THE PLAYLIST
To celebrate the release of Taylor Swift’s longanticipated sixth album,
Reputation, USA TODAY collected 10 songs that track her progression as an artist, writer and pop star over the years.
Tim McGraw Taylor Swift
From her debut single, an in-your-face-taunt of an ex-boyfriend that invokes a certain country star, Swift proved herself an artist far beyond her years.
Our Song Taylor Swift
Our Song was precocious Taylor in prime country mode, a track that made her hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country charts.
Love Story Fearless
With Love Story, Swift placed herself at the center of a Romeo and Julietstyle narrative, one of the many songs with a literary bent that casts the singer as its tragic heroine.
You Belong With Me Fearless
This could be the defining track of Swift’s teenage Fearless years, an underdog anthem that captured the longing and heartbreak of her early era.
Mean Speak Now
Before Swift started to shake her country roots on her ensuing albums, she delivered a picture-perfect kiss-off in the form of Mean.
I Knew You Were Trouble Red
The song that betrayed Swift’s electronic music leanings is, to this day, one of her very best, an ode to the bad-boy type that the singer still can’t seem to shake.
Shake It Off 1989
Swift’s lead 1989 single was the perfect, devil-may-care introduction to her pop era.
Blank Space 1989
Swift was always a master storyteller, and Blank Space deliciously lays out the narrative of one of her many doomed romances.
Bad Blood 1989
Like it or not, this Kendrick Lamar-featuring track alluding to Swift’s Katy Perry drama defined the feuding squad drama of her 1989 era.
Look What You Made Me Do Reputation
Reputation’s first single was not what fans were expecting, a rap-sung track that signaled a drastic shift in her sound with the arrival of her sixth album.