Here’s how Taylor Swift’s prolific run of albums stacks up against the all-time greats
By now, Taylor Swift knows she’s famous. Over the last few years she’s toured, released an album, been nominated for an Oscar, been on a talk show, been a magazine cover girl and played the annual MTV Video Music Awards. (And still managed to do all that in just under a week.) Swift has made about five billion dollars in the process. And she’s done it by just trying to be a part of the pop-culture world.
What does she get out of it? The singer who has sold more than 35 million records and inspired so many young women to come up in her wake gets recognized and has the chance to be on top of the world. For millions of us, it’s a chance to be a part of some kind of celebrity. It’s part of our dreams, and we don’t even know it.
The first album she ever released was 1989, which she debuted at a young age. She then released her first proper album in early 1992 — she was only 11 years old and had no real direction in her life — and it came out under the name “Just a Little Bit.” It’s not that it’s an especially good album. It’s just that she’s an amazing voice, and she did it all so well, so naturally. The album reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it her very first hit.
Over the next few years, Swift released three more albums — 1994, 1996 and 1997 — all doing well but, by this point, she was moving on from music, and she would never again put out music as big as 1992. And then Swift released her seventh album in 2008, “Fearless” and she was suddenly an international pop star. Swift’s first American Idol appearance was at the age of 14, for which she was awarded an International Artist Award.
Now, I know this all may sound very familiar to you, considering that our beloved Swift has become one of the most famous women on the planet, and I get it. She’s an amazing artist, and she’s also an incredible role model to young girls. And she has done an incredible job to reach women throughout the world, and make them believe in dreams come true.