USA TODAY International Edition
For Taylor, rise has been swift
In 10 years, she is pop star of a generation
Think to pop culture before Taylor Swift. For many Swift fans, who’ve come of age with her voice in their ears, that’s impossible to do. And even for casual Swift listeners, it may be a challenge to think about what music was like before her presence, whether in the form of the curly- haired Nashville star or the polished pop icon.
Ten years ago today, Swift released her self- titled debut, a collection of songs that the 16- year- old singer wrote during her freshman year of high school. Over the next decade, her stories matured and her sound evolved, from twangy country to stadium-ready pop, over the course of four subsequent albums: Fearless in 2008; Speak Now in 2010; Red in 2012; and 1989 in 2014.
But now, more people are listening — seemingly the entire American public, in fact. The numbers tracking her subsequent rise are staggering; beyond becoming the only artist to have three albums sell more than one million copies in a week, each of her studio albums has sold at least 4 million units, amounts only megastars can reach in a time of slowing album sales. She’d become the youngest artist to win an Album of the Year Grammy, her trophy for Fearless among the 10 Grammys on her shelf. She’s the only female artist to win that award twice.
And by using social media the same way as her young listeners
Oh, this is totally what we came for.
At Taylor Swift’s only concert of the year, she surprised the audience at Circuit of the Americas race track Saturday by singing ex- boyfriend Calvin Harris’ This Is What You Came For, which features Rihanna.
Swift, seated at a bedazzled piano, played the song that she co- wrote under a pseudonym for a crowd of 80,000.
“I’ve never played this song live before,” Swift said, stroking the keys. “But if you know it, maybe you could sing along, and then I could get to know what that feels like to hear it sung back to me.”
The singer is credited under the name Nils Sjöberg, but Harris tweeted ( in a series of raw tweets) that Swift wanted her contribution to the single kept under wraps.
The DJ went so far as to tell Ryan Seacrest in an interview that he couldn’t see a collaboration with Swift happening. So when Swift’s representative confirmed her involvement with the hit, Harris unleashed his fury in a tweetstorm for the ages.
But going back to her show, here are other moments any Swifties would be excited to know:
1. TAY- TAY HAD TO TAKE A TISSUE BREAK BECAUSE OF HER COLD
Just like Beyoncé lets out a sneeze every now and then, Swift gets sick. She revealed during her performance that she caught a cold three days ago and even had to take “a tissue break.”
“I promise it’ll sound, like, 40% better if I do this,” she told the crowd.
2. SHE NOTED HER 10- YEAR ANNIVERSARY AND ‘ OPENING UP MY JOURNAL’
Swift released her self- titled CD on Oct. 24, 2006, and reflected on her decade in the music business.
“It’s been about 10 years since my first album came out when I was 16,” she began. “And since then, I felt like I’ve been opening up my journal and letting you read it. And it’s so amazing to know that 10 years later, you still feel like reading it, and you still feel like coming out and being here tonight.”
Later, she added, “In the last 10 years, my life has changed so much, but even with all of those changes, even with everything that has happened and just how you move to different places, you experience different things, you travel places you never thought you’d get to, whatever.
“If I were to pick one year of my life where I learned the most ... I would still say that it was when I was 15.”
And then, of course, she played Fifteen.
3. IN HONOR OF HER SWIFTIVERSARY, SHE PLAYED SOME OLDER HITS
While she didn’t play or mention any new music, Swift did include familiar favorites in her lineup such as You Belong With Me, Love Story, Sparks Fly and Enchanted.