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Speak Now (Taylor's Version) CD

Speak Now - World Tour Live

If you’ve never experienced Swift perform up close and in person, Speak Now-World Tour (Live)—recorded on various stages and arenas during her 2011 global tour—is as close as you can get. The impassioned “Sparks Fly” kicks off these 16 collected performances against the wild cheers of her devoted fans. Swift’s rendition of “Mine” is a standout track, serving as a reminder that there’s a lot of old-school country pop in the roots of her songwriting. (Check out the rabid crowd singing along to the chorus of this one.) Fans can always expect Swift to deliver awesome and unpredictable covers in her shows, and she delivers the goods here with a gorgeous acoustic reworking of Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes” and a take on Train’s “Drops of Jupiter” that upstages the original.

January 1, 2011 17 Songs, 1 hour, 19 minutes ℗ 2011 Apollo A-1 LLC

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Speak Now World Tour Live

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Photo: Jemal Countess/WireImage for Songwriter's Hall of Fame

For The Record: How Taylor Swift's 'Speak Now' Changed Her Career — And Proved She'll Always Get The Last Word

The third Taylor Swift album to receive the 'Taylor's Version' treatment, 'Speak Now' isn't just a time capsule for the superstar — it was the turning point for her both personally and professionally.

As Taylor Swift began work on her third album, she knew all eyes were on her. The singer had solidified her status as a bonafide country-pop superstar thanks to her sophomore LP, 2008's Fearless , which earned Swift her first four GRAMMYs, including Album Of The Year. Meanwhile, her personal life had become non-stop fodder for the tabloids; critics painted her as a boy-crazy maneater ready to chew up exes for the sake of hits.

While her first two records had largely centered on romantic daydreams and small-town adolescence, Swift's new level of fame meant her next set of music would involve more high-profile subjects. Like, say, the rapper who'd tried to humiliate her in front of the entire world at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Or the Hollywood starlet she was convinced had stolen her pop star boyfriend. Or the critic who had taken a particularly vicious swipe at her on his well-known industry blog. All of those moments pinwheeled around a common theme: speaking up, speaking out, speaking her truth. And the result became Speak Now .

"These songs are made up of words I didn't say when the moment was right in front of me," Swift wrote in the LP's liner notes. "These songs are open letters. Each is written with a specific person in mind, telling them what I meant to tell them in person."

Swift's Speak Now era officially began in August 2010, when she released "Mine" as the album's lead single. The rollout was expedited by two weeks after the song leaked on the internet, but even with an earlier-than-planned release, the star immediately proved she was pushing her songcraft past the high school hallways and teenage fairytales of her first two albums — a level of maturity that rang through Speak Now .

"Mine" told an altogether different kind of love story, one that confronted the daunting realities of adulthood head-on. Instead of the hopeless romantic fans had come to know on past hits like "Love Story" and "You Belong With Me," Swift positioned herself as the jaded protagonist at the tale's center, one whose walls are only broken down by this new, grown-up kind of love.

Becoming her fourth top five hit on the Billboard Hot 100, "Mine" also contained a particularly flawless turn of phrase in its chorus — "you made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter" — that remains, to this day, one of the best examples of Swift's razor-sharp talent for crafting the perfect lyric.

The rest of Speak Now — which Swift wrote entirely alone as a mic drop against critics — proved to have the same kind of brilliance. Swift had unleashed a new layer of her songwriting ability; not only did she dive deeper into the unveiled honesty of her diaristic style, but she also hinted at the whimsical storytelling that was to come on future albums, particularly 2020's folklore and evermore . But above all, Speak Now showed that Swift would never leave anything unspoken again.

Swift's evolution as a songwriter mirrored her growing success: Upon its October 2010 release, Speak Now sold an eye-popping 1,047,000 copies in its first week. The seven-digit sales figure nearly doubled Fearless ' opening week tally of 592,300, and became the first album to achieve the million-copy first-week feat in more than two years. (The achievement also foreshadowed the records Swift would break with her subsequent releases, most recently her majorly record-breaking 10th album, Midnights .)

Nearly every track on Speak Now had fans and the press hunting for clues about who was on the receiving end of Swift's open letters. There's "Back to December," a break-up ballad written for Taylor Lautner, and "Better Than Revenge," a condescending clapback at Camilla Belle for "sabotaging" her romance with Joe Jonas . She even offered Kanye West a surprising amount of grace after their viral VMAs moment on the downtempo ballad "Innocent."

Arguably the most talked-about Speak Now subject was (and still is) John Mayer , who had two songs aimed squarely at him: pop-punk-fueled single "The Story of Us" and "Dear John," a devastating dressing down of their 12-year age gap. The latter even mimicked Mayer's trademark blues guitar as Swift wailed, "Dear John, I see it all now, it was wrong/ Don't you think 19's too young/ To be played by your dark, twisted games when I loved you so?/ I should've known."

Perhaps the most victorious moment from Taylor's Speak Now era, though, came from "Mean." The banjo-tinged tune served as a deliciously twangy clapback to critic Bob Lefsetz, who had publicly derided Swift's 2010 GRAMMYs performance with Stevie Nicks , just hours before she was awarded Album Of The Year for the first time.

Not only did "Mean" end up winning Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance at the 2012 GRAMMYs, but Swift also got the last word by performing the single during the ceremony. In the final chorus, Swift landed her knock-out punch — the music dropped out completely as she triumphantly declared, "But someday I'll be singin' this at the GRAMMYs/ And all you're ever gonna be is mean."

Nearly 13 years after Speak Now was first unveiled, Swift is now on the precipice of giving her beloved third album its highly anticipated Taylor's Version re-release — appropriately the third project after Fearless and Red to be re-recorded in her history-making quest to own her life's work.

The new edition of Speak Now will contain all 14 tracks on the original LP as well as sixth single "Ours" and fellow deluxe cut "Superman." (Though released in March to celebrate the start of The Eras Tour , "If This Was a Movie" was mysteriously left off the (Taylor's Version) tracklist.) It will also feature six vault tracks from the era, including collaborations with Paramore 's Hayley Williams ("Castles Crumbling") and Fall Out Boy ("Electric Touch"), two acts Swift said "influenced me most powerfully as a lyricist" back when she was recording the album in 2010. 

As the lone LP in her now 10-album discography to be written solely by Swift's pen, Speak Now undoubtedly holds a special and solitary place in the superstar's heart. Looking back on the album after announcing the Taylor's Version release at her first Nashville Eras Tour stop , she made clear it has only become more meaningful over the last 13 years. 

"I first made Speak Now , completely self-written, between the ages of 18 and 20," she wrote in a social media post announcing the album . "The songs that came from this time in my life were marked by their brutal honesty, unfiltered diaristic confessions and wild wistfulness. I love this album because it tells a tale of growing up, flailing, flying and crashing…and living to speak about it."

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Behind Ryan Tedder's Hits: Stories From The Studio With OneRepublic, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift & More

As OneRepublic releases their latest album, the group's frontman and pop maverick gives an inside look into some of the biggest songs he's written — from how Beyoncé operates to Tom Cruise's prediction for their 'Top Gun' smash.

Three months after OneRepublic began promoting their sixth album, Artificial Paradise , in February 2022, the band unexpectedly had their biggest release in nearly a decade. The pop-rock band's carefree jam, "I Ain't Worried," soundtracked Top Gun: Maverick 's most memeable scene and quickly became a global smash — ultimately delaying album plans in favor of promoting their latest hit.

Two years later, "I Ain't Worried" is one of 16 tracks on Artificial Paradise , which arrived July 12. It's a seamless blend of songs that will resonate with longtime and newer fans alike. From the layered production of "Hurt," to the feel-good vibes of "Serotonin," to the evocative lyrics of "Last Holiday," Artificial Paradise shows that OneRepublic's sound is as dialed-in as it is ever-evolving.

The album also marks the end of an era for OneRepublic, as it's the last in their contract with Interscope Records. But for the group's singer, Ryan Tedder , that means the future is even more exciting than it's been in their entire 15-year career.

"I've never been more motivated to write the best material of my life than this very moment," he asserts. "I'm taking it as a challenge. We've had a lot of fun, and a lot of uplifting records for the last seven or eight years, but I also want to tap back into some deeper material with the band."

As he's been prepping Artificial Paradise with his OneRepublic cohorts, Tedder has also been as busy as he's ever been working with other artists. His career as a songwriter/producer took off almost simultaneously with OneRepublic's 2007 breakthrough, "Apologize" (his first major behind-the-board hit was Leona Lewis ' "Bleeding Love"); to this day he's one of the go-to guys for pop's biggest names, from BLACKPINK to Tate McRae .

Tedder sat down with GRAMMY.com to share some of his most prominent memories of OneRepublic's biggest songs, as well as some of the hits he's written with Beyoncé , Adele , Taylor Swift and more.

OneRepublic — "Apologize," 'Dreaming Out Loud' (2007)

I was producing and writing other songs for different artists on Epic and Atlantic — I was just cutting my teeth as a songwriter in L.A. This is like 2004. I was at my lowest mentally and financially. I was completely broke. Creditors chasing me, literally dodging the taxman and getting my car repoed, everything.

I had that song in my back pocket for four years. A buddy of mine just reminded me last month, a songwriter from Nashville — Ashley Gorley , actually. We had a session last month, me, him and Amy Allen , and he brought it up. He was like, "Is it true, the story about 'Apologize'? You were completely broke living in L.A. and Epic Records offered you like 100 grand or something just for the right to record the song on one of their artists?"

And that is true. It was, like, 20 [grand], then 50, then 100. And I was salivating. I was, like, I need this money so bad . And I give so many songs to other people, but with that song, I drew a line in the sand and said, "No one will sing this song but me. I will die with this song." 

It was my story, and I just didn't want anyone else to sing it. It was really that simple. It was a song about my past relationships, it was deeply personal. And it was also the song that — I spent two years trying to figure out what my sound was gonna be. I was a solo artist… and I wasn't landing on anything compelling. Then I landed on "Apologize" and a couple of other songs, and I was like, These songs make me think of a band, not solo artist material. So it was the song that led me to the sound of OneRepublic, and it also led me to the idea that I should start a band and not be a solo artist.

We do it every night. I'll never not do it. I've never gotten sick of it once. Every night that we do it, whether I'm in Houston or Hong Kong, I look out at the crowd and look at the band, and I'm like, Wow. This is the song that got us here.

Beyoncé — "Halo," 'I Am…Sacha Fierce' (2008)

We were halfway through promoting Dreaming Out Loud , our first album. I played basketball every day on tour, and I snapped my Achilles. The tour got canceled. The doctor told me not to even write. And I had this one sliver of an afternoon where my wife had to run an errand. And because I'm sadistic and crazy, I texted [songwriter] Evan Bogart, "I got a three-hour window, race over here. Beyoncé called me and asked me to write her a song. I want to do it with you." He had just come off his huge Rihanna No. 1, and we had an Ashley Tisdale single together.

When you write enough songs, not every day do the clouds part and God looks down on you and goes, "Here." But that's what happened on that day. I turn on the keyboard, the first sound that I play is the opening sound of the song. Sounds like angels singing. And we wrote the song pretty quick, as I recall. 

I didn't get a response [from Beyoncé after sending "Halo" over], which I've now learned is very, very typical of her. I did Miley Cyrus and Beyoncé "II MOST WANTED" [from COWBOY CARTER ] — I didn't know that was coming out 'til five days before it came out. And when I did "XO" [from 2013's Beyoncé ], I found out that "XO" was coming out 12 hours before it came out. That's how she operates.

OneRepublic — "Good Life," 'Waking Up' (2009)

["Good Life"] was kind of a Hail Mary. We already knew that "All the Right Moves" would be the first single [from Waking Up ]. We knew that "Secrets" was the second single. And in the 11th hour, our engineer at the time — who I ended up signing as a songwriter, Noel Zancanella — had this drum loop that he had made, and he played it for Brent [Kutzle] in our band. Brent said, "You gotta hear this drum loop that Noel made. It's incredible."

He played it for me the next morning, and I was like, "Yo throw some chords to this. I'm writing to this today." They threw some chords down, and the first thing out of my mouth was, [ sings ] "Oh, this has gotta be the good life." 

It's the perfect example of, oftentimes, the chord I've tried to strike with this band with some of our bigger records, [which] is happy sad. Where you feel nostalgic and kind of melancholic, but at the same time, euphoric. That's what those chords and that melody did for me.

I was like, "Hey guys, would it be weird if I made the hook a whistle?" And everyone was like, "No! Do not whistle!" They're like, "Name the last hit song that had a whistle." And the only one I could think of was, like, Scorpion from like, 1988. [ Laughs .] So I thought, To hell with it, man, it's been long enough, who cares? Let's try it. And the whistle kind of made the record. It became such a signature thing.

Adele — "Rumour Has It," '21' (2011)

"Rumour Has It" was the first song I did in probably a four year period, with any artist, that wasn't a ballad. All any artist ever wanted me to write with them or for them, was ballads, because of "Halo," and "Apologize" and "Bleeding Love."

I begged [Adele] to do a [song with] tempo, because we did "Turning Tables," another ballad. She was in a feisty mood [that day], so I was like, "Okay, we're doing a tempo today!"

Rick Rubin was originally producing the whole album. I was determined to produce Adele, not just write — because I wanted a shot to show her that I could, and to show myself. I stayed later after she left, and I remember thinking, What can I do in this record in this song that could be so difficult to reproduce that it might land me the gig?

So I intentionally muted the click track, changed the tempo, and [created that] whole piano bridge. I was making it up as I went. When she got in that morning. I said, "I have a crazy idea for a bridge. It's a movie." She listens and she says, "This is really different, I like this! How do we write to this?" 

I mean, it was very difficult. [But] we finished the song. She recorded the entire song that day. She recorded the whole song in one take. I've never seen anyone do that in my life — before or since.

Then I didn't hear from her for six months. Because I handed over the files, and Rick Rubin's doing it, so I don't need to check on it. I randomly check on the status of the song — and at this point, if you're a songwriter or producer, you're assuming that they're not keeping the songs. Her manager emails my manager, "Hey, good news — she's keeping both songs they did, and she wants Ryan to finish 'Rumour Has It' production and mix it." 

When I finally asked her, months later — probably at the GRAMMYs — I said, "Why didn't [Rick] do it?" She said, "Oh he did. It's that damn bridge! Nobody could figure out what the hell you were doing…It was so problematic that we just gave up on it."

OneRepublic — "Counting Stars," 'Native' (2013)

I was in a Beyoncé camp in the Hamptons writing for the self-titled album. [There were] a bunch of people in the house — me, Greg Kurstin , Sia — it was a fun group of people. I had four days there, and every morning I'd get up an hour and a half before I had to leave, make a coffee, and start prepping for the day. On the third day, I got up, I'm in the basement of this house at like 7 in the morning, and I'm coming up with ideas. I stumble across that chord progression, the guitar and the melody. It was instant shivers up my spine.  

"Lately I've been losing sleep, dreaming about the things that we could be" is the only line that I had. [My] first thought was, I should play this for Beyoncé , and then I'm listening to it and going, This is not Beyoncé, not even remotely. It'd be a waste. So I tabled it, and I texted the guys in my band, "Hey, I think I have a potentially really big record. I'm going to finish it when I get back to Denver."

I got back the next week, started recording it, did four or five versions of the chorus, bouncing all the versions off my wife, and then eventually landed it. And when I played it for the band, they were like, "This is our favorite song."

Taylor Swift — "Welcome to New York," '1989' (2014)

It was my second session with Taylor. The first one was [ 1989 's] "I Know Places," and she sent me a voice memo. I was looking for a house in Venice [California], because we were spending so much time in L.A. So that whole memory is attached to me migrating back to Los Angeles.  

But I knew what she was talking about, because I lived in New York, and I remember the feeling — endless possibilities, all the different people and races and sexes and loves. That was her New York chapter. She was so excited to be there. If you never lived there, and especially if you get there and you've got a little money in the pocket, it is so exhilarating.

It was me just kind of witnessing her brilliant, fast-paced, lyrical wizardry. [Co-producer] Max [Martin] and I had a conversation nine months later at the GRAMMYs, when we had literally just won for 1989 . He kind of laughed, he pointed to all the other producers on the album, and he's like, "If she had, like, three more hours in the day, she would just figure out what we do and she would do it. And she wouldn't need any of us." 

And I still think that's true. Some people are just forces of nature in and among themselves, and she's one of them. She just blew me away. She's the most talented top liner I've ever been in a room with, bar none. If you're talking lyric and melody, I've never been in a room with anyone faster, more adept, knows more what they want to say, focused, efficient, and just talented.

Jonas Brothers — "Sucker," 'Happiness Begins' (2019)

I had gone through a pretty dry spell mentally, emotionally. I had just burned it at both ends and tapped out, call it end of 2016. So, really, all of 2017 for me was a blur and a wash. I did a bunch of sessions in the first three months of the year, and then I just couldn't get a song out. I kept having, song after song, artists telling me it's the first single, [then] the song was not even on the album. I had never experienced that in my career.

I went six to nine months without finishing a song, which for me is unheard of. Andrew Watt kind of roped me back into working with him. We did "Easier" for 5 Seconds of Summer , and we did some Sam Smith and some Miley Cyrus, and right in that same window, I did this song "Sucker." Two [or] three months later, Wendy Goldstein from Republic [Records] heard the record, I had sent it to her. She'd said, very quietly, "We're relaunching the Jonas Brothers . They want you to be involved in a major way. Do you have anything?" 

She calls me, she goes, "Ryan, do not play this for anybody else. This is their comeback single. It's a No. 1 record. Watch what we're gonna do." And she delivered.

OneRepublic — "I Ain't Worried," 'Top Gun: Maverick' Soundtrack (2022)

My memory is, being in lockdown in COVID, and just being like, Who knows when this is going to end , working out of my Airstream at my house. I had done a lot of songs for movies over the years, and [for] that particular [song] Randy Spendlove, who runs [music at] Paramount, called me.

I end up Zooming with Tom Cruise [and Top Gun: Maverick director] Jerry Bruckheimer — everybody's in lockdown during post-production. The overarching memory was, Holy cow, I'm doing the scene, I'm doing the song for Top Gun . I can't believe this is happening. But the only way I knew how to approach it, rather than to, like, overreact and s— the bed, was, It's just another day.

I do prescription songs for movies, TV, film all the time. I love a brief. It's so antithetical to most writers. I'm either uncontrollably lazy or the most productive person you've ever met. And the dividing line between the two is, if I'm chasing some directive, some motivation, some endpoint, then I can be wildly productive.

I just thought, I'm going to do the absolute best thing I can do for this scene and serve the film. OneRepublic being the performing artist was not on the menu in my mind. I just told them, "I think you need a cool indie band sounding, like, breakbeat." I used adjectives to describe what I heard when I saw the scene, and Tom got really ramped and excited. 

You could argue [it's the biggest song] since the band started. The thing about it is, it's kind of become one of those every summer [hits]. And when it blew up, that's what Tom said. He said, "Mark my words, dude. You're gonna have a hit with this every summer for, like, the next 20 years or more." 

And that's what happened. The moment Memorial Day happened, "I Ain't Worried" got defrosted and marched itself back into the top 100.

Tate McRae — "Greedy," 'THINK LATER' (2023)

We had "10:35" [with Tiësto ] the previous year that had been, like, a No. 1 in the UK and across Europe and Australia. So we were coming off the back of that, and the one thing she was clear about was, "That is not the direction of what I want to do."

If my memory serves me correct, "greedy" was the next to last session we had. Everything we had done up to that point was kind of dark, midtempo, emotional. So "greedy" was the weirdo outlier. I kept pushing her to do a dance record. I was like, "Tate, there's a lot of people that have great voices, and there's a lot of people who can write, but none of those people are professional dancers like you are. Your secret weapon is the thing you're not using. In this game and this career, you've got to use every asset that you have and exploit it."

There was a lot of cajoling. On that day, we did it, and I thought it was badass, and loved it. And she was like, "Ugh, what do we just do? What is this?"

So then it was just, like, months, months and months of me constantly bringing that song back up, and playing it for her, and annoying the s— out of her. And she came around on it. 

She has very specific taste. So much of the music with Tate, it really is her steering. I'll do what I think is like a finished version of a song, and then she will push everyone for weeks, if not months, to extract every ounce of everything out of them, to push the song harder, further, edgier — 19 versions of a song, until finally she goes, "Okay, this is the one." She's a perfectionist.

OneRepublic — "Last Holiday," 'Artificial Paradise' (2024)

I love [our latest single] "Hurt," but my favorite song on the album is called "Last Holiday." I probably started the beginning of that lyric, I'm not joking, seven, eight years ago. But I didn't finish it 'til this past year.

The verses are little maxims and words of advice that I've been given throughout the years. It's almost cynical in a way, the song. When I wrote the chorus, I was definitely in kind of a down place. So the opening line is, "So I don't believe in the stars anymore/ They never gave me what I wished for." And it's, obviously, a very not-so-slight reference to "Counting Stars." But it's also hopeful — "We've got some problems, okay, but this isn't our last holiday." 

It's very simple sentiments. Press pause. Take some moments. Find God before it all ends. All these things with this big, soaring chorus. Musically and emotionally and sonically, that song — and "Hurt," for sure — but "Last Holiday" is extremely us-sounding. 

The biggest enemy that we've had over the course of 18 years, I'll be the first to volunteer, is, this ever-evolving, undulating sound. No one's gonna accuse me of making these super complex concept albums, because that's just not how my brain's wired. I grew up listening to the radio. I didn't grow up hanging out in the Bowery in CBGBs listening to Nick Cave . So for us, the downside to that, and for me doing all these songs for all these other people, is the constant push and pull of "What is their sound? What genre is it?" 

I couldn't put a pin in exactly what the sound is, but what I would say is, if you look at the last 18 years, a song like "Last Holiday" really encompasses, sonically, what this band is about. It's very moving, and emotional, and dynamic. It takes me to a place — that's the best way for me to put it. And hopefully the listener finds the same.

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"Let Yourself Be Idiosyncratic": Moby Talks New Album 'Always Centered At Night' & 25 Years Of 'Play'

"We're not writing for a pop audience, we don't need to dumb it down," Moby says of creating his new record. In an interview, the multiple-GRAMMY nominee reflects on his latest album and how it contrasts with his legendary release from 1999.

Moby ’s past and present are converging in a serendipitous way. The multiple-GRAMMY nominee is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his seminal work, Play , the best-selling electronic dance music album of all time, and the release of his latest album, always centered at night .  

Where Play was a solitary creation experience for Moby, always centered at night is wholly collaborative. Recognizable names on the album are Lady Blackbird on the blues-drenched "dark days" and serpentwithfeet on the emotive "on air." But always centered at night ’s features are mainly lesser-known artists, such as the late Benjamin Zephaniah on the liquid jungle sounds of "where is your pride?" and Choklate on the slow grooves of "sweet moon."  

Moby’s music proves to have staying power: His early ‘90s dance hits "Go" and "Next is the E" still rip up dancefloors ; the songs on Play are met with instant emotional reactions from millennials who heard them growing up. Moby is even experiencing a resurgence of sorts with Gen Z. In 2023, Australian drum ‘n’ bass DJ/producer Luude and UK vocalist Issey Cross reimagined Moby’s classic "Porcelain" into "Oh My." Earlier this year, Moby released "You and Me" with Italian DJ/producer Anfisa Letyago .  

Music is just one of Moby’s many creative ventures. He wrote and directed Punk Rock Vegan Movie as well as writing and starring in his homemade documentary, Moby Doc . The two films are produced by his production company, Little Walnut , which also makes music videos, shorts and the podcast "Moby Pod ." Moby and co-host Lindsay Hicks have an eclectic array of guests, from actor Joe Manganiello to Ed Begley, Jr., Steve-O and Hunter Biden. The podcast interviews have led to "some of the most meaningful interpersonal experiences," Moby tells GRAMMY.com.  

A upcoming episode of "Moby Pod" dedicated to Play was taped live over two evenings at Los Angeles’ Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The episode focuses on Moby recounting his singular experiences around the unexpected success of that album — particularly considering the abject failure of his previous album, Animal Rights . The narrative was broken up by acoustic performances of songs from Play , as well as material from Always Centered at Night (which arrives June 14) with special guest Lady Blackbird. Prior to the taping, Moby spoke to GRAMMY.com about both albums.  

'Always centered at night' started as a label imprint then became the title of your latest album. How did that happen?  

I realized pretty quickly that I just wanted to make music and not necessarily worry about being a label boss. Why make more busy work for myself ?

The first few songs were this pandemic process of going to SoundCloud, Spotify, YouTube and asking people for recommendations to find voices that I wasn’t familiar with, and then figuring out how to get in touch with them. The vast majority of the time, they would take the music I sent them and write something phenomenal.

That's the most interesting part of working with singers you've never met: You don't know what you're going to get. My only guidance was: Let yourself be creative, let yourself be idiosyncratic, let the lyrics be poetic. We're not writing for a pop audience, we don't need to dumb it down. Although, apparently Lady Blackbird is one of Taylor Swift 's favorite singers .   

Guiding the collaborators away from pop music is an unusual directive, although perhaps not for you?  

What is both sad and interesting is pop has come to dominate the musical landscape to such an extent that it seems a lot of musicians don't know they're allowed to do anything else. Some younger people have grown up with nothing but pop music. Danaé Wellington, who sings "Wild Flame," her first pass of lyrics were pop. I went back to her and said, "Please be yourself, be poetic." And she said, "Well, that’s interesting because I’m the poet laureate of Manchester." So getting her to disregard pop lyrics and write something much more personal and idiosyncratic was actually easy and really special .  

You certainly weren’t going in the pop direction when making 'Play,' but it ended up being an extremely popular album. Did you have a feeling it was going to blow up the way it did?

I have a funny story. I had a date in January 1999 in New York. We went out drinking and I had just gotten back the mastered version of   Play . We're back at my apartment, and before our date became "grown up," we listened to the record from start to finish.   She actually liked it.   And I thought,   Huh, that's interesting. I didn't think anyone was going to like this record .  

You didn’t feel anything different during the making of 'Play?'

I knew to the core of my being that   Play   was going to be a complete, abject failure. There was no doubt in my mind whatsoever. It was going to be my last record and it was going to fail. That was the time of people going into studios and spending half a million dollars. It was   Backstreet Boys   and   Limp Bizkit   and   NSYNC ; big major label records that were flawlessly produced.   Play   was made literally in my bedroom. 

I slept under the stairs like Harry Potter in my loft on Mott Street. I had one bedroom and that's where I made the record on the cheapest of cheap equipment held up literally on milk crates. Two of the songs were recorded to cassette, that's how cheap the record was. It was this weird record made by a has-been, a footnote from the early rave days. There was no world where I thought it was going to be even slightly successful. Daniel Miller from Mute said — and I remember this very clearly — "I think this record might sell over 50,000 copies." And I said, "That’s kind of you to say but let's admit that this is going to be a failure. Thank you for releasing my last record."   

Was your approach in making  'Play'  different from other albums?  

The record I had made before   Play ,   Animal Rights , was this weird, noisy metal punk industrial record that almost everybody hated. I remember this moment so vividly: I was playing Glastonbury in 1998 and it was one of those miserable Glastonbury years.   When it's good, it's paradise; it's really special.   But the first time I played, it was disgusting, truly. A foot and a half of mud everywhere, incessant rain and cold. I was telling my manager that I wanted to make another punk rock metal record. And he said the   most gentle   thing, "I know you enjoy making punk rock and metal. People really   enjoy   when you make electronic music." 

The way he said it, he wasn't saying, "You would help your career by making electronic music." He simply said, "People enjoy it." If I had been my manager, I would have said, "You're a f— ing   idiot. Everyone hated that record. What sort of mental illness and masochism is compelling you to do it again?" Like Freud said, the definition of mental illness is doing the same thing and expecting different results.   But his response was very emotional and gentle and sweet, and that got through to me.   I had this moment where I realized,   I can make music that potentially people will   enjoy   that will make them happy.   Why not pursue that?  

That was what made me not spend my time in ‘98 making an album inspired by Sepultura and   Pantera   and   instead make something more melodic and electronic.  

After years of swearing off touring, what’s making you hit stages this summer?  

I love playing live music. If you asked me to come over and play Neil Young songs in your backyard, I would say yes happily, in a second. But going on tour, the hotels and airports and everything, I really dislike it.   

My manager tricked me. He found strategically the only way to get me to go on tour was to give the money to animal rights charities. My philanthropic Achilles heel. The only thing that would get me to go on tour. It's a brief tour of Europe, pretty big venues, which is interesting for an old guy, but when the tour ends, I will have less money than when the tour begins.  

Your DJ sets are great fun. Would you consider doing DJ dates locally?  

Every now and then I’ll do something. But there’s two problems. As I've become very old and very sober, I go to sleep at 9 p.m. This young guy I was helping who was newly sober, he's a DJ. He was doing a DJ set in L.A. and he said, "You should come down. There's this cool underground scene." I said, "Great! What time are you playing?" And he said "I’m going on at 1 a.m." By that point I've been asleep for almost five hours.

I got invited to a dinner party recently that started at 8 p.m. and I was like, "What are you on? Cocaine in Ibiza? You're having dinner at 8 p.m .  What craziness is that? That’s when you're putting on your soft clothes and watching a '30 Rock' rerun before bed. That's not going out time." And the other thing is, unfortunately, like a lot of middle aged or elderly musicians, I have a little bit of tinnitus so I have to be very cautious around loud music.

Are you going to write a third memoir at any point?  

Only when I figure out something to write. It's definitely not going to be anecdotes about sobriety because my anecdotes are: woke up at 5 a.m., had a smoothie, read The New York Times , lamented the fact that people are voting for Trump, went for a hike, worked on music, played with Bagel the dog, worked on music some more went to sleep, good night. It would be so repetitive and boring. 

It has to be something about lived experience and wisdom. But I don't know if I've necessarily gotten to the point where I have good enough lived experience and wisdom to share with anyone. Maybe if I get to that point, I'll probably be wrong, but nonetheless, that would warrant maybe writing another book.

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The Environmental Impact Of Touring: How Scientists, Musicians & Nonprofits Are Trying To Shrink Concerts' Carbon Footprint

"It’s not just [about] a single tour, it’s every tour," singer Brittany Howard says of efforts to make concerts more sustainable. From the nonprofit that partnered with Billie Eilish, to an MIT initiative, the music industry aims to curb climate change.

Beloved by fans around the globe, yet   increasingly unaffordable   for many artists, concert tours are central to the world of entertainment and   local economies . After the pandemic-era   global shuttering of concert venues   large and small, tours are back, and bigger than ever.   

Taylor Swift ’s Eras Tour is   smashing records , selling more than four million tickets and earning more than $1 billion. But that tour made headlines for another reason: as reported in   Business Insider   and other outlets, for a six-month period in 2023, Swift’s two jets spent a combined 166 hours in the air between concerts, shuttling at most a total of 28 passengers.  

Against that backdrop, heightened concerns about the global environmental cost of concert touring have led a number of prominent artists to launch initiatives.   Those efforts seek both to mitigate the negative effects of touring and communicate messages about sustainability to concertgoers.  

A   2023 study   sponsored by Texas-based electricity provider Payless Power found that the carbon footprint of many touring bands was massive. In 2022, concert tours in five genres — country, classic rock, hip-hop/rap, metal and pop — were responsible for CO 2   emissions totaling nearly 45,000 metric tons. A so-called greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide contributes to climate change by radiative forcing; increased levels of CO 2   also contribute to health problems.   

No serious discussion of climate issues suggests a worldwide halt to live music touring, but there exists much room for improvement. Both on their own and with the help of dedicated nonprofit organizations, many artists are taking positive steps toward mitigating the deleterious effects that touring exerts upon the environment.   

Smart tour planning is one way to lessen an artist’s carbon footprint.   Ed Sheeran ’s 2022 European run minimized flights between concert venues, making that leg of his tour the year's most environmentally efficient. Total carbon dioxide emissions (from flights and driving) on Sheeran’s tour came to less than 150 metric tons. In contrast,   Dua Lipa ’s tour during the same period generated 12 times as much — more than 1800 metric tons — of CO 2 .   

In July, singer/songwriter and four-time GRAMMY nominee Jewel will embark on her first major tour in several years, alongside GRAMMY winner Melissa Etheridge . During the planning stage for the 28-city tour, Jewel suggested an idea that could reduce the tour’s carbon footprint.

"I always thought it was so silly and so wasteful — and so carbon footprint-negative — to have separate trucks, separate lighting, separate crews, separate hotel rooms, separate costs," Jewel says. She pitched the idea of sharing a backing band with Etheridge. "I’ve been trying to do this for 25 years," Jewel says with a laugh. "Melissa is the first person who took me up on it! "  

The changes will not only reduce the tour’s carbon footprint, but they’ll also lessen the cost of taking the shows on the road. Acknowledging that there are many opportunities to meet the challenges of touring’s negative impact upon the environment, Jewel emphasizes that “you have to find [solutions] that work for you.”

Sheeran and Jewel aren’t the only popular artists trying to make a difference. A number of   high profile   artists have become actively involved in creating the momentum for positive change. Those artists believe that their work on sustainability issues goes hand in hand with their role as public figures. Their efforts take two primary forms: making changes   themselves, and advocating for action among their fans.   

The Climate Machine  

Norhan   Bayomi   is an Egypt-born environmental scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a key member of the   Environmental Solutions Initiative , a program launched to address sustainable climate action. She’s also a recording artist in the trance genre, working under the name   Nourey .   

The ESI   collaborates with industry heavyweights   Live Nation, Warner Music Group and others as well with touring/recording acts like   Coldplay   to examine the carbon footprint of the music industry. A key component of the ESI is the   Climate Machine , a collaborative research group that seeks to help the live music industry reduce carbon emissions. "As a research institution, we bring technologies and analytics to understand, in the best way possible, the actual impact of the music industry upon climate change," says John Fernández, Director of the ESI.   

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"I’m very interested in exploring ways that we can   bridge between   environmental science, climate change and music fans,"   Bayomi   says. She explains that the tools at the ESI’s disposal include "virtual reality, augmented reality and generative AI," media forms that can communicate messages to music fans and concertgoers. Fernández says that those endeavors are aimed at "enlisting, enabling and inspiring people to get engaged in climate change."  

The Environmental Solutions Initiative cites Coldplay as a high-profile success. The band and its management issued an   "Emissions Update" document   in June 2024, outlining   its   success at achieving their goal of reducing direct carbon emissions from show production, freight, band and crew travel.   The established target was a 50 percent cut in emissions compared to Coldplay’s previous tour; the final result was a 59 percent reduction between their 2022-23 tour and 2016-17 tour.   

A significant part of that reduction came as a result of a   renewable-energy   based battery system that powers audio and lights. The emissions data in the update was reviewed and independently validated by MIT’s Fernández.   

Change Is Reverberating  

Guitarist Adam Gardner is a founding member of Massachusetts-based indie rockers   Guster , but he's more than just a singer in a rock band. Gardner is also the co-founder of   REVERB , one of the organizations at the forefront of developing and implementing climate-focused sustainability initiatives.   

Founded in 2004 by Gardner and his wife, environmental activist Lauren Sullivan,   REVERB  began   with a goal of making touring more sustainable; over the years its focus has expanded to promote industry-wide changes. Today, the organization promotes sustainability throughout the   industry  in   partnership with music artists, concert venues and festivals.   

REVERB initiatives have included efforts to eliminate single-use plastics at the California Roots Music & Arts Festival, clean energy projects in cooperation with   Willie Nelson   and   Billie Eilish , and efforts with other major artists. Gardner has seen sustainability efforts grow over two decades  

"It’s really amazing to see the [change] with artists, with venues, with fans," Gardner says. "Today, people are not just giving lip service to sustainable efforts; they really want to do things that are real and measurable."   

The   Music Decarbonization Project   is one tangible example of REVERB’s successes. "Diesel power is one of the dirtiest sources of power," Gardner explains. "And it’s an industry standard to power festival stages with diesel generators." Working with   Willie Nelson , the organization helped switch the power sources at   his   annual Luck Reunion to clean energy. At last year’s festival, Nelson’s headlining stage drew 100 percent of its power from solar-powered batteries. "We set up a temporary solar farm," Gardner says, "and the main stage didn’t have to use any diesel power."   

Billie Eilish was another early supporter of the initiative. "She helped us launch the program," Gardner says. Eilish’s   set at Lollapallooza 2023   drew power from solar batteries, too.   

With such high-profile successes as a backdrop, Gardner believes that REVERB is poised to do even more to foster sustainable concerts and touring. "Our role now," he says, "isn’t just, ‘Hey, think about this stuff.’ It’s more how do we push farther, faster?"   

Adam Gardner believes that musicians are uniquely positioned to help make a difference where issues of sustainability are concerned. "When you’re a musician, you’re connecting with fans heart-to-heart. That’s what moves people. And that’s where the good stuff happens."   

Small-scale, individual changes can make a difference — especially when they’re coordinated and amplified among other concertgoers. Gardner provides real-world examples. "Instead of buying a plastic bottle, I brought my reusable and filled it up. Maybe I carpooled to the show." Conceding that such steps might seem like drops of water in a giant pool, he emphasizes the power of scale. "When you actually multiply [those things for] just one summer tour, it adds up," he says. "And it reminds people, ‘You’re not alone in this;   you’re   part of a community that’s taking action."   

Gardner understands that REVERB’s arguments have to be framed the right way to reach concertgoers.   "Look," he admits, "It’s a concert. We’re not here to be   a buzzkill . Our [aim] now is making sure people don’t lose hope." He says that REVERB and its partners seek to demonstrate that, with collective action and cultural change, there is reason for optimism.   

"There’s a wonderful feedback loop between hope and action," Gardner says with a smile. "You can’t really have one without the other."   

Sustainable Partnerships  

Tanner Watt is Director of Partnerships at REVERB; he works directly with touring artists to develop, coordinate and implement initiatives that bring together his organization’s objectives and the specific personal concerns of the artists. "I get to come up with all the fun, big ideas," he says with a wide smile.   

Watt acknowledges that like every concertgoer, each touring artist has a certain level of responsibility where sustainability is concerned.   "And everyone can be doing something," he says, noting a number of straightforward actions that artists can put in place while on tour.   "They can eliminate single-use waste. They can donate hotel toiletries that [would otherwise] hit the landfill."   

Watt stresses that artists can lead by example. "Nobody wants to listen to an artist telling them what to do if they’re not doing it themselves," he says. "But we believe that everybody cares about something." He suggests that if an artist has cultivated a following, "Why not use [that platform] to be that change you want to see in the world?"   

Each artist has his or her own specific areas of concern, but Watt says that there’s a base level of "greening" that takes place on every REVERB-affiliated tour. Where things go from there is up to the artist, in coordination with REVERB. Watt mentions Billie Eilish and her tour’s sustainability commitment. "The Venn diagram of food security, community health, access to healthy food, and the impact on the planet is a big cause for her," he says. " So   there’s plant-based catering for her entire crew, across the entire tour."  

Speaking to   Billboard , Eilish's mother Maggie Baird said championing sustainability starts with artists. "If artists are interested, it does really start with them telling their teams that they care and that it’s foremost in their thoughts." In the same conversation, Eilish called the battle for sustainability "a never-ending f–king fight."   

Watt acknowledges that with so many challenges, it’s important for a concerned artist to focus on the issues that move them the most, and where they can make the biggest difference. " Jack Johnson   is   a great example," he says. While Johnson is a vocal advocate for many environmental issues, on tour he focuses on two (in Watt’s words) "cause umbrellas": single-use plastics solutions and sustainable community food systems. Each show on the tour hosts tables representing local nonprofit organizations, presenting concertgoers with real-world, human-scale solutions to those specific challenges.   

Four-time GRAMMY winner   Brittany Howard   is another passionate REVERB partner. "Knowing that I wanted to make my tours more sustainable was a start," she tells GRAMMY.com, "but working with REVERB really helped me bring it to life on the road. REVERB has helped us with guidelines and a green rider to keep our stage, greenrooms and buses more sustainable."  

After listing several other specific ways that her tour supports sustainability, Howard notes, "By supporting these efforts, I am helping ensure future generations have access to clean water, fish, and all that I love about the outdoors." A dollar from every ticket sold to a Brittany Howard concert goes toward support of REVERB’s Music Decarbonization project. "I’m also excited to see industry-wide efforts that are reducing the carbon pollution of live music," Howard continues. "Because it’s not just [about] a single tour, it’s   every   tour."  

There’s a popular aphorism: "You can’t manage what you can’t measure."   From its start, REVERB has sought not only to promote change, but to measure its success.   "As long as I’ve been at REVERB, we’ve issued   impact reports ," says Tanner Watt. "We include data   points, and   give the report to the artists so they understand what we’ve done together." He admits that some successes are more tangible than others, but that it’s helpful to focus on the ones that can be quantified. "We’re very excited that our artists share those with their fans."   

Watt is clear-eyed at the challenges that remain. "Even the word ‘sustainable’ can be misleading," he concedes, suggesting that the only truly sustainable tour is the one that doesn’t happen. "But if folks don’t step it up and change the way we do business in every industry — not just ours — we’re going to get to a place where we’re forced to make sacrifices that   aren’t   painless." Getting that message across is REVERB’s aim. "We can’t stop the world," Watt says. " So   we find ways to approach these things positively."   

Watt says that the fans at concerts featuring Jack Johnson and the   Dave Matthews Band   — both longtime REVERB partners — are already on board with many of the sustainability-focused initiatives which those artists promote. "But there are lots of artists — and lots of fan bases — out there that aren’t messaged to, or have been mis-messaged to," he says.   "I’m really excited to find more ways to expand our reach to them, beyond mainstream pop music.   Because these are conversations that are meaningful for everyone, regardless of political affiliation or other beliefs."   

Reimagining The Planet’s Future  

Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Adam Met does more than front   AJR , the indie pop trio he founded in 2005 with brothers Jack and Ryan. Met has a PhD in sustainable development and is a climate activist; he's also the founder/Executive Director of   Planet Reimagined , a nonprofit that promotes sustainability and activism through its work with businesses, other organizations and musicians.   

"I’ve spent years traveling around the world, seeing the direct impact of climate change," Met says. He cites two recent and stark examples. "When we pulled up to a venue in San Francisco, the band had to wear gas masks going from the bus into the venue, because of forest fires," he says. AJR’s road crew had to contend with a flash flood in Athens, Greece that washed out their hotel. "And in Rome, some of our crew members fainted because of the heat."   

Encouraged by representatives from the United Nations, Met launched Planet Reimagined. Met’s approach focuses on tailored, city-specific actions to empower fans and amplify diverse voices in the climate movement. Through social media and live shows, Met strives to galvanize climate activism among AJR fans. And the methods he has developed can be implemented by other touring artists.   

Met points out that one of the most climate-unfriendly parts of the entire concert tour enterprise is fans traveling to and from the concerts. And that’s something over which the artist has little or no control. What they can do, he says, is   try   to educate and influence. Working closely with Ticketmaster and other stakeholders, Met’s nonprofit initiated a study — conducted from July to December 2023, with   results published in April 2024   — to explore the energy that happens at concerts. "In sociology," he explains, "that energy is called collective effervescence." The study’s goal is to find ways to channel that energy toward advocacy and action.   

Polling a quarter million concertgoers across musical genres, the study collected data on attitudes about climate change. "Seventy-three percent of fans who attend concerts believe that climate change is real, and that we need to be doing more about it," Met says. "Seventy-eight percent have already taken some sort of action in their lives." He believes that if his organization can activate even a fraction of the estimated 250 million people annually who attend concerts around the globe, "that’s the ballgame."   

Met’s goal is to do more than, say, get concertgoers to switch from plastic to paper drinking straws. "At   scale   those things make a difference. But people want to see actions where there’s a track record," he says; a return on investment.   

AJR will be putting a plan into action   on   the second half of their upcoming arena tour.   Part of the initiative is encouraging concertgoers to register to vote, and then actually vote.   Beyond that, Met has specific actions in mind. "At every single stop, we’re putting together materials around specific policies that are being debated at the local level," he explains. "We give people a script right there, so they can call their elected representative and say, ‘I want you to vote [a certain way on this issue].’"   

He believes the initiative will lead to thousands of people contacting – and hopefully influencing – their representatives.   With regard to sustainability issues, Met is convinced that "the most impact that you can have as an artist is when you give fans ways to pick up the mantle themselves."  

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Photo: ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images

11 Artists Who Influenced Taylor Swift: Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Tim McGraw & More

From Paul McCartney to Paramore, Emily Dickinson and even "Game of Thrones," read on for some of the major influences Taylor Swift has referenced throughout her GRAMMY-winning career.

As expected, much buzz followed the release of Taylor Swift 's 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department , on April 19. Fans and critics alike have devoured the sprawling double album’s 31 tracks, unpacking her reflections from "a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time" in search of Easter eggs, their new favorite lyrics and references to famous faces (both within the pop supernova’s closely guarded orbit and the historical record). 

Shoutouts abound in The Tortured Poets Department : Charlie Puth gets his much-deserved (and Taylor-approved) flowers on the title track, while 1920s screen siren Clara Bow, the ancient Greek prophetess Cassandra and Peter Pan each get a song titled after them. Post Malone and   Florence + the Machine ’s Florence Welch each tap in for memorable duets. Relationships old (Joe Alwyn), new (Travis Kelce) and somewhere in between (1975’s Matty Healy) are alluded to without naming names, as is, possibly, the singer’s reputation -era feud with Kim Kardashian. 

Swift casts a wide net on The Tortured Poets Department , encompassing popular music, literature, mythology and beyond, but it's far from the first time the 14-time GRAMMY winner has worn her influences on her sleeve. While you digest TTPD , consider these 10 figures who have influenced the poet of the hour — from Stevie Nicks and Patti Smith to Emily Dickinson, William Wordsworth, Arya Stark and more.

Stevie Nicks

If Taylor Swift is the chairman of The Tortured Poets Department , Stevie Nicks may as well be considered its poet laureate emeritus. The mystical Fleetwood Mac frontwoman earns an important mention on side A closer "Clara Bow," in which Swift ties an invisible string from herself to a pre- Rumours Nicks ("In ‘75, the hair and lips/ Crowd goes wild at her fingertips"), and all the way back to the 1920s It Girl of the song’s title.

For her part, Nicks seems to approve of her place in Swift’s cultural lineage, considering she penned the poem found inside physical copies of The Tortured Poets Department . "He was in love with her/ Or at least she thought so," the Priestess of Rock and Roll wrote in part, before signing off, "For T — and me…"

Swift’s relationship with Nicks dates back to the 2010 GRAMMYs, when the pair performed a medley of "Rhiannon" and "You Belong With Me " before the then-country upstart took home her first Album Of The Year win for 2009’s Fearless . More recently, the "Edge of Seventeen" singer publicly credited Swift’s Midnights cut "You’re On Your Own, Kid" for helping her through the 2022 death of Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie .

Patti Smith

Swift may see herself as more "modern idiot" than modern-day Patti Smith, but that didn’t stop the superstar from name-dropping the icon synonymous with the Hotel Chelsea and punk scene of ‘70s New York on a key track on The Tortured Poets Department . Swift rather self-deprecatingly compares herself to the celebrated Just Kids memoirist (and 2023 Songwriters Hall of Fame nominee) on the double album’s synth-drenched title track, and it’s easy to see how Smith’s lifelong fusion of rock and poetry influenced the younger singer’s dactylic approach to her new album. 

Smith seemed to appreciate the shout-out on "The Tortured Poets Department" as well. "This is saying I was moved to be mentioned in the company of the great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. Thank you Taylor," she wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of herself reading Thomas’ 1940 poetry collection Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog .

Emily Dickinson

When it comes to iconic poets, Swift has also taken a page or two over her career from Emily Dickinson. While the great 19th century poet hasn’t come up explicitly in Swift’s work, she did reference her poetic forebear (and actual sixth cousin, three times removed !) in her speech while accepting the award for Songwriter-Artist of the Decade at the 2022 Nashville Songwriter Awards.

"I’ve never talked about this publicly before, because, well, it’s dorky. But I also have, in my mind, secretly, established genre categories for lyrics I write. Three of them, to be exact. They are affectionately titled Quill Lyrics, Fountain Pen Lyrics and Glitter Gel Pen Lyrics," Swift told the audience before going on to explain, "If my lyrics sound like a letter written by Emily Dickinson’s great-grandmother while sewing a lace curtain, that’s me writing in the Quill genre," she went on to explain.

Even before this glimpse into Swift’s writing process, Easter eggs had been laid pointing to her familial connection to Dickinson. For example, she announced her ninth album evermore on December 10, 2020, which would have been the late poet’s 190th birthday. Another clue that has Swifties convinced? Dickinson’s use of the word "forevermore" in her 1858 poem "One Sister Have I in Our House," which Swift also cleverly breaks apart in Evermore ’s Bon Iver-assisted title track ("And I couldn’t be sure/ I had a feeling so peculiar/ That this pain would be for/ Evermore").

The Lake Poets

Swift first put her growing affinity for poetry on display during her folklore era with "the lakes." On the elegiac bonus track, the singer draws a parallel with the Lake Poets of the 19th century, wishing she could escape to "the lakes where all the poets went to die" with her beloved muse in tow. In between fantasizing about "those Windermere peaks" and pining for "auroras and sad prose," she even manages to land a not-so-subtle jab at nemesis Scooter Braun ("I’ve come too far to watch some name-dropping sleaze/ Tell me what are my words worth") that doubles as clever wordplay on the last name of Lake Poet School members William and Dorothy Wordsworth.

Swift revealed more about why she connected to the Lake Poets in her 2020 Disney+ documentary folklore: the long pond studio sessions . "There was a poet district, these artists that moved there. And they were kind of heckled for it and made fun of for it as being these eccentrics and these kind of odd artists who decided that they just wanted to live there," she explained to her trusted producer Jack Antonoff . "So ‘the lakes,’ it kind of is the overarching theme of the whole album: of trying to escape, having something you wanna protect, trying to protect your own sanity and saying, ‘Look, they did this hundreds of years ago. I’m not the first person who’s felt this way.’"

Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney and Swift have publicly praised one another’s work for years, leading to the 2020 Rolling Stone cover they posed for together for the special Musicians on Musicians issue . The younger singer even counts Sir Paul’s daughter Stella McCartney as a close friend and collaborator (Stella designed a capsule collection for Swift’s 2019 studio set Lover and earned a shout-out of her own on album cut "London Boy").

However, Swift took her relationship with the Beatles founder and his family a step further when it was rumored she based Midnights deep cut "Sweet Nothing" on McCartney’s decades-long romance with late wife Linda. While the speculation has never been outright confirmed, it appears Swift’s lyrics in the lilting love song ("On the way home, I wrote a poem/ You say, ‘What a mind’/ This happens all the time") were partially inspired by a strikingly similar quote McCartney once gave about his relationship with Linda, who passed away in 1998. To add to the mystique, the Midnights singer even reportedly liked a tweet from 2022 espousing the theory.  

The admiration between the duo seems to go both ways as well, with the former Beatle admitting in a 2018 BBC profile that the track "Who Cares" from his album Egypt Station was inspired by Swift’s close relationship with her fans.

From her days as a country music ingénue to her ascendance as the reigning mastermind of pop, Swift has credited the Chicks as a seminal influence in her songwriting and career trajectory. (Need examples? Look anywhere from early singles like "Picture to Burn" and "Should’ve Said No" to Evermore ’s Haim-assisted murder ballad "no body, no crime" and her own Lover -era collab with the band, "Soon You’ll Get Better.") 

In a 2020 Billboard cover story tied to the Chicks’ eighth album Gaslighter , Swift acknowledged just how much impact the trio made on her growing up. "Early in my life, these three women showed me that female artists can play their own instruments while also putting on a flamboyant spectacle of a live show," she said at the time. "They taught me that creativity, eccentricity, unapologetic boldness and kitsch can all go together authentically. Most importantly, they showed an entire generation of girls that female rage can be a bonding experience between us all the very second we first heard Natalie Maines bellow ‘that Earl had to DIE.’"

"Game of Thrones"

When reputation dropped in 2017, Swift was on a self-imposed media blackout, which meant no cover stories or dishy sit-down interviews on late-night TV during the album’s roll-out. Instead, the singer let reputation speak for itself, and fans were largely left to draw their own conclusions about their queen’s wildly anticipated comeback album. Two years later, though, Swift revealed the dark, vengeful, romantic body of work was largely inspired by "Game of Thrones."

"These songs were half based on what I was going through, but seeing them through a 'Game of Thrones' filter," she told Entertainment Weekly in 2019. "My entire outlook on storytelling has been shaped by ["GoT"] — the ability to foreshadow stories, to meticulously craft cryptic story lines. So, I found ways to get more cryptic with information and still be able to share messages with the fans. I aspire to be one one-millionth of the kind of hint dropper the makers of 'Game of Thrones' have been."

Joni Mitchell

Swift has long made her admiration of Joni Mitchell known, dating back to her 2012 album Red , which took a cue from the folk pioneer’s landmark 1971 LP Blue for its chromatic title. In an interview around the time of Red ’s release, the country-pop titan gushed over Blue ’s impact on her, telling Rhapsody, "[Mitchell] wrote it about her deepest pains and most haunting demons. Songs like ‘River,’ which is just about her regrets and doubts of herself — I think this album is my favorite because it explores somebody’s soul so deeply."

Back in 2015, TIME declared the "Blank Space" singer a "disciple of Mitchell in ways both obvious and subtle" — from her reflective songwriting to the complete ownership over her creative process, and nearly 10 years later, Swift was still showing her appreciation for Mitchell after the latter’s triumphant and emotional appearance on the GRAMMY stage to perform "Both Sides Now" on the very same night Taylor took home her historic fourth GRAMMY for Album Of The Year for Midnights .

Fall Out Boy & Paramore

When releasing the re-recording of her third album Speak Now in 2023, Swift cited two unexpectedly emo acts as inspirations to her early songwriting: Fall Out Boy and Paramore . 

"Since Speak Now was all about my songwriting, I decided to go to the artists who I feel influenced me most powerfully as a lyricist at that time and ask them to sing on the album," she wrote in an Instagram post revealing the back cover and complete tracklist for Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) , which included Fall Out Boy collaboration "Electric Touch" and "Castles Crumbling" featuring Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams .

For one of Swift’s original career inspirations, we have to go all the way back to the very first single she ever released. "Tim McGraw" was not only as the lead single off the 16-year-old self-titled 2006 debut album, but it also paid reverent homage to one of the greatest living legends in the history of country music. 

In retrospect, it was an incredibly gutsy risk for a then-unknown Swift to come raring out of the gate with a song named after a country superstar. But the gamble clearly paid off in spades, considering that now, when an entire generation of music fans hear "Tim McGraw," they think of Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift's 'The Tortured Poets Department' Is A Post-Mortem Autopsy In Song: 5 Takeaways From Her New Album

• 1 For The Record: How Taylor Swift's 'Speak Now' Changed Her Career — And Proved She'll Always Get The Last Word
• 2 Behind Ryan Tedder's Hits: Stories From The Studio With OneRepublic, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift & More
• 3 "Let Yourself Be Idiosyncratic": Moby Talks New Album 'Always Centered At Night' & 25 Years Of 'Play'
• 4 The Environmental Impact Of Touring: How Scientists, Musicians & Nonprofits Are Trying To Shrink Concerts' Carbon Footprint
• 5 11 Artists Who Influenced Taylor Swift: Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Tim McGraw & More

• Filmography

Speak Now: World Tour Live

This is about the live album. For the tour, see Speak Now World Tour .

The live album consist of songs and performances recorded from various tour dates around the world of Swift's Speak Now World Tour .

The live album debuted at number eleven on the US Billboard 200 chart with 77,000 sold.

• 1 Background
• 2 Critical reception
• 3 Commercial performance
• 4 Track listing
• 5 Personnel
• 6.1 Weekly charts
• 7 References

Background [ ]

The album was announced on September 21, 2011, via Swift's official website, along with the album cover. The DVD and Blu-ray releases feature all seventeen performances from the North American leg of the Speak Now World Tour , as well as bonus content. The CD has over seventy-five minutes of music as well as select live performances from the Speak Now album. The combo was released on November 21, 2011. [1] [2] A Target exclusive of the live album contains the bonus performances of " Ours , "Nashville" and "Sweet Escape", as well as the behind the scene making of the music video for " Mean ". [3] Many of the songs and performances were captured from various legs around the world of the tour. [4] The Brazilian release of the album contains a previously unreleased version of the song "Long Live" featuring new verses in Portuguese composed and sang by singer Paula Fernandes. [5]

Critical reception [ ]

Matt Bjorke of Roughstock gave a mixed review on the album and stated that Swift "has shown a lot of growth through the years and takes her live show seriously, so It’s good to hear this live album sound nearly as good as her records do." Bjorke also compared the CD/DVD combo to Sugarland's Live on the Inside . [7] James Monger of Allmusic rated the album three out of five stars and stated that the performances on the DVD were "an elaborate affair that utilized dancers, aerialists, numerous costume changes, and a mammoth, multi-stage setup that more closely resembled a high-profile Broadway musical than it a did country music concert." [6]

Commercial performance [ ]

The album debuted at number eleven on the US Billboard 200 chart with 77,000 sold. It also debuted at number two in Billboard Top Country Albums on the same week. [8] As of November 2017, the album has sold 366,000 copies in the US. [9] In Canada, the album entered at number 25. [10] The album also debuted in Australia at number thirty and later peaked at number sixteen. The album then fell off the chart completely the following week. The album also appeared in Mexico at number sixty seven. [11]

Track listing [ ]

Personnel [ ].

Adapted from Allmusic. [12]

Charts and certifications [ ]

Weekly charts [ ], references [ ].

• ↑ "Taylor Swift Announces 'Speak Now' Live CD/DVD" . Jason Lipshutz . Billboard.com . 2011-09-21 . http://www.billboard.com/news/taylor-swift-announces-speak-now-live-cd-1005362572.story#/news/taylor-swift-announces-speak-now-live-cd-1005362572.story . Retrieved 2011-11-20 .
• ↑ "Taylor Swift: Speak Now World Tour Live (Blu-ray + CD): Taylor Swift, Ryan Polito: Music" . Amazon.com. 2009-09-09 . http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Swift-Speak-World-Blu-ray/dp/B006B9REH6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1322326903&sr=8-3 . Retrieved 2011-11-26 .
• ↑ "Taylor Swift World Tour - Only at Target" . target.com . http://www.target.com/p/Taylor-Swift-World-Tour-Only-at-Target/-/A-13832473#?lnk=sc_qi_detailimage . Retrieved 2011-11-20 .
• ↑ (2011) Album notes for Speak Now: World Tour Live by Taylor Swift [CD/DVD]. Big Machine Records (BMRTS0340B).
• ↑ "iTunes - Música - Speak Now - World Tour Live de Taylor Swift" . Itunes.apple.com. 2011-12-31 . http://itunes.apple.com/br/album/speak-now-world-tour-live/id488748355 . Retrieved 2012-01-10 .
• ↑ 6.0 6.1 Christopher, James (2011-11-21). "World Tour Live: Speak Now - Taylor Swift" . AllMusic . http://www.allmusic.com/album/world-tour-live-speak-now-r2306676/review . Retrieved 2011-11-25 .
• ↑ 7.0 7.1 Matt Bjorke (2011-11-21). "Album/DVD Review: Taylor Swift - Speak Now: World Tour Live | Country Music Reviews, Taylor Swift to Lady Antebellum" . Roughstock.com . http://www.roughstock.com/reviews/album-dvd-review-taylor-swift-speak-now-world-tour-live . Retrieved 2011-11-25 .
• ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Michael Buble's 'Christmas' Squeaks Past Nickelback to Take No. 1 on Billboard 200" . Billboard.biz . http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/record-labels/michael-buble-s-christmas-squeaks-past-nickelback-1005579152.story . Retrieved November 30, 2011 .
• ↑ Trust, Gary (November 26, 2017). "Ask Billboard: Taylor Swift's Career Album & Song Sales" . https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8046939/taylor-swift-career-album-song-sales-ask-billboard . Retrieved November 26, 2017 .
• ↑ "Canadian Albums Week of December 10, 2011" . Billboard . Prometheus Global Media . http://www.billboard.com/charts/2011-12-10/canadian-albums?order=gainer . Retrieved December 1, 2011 .
• ↑ "Taylor Swift – Speak Now: World Tour Live Cd + Dvd" . aCharts.us. February 25, 2009 . http://acharts.us/album/67362 . Retrieved August 25, 2012 .
• ↑ "World Tour Live: Speak Now  – Credits" . Allmusic. Rovi Corporation . http://www.allmusic.com/album/world-tour-live-speak-now-r2306676/credits . Retrieved 2011-11-25 .
• ↑ "australian-charts.com - Taylor Swift - Speak Now World Tour Live" . Hung Medien . http://australian-charts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Taylor+Swift&titel=Speak+Now+World+Tour+Live&cat=a . Retrieved December 5, 2011 .
• ↑ "Top 20 Country Chart - Australian Record Industry Assocation" . Ariacharts.com.au . http://www.ariacharts.com.au/pages/charts_display_country.asp?chart=1F20 . Retrieved 2012-01-10 .
• ↑ "Canadian Albums Week of December 10, 2011" . Billboard . Prometheus Global Media . http://www.billboard.com/charts#/charts/canadian-albums?chartDate=2011-12-10&order=gainer . Retrieved December 1, 2011 .
• ↑ "Mexican Chart" . http://mexicancharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Taylor+Swift&titel=Speak+Now+World+Tour+Live&cat=a .
• ↑ "Country Albums Week of December 10, 2011" . Billboard . Prometheus Global Media . http://www.billboard.com/charts#/charts/country-albums?chartDate=2011-12-10&order=gainer . Retrieved December 1, 2011 .
• 1 List of Taylor Swift's ex-boyfriends
• 2 The Eras Tour
• 3 The Eras Tour/Gallery

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Taylor Swift Describes "A New Sense of Fear" Following Thwarted Vienna Terror Plot

Taylor Swift may have an album called Speak Now , but she deliberately took her time to issue a statement after the discovery of a planned terrorist attack led to the cancellation of her Eras Tour shows in Vienna, Austria earlier this month.

In an Instagram post Wednesday, Swift had some pointed words for those who criticized her for not commenting on the foiled attack until now, just under two weeks after the planned August 8-10 shows.

“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” she captioned a carousel of images marking the completion of the European leg of her record-breaking tour. “In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at a time when it’s right to. My priority was finishing our European tour safely, and it is with great relief that I can say we did that.”

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Last week, Austrian authorities announced that three young men had been arrested in connection with the planned attack. They said the suspects had declared their allegiance to the Islamic state, and that the supplies and plans they discovered pointed to the makings of “a bloodbath” at Swift’s shows.

Elsewhere in her lengthy caption, Swift called her shows at London’s Wembley Stadium, her second spin at the venue and her first concerts since the Vienna cancellations, “a rollercoaster of emotions.”

“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” she wrote. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows. But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives. I was heartened by the love and unity I saw in the fans who banded together. I decided that all of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London. My team and I worked hand in hand with stadium staff and British authorities every day in pursuit of that goal, and I want to thank them for everything they did for us.”

Swift’s Eras Tour resumes October 18 in Miami, with an announced end date of December 8 in Vancouver, Canada , ending the roughly year-and-a-half run of shows. Though the singer has not commented on this year’s presidential election, her endorsement has been coveted on both sides of the aisle, with reports as far back as July of Democrats yearning for her support and Donald Trump earlier this week posting digitally altered images , including one clearly labeled “satire,” that seemed to show Swift endorsing him to social media, writing “I accept!” Polls have shown that an endorsement by Swift could sway voter opinion , and a “Swifties for Kamala” political action group, unaffiliated with the singer, mobilized shortly after Kamala Harris was announced as the Democratic nominee for the presidency.

An endorsement from Swift wouldn't be unprecedented: In 2020, she criticized Trump and endorsed Joe Biden ahead of the election.

Notably, the gap in Swift’s public schedule would allow for her to get to Chicago, should a Democratic National Convention surprise be in the works, and she doesn’t have a show scheduled for Election Day in November.

Representatives for Taylor Swift did not immediately respond to Vanity Fair ’s request for comment.

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Taylor Swift Breaks Silence on Vienna Terror Plot as She Says She Feared Statement Might 'Provoke' Danger

Three of Swift's shows were canceled earlier this month in Vienna, Austria after authorities foiled an alleged terror plot

Gareth Cattermole/TAS24/Getty

Taylor Swift is speaking out for the first time after a terror plot prompted the cancellation of three of her Eras Tour dates — and explaining why she initially chose to stay silent.

In a lengthy Instagram post shared following the conclusion of her European leg of the tour, Swift said that playing her final few dates in London was a “rollercoaster of emotions” after three shows in Vienna were canceled amid a foiled terror plot.

“Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating. The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows,” she wrote in a post on Wednesday, Aug. 21. “But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

The “Fortnight” singer, 34, said she was “heartened by the love and unity” she saw among fans in the aftermath, as many fans in Vienna flooded the streets to sing Swift’s songs together and exchange friendship bracelets, which has become a tradition at her shows.

Swift wrote that after Vienna, she and her team worked closely with British authorities to ensure that her five nights at London’s Wembley Stadium — which wrapped on Tuesday, Aug. 20 — would go off without a hitch.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

Swift’s post came two weeks after the shows were canceled, and the Grammy winner had caught flak from some for not addressing the cancellations directly. But in her post, she explained why she’d stayed silent.

“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” she wrote. “In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at a time when it’s right to. My priority was finishing our European tour safely, and it is with great relief that I can say we did that.”

Related: Taylor Swift Spotted for the First Time Since Terror Plot Cancellations in London for Tour Staff Party

Swift praised her London shows as feeling like a “beautiful dream sequence,” and said the performances restored in her a sense of “carefree calm” onstage.

In a comment on the post, she thanked the many guests that joined her onstage during her London shows , including Ed Sheeran , Florence Welch and Jack Antonoff , and called it a “dizzying honor” to become the first solo artist to play Wembley eight times in one tour.

“To the fans who have seen us this summer, you’ll always have the most sparkling place in my memories,” she concluded. “You were a dream to perform for, dance with, and share those magical moments with. We’ll see you all again when we resume The Eras Tour in October, but for now we get to take a much needed rest. Thank you for the adventure of a lifetime. May it continue…”

Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images

On Aug. 7, authorities announced that two Austrian men — a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old — had been arrested in connection with a planned attack on Swift’s shows, which were scheduled to take place at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna from Aug. 8 to 10. The AP reported that the older of the two wanted to “kill as many people as possible” in an attack using explosives and knives .

Two days later, Austrian authorities announced a third arrest in connection with the foiled plot, an 18-year-old they believe has links to ISIS.

Related: Taylor Swift Invites Girls Involved in Deadly Stabbing for a 'Magical Night' Backstage During Eras Tour Stop in London

The arrests came just days after three young girls were killed in a stabbing at a Swift-themed yoga class in Southport, England.

The pop star later invited two survivors from the tragic event to meet her amid her Eras Tour stop in London.

"You drew stars around my scars 💫🥹 ….," mom Sami Foster wrote in the heartfelt caption of a viral TikTok that features a montage of photos of Swift with the family. The lyrics are from the singer’s song "Cardigan" on her 2020 album Folklore . 

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Which Eras Tour perfume are you? We've matched each of Taylor Swift's albums by scent

All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn how we test .

Taylor Swift's record-breaking, economy-boosting, stratospheric Eras Tour is doing its final lap in Europe this week. From 15-20 August, she's closing out her return shows in London before heading to North America where she'll wrap up her 21 month-long tour in Canada in November and December. But while much has been made of how to co-ordinate your outfit to your favourite Swiftie era, we started thinking: what would each album smell like if it were a perfume?

Music and scent are both so closely linked to making memories and Taylor's Eras Tour is custom-built to give fans a night to remember. But whether you're heading to see it IRL, catching it on Disney+ or listening to her albums at your own pace, we've rounded up a corresponding scent.

Here's what we think each of Taylor's eras would smell like as a perfume…

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While not chronologically the first album, Taylor kicks off her tour with Lover. An album known for its optimism, it signalled the rainbow after the storm that was Reputation. Expect sparkles, pastels and seriously sweet escapism with lyrics from Lover including “can we always be this close forever and ever?” Scent-wise, Kilian's Love Don’t Be Shy is a syrupy gourmand that smells like cream soda, fluffy marshmallows and clouds of candy floss, blended with a glug of sensual vanilla.

2. Fearless

Taylor's second album, Fearless, stomped (Cowboy boot-clad) onto the scene and stole the show in 2008, winning four Grammy's with bops like You Belong With Me and Love Story. In the show, Taylor taps up a custom-made gold and silver fringed mini dress by Roberto Cavalli to shimmy in, so it's only right to call on a Main Character perfume, also by Roberto Cavalli in the form of the eponymous Roberto Cavalli Eau de Parfum . The amber floral fragrance opens with powerful but pretty pink pepper accord, before creamy orange blossom and vanilla come through the base. It's sexy, seductive, confident and comforting all in one hit.

For Taylor Swift, Red was about discovery, angst, expression and emerging into her twenties with songs like 22, I Knew You Were Trouble and We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. Her uniform of high-waisted shorts, preppy brogues, slogan T-shirts, a fedora hat and red lipstick became synonymous with this era, so it tracks to choose a perfume to match. Juliette Has A Gun Lipstick Fever is designed to mimic the scent of a lipstick bullet with raspberry, violet and iris, while patchouli, vanilla and cedarwood bring up the base. It's fruity and feminine, but with some powdery retro charm and nostalgia.

4. Speak Now

Taylor Swift keeps it brief with just one song from her Speak Now album, Enchanted, which follows a fairytale theme of being enchanted by someone after meeting for the first time. The tour sees her wear lilac gowns from Nicole + Felicia, a Zuhair Murad and an Ellie Saab. As for the fragrance, we couldn't not mention Taylor's (now discontinued) collab with Elizabeth Arden in 2011 on a perfume that borrowed its name from Enchanted's lyrics: “Wonderstruck”, and the follow-up “Wonderstruck Enchanted” which launched a year later. Both were sweet florals with notes of freesia, peach and sandalwood, and peony freesia and vanilla respectively. You can still pick them up on re-sell sites like eBay, but for a scent that's still readily available, we'd recommend turning to another of Taylor's rumoured favourites: Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb , a floral explosion of orchid, jasmine, rose and freesia, that smells young, sweet and fairytale-worthy.

5. Reputation

Things take a dark turn when Reputation hits. A furious, brooding, retaliation of an album, Reputation marks Taylor's return to the public eye with songs like Look What You Made Me Do, after she was trolled into submission following the Kim Kardashian/Kanye West drama. At the time, she was flooded with snake emojis on Twitter, but on the tour she flips the narrative by making the snake a signature image across the section. Underneath the bravado though, there's vulnerability, as alluded to in her song Delicate, so, a Reputation fragrance calls for something strong and powerful with subtle softness. Luckily, Taylor already picked out just the scent. Beady-eyed viewers of the Taylor's Miss Americana documentary on Netflix, may have already clocked Tom Ford's Santal Blush Eau de Parfum among Taylor's beauty products backstage during her Reputation tour back in 2018. Tom Ford are known for making fragrances that pack a punch, and this comes out fighting with a dark, provocative fistful of aromatic and bitter spices, softened from behind with creamy ylang ylang, jasmine and rose, but the dry-down is all about warm, grounding sandalwood and cedar. It's a beautiful, complicated, comforting scent that unravels as it goes.

6. Folkmore (Folklore and Evermore combined)

In the updated tour, Taylor has merged indie sister albums Folklore and Evermore to create Folkmore, a cottagecore tribute to folksongs with storytelling and introspection woven throughout. She tackles emotionally heavy themes, such as divorce in Exile, betrayal in My Tears Ricochet first love and heartbreak in Cardigan and youthful mistakes in Betty. It's a back-to-basics album, stripped back barefoot and baring all, which is why nature is such a strong theme in the woodsy imagery that surrounds it. To scent the soundtrack, Commodity's Moss picks up on the woodland theme with an earthy oakmoss fragrance that's reminiscent of a walk in through the forest floor at dawn. The opening is citrusy, fresh and green (to capture the summer of Folkmore), while the dry-down is warm and woody (to channel Evermore's autumn-winter).

Producing bangers like Shake It Off and Blank Space, 1989 saw Tay move from a country singer to a mega pop star and relocate to New York. It was the era of crop tops, skater skirts, bob haircuts and her famous “squad” of celebrity pals. Technically speaking, on the tour Taylor wears a green or purple fringed two-piece to perform, but we're channelling the airy, blue escapism of her re-released 1989 Taylor's Version album. With it's pastel blue sky and seagulls, it conjure up girl's trips to her Rhode Island holiday house (yep, the one where she has those famous 4th of July parties) and breezy walks along the beach. Dolce & Gabbana's Light Blue captures the mood perfectly. It's a clean, casual, cool-girl scent that taps up soft citrus with notes of Sicilian lemon, apple, bamboo, jasmine, white rose and musk. It works for city girls or a seaside escape.

8. The Tortured Poets Department

The curveball album that no-one was expecting, Taylor had to reconfigure her Eras tour to make room for The Tortured Poets Department, which she released in April 2024. Defined by Taylor as "An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time — one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure," it deals with heartbreak and “female rage”. Aesthetically, Taylor chose a corseted white Vivienne Westwood gown with a black vintage typeface across the skirt to represent the era. Together with the album artwork and music videos, it brings to mind classic Victorian female writers like Emily and Charlotte Brontë and Emily Dickinson or modernist authors like Virginia Woolf. We're imagining the smell of fresh parchment paper and ink, which is perfectly captured by Diptyque's L'Eau Papier . It's a bibliophile spin on a skin scent with nuzzly musks bringing the base and the pulpy scent of pages on top. It manages to blend just the right amount of lightweight musty nostalgia with the fresh possibility of a blank sheet of paper.

9. Midnights

The last era performed by Taylor is her 2022 album, Midnights, which shared “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life," according to Taylor. It touches on elements of all her different eras and marks a return to the deeply personal rumination that first endeared her to fans. The era is reflective and nostalgic, looking back on her past, so it makes sense that the aesthetic has a charming bygone feel about it. Byredo's Slow Dance taps into this vibe seamlessly with it's contradicting bittersweet notes of aged cognac, mysterious labdanum, powdery violet, sweet geranium, creamy vanilla, herbal patchouli and fiery incense. It's warm, spicy, sweet and boozy, and you can imagine Tay sat in an old retro leather armchair in the witching hours writing the album's songs.

For more from GLAMOUR's Senior Beauty Editor, Elle Turner , follow her on Instagram @elleturneruk

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Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour Enchanted Live Photo Oversized Crewneck

Black oversized crewneck featuring photo of Taylor Swift printed on front and "Taylor Swift The Eras Tour" printed on wearer's right arm with tour locations printed on back. 

-    Unisex standard fit -    Classic width -    Soft hand-feel -    Tapered hem -    80/20 cotton/polyester

Taylor Swift® ©2024 TAS Rights Management, LLC Used By Permission. All Rights Reserved.

Will Taylor Swift make a DNC appearance? What to know about her past political backings

As the Democratic National Convention in Chicago stretches into its third day, numerous celebrities, athletes and politicians have graced the stage and the stands of the United Center as the party gears up to hear from its nominee for president, Vice President Kamala Harris .

But many are crossing their fingers that one big name will make an appearance in the Windy City: Taylor Swift.

As Swift wraps up her European leg of the Eras Tour, she is in the political spotlight for yet another time this election year, following attention from recent posts made by former President Donald Trump . Images in the post feature suspected artificial intelligence-generated images of Swift as Uncle Sam and others of "Swifties for Trump" supporters.

The discussion around who Swift will endorse, if she publicly backs a candidate at all, has lingered since right-wing conspiracies generated by Republican political pundits were spread about the singer and her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in February.

They speculated the couple would come out to midfield during the Super Bowl halftime to endorse President Joe Biden as Democratic campaign plants.

Now, rumors have been swirling around whether Swift, along with Beyoncé, will back Democrats in Chicago this week. While Beyoncé gave Harris' campaign the go-ahead to use her song "Freedom," there has been no indication that Swift will make an appearance at the DNC , despite past her criticism of Trump and endorsement of President Joe Biden in 2020.

What have Swift's past political endorsements looked like?

Swift started out avoiding politics early in her career,  telling a Norwegian journalist in 2012 , "I just figure I'm a 22-year-old singer and I don't know if people really want to hear my political views. I think they just kind of want to hear me sing songs about breakups and feelings."

But her political voice got louder over the years.

• In 2018, she  endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesen , D-Tennessee, calling his opponent, Marsha Blackburn, "Trump in a wig."
• In 2022, after Roe v. Wade was overturned,  she tweeted , "I’m absolutely terrified that this is where we are — that after so many decades of people fighting for women’s rights to their own bodies, today’s decision has stripped us of that."
• Last year when she  encouraged people to register to vote , a record 35,000 people rushed to do so.

Swift most notably endorsed President Joe Biden and Harris weeks before the 2020 election in a Vouge interview and a social media post featuring her holding a plate of frosted "Biden Harris 2020" cookies. She also encouraged fans to get out and vote, and expressed regret she didn't speak out in 2016 before Trump won.

“The change we need most is to elect a president who recognizes that people of color deserve to feel safe and represented, that women deserve the right to choose what happens to their bodies, and that the LGBTQIA+ community deserves to be acknowledged and included,” Swift told Vogue.

“Everyone deserves a government that takes global health risks seriously and puts the lives of its people first,” she continued.

Swifties speculate about the singer's 2024 endorsements

If Swift's fanbase is known for anything, it's decoding the singer's Easter eggs and hidden messages that she sprinkles throughout songs, shows, videos and posts. And now many are speculating whether or when she will drop an endorsement for Harris soon and how she will do it.

The Eras Tour finished a stop in London Tuesday, where Swifties debated when she will announce the rerelease of her album “Reputation,” the likelihood she will endorse Harris and whether she will make a big spectacle of her potential backing of the vice president or if she take a more delicate route.

Meghan Connors of Joplin, Missouri, agreed, saying Swift has already passively endorsed Harris.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t publicly endorse her by the end of September or maybe mid-October,” Connors, 30, said. “I think she’ll promote it on social media, but don’t think she’s going to the DNC. American politics can get so volatile or so aggressive, you look at the Capitol attack. She wouldn’t put herself in that much of the public eye because it would be dangerous.”

Rochelle Ulloa from Los Angeles thinks Swift has planned out when she will make a political move.

“It's like all eyes are on Taylor to make a move, but she's always made a good, honest effort,” Ulloa said. “Like she supported President Biden in the last campaign, and I think she just waits for when the time is right.”

Could Taylor Swift make it to the DNC in Chicago?

But, there has been no indication from Swift or the DNC that she plans any sort of involvement with the convention.

Her calendar does give her time to show up if she did want to appear.

Swift's last international concert was Tuesday, Aug. 20, and the DNC runs through Thursday when Harris will formally accept the nomination. Her next tour stop is in Florida nearly two months later — plenty of time for someone with their own private jet to make it back to the states.

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Speak Now (Taylor's Version)[2 CD]

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Speak Now (Taylor's Version) features 22 songs, including 6 previously unreleased Songs From The Vault. 2 CD set includes collectible lyric booklet with never-before-seen photos.

Product details

• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.59 x 4.88 x 0.39 inches; 4.37 ounces
• Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Taylor Swift/Republic Records
• Original Release Date ‏ : ‎ 2023
• Date First Available ‏ : ‎ June 9, 2023
• Label ‏ : ‎ Taylor Swift/Republic Records
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0C78K5BCK
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 2
• #112 in Pop (CDs & Vinyl)

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