Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans… Read Full Bio ↴Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her narrative songwriting, which is often inspired by her personal life, has received widespread media coverage and critical praise.

Born in West Reading, Pennsylvania, Swift relocated to Nashville, Tennessee in 2004 to pursue a career in country music. She broke into the country music scene with her eponymous self-titled debut studio album, Taylor Swift in 2006, which included the singles "Teardrops on My Guitar" and "Our Song". Swift also released the holiday album, Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, later titled as The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection in October 2007.

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 upcoming eleventh studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department” (2024) which is set to be 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 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.

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.

Should've Said No
Taylor Swift Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

It's strange to think the songs we used to sing
The smiles, the flowers, everything is gone
Yesterday I found out about you
Even now just looking at you
Feels wrong
You say that you'd take it all back
Given one chance, it was a moment of weakness
And you said, "Yes"

You should've said, "No"
You should've gone home
You should've thought twice 'fore you let it all go
You should've known that word 'bout what you did with her
Get back to me (get back to me)
And I should've been there
In the back of your mind
I shouldn't be asking myself, "Why?"
You shouldn't be beggin' for forgiveness at my feet
You should've said, "No"
Baby, and you might still have me

You can see that I've been cryin'
Baby, you know all the right things
To say
But do you honestly expect me to believe
We could ever be the same?
You say that the past is the past
You need one chance, it was a moment of weakness
And you said, "Yes"

You should've said, "No"
You should've gone home
You should've thought twice 'fore you let it all go
You should've known that word 'bout what you did with her
Get back to me (get back to me)
And I should've been there
In the back of your mind
I shouldn't be asking myself, "Why?"
You shouldn't be beggin' for forgiveness at my feet
You should've said, "No"
Baby, and you might still have me, oh-whoa

I can't resist
Before you go, tell me this
Was it worth it?
Was she worth this?

No, no, no, no, no, no

You should've said, "No"
You should've gone home
You should've thought twice 'fore you let it all go
You should've known that word 'bout what you did with her
Get back to me (get back to me)
And I should've been there
In the back of your mind
I shouldn't be asking myself, "Why?"
You shouldn't be beggin' for forgiveness at my feet

You should've said, "No"
Baby, and you might still have me

Overall Meaning

In Taylor Swift's song Should've Said No, the lyrics seem to be about a past partner who has cheated on her with another woman. Taylor sings about how it's strange to think about the songs they used to sing and the happy moments they shared, now that everything has crumbled. She reveals that she found out about the cheating and even looking at her partner feels wrong. Her partner tries to explain that it was just a moment of weakness and that they would take everything back if given the chance. However, Taylor believes that her partner should have said "no" to the other woman and come back home to her.

The chorus repeats the phrase "you should've said no" multiple times, which underscores Taylor's sentiment that her partner should have known better. She emphasizes that if her partner had made a different choice, they could still be together. Taylor explains that she has been crying and despite her partner saying all the right things, she cannot believe that they could be the same as they were before. The song ends with Taylor asking if the affair was worth it and if the other woman was worth losing her.

Overall, Should've Said No deals with themes of infidelity and regret. Taylor expresses her hurt and betrayal and emphasizes that her partner should have made better choices. The chorus is particularly powerful, repeating the phrase "you should've said no" as a reminder of what could have been.

Line by Line Meaning

It's strange to think the songs we used to sing
It's hard to believe that our past, happy memories were just a facade

The smiles, the flowers, everything is gone
The positive moments we experienced are all in the past and cannot be retrieved

Yesterday I found out about you
I recently discovered something about you that changed my perception of you

Even now just looking at you Feels wrong
Your presence makes me uneasy and uncomfortable

You say that you'd take it all back Given one chance, it was a moment of weakness And you said, "Yes"
You admit that you made a mistake and regret what you did, but you did it anyway

You can see that I've been cryin' Baby, you know all the right things To say
I am visibly emotional, and you know how to apologize to make me feel better

But do you honestly expect me to believe We could ever be the same?
You are not facing the reality that our relationship has changed, and it can never be the same as it was before

You say that the past is the past You need one chance, it was a moment of weakness And you said, "Yes"
You believe that what happened in the past should be left behind, and your mistake was caused by a moment of weakness

I can't resist Before you go, tell me this Was it worth it? Was she worth this?
Before you leave, I need to know if your actions were worth losing me over

No, no, no, no, no, no
The answer to my question is a definite no

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Taylor Swift

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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