Swift rose to mainstream prominence with her sophomore studio album, Fearless (2008), a country pop record with crossover appeal. Aided by the top-five singles “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me”, Fearless was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Swift's third studio album, Speak Now (2010), blended country pop with elements of rock and featured the top-ten singles “Mine” and “Back to December”.
Drawing inspiration from various pop, rock, and electronic genres, Swift's fourth studio album Red (2012) saw her transcending her country roots. She completely moved to pop with her synth-pop fifth studio album, 1989 (2014), and expanded the electropop sound on her next two studio albums, reputation (2017) and Lover (2019), which respectively embraced urban and retro styles. The four albums spawned a string of international top-five singles, including “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”, “I Knew You Were Trouble”, “Shake It Off”, “Blank Space”, “Bad Blood”, “Look What You Made Me Do”, “ME! (feat. Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco)”, “You Need to Calm Down”, and “Lover”.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Swift experimented with folk and alternative rock on her eighth and ninth studio albums, folklore and evermore (both 2020), whose lead singles “cardigan” and “willow” topped charts around the world. She also released the critically acclaimed documentaries Miss Americana and Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions that year. Swift's tenth studio album, Midnights (2022), marked her triumphant return to pop after two folk albums. The album set the record for biggest first day and first week ever on Spotify, spawned the hits Anti-Hero and Lavender Haze, and sold over 1.5 million copies in its first week becoming not only the biggest debut of the decade but also Swift's biggest debut ever. She would make history by becoming the first artist to occupy the entire top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 with tracks from Midnights. Following Midnights, Taylor Swift announced her eleventh studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department” (2024) which was released on April 19, 2024. She announced this record at 66th Annual Grammy Award Show accepting the award for Best Pop Vocal Album for her previous album, Midnights (2022) in honour of receiving her 13th Grammy.
Additionally, Swift began re-recording her back catalog in November 2020 as a result of a publicized dispute with talent manager Scooter Braun and her former label Big Machine, regarding the acquisition of the masters of her back catalog. In April 2021, Swift released a re-recorded issue of her 2008 album Fearless, titled Fearless (Taylor's Version). It debuted at number one in the US. Swift continued releasing re-recorded versions of her back catalog in November, 2021 with the release of Red (Taylor's Version), a 30 track re-issue of her 2012 critical smash. The album debuted at #1 in the US, spawned the #1 hit All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault), and broke the record at the time for biggest first day for a female album on Spotify. Red (Taylor's Version) was a critical and commercial hit, and proved that Swift's ambitious, yet ongoing plan to re-record her first 6 albums was well worth it.
Along with the release of Red (Taylor's Version) came All Too Well: The Short Film (2021), Swift's filmmaking debut. The 15 minute romantic drama was based on the lyrical content from Swift's 2012 fan favorite “All Too Well” starring Sadie Sink and Dylan O'Brien. It had a limited theatrical release in major cities, and Swift held special screenings of the film throughout 2022 at various film festivals. In December, 2022 Taylor announced that she would be making her feature directorial debut with Oscar-winning studio Searchlight Pictures.
Following the release of Midnights, Swift would embark on her first tour in five years, The Eras Tour—a retrospective tour covering the entirety of her discography. During her ongoing tour, Swift would release her next two re-recorded albums, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) in July and 1989 (Taylor's Version) in October of 2023. The former of which would land Swift as the woman with the most number-one albums (12) in Billboard 200 history, surpassing Barbra Streisand. The latter was her sixth album to sell one million copies in a single week in the US, her largest album sales in a week span. “Is It Over Now? (Taylor's Version)”, the lead single for 1989 (Taylor's Version), would peak at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
At the 66th annual GRAMMY Awards, Taylor Swift surprised viewers by announcing her eleventh studio album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. On April 19, 2024, the album was released globally, breaking records: it became the first ever to amass 1 billion Spotify streams in a week and sold 2.6 million units in its first week in the US. Swift dominated the charts, monopolizing the top 14 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 and securing the top 10 positions on Australia’s ARIA Singles Chart. The lead single, Fortnight, featuring Post Malone, quickly soared to the number-one position on the Hot 100. Additionally, just two hours after the album’s release, Swift surprised fans with a reissue titled THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY, which included 15 extra songs.
Swift has released several songs for film soundtracks. She co-wrote two songs for the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack— “You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home” and “Crazier”, and contributed two songs to the Valentine's Day soundtrack, including the single “Today Was a Fairytale”, which was her first number one on the Canadian Hot 100, and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. She also contributed two original songs to The Hunger Games soundtrack album: “Safe & Sound - from The Hunger Games Soundtrack”, co-written and recorded with The Civil Wars and T-Bone Burnett, and “Eyes Open”. “Safe & Sound” won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. In 2013, Swift recorded “Sweeter than Fiction”, a song she wrote and produced with Jack Antonoff for the One Chance film soundtrack, which received a Best Original Song nomination at the 71st Golden Globe Awards. Swift and English singer Zayn Malik, mononymously known as Zayn, released a single together, “I Don't Wanna Live Forever”, for the soundtrack of the film Fifty Shades Darker (2017). She also recorded an original song called “Beautiful Ghosts”, which she wrote with Andrew Lloyd Webber for the Cats's soundtrack (2019). In 2020, Swift's documentary Miss Americana featured the song “Only the Young” which was written after the 2018 United States elections. In 2022, she released an original song titled “Carolina” for Where The Crawdads Sing (2022) inspired by the novel written by Delia Owens.
With sales of over 200 million records worldwide, Swift is a best-selling music artist. Her accolades include 14 Grammy Awards, including four Album of the Year wins, which makes Swift the artist with the most awards for that category in history, two Brit Awards (including a Global Icon award), an Emmy Award, 28 [https://guinnessworldrecords.com/]Guinness World Records, 32 American Music Awards (the most wins by an artist), and 23 Billboard Music Awards (the most wins by a woman). She ranked eighth on Billboard's Greatest of All Time Artists Chart (2019) and was listed on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time (2015). Swift has been included in various power rankings, such as Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world (2010, 2015 and 2019) and Forbes Celebrity 100 (placing first in 2016 and 2019). She was named Woman of the Decade (2010s) by Billboard, Artist of the Decade (2010s) by the American Music Awards, and Person of the Year (2023) by Time Magazine.
Taylor Swift is the Music Industry.
Rain
Taylor Swift Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I wanted that pain
He wanted a bride
I was making my own name
Chasing that fame
He stayed the same
All of me changed like midnight
Full of cages, full of fences
Pageant queens and big pretenders
But for some it was paradise
My boy was a montage
A slow-motion love potion
Jumping off things in the ocean
I broke his heart 'cause he was nice
He was sunshine, I was midnight
Rain, he wanted it comfortable
I wanted that pain
He wanted a bride
I was making my own name
Chasing that fame
He stayed the same
All of me changed like midnight
It came like a postcard
Picture perfect, shiny family
Holiday peppermint candy
But for him it's every day
So I peered through a window
A deep portal, time travel
All the love we unraveled
And the life I gave away
'Cause he was sunshine, I was midnight
Rain, he wanted it comfortable
I wanted that pain
He wanted a bride
I was making my own name
Chasing that fame
He stayed the same
All of me changed like midnight
Rain, he wanted it comfortable
I wanted that pain
He wanted a bride
I was making my own name
Chasing that fame
He stayed the same
All of me changed like midnight
I guess sometimes we all get
Just what we wanted, just what we wanted
And he never thinks of me
Except when I'm on TV
I guess sometimes we all get
Some kind of haunted, some kind of haunted
And I never think of him
Except on midnights like this
(Midnight's like this, midnight's like this)
The lyrics in Taylor Swift’s song “Rain” speak of a longing for someone who is no longer present in the singer’s life. The first verse discusses the reluctance to revisit memories of the past - this person made the singer laugh and they know the way to their door, but the singer isn’t willing to go back in time anymore. In the second verse, Swift seems to be speaking to the universe, asking it to help her find answers about the person she’s missing. She opens her window, perhaps hoping that the rain will bring her lost love back to her.
Swift then moves on to singing about how much she knows this person - she knows them by heart, but they don’t even know where she starts. The third verse is a plea to this person, talking to them as if they are present even though they are not. She tells them to talk to themselves, talk to the tears they’ve shed, and to talk to the person who put them in this situation. She then leaves her window open again, hoping this time her lost love will come back to her. The final verse repeats the opening sentiments - that she could go back to every laugh, but she doesn’t want to anymore.
Overall, the lyrics speak of a deep sense of yearning and loss. The singer is hoping for something that they know may never come back to them, but they are still holding on to the possibility that it might.
Line by Line Meaning
I could go back to every laugh
I could reminisce about all the good times we shared together in the past
But I don't wanna go there anymore
But I choose not to dwell in the past anymore and instead live in the present
And I know all the steps up to your door
I remember the path to your door like the back of my hand
But I don't wanna go there anymore
But I don't want to go to your doorstep again and try to rekindle what's lost
Talk to the wind, talk to the sky
Speak your heart out to the natural elements, to yourself, to the universe
Talk to the man with the reasons why
Talk to the man whom you think is responsible for our falling apart
And let me know what you find
And tell me all that you've learned from the conversations you've had
I'll leave my window open
I keep my window open in the hope that you'll come back
'Cause I'm too tired tonight to call your name
I'm not in the mood to cry out your name tonight
Just know I'm right here hoping
Just know that I'm here waiting for you to come back to me
That you'll come in with the rain
That you'll come back to me at an unexpected time, just like how rains come unannounced
I could stand up and sing you a song
I could express my love for you through a song, but I don't want to do that anymore
But I don't wanna have to go that far
But I don't want to have to express my love for you in such grand ways anymore
And I've got you down
I know you so well that I don't even have to try anymore
I know you by heart
I know you so thoroughly that you're a part of me
And you don't even know where I start
And you don't even realize how much I love you and how much I've endured for you
Talk to yourself, talk to the tears
Talk to yourself and cry if you have to
Talk to the man who put you here
Talk to the man who broke your heart
And don't wait for the sky to clear
Don't wait for things to clear up, just face them
I've watched you so long, screamed your name
I've been madly in love with you and have called out your name too many times now
I don't know what else I can say
I've done all I could, and I'm out of words now
But I'll leave my window open
But I'll keep waiting for you to come back
'Cause I'm too tired at night for all these games
I'm done playing these games and want you to make a move
Just know I'm right here hoping
Just know that I'm here waiting for you to return to me
That you'll come in with the rain
That you'll come back to me as an unexpected surprise, like how rains come unannounced.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Jack Michael Antonoff, Taylor Alison Swift
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@edum.6353
blows my mind that she could've just canceled and reimbursed fans but she kept going, what an artist. I'm seasonal taylow swift fan (only 1989 and now karma) but this woman is so talented and strong she gave herself entirely.
@stemikger
I'm impressed. I'm an old man and I'm certainly not her target audience, but the more I know of her, the my I like her as a person and I always liked her music, which is very wide in it's scope.
@charviannep
a song targeted to you age is dear john! give it a listen 🥰🥰
@KA-eu9sy
She's such a trooper. Admire her. She could have gotten really ill being exposed to the rain like that.
@webmoss
I’m not a Swifty but she’s a real one 💯
@jakedoe1302
I must admit she is a true performer an extremely talented and I remember when she did the storm the first time at foxboro it was in the news it was a repete but on the pluse side I hope she went home and dried off at home it is not that far of a ride
@mikeeihusen5194
Not a HUGE fan of TS, but this was pretty awesome 😊
@kimkwan57
We love our TAYLOR!!!!
@tasa1150
Amazing girl 😁👍
@marniebalek2558
Respect!!!