2008–10: Fearless
Swift's second studio album, Fearless, was released on November 11, 2008. Swift wrote seven of the album's songs alone, including two singles, and co-wrote the remaining six with songwriters Rose, John Rich, Colbie Caillat and Hillary Lindsey.[87] She co-produced the album with Nathan Chapman.[87] Musically, it has been said that the record is characterized by "loud, lean guitars and rousing choruses," with the occasional "bit of fiddle and banjo tucked into the mix."[88]Caramanica of The New York Times described Swift as "one of pop's finest songwriters, country's foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults."[89] Josh Love of The Village Voice felt she displayed "preternatural wisdom and inclusiveness," "masterfully avoiding the typical diarist's pitfalls of trite banality and pseudo-profound bullshit."[90] Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone described her as "a songwriting savant with an intuitive gift for verse-chorus-bridge architecture" whose "squirmingly intimate and true" songs seemed to be "literally ripped from a suburban girl's diary."[88] Music critic Robert Christgau characterized Swift as "an uncommonly-to-impossibly strong and gifted teenage girl."[91]
Swift, who now owned her own management company led by Robert Allen,[92][93] promoted Fearless heavily upon its release. An episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show was dedicated to the album launch and Swift appeared on many other chat shows.[65][94] She communicated with fans using social media platforms such as Twitter and personal video blogs and co-hosted the pre-show for the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.[65]
The lead single from the album, "Love Story", was released in September 2008 and became the second-best-selling country single of all time, peaking at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[95] Four more singles were released throughout 2008 and 2009: "White Horse", "You Belong with Me", "Fifteen" and "Fearless". "You Belong with Me" was the album's highest-charting single, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100.[96] The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 Album Chart with sales of 592,304, and has since sold over 8.6 million copies worldwide.[97] It was the top-selling album of 2009 and brought Swift much crossover success.[98]
In addition to tour dates, the singer paid tribute to a number of fellow artists in televised performances. She performed a cover of Alan Jackson's "Drive" at the CMT Giants: Alan Jackson event, took part in a joint, televised concert with rock band Def Leppard in Nashville, and performed a cover of Strait's "Run" at a televised ACM event honoring Strait as the Artist of the Decade.[104] Swift sang her song "Fifteen" with Miley Cyrus at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards and performed a self-penned rap skit with T-Pain at the CMT Awards.[105]
Swift also recorded a number of side-projects. She released a cover of Tom Petty's "American Girl" through Rhapsody in 2009,[106] and made her stage entrance to Petty's recording of the song until 2013.[107] She contributed backing vocals to Mayer's "Half of My Heart", a single featured on his fourth album.[108] She co-wrote and recorded "Best Days of Your Life" with Kellie Pickler[109] and co-wrote two songs for the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack—"You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" and "Crazier"—with Martin Johnson and Robert Ellis Orrall, respectively.[110] Swift also provided vocals for Boys Like Girls's "Two Is Better Than One", written by Martin Johnson.[111] She contributed two songs—including "Today Was a Fairytale"—to the Valentine's Day soundtrack,[112] and recorded a cover of Better Than Ezra's "Breathless" for the Hope for Haiti Now album.[113]
Swift performing in Los Angeles during the Fearless Tour in 2010
Swift won four Grammy Awards in 2010, from a total of eight nominations.[122] Fearless was named Album of the Year and Best Country Album, while "White Horse" was named Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance.[123] She was the youngest ever artist to win Album of the Year.[124]
During the 2010 Grammy Awards ceremony, Swift sang "You Belong with Me" and "Rhiannon" with Stevie Nicks. Her vocal performance received negative reviews and sparked a widespread media backlash.[121][125] Her vocals were described variously as "badly off-key," "strikingly bad" and "incredibly wretched."[126][127] While Caramanica of The New York Times found it "refreshing to see someone so gifted make the occasional flub" and described Swift as "the most important new pop star of the past few years,"[124] music analyst Bob Lefsetz predicted that her career would end "overnight." He publicly appealed to Swift's father to hire a "crisis publicity agent" to manage the story because "Taylor's too young and dumb to understand the mistake she made."[128][129] Stevie Nicks, writing in Time, defended the singer:
Taylor reminds me of myself in her determination and her childlike nature. It's an innocence that's so special and so rare. This girl writes the songs that make the whole world sing, like Neil Diamond or Elton John ... The female rock-'n'-roll-country-pop songwriter is back, and her name is Taylor Swift. And it's women like her who are going to save the music business.[130]Fearless won many other accolades and has become the most-awarded album in country music history.[131] Swift became the youngest ever artist and one of only six women to be named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association.[132] Fearless also won the Association's Album of the Year award.[132] Swift was the youngest ever artist to win the Academy of Country Music's Album of the Year honor.[133] The American Music Awards honored Swift with Artist of the Year and Favorite Country Album plaudits.[134] She was awarded the Hal David Starlight Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame[135] and was named Songwriter/Artist of the Year by the Nashville Songwriters Association.[136] Billboard named her 2009's Artist of the Year.[137] Swift was included in Time 's annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in 2010.
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