Finlay (1928 - 2003), who was an opera singer. Taylor used to sing in a choir and got many roles in school theatre plays. At the age of 11, she sang the American anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner" at a local baseball game. When she was 12, her family was visited by a computer repairman, who showed her three guitar chords. Since then, Taylor has been writing her own songs. She was inspired by country artists like Shania Twain or Dixie Chicks. The first song she wrote is called "Lucky You". Taylor was dreaming of becoming a famous country artist one day.

Taylor's career

Her parents knew what their daughter would want to do once. They decided to move house to Hendersonville, Tennessee, nearby Nashville, known as the center of the country genre. She started cooperating with RCA Records, where she met many skillful songwriters, including Liz Rose, who became a long time co-writer of Taylor's songs.

At 2005, Taylor performed in The Bluebird Café in Nashvile. She was noticed by a music manager Scott Borchetta, who's just establish a record label called "Big Machine Records". Taylor signed a contract with the label and a year later, in 2006, she released her debut self-titled album Taylor Swift. Then her next four albums were being released with a 2 years gap (Fearless (2008), Speak Now (2010), Red (2012), 1989 (2014)).

In 2016 came a medial drama caused by a feud by Kanye West and his (ex) wife Kim Kardashian. Everyone called Taylor "a liar", or even "a snake". She was forced to hide away from the public and she didn't show up anywhere for a few months. Based on this affair Taylor wrote and released her 6th studio album called Reputation. On her 2019's record Lover, Taylor completely changed the mood and flooded her lyrics and melodies with happiness and celebration of love.

When the pandemic came in 2020, Taylor had to cancel her tour for Lover. But Taylor wasn't waisting her time in quarantine. She wrote and released two studio albums last year and put them out both as a surprise. July's Folklore and December's Evermore were both announced only a few hours before their release.  

Why is Taylor rerecording her albums

You may have noticed that Taylor is rerecording her old albums and you maybe don't know for sure why is she actually doing that.

Her old label Big Machine Records sold the masteres of Taylor's first six album to Ithaca Holdings. This company is owned by Scooter Braun, who manages stars like Ariana Grande or Justin Bieber. Braun sold the rights to the music to Shamrock Holdings for more than $300 million. His move was "smart" - because of that, Taylor completely lost the access to her music. When you stream the music from her 1st-6th albums, or you buy the songs on iTunes, the financial profits don't go to Taylor, but to the owner, which is currently Shamrock Holdings. She even isn't able to play the songs on her shows, she can't put it in films etc. Which really isn't good for Taylor at all.

This happened in 2019 behind Taylor's back. When she found out, she immediately left her old label and signed a contract with a new one, Universal Music Group. This contract guarantees Taylor that she will always be the owner of her music. Albums, which were released under the new label, are 2019's Lover, folklore and evermore from 2020 and new versions of her old albums, Fearless (Taylor's Version) and now Red (Taylor's Version), which is about to drop on 12th November.

You're maybe wondering why can Taylor rerecord her music when she lost the masters. Big Machine Records sold only the final forms of the songs, so the records. The rights for the lyrics and melodies still belong to Taylor. Noone can't ever sell or steal you these rights.

(sources: Britanica, Wikipedia, time.com)