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.

Tied Together with a Smile
Taylor Swift Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Seems the only one who doesn't see your beauty
Is the face in the mirror looking back at you
You walk around here thinking you're not pretty
But that's not true 'cause I know you

Hold on, baby, you're losing it
The water's high, you're jumping into it
And letting go, and no one knows

That you cry, but you don't tell anyone
That you might not be the golden one
And you're tied together with a smile
But you're coming undone

I guess it's true that love was all you wanted
'Cause you're givin' it away like it's extra change
Hoping it will end up in his pocket
But he leaves you out like a penny in the rain
Oh, 'cause it's not his price to pay
It's not his price to pay

Hold on, baby, you're losing it
The water's high, you're jumping into it
And letting go, and no one knows
That you cry, but you don't tell anyone
That you might not be the golden one
And you're tied together with a smile
But you're coming undone

Hold on, baby, you're losing it
The water's high, you're jumping into it
And letting go, and no one knows
That you cry, but you don't tell anyone
That you might not be the golden one
And you're tied together with a smile
But you're coming undone

You're tied together with a smile
But you're coming undone, oh

Goodbye, baby
With a smile, baby, baby

Overall Meaning

Taylor Swift's "Tied Together with a Smile" is a soulful ballad that delves into the painful insecurity and need for validation prevalent among many young women. Swift begins the song by observing that the person who doubts their beauty the most is looking back at them from the mirror. She tells the listener that she knows they believe they're not beautiful, but it’s not true. Swift delivers a poignant message, reminding her fans that everyone struggles and beautiful people are not exempt from pain.

Although the person Swift sings to is trying to maintain a facade of happiness and a perfect life, she can see the cracks in their façade. From her lyrics, it is evident the person is so desperate for love and validation that they're giving their love away carelessly. Perhaps, they want to be noticed or appreciated by another person but sadly, these efforts are not reciprocated, causing them to feel lower and not pretty. This idea that self-worth is attached to someone else's feeling about you is a theme that Swift explores throughout some of her work.

Swift uses the metaphor of being "tied together with a smile" to illustrate how the person is a bundle of contradictions, struggling inwardly while projecting an outwardly happy demeanor. Throughout the ballad, there are hints that she is aware of how the facade is slipping, with the line "you're tied together with a smile, but you're coming undone." This line reminds us that no one can bury their pain for too long before it bubbles over.

Line by Line Meaning

Seems the only one who doesn't see your beauty
It appears as if you are the only one who does not appreciate your own beauty.

Is the face in the mirror looking back at you
The only entity that cannot see your beauty is the reflection staring back at you in the mirror.

You walk around here thinking you're not pretty
You believe that you are not good-looking, which makes you self-conscious.

But that's not true 'cause I know you
Contrary to what you believe, I am aware that you are attractive.

Hold on, baby; you're losing it
Please be patient as you seem to be losing grip on your emotions.

The water's high, you're jumping into it
It feels like you are jumping into deep waters, which might be difficult to get out of.

And letting go, and no one knows
You feel like you are letting go of things, and nobody knows how it affects you.

That you cry; but you don't tell anyone
You are most likely shedding tears, but you keep this information to yourself.

That you might not be the golden one
It is possible that you are not perfect or in the best situation.

And you're tied together with a smile
You present yourself in a certain manner, probably through smiling, despite how you're dealing with things.

But you're coming undone
Despite your effort to put on a good face, things seem to be falling apart.

I guess it's true that love was all you wanted
Perhaps all you wanted was to be loved.

'Cause you're givin' it away like it's extra change
You seem to be giving away your love without much thought, like excess coins.

Hoping it will end up in his pocket
You are probably hoping that the love you offer will be appreciated by someone who deserves it.

But he leaves you out like a penny in the rain
Your love might end up being disregarded, like a useless penny left in the rain.

Oh, 'cause it's not his price to pay
It might not be his responsibility to respond to your love the way you want him to.

You're tied together with a smile
You are maintaining a certain presentation of yourself, likely through smiling or happy appearances.

But you're coming undone, oh
Despite your efforts to keep it together, you are breaking down.

Goodbye, baby
Perhaps it is time to bid farewell to the situation causing your distress.

With a smile, baby, baby
As you leave, don't forget to smile, even though it might be tough.

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Anthem Entertainment
Written by: Taylor Alison Swift, Elisabeth Wagner Rose

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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