Red

The creation of Taylor Swift’s transformational album Red began at a tour rehearsal in 2010. Recovering from a tough recent breakup, Swift began ad-libbing heartsick lyrics over a four-chord riff as her touring band spontaneously joined in behind her. “I think they could tell I was really going through it,” Swift said. The rehearsal jam would end up serving as a rough 10-minute version “All To Well,” Red’s emotional centerpiece.

After writing all of her third album, Speak Now, alone as a way to show critics that she didn’t need to use co-writers, Swift was ready for a new creative challenge. “With Red, I had a different thing I wanted to prove: a thirst for learning.”

She began working on the record with frequent co-writers Nathan Chapman and Liz Rose, who helped her shape left-field country originals like “Red,” “State of Grace,” and “All Too Well.” When sessions moved to L.A., she started writing with Swedish pop mastermind Max Martin; Swift wanted to add a dubstep drop to a ballad she had written called “Trouble,” but it wasn’t until Martin co-producer Shellback suggested adding a frantic drum beat that the song morphed into “I Knew You Were Trouble.” On “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” Martin and Shellback proposed drawing out the first word of the chorus (“we- eeeeeee”), “like little kids on a playground.”

Swift was teeming with song ideas, coming up with the beginnings of songs like “Treacherous” on the way to the studio. When it came time to actually record, she had written 30 songs.

After trimming those 30 tunes to 16, the end result was Swift’s most musically sprawling, uninhibited, unguarded work. “It was sort of a metaphor for how messy a real breakup is, and this is my only true breakup album,” said Swift.

“I love Jackson Pollock, and I see this album as my splatter-paint album, using all the colors and throwing it at the wall and seeing what sticks.”