Taylor Swift (album)


Taylor Swift is the self-titled debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 24, 2006, by Big Machine Records. Swift was 16 years old the year of the album's release and wrote its songs during her freshman year of high school. Swift has writing credits on all of the album's songs, including those co-written with Liz Rose. Swift experimented with several producers, ultimately choosing Nathan Chapman, who had produced her demo album. Taylor Swift is a country album, with some tracks having pop and pop rock sensibilities. Lyrically, the album speaks of romantic relationships, a couple of which Swift wrote from observing them before being in one. It also touches on Swift's friends and her personal struggles in high school.
Five singles were released from Taylor Swift, all of which reached the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and has been certified platinum or multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America —Swift's debut single and the album's lead single, "Tim McGraw", peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. "Teardrops on My Guitar" was the album's best-performing song on the Hot 100, spending 48 weeks on the chart and becoming Swift's first top-20 hit. "Our Song" made Swift the youngest person in history to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Hot Country Songs chart; "Picture to Burn" peaked at number three on the chart, while "Should've Said No" became the second chart-topper from the album. Swift promoted the album by performing as the opening act, for the tours by artists such as Rascal Flatts, George Strait, Brad Paisley, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.
Upon release, Taylor Swift received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised Swift's talent at such a young age. The album enjoyed commercial success and launched Swift's career in country music. In the United States, it topped the Billboard Top Country Albums Chart for 24 weeks, and was certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA for sales of over seven million copies in the US. Taylor Swift is the longest-charting album of the 2000s decade on the Billboard 200, charting for 275 weeks in total. The album was also certified gold in the United Kingdom, platinum in Australia and 2× platinum in Canada.

Background

Swift is from Reading, Pennsylvania and developed an early interest in country music and songwriting. When she was eleven, she and her family made their first visit to Nashville, Tennessee in pursuit of a record deal, though nothing came out of it. Swift was judged and neglected by record labels for being too young. In regards to the labels which rejected her, she said,

Development and music

Swift wrote "Tim McGraw" during her freshman year, knowing that she and her senior boyfriend, Brandon Borello, would break up at the end of the year when he left for college. Rose said Swift showed up at her after school job writing songs for Sony/ATV "with the idea and the melody. She knew exactly what she wanted." The nostalgic song describes a summer romance and Swift's hope that when Borello "think Tim McGraw" he would "think favorite song" – McGraw's "Can't Tell Me Nothin" – and remember her. Conversely, "Picture to Burn" describes a girl furious after a break-up. Swift says that while the song is about "just being mad" and is "completely, brutally honest"; she gave it a comedic edge. While at work after school, Swift "found self just sitting there with guitar going, 'I hate his stupid truck that he doesn't let me drive. He's such a redneck! Oh my God!'," a line which developed into the song's chorus. The up-tempo song is heavy with banjos and drums, while the chorus is marked by distorted guitars and big vocals.
The singer penned the autobiographical song "The Outside" as an outlet at age twelve, the year she began writing her own songs. Like many of the other songs she wrote early on, the song describes the unhappiness and loneliness Swift felt when her love of country music alienated her from her peers. Swift wrote "Tied Together with a Smile" the day she learned one of her best friends was bulimic, a fact which shocked her. She recalled, "How can somebody that seems so strong have such a horrible, horrible weakness? Something that is killing her." The lyrics to "Tied Together with a Smile" describe a beautiful girl trying to hide her inner turbulence and mourn that "You're tied together with a smile/But you're coming undone". Swift commented, "I always thought that one of the biggest overlooked problems American girls face is insecurity." She wrote "Should've Said No" according to "something really, really dramatic and crazy happening to and needing to address it in the form of music". The song was a last minute addition to Taylor Swift: Swift had written it two days before mastering was scheduled and booklets were about to be printed; she then called her producer and completed the song overnight.
"Mary's Song " was actually inspired by her next-door neighbors' long lasting marriage, being the opposite of what tabloids fixate on. Swift wrote "Our Song" for her freshman year of high school talent show with no intentions of including it on the album. She claimed she "just knew there was something about it" and chose to include it on Taylor Swift. "I wrote it about this guy I was dating, and how we didn't have a song. So I went ahead and wrote us one." The song is a narrative and describes a young couple who use the events in their lives in place of a regular song. The banjo-riddled song is placed at the end of the album due to its closing lyrics, a request to "play it again". "Invisible" is ballad describing loneliness and heartache of going unnoticed. Sean Dooley of About.com writes, the "piano-driven song perfectly captures the awkward teenage angst we all endure—or have endured—at one time or another."

Recording

While recording her demo album, Swift worked with demo producer Nathan Chapman, whom she met in a little shed behind a publishing company she was at. Swift said, "I'd always go in there and play him some new songs, and the next week he would have this awesome track, on which he played every instrument, and it sounded like a record. We did this for a period of a year to two years before I got my record deal."
To record Taylor Swift, she had to choose which album producer she would work with: "Then, all of a sudden, it was, 'OK, we're going to use this producer' or 'We're going to use that producer.'" After experimenting with different producers, originating from Nashville, Swift chose Chapman because of the unique sound he put into songs. Big Machine Records was skeptical about hiring Chapman because he had never done a studio album prior to Taylor Swift, only demos. Swift described the songs he produced as "the right chemistry hit" and therefore, Big Machine Records accepted Chapman producing some of the album's songs. In the end, Chapman produced all but one of the tracks on Taylor Swift. Recording was executed during a four-month period before 2005 was over.

Packaging and release

Taylor Swift was released on October 24, 2006 with eleven tracks. Swift was highly involved in the album packaging, designing doodle graphics herself. She also personally capitalized specific letters in the lyrics from each song to spell out hidden messages, a feat she would also execute for her succeeding albums. On November 6, 2007, the album was released under the title Taylor Swift Deluxe Edition for a limited time. The deluxe edition contained three new songs: "I'm Only Me When I'm with You", "Invisible" and "A Perfectly Good Heart", the radio edits for "Teardrops on My Guitar", and "Our Song", and Swift's first phone conversation with Tim McGraw. The release also bore new artwork and a bonus DVD with all of Swift's music videos at the time, behind-the-scenes footage of "Teardrops on My Guitar" and "Our Song" music videos, and a performance of "Picture to Burn", among other material. The American retail company Target released an exclusive version of Taylor Swift Deluxe Edition, with performances of Swift during McGraw and Hill's Soul2Soul II Tour. A third and final edition appeared on March 18, 2008 with the original album artwork, including the three new songs from the Taylor Swift Deluxe Edition, as well as the radio edit of "Picture to Burn," and an additional pop remix of "Teardrops on My Guitar". This version of the album was also released on vinyl in 2016. A karaoke version of Taylor Swift was released on January 27, 2009, containing the first fourteen tracks from the album on both CD+G and DVD.

Promotion

Swift's first broadcast performance of "Tim McGraw" was on October 24, 2006 on Good Morning America. Other songs from Taylor Swift have been performed on television programs, award shows, and festivals such as The Megan Mullally Show, the New Faces Show, America's Got Talent, Total Request Live, the 2008 CMT Music Awards, and the Academy of Country Music. Swift spent much of 2006 promoting "Tim McGraw" and Taylor Swift in a radio tour. In regards to the extensive radio tour, Swift commented, "Radio tours for most artists last six weeks. Mine lasted six months. That's because I wanted it to. I wanted to meet every single one of the people that was helping me out."
Swift also promoted the album by performing as an opening act for several country artists' concert tours. She opened for Rascal Flatts on several dates, from October 19 to November 3, 2006, included on the Me and My Gang Tour, performing a total of five songs from the album. She also served as opening act on twenty dates for George Strait's 2007 United States tour, and selected dates for Brad Paisley's Bonfires & Amplifiers Tour ; Swift served as an opening act during all 2007 legs of the tour. During mid-2007, Swift engaged as the opening act on several dates for Tim McGraw's and Faith Hill's joint tour, Soul2Soul II Tour. Swift again opened for Flatts for their Still Feels Good Tour in 2008. In addition, Swift performed six songs from Taylor Swift on her first headlining tour, the Fearless Tour.

Singles

"Tim McGraw" was released as the lead single from Taylor Swift on June 19, 2006. The song was critically appreciated for Swift's delivery. "Tim McGraw" enjoyed commercial success, peaking at number forty on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number six on Billboard's Hot Country Songs; it was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for the shipment of 2,000,000 copies.
"Teardrops on My Guitar" was released as the second single from Taylor Swift. "Teardrops on My Guitar" received critical success for its memorable chorus and crossover potential, as well as commercial success by becoming the best-charting single from Taylor Swift on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number thirteen. It became Swift's first pop crossover hit, peaking at number eleven on the now-canceled Pop 100 chart. The song was certified double platinum by the RIAA for the shipment of 3,000,000 copies. "Teardrops on My Guitar" peaked at number forty-five in Canada and at number fifty-one in the United Kingdom.
"Our Song" was released as the third single from the album. The song was critically favored, being described as "gem". "Our Song" peaked at number sixteen on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA; it also became Swift's first-number one on Hot Country Songs. The song peaked at number thirty on the Canadian Hot 100, becoming the best-charting single from Taylor Swift in Canada.
"Picture to Burn" was released as the fourth single from Taylor Swift. "Picture to Burn" was appreciated by contemporary critics for lyrics reflecting feminism. It became a fourth consecutive top ten single for Swift on the United States' chart Hot Country Songs and was certified double platinum by the RIAA.
"Should've Said No" was released as the fifth and final single from the album. In the United States, "Should've Said No" became Swift's second number-one on Hot Country Songs and was certified double platinum by the RIAA. The song made its highest international peak in the New Zealand Singles Chart, at number eighteen.

Critical reception

Taylor Swift received positive reviews from contemporary critics. Jeff Tamarkin of AllMusic described Swift as "a fresh, still girlish voice, full of hope and naïveté, but it's also a confident and mature one". He said her "talent to be reckoned" was portrayed through the songs "Tim McGraw", "The Outside", and "Mary's Song ". Tamarkin criticized producer Nathan Chapman for applying "a gloss that not all really require and in some cases would do better to shed". Rick Bell of Country Standard Time gave a positive review, saying that Swift had "smart songwriting" and that "her deeply personal, self-penned songs, particularly 'The Outside' and 'Our Song'" were "stirring". He compared her sound to Cyndi Thomson and Hilary Duff. Chris Neal of Country Weekly said that Swift "demonstrat an honesty, intelligence and idealism with which listeners of any age will be able to connect" and added that "the more thoughtful material suggests a talent poised to last well past high school." Ken Rosenbaum of The Toledo Blade wrote Swift "deftly handles lyrics and subjects in that shadowy area between teenager and womanhood."

Awards

Commercial performance

On the week ending November 11, 2006, Taylor Swift debuted at number nineteen on the Billboard 200 with sales of 40,000 copies. It reached its highest sales week on the week ending January 5, 2008 with 187,000 copies sold. After sixty-three weeks on the Billboard 200, on the week ending January 19, 2008, the album reached its charting peak at number five due to sales of 47,000 copies. Taylor Swift marked the longest stay on the Billboard 200 by any album released in the decade. The album stayed on the chart for 275 weeks in total. The album topped Billboard's Top Country Albums Chart for twenty-four non-consecutive weeks. On the week ending August 2, 2008, Swift's EP Beautiful Eyes replaced Taylor Swift as the chart's number one album. With Taylor Swift charting at number two, Swift became the first artist to hold the first two positions on Top Country Albums since LeAnn Rimes charted in 1997 with Blue and . The lead single "Tim McGraw" stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 for twenty weeks, peaking at number 40, and also reached number 6 on the Hot Country Songs chart. As of July 2019, the album has sold 5.72 million pure copies in the United States. As of December 2017, Taylor Swift is certified 7× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for earning over seven million units in the country.
Six years after its release, Taylor Swift debuted at number thirty-eight on the New Zealand Albums Chart. Taylor Swift peaked at number fourteen on the Canadian Albums Chart and was certified double platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association. In Australia, Taylor Swift peaked at number thirty-three on the main chart and at number three on the country-genre chart. On the week ending September 5, 2009, it entered the UK Albums Chart at number 88; the following week, it reached its peak at number 81. The album has been certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry for sales of more than 100,000 copies.

Track listing

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes
All tracks are produced by Nathan Chapman, except where noted.
;Notes
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes

Weekly charts

Decade-end chart

Year-end charts

All-time chart

Certifications