2012–14: Red
Swift's fourth studio album, Red, was released on October 22, 2012.[180] She wrote nine of the album's 16 songs alone, while the remaining seven were co-written with Rose, Max Martin, Dan Wilson, Ed Sheeran, and Gary Lightbody. Chapman served as the album's lead producer but Jeff Bhasker, Butch Walker, Jacknife Lee, Dann Huff and Shellback also produced individual tracks. Chapman said he encouraged Swift "to branch out and to test herself in other situations."[181] Musically, while there is experimentation with heartland rock, dubstep and dance-pop, it is "sprinkled among more recognisably Swiftian fare."[182][183]
As part of the Red promotional campaign, representatives from 72 worldwide radio stations were flown to Nashville during release week for individual interviews with Swift.[188] She also appeared on many television chat shows and performed at award ceremonies in the U.S., the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Australia.[189]
The album's lead single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", became Swift's first number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.[190][191] Six further singles were released: "Begin Again" (for country radio), "I Knew You Were Trouble", "22", "Everything Has Changed", "The Last Time" (all for pop and international radio) and "Red" (for country radio). "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "I Knew You Were Trouble" were both international hits.[191] Red debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 1.21 million copies—this marked the highest opening sales in a decade and made Swift the first female to have two million-selling album openings.[192] As of May 2013, Red had sold over 6 million copies worldwide.[193]
Swift performing in Los Angeles during the 2013 Red Tour
Swift collaborated with a number of other artists during the Red era. She co-wrote "Sweeter Than Fiction" with Jack Antonoff for the One Chance movie soundtrack, and received a Best Original Song nomination at the 71st Golden Globe Awards.[197][198] She provided guest vocals for a McGraw song titled "Highway Don't Care", featuring guitar work by Urban—the trio performed the song live on three occasions.[199] She performed an acoustic version of "Red" with Vince Gill and Alison Krauss at the 2013 CMA Awards.[200] Swift performed "As Tears Go By" with The Rolling Stones in Chicago as part of their 50 & Counting... tour.[201] She also joined Florida Georgia Line on stage during their set at the 2013 Country Radio Seminar to sing "Cruise".[202]
Red did not win any Grammy Awards, but was nominated in a total of four categories. "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was a Record of the Year nominee at the 2013 Grammy Awards, while Red was an Album of the Year nominee at the 2014 Grammy Awards. Similarly, Swift's fourth album did not win any awards at the Country Music Association's annual ceremony. However, Swift was honored by the Association with a special Pinnacle Award for "unique" levels of success; Garth Brooks is the only other recipient. McGraw, Hill, Urban, Flatts, Strait and Brad Paisley presented Swift with the award, while Mick Jagger, Simon, Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, Ethel Kennedy and Justin Timberlake recorded video messages. The New York Times considered it an attempt to persuade "country music's cash cow, its creative engine, its ambassador to the wider world" to remain within the genre[203] while The New Yorker wondered whether "it may have been the moment when Swift and the genre that helped steer her toward pop domination said goodbye."[204]
Swift won three MTV Europe Music Awards in 2012, including the honors for Best Female and Best Live Act.[205] "I Knew You Were Trouble" won Best Female Video at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.[206] She was named Best Female Country Artist at the 2012 American Music Awards and was named Artist of the Year at the 2013 ceremony.[207] The Nashville Songwriters Association's Songwriter/Artist Award went to Swift for the fifth and sixth consecutive years in 2012 and 2013.[208]
In the Red era, Swift's romantic life became the subject of intense media scrutiny. Gawker remarked that Swift had dated "every man in the universe."[209] The Westboro Baptist Church protested Swift's concerts, labelling her "the whorish face of doomed America," while Abercrombie & Fitch marketed a slogan T-shirt with a "slut-shaming" Swift reference.[210] The New York Times asserted that her "dating history has begun to stir what feels like the beginning of a backlash" and questioned whether Swift was in the midst of a "quarter-life crisis."[211] At the 2013 Golden Globes award ceremony, comediennes Tina Fey and Amy Poehler made a joke about Swift's serial-dating reputation, with Fey warning her to "stay away" from young men in the audience: "She needs some 'me' time to learn about herself."[212] Swift was later asked about the incident in a Vanity Fair profile: "I can laugh at myself [but it added to] everyone jumping on the bandwagon of 'Taylor dates too much.'" Elsewhere in the article, while discussing what the journalist describes as "the Golden Globes, and mean girls in general," Swift approvingly quoted Madeline Albright's remark that, "There's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."[213]
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