Red (Taylor Swift album)
Red is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released on October 22, 2012, by Big Machine Records. The album's title refers to the tumultuous, "red" emotions Swift experienced during the album's conception; its songs discuss the complex and conflicting feelings resulting from fading romance.
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Released | October 22, 2012 | |||
Recorded | c. 2011–2012 | |||
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Length | 65:09 | |||
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Taylor Swift chronology | ||||
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Singles from Red | ||||
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Hoping to experiment with new sounds that would expand her music beyond its traditional country pop style, Swift engaged new producers such as Dann Huff, Max Martin, Shellback, Jeff Bhasker, Dan Wilson, Jacknife Lee, Butch Walker, alongside her long-time collaborator Nathan Chapman. The final product was a collection of pop, country and rock songs with folk and electronic elements, drawing from sub-genres such as arena rock, Britrock, dance-pop, and dubstep. Big Machine promoted Red as a country album but many critics disputed this categorization, calling it a straightforward pop record. The album was supported with seven singles, four of which peaked inside the top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100; the lead single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" topped the chart, while "Begin Again", "I Knew You Were Trouble", and "Red" reached numbers seven, two, and six, respectively.
The album spent seven weeks atop the U.S. Billboard 200, making Swift the first female artist and the second act since the Beatles to have three consecutive albums spend at least six weeks at number one. It topped the charts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom as well. Red is certified seven times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and has received multi-platinum certifications in other countries. It received nominations for Album of the Year at the 2013 Country Music Association Awards, and Album of the Year and Best Country Album at the 2014 Grammy Awards. Swift promoted the album with the Red Tour (2013–2014), the most successful country tour of all time, grossing $150 million.
Swift's songwriting in Red was positively received by critics, but they were divided on the album's sonic range; praise was directed at the album's versatility but criticism targeted its inconsistency. Retrospectively, many critics have claimed Red as Swift's best work and a transitional record bridging her country roots to mainstream pop. The album appeared in several publications' lists of the best albums of the 2010s, and ranked at number 99 in the 2020 revision of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Following a dispute regarding the ownership of its master, a re-recording of the album containing several unreleased songs, titled Red (Taylor's Version), was released in November 2021.
Background
Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift released her third studio album, Speak Now, in October 2010. Rolling Stone reported in 2020 that Swift wrote the music to Speak Now alone to prove to critics she was capable;[2] Swift herself says it happened by accident as she would write songs in early morning hours and did not have a co-writer around before she finished the songs.[3] Speak Now, which was co-produced by Swift and her longtime collaborator Nathan Chapman, expands on her characteristic country pop sound with increasingly frequent elements of radio-friendly pop crossover, which are evident on its predecessor, Fearless (2008).[4] It incorporates various rock styles, including pop rock and bluegrass.[5] Speak Now was the fastest-selling digital album by a female artist, with 278,000 downloads in a week, earning Swift an entry in the 2010 Guinness World Records.[6] At the 54th Grammy Awards in 2012, the album was nominated for Best Country Album, and its single "Mean" won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance.[7]
Recording and production
After the release of Speak Now, Swift planned to continue collaborating with Chapman for its follow-up.[8] By October 2011, she had written around 25 songs.[9] Executives at Swift's label Big Machine congratulated her on having finalized the album within one year.[10] Swift said she had been repeating the same songwriting process she used for Speak Now, which diminished her creativity.[10] She sought to collaborate with Chapman and new producers to venture outside of her comfort zone of writing songs alone.[10] While Speak Now was Swift's statement as a songwriter, she envisioned her fourth studio album as a statement of her "thirst for learning".[2] She reworked the new album while touring Speak Now.[11]
Swift, aiming to experiment with as many styles as she could, decided her fourth studio album would not follow one coherent genre.[10] To this end, she recruited musicians whose works she admired, hoping to learn from them.[11] Although Swift wanted to experiment with various musical styles, she prioritized the lyrics over the production and strove to capture her emotions, as she had done on her previous songs. Songwriting would start by identifying an emotion with a song, and production would follow.[12] On songs Swift co-wrote, she first presented her co-writers with the feelings she had been going through, played a rough demo on her guitar, and asked for their ideas on ways to better convey the story.[8] Each song's production corresponded to the emotion it portrayed, resulting in an eclectic mix of styles.[10]
The first song written for the album was "All Too Well", which Swift began writing in February 2011 during a rehearsal of the Speak Now tour.[2] Having recently ended a relationship, Swift began ad-libbing self-written lyrics about heartbreak on a four-chord guitar riff as her touring band spontaneously played backing instruments.[2] A critical point during a recording session with Chapman was the song "Red", on which her creativity "started wandering to all the places [she] could go".[8] Big Machine's president Scott Borchetta overheard Chapman's original production and suggested a more pop-oriented sound.[13] After several failed attempts to get the desired sound, Swift asked Borchetta to recruit Swedish producer Max Martin, whose ability to "just land a chorus" for his chart-topping pop songs intrigued Swift.[8][13] Martin and his frequent collaborator Shellback produced the songs "22", "I Knew You Were Trouble", and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", all of which are characterized by Martin's and Shellback's trademark synthesizers and electronic production.[13] The final version of "Red" was produced by Swift, Chapman, and Dann Huff.[14] Huff, who had produced for several country artists, worked with Swift and Chapman on "Starlight" and "Begin Again".[11][14]
Another new collaborator was Jeff Bhasker, whose production of "We Are Young" (2011) by indie band Fun captivated Swift by its drum instrumentation.[10][15] Bhasker produced two songs: "Holy Ground" and "The Lucky One".[14] Swift worked with Butch Walker on the song "Everything Has Changed", a duet with English singer Ed Sheeran.[11] She admired Walker for the way "he creates this really organic but emotionally charged music".[10] "Treacherous" was produced by Dan Wilson, whose work with his band Semisonic inspired Swift.[11][15] She engaged musicians Gary Lightbody and Jacknife Lee of the Irish-Scottish band Snow Patrol, saying, "they can just hit you when they are singing about loss or longing".[8] Lee produced "The Last Time", on which Lightbody sings.[11] Swift wrote more than 30 songs for the album, 16 of which made the final cut of the standard edition.[16] Of those 16 tracks, Swift was the sole writer of 10 and co-wrote the other six.[15]
Music and lyrics
Composition
The final 16-track version of Red is a genre-spanning record, departing from the predominantly country-pop sound of Swift's previous albums.[2][17] Swift called its diverse musical styles a "metaphor for how messy a real breakup is" and described it as her "only true breakup album".[2] Critics were divided about the genre that best describes the album. J. English wrote for NPR that the album's influences range from Swift's well-known country sound to new genres such as dance-pop, dubstep, and Britrock.[17] Jon Dolan's album review for Rolling Stone appeared in their column for country music[18] while AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it a straightforward pop album with no trace of country.[19] In another review, Billboard viewed it as a crossover album that is reminiscent of Canadian singer-songwriter Shania Twain's 2002 country-pop crossover Up!.[20]
The first half of Red consists of country and pop songs intertwined with each other.[20][21] The songs critics described as pure pop are "I Knew You Were Trouble", "22", and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together".[note 1] Some songs, such as "State of Grace" and "Holy Ground", which music professor James Perone found reminiscent of 1980s arena rock, expand on the rock stylings of Speak Now.[22] Others, such as "I Almost Do", "Stay Stay Stay", "Sad Beautiful Tragic",[17][23] and "Begin Again", are reminiscent of the country sound of Swift's older songs.[24] In Consequence's description, "Red flips between gut-wrenching country ballads, dubstep kiss-offs, gang-vocal pop bops—but that sonic whiplash embodies the messiness of truly breaking up and growing up."[25]
Lyrics and themes
While the album's music transcends Swift's country roots, her storytelling ability, which was nurtured by her country background, remains intact in her songwriting.[17][26] The album's title refers to what Swift termed the tumultuous, "red" emotions that were evoked by unhealthy romantic relationships she was experiencing during the album's conception phase.[27] She described the emotions, which ranged "from intense love, intense frustration, jealousy, confusion", as extreme feelings where "there's nothing in between. There's nothing beige about any of those feelings".[27] The lyrics discuss these feelings, describing a full range of emotional intensity.[28] Pitchfork's Brad Nelson summed up the album's theme as disappearances, from lost romance to lost friendship to Swift's old country sound; this is reflected in the album cover, on which Swift is looking downward with her face partially shadowed from her brimmed hat.[29] Critics noted the similarities between the cover of Red and that of Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell's 1971 album Blue,[29][30] which inspired Swift's songwriting on Red.[31]
Compared to the fantasy-driven narratives with happy endings of Swift's previous songs, Red realizes the uneasy reality in which the most seemingly enduring relationships can painfully end.[29] In the album's liner notes, Swift quotes a line from Pablo Neruda's poetry collection Tonight I Can Write (The Saddest Lines), "Love is so short, forgetting is so long," which sets the album's tone.[32][note 2] Critics observed a sign of maturity in Swift's perspectives and recognized the album's additional themes, which range from wide-eyed optimism to insecurity about one's perceived image and the pressure of stardom.[17][19] Hints of sex, a theme that is absent from Swift's earlier music, are also apparent on Red, which coincided with Swift's outgrowing of her public image as an innocent sweetheart.[17][note 3] Writing for The A.V. Club, Michael Gallucci acknowledged the songs on Red present a deeper observation but did not appreciate their demonization of Swift's ex-lovers.[34] NPR's J. English, meanwhile, noted the album portrays Swift at her most vulnerable and maturity for recognizing her coming of age in "plaintive, reflective tones".[17] Billboard similarly noted the album's portrayal of maturity through vulnerability, saying "she most effectively lays bare her emotional life in all its messy complexity".[28] Most of the songs on Red were inspired by one ex-boyfriend who, according to Swift, contacted her after listening to the album and described the experience as "bittersweet".[35]
Songs
Red opens with "State of Grace", an arena rock song featuring chiming guitars, dynamic drums, fuzzy guitar swooshes, and lyrics about the tumultuous feelings that are evoked by the first sights of love.[29][36] James Perone found the song reminiscent of 1980s rock and said it sets the album's main theme of the complex feelings caused by lost romance.[37] The title track "Red" incorporates acoustic banjo, guitars, and electronic voice manipulation.[38] The lyrics in the refrain relate the stages of love to colors; "losing him" is blue, "missing him" is dark gray, and "loving him" is red.[39] Spin senior staff writer Marc Hogan described the track as soft rock[38] while Taste of Country senior editor Billy Dukes felt the song straddles the boundary between country and mainstream pop.[23]
The third track, "Treacherous", begins with slow guitar strumming and percussion.[20][29] Swift sings about fighting to protect a dangerous relationship.[23] "I Knew You Were Trouble", which critics regarded as Swift's most radical sonic innovation on the album, begins with pop-rock production and acoustic guitar before cascading into a dubstep-tinged refrain with aggressive synthesizer backing.[20][29][40] Its lyrics find Swift blaming herself for a toxic relationship that has ended.[21] Swift said the song was a completely new style for her that "people were going to be freaked out over".[41] Critic Jon Caramanica from The New York Times described the dubstep production as "a wrecking ball, changing the course not just of the song but also of Ms. Swift's career".[21]
"All Too Well" is widely regarded by critics as the album's emotional centerpiece.[2][29][42] The song, which has a slow-burning production blending country, folk, and soft rock, chronicles Swift's heartache.[20] It vividly chronicles a lost relationship from the peak of romance to the lingering memories after it has ended.[20][43] The lyrics' imagery of Swift's scarf, which is left in a drawer, became a symbol associated with the song; according to critic Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone, "no other song does such a stellar job of showing off her ability to blow up a trivial little detail into a legendary heartache".[44][45] It is followed by "22", a straight pop song featuring pulsing synthesizers that has a 1980s sound.[21][46] The lyrics of "22" celebrate the joys of being young and confident with no fear of aging while acknowledging the heartache Swift and her friends endured in the past.[17][26]
"I Almost Do" is a country-pop and soft-rock ballad featuring gentle guitar strums and lyrics about the internal struggle to choose whether to rekindle a relationship with an ex-lover.[20][42] Swift said the song is about "the conflict that you feel when you want to take someone back, and you want to give it another try, but you know you can't".[47] It is followed by "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", which finds Swift promising her ex-lover they will never return to their broken relationship.[20] The song is a gleeful, dance-pop tune with pulsing synthesizers, processed guitar sounds, and hip hop-influenced bass drums.[19][48]
"Stay Stay Stay" is a fast-tempo song instrumented with a toy piano, ukulele, mandolin, and hand claps; its lyrics are about Swift and her lover trying to reconcile after a fight.[21][43] It is followed by "The Last Time", a duet with Gary Lightbody.[48] "The Last Time" has a melancholic production and is backed by string instruments; Perone compared the song with the music of late-1970s and early-1980s rock bands but with a muted texture.[49] Both Swift and Lightbody sing lead vocals; in the first verse, Lightbody sings about his perspectives on a failing long-term relationship and in the second verse, Swift presents her view.[49] The refrain is backed by strings and brass, intensifying the emotional tension between the two characters.[50]
The eleventh track, "Holy Ground" is an uptempo heartland rock and Country pop song with a pop-rock chorus, chugging guitars and pulsating 1980s synths. Lyrically, the song sees Swift reminiscing about an absent lover and describing the ground on which they stood together as "holy ground".[49] Both Perone and Slant Magazine described the song as either country rock or heartland rock and said it expands on Swift's country-pop sound. [49][43] The next track, "Sad Beautiful Tragic", is a melancholic, slow, folk-oriented waltz about a doomed love affair.[20][23] The soft-rock track "The Lucky One" is a cautionary tale about the perils of celebrity.[17][51] Narrated from a third-person perspective, it references the story of a successful singer who "chose the rose garden over Madison Square".[20][43]
"Everything Has Changed" is a stripped-back guitar ballad on which Swift and Ed Sheeran sing about wanting to begin a new romance.[20][52] "Starlight" is an uptempo, dance-pop song with lyrics that describe the romance of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy.[18][20][43] The album's final track, "Begin Again", is a gentle country song[20] that, according to Swift, is about "when you've gotten through a really bad relationship and you finally dust yourself off and go on that first date after a horrible breakup, and the vulnerability that goes along with all that".[42] Perone noted Red, after exploring other genres, concludes with a country song, confirming the importance of Swift's country roots.[24]
The deluxe edition of Red includes the extra original songs "The Moment I Knew", "Come Back ... Be Here", and "Girl at Home"; and three alternative versions of "Treacherous", "Red", and "State of Grace".[53][54] "The Moment I Knew" narrates a story of a woman's birthday party from which, despite a Christmas theme and good friends, her boyfriend is absent, signaling a failing relationship. "Come Back... Be Here" was produced by Dan Wilson, who also produced "Treacherous"; the lyrics describe a long-distance relationship with no sign it could continue longer than two days. The final song "Girl at Home" is about a woman's feelings when her boyfriend is out and flirting with other women.[53]
Release and promotion
Marketing
Swift and Big Machine implemented an extensive marketing plan for Red.[55] On August 13, 2012, Swift gave a live webchat via Google Hangouts, through which she announced the details of Red, revealed the release date and cover art, and answered fan questions.[27][56] She concurrently released the album's lead single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together",[27] which topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks.[57] An alternative version of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was released to US country radio;[58] it peaked for ten weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs.[59]
On September 22, 2012, Swift announced she would preview one song from Red each week on Good Morning America, as part of a four-week release countdown from September 24 until the album's release week.[60] The four songs—"Begin Again",[61] "Red",[62] "I Knew You Were Trouble",[63] and "State of Grace"[64]—were also released for digital download ahead of the album's release. "Begin Again" was later released as a single to US country radio on October 1, 2012.[65][66] The single peaked at number seven on the US Billboard Hot 100.[67]
Both the standard and deluxe versions of Red were released on October 22, 2012.[55] In the US, the standard edition was available in digital and physical formats, and the deluxe edition containing six extra tracks was available exclusively for physical purchase at Target.[55] Swift also had tie-ins with corporations including Keds, Wal-Mart, and Papa John's.[55] A day after the release, Swift began a cycle of television appearances, starting with a live performance on Good Morning America; these were followed by pre-recorded television appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, 20/20, and other similar shows.[55] She made many appearances on radio, giving interviews to 72 stations, mostly in the US and some international outlets from South Africa, New Zealand, Spain, Germany, and Mexico.[55] She also performed at awards shows including the MTV Video Music Awards,[68] the Country Music Association Awards,[69] and the American Music Awards.[70]
Red was further promoted with a string of singles. "I Knew You Were Trouble" was released as an official single to pop radio on November 27, 2012;[71] it was a big hit on pop radio, peaking for seven weeks atop the Billboard Mainstream Top 40/Pop Songs.[41] The single peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100,[72] and was a top-ten hit in Oceania and Europe.[73] "22" was released to pop radio in March 2013[74] and "Red" was released to country radio in June 2013.[75] The singles peaked at number 20 and number six on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively.[76] Tracks "Everything Has Changed"[77] and "The Last Time" were also released as singles; "The Last Time" had a limited release to UK radio.[78]
While Swift and Big Machine promoted Red as a country album, its diverse musical styles sparked a media debate over Swift's status as a country singer-songwriter.[58][79] Music magazine Spin argued Red is difficult to categorize because country music is "the most dynamically vibrant pop genre of the last decade or so".[80] Others noted Swift had always been more pop-oriented than country and described Red as her inevitable move to mainstream pop.[81] In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Swift responded country music "feels like home" and dismissed the debate regarding her country status, saying "I leave the genre labeling to other people".[81]
Touring
Swift announced the album's accompanying world tour, the Red Tour, shortly after the album's release.[82] On October 26, 2012, she announced the first 58 dates for the North American leg, beginning in Omaha, Nebraska, visiting Canada and the US throughout the spring and summer of 2013, and concluding in Nashville, Tennessee, in September.[83] To support a high demand, Swift held the concerts mostly in sports arenas and stadiums.[82] After the North American leg, the Red Tour visited Australasia,[84] the UK,[85] and Asia.[86]
The Red Tour was a box office success. The four shows at Staples Center in Los Angeles extended Swift's total of sold-out shows to 11, making her the solo artist with the most sold-out shows at Staples Center.[87] She was the first female artist to sell out the Sydney Football Stadium since its opening in 1988.[88] Tickets for the Shanghai show sold out within 60 seconds, setting the Chinese record for the fastest sellout.[86] When it ended in June 2014, the tour had grossed $150.2 million and became the highest-grossing tour by a country artist of all time.[89]
Critical reception
Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 6.6/10[90] |
Metacritic | 77/100[91] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [19] |
The A.V. Club | B+[34] |
The Daily Telegraph | [92] |
Entertainment Weekly | B+[46] |
The Guardian | [93] |
Los Angeles Times | [51] |
MSN Music (Expert Witness) | A−[94] |
Pitchfork | 9.0/10[29] |
Rolling Stone | [18] |
Spin | 8/10[80] |
Red generally received positive reviews from contemporary critics, most of whom commended Swift's songwriting.[55][95] Jon Dolan from Rolling Stone called the album "a 16-song geyser of willful eclecticism", said Swift "often succeeds in joining the Joni [Mitchell]/Carole King tradition of stark-relief emotional mapping", and that "When she's really on, her songs are like tattoos".[18] Pitchfork's Brad Nelson lauded the "newfound patience to Swift's observations" and deeper exploration of emotion in Red's songwriting.[29]
The album's production polarized critics. Billboard praised Red's radio-friendly tunes that catapulted Swift to even greater fame.[20] Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic asserted that although Swift's lyrics about romantic relationships and social anxiety sound somewhat clumsy, they add substance to "the pristine pop confections", which makes Red a compelling album.[19] The Guardian's Kate Mossman described the album as "one of the finest fantasies pop music has ever constructed".[93] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Randall Roberts was impressed by the different musical styles as Swift "strives for something much more grand and accomplished".[51] Jon Caramanica from The New York Times agreed, calling the production a striking feature of Red that proves Swift is more of a pop star than a country singer.[21]
Critics often considered Red to be a sign of Swift growing up. Billboard considered Red to be her first adult pop album, describing her previous works as that of "an accomplished teenager".[20] Caramanica stated that her growth was "largely musical, not experiential."[21] He noted that she was beginning to show more maturity as a strategist and adult.[21] Caramanica asserted that there are indications that Red shows her "body is as alive as her mind," which was "territory she’s generally skipped before now."[21] Dolan considered the album part "Joni Mitchell-influenced maturity binge" and part pop, describing the combination as "not just inevitable but natural."[18] Spin's Michael Robbins characterized the album as a record "full of adult pleasures".[80]
Some reviewers were more reserved in their praise. Jonathan Keefe from Slant Magazine considered Red not consistent enough to be "truly great" but asserted that some of the songs were "career-best work for Swift, who now sounds like the pop star she was destined to be all along".[43] Michael Gallucci from The A.V. Club argued the music was more ambitious than Swift's previous records but considered the album as a whole "complicated and sometimes unfocused".[34] He considered the duets boring and the occasional use of Auto-Tune to "sound like any number of indistinguishable female pop singers".[34] Writing for MSN Music, Robert Christgau viewed Red as an inferior version of the Magnetic Fields' 1999 album 69 Love Songs but appreciated "Begin Again" and "Stay Stay Stay", considering them to "stay happy and hit just as hard" as songs on 69 Love Songs.[94] The Daily Telegraph's James Lachno found the production bloated and commented the album would be better had Swift fully embraced mainstream pop and abandoned her old country sound.[92] Mesfin Fekadu of the Associated Press asserted that the album "sounded empty" compared to Fearless (2008) and Speak Now (2010), but praised "I Almost Do" and the duets.[96]
Accolades
Red received accolades in terms of both critical and popular recognition. Mainstream publications featuring Red on their lists of the best albums of 2012 included Billboard,[97] The Daily Beast,[98] The Guardian,[99] Idolator,[100] MTV News,[101] Newsday,[102] PopMatters,[103] Rolling Stone,[104] Spin,[105] and Stereogum.[106] Critic Jon Caramanica ranked the album second on his list of 2012's best albums for The New York Times.[107] Red was placed at number 17 on the 2012 Pazz & Jop, an annual mass critics' poll conducted by The Village Voice.[108] Spin proclaimed Red one of 2012's best country albums.[109]
At the 56th Grammy Awards in 2014, Red was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Country Album.[110] The album received nominations at US country music awards, including two nominations for Album of the Year at the 2013 Country Music Association Awards[111] and the 2013 Academy of Country Music Awards.[112] It won Favorite Country Album at the 2013 American Music Awards,[113] Top Album and Top Country Album at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards,[114] Top Selling Album at the 2013 Canadian Country Music Association Awards,[115] and Top Selling International Album of the Year at the 2014 Country Music Awards of Australia.[116]
Commercial performance
Red was a commercial success.[117] In the US, Red debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 1,208,000 copies.[118] It was Swift's third consecutive Billboard 200 number one.[118] In just over two months, sales of Red exceeded 3.1 million copies.[119] It had the most single-week sales of 2012 and surpassed Garth Brooks's 1998 album Double Live as the fastest-selling country album.[120] With this achievement, Swift was recognized in Guinness World Records as the "First Solo Female with Two Million-Selling Weeks on the U.S. Albums Chart"; her previous studio album Speak Now (2010) also sold one million copies in its debut week.[121]
Red spent seven non-consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard 200,[122] making Swift the first female artist, and the first artist since the Beatles, to have three consecutive studio albums each spend six or more weeks atop the chart.[note 4] Red was the third consecutive time—Fearless (2008) being the first and Speak Now (2010) the second—that Swift had an album peak at number one during the last week before Christmas, which is traditionally the most competitive week of the year for album sales.[124] On Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, it spent 16 weeks at number one, and was the year-end number-one album of both 2012 and 2013.[125]
The album reached number one on the record charts of European and Oceanic countries, including Australia,[126] Canada,[127] New Zealand,[128] Ireland,[129] and Scotland.[130] Red was Swift's first number one on the UK Albums Chart;[131] it was certified 2× platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and as of June 2021 had sold over 772,000 copies.[132][133] In the UK, Red produced the most top-ten singles of any Taylor Swift album.[132] Less than a month after its release, Red sold 2.8 million copies worldwide.[117] In the US, Red was the second-highest-selling album of 2012 after two months of sales, selling 3.11 million copies.[134] Globally, Red, with sales of 5.2 million copies, was the second-best-selling album of 2012.[135]
By August 2014, Red had sold over eight million copies.[136] As of October 2020, Red's US sales stood at 4.49 million.[137] The album was certified seven times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling in excess of seven million album-equivalent units.[138] It also received multi-platinum certifications in Australia (4× platinum), Canada (4× platinum),[139][140] and New Zealand (2× platinum).[141]
Impact and legacy
Red appeared on many publications' lists of the best albums of the 2010s. According to Metacritic, it was the fifteenth-most-acclaimed album of the decade.[142] It featured on Atwood Magazine's unranked list,[143] and was included on lists of The Independent[144] and Pitchfork.[145] It was ranked within the top 10 by Insider (first),[146] Uproxx (third),[147] Billboard (fourth),[148] Rolling Stone (fourth),[149] the Tampa Bay Times (ninth),[150] and Stereogum (tenth).[151] Taste of Country ranked Red as one of the best country albums of the decade.[152] In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked Red at number 99 on its revised list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[153]
The album's production straddling country and pop inspired Swift to venture into genres she had not tried before.[154] The successful pop radio singles, specifically the dubstep-infused "I Knew You Were Trouble", served as a "signal flare" for Swift to collaborate with pop producers Max Martin and Shellback, who are known for radio-friendly pop, again.[155][156] Upon reading reviews calling Red an inconsistent album, Swift fully embraced the electropop sound, transcending her earlier country image.[157] Its upbeat pop production laid the groundwork for the electropop[158] and synth-pop sound of her next album, 1989 (2014).[154][159] Swift continued to explore pop with its successors Reputation (2017) and Lover (2019).[160]
Red [was] where [Swift] proved herself not just the supreme pop songwriter of her generation, but one of the all-timers. [...] Red wasn't her first masterwork, but it's the one that established the Swiftian universe as a place where every lost scarf is a ticking time bomb that can take years to explode into a classic song.
–Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone (2021)[161]
Many critics claim Red as Swift's best body of work.[162] According to Pitchfork, Red progressed Swift's sound "to meet the highest aspirations of her songwriting", watching her push herself outside of traditional boundaries "to stray into the interzone between pop and country".[163] Clash demarcated Red as the turning point of Swift's career—it "was the first time Taylor actively stepped away from the pretty dresses and southern girl chic" to the outrage of "old fashioned listeners". According to the magazine, Red proved an album can be "both ground-breaking and wildly commercial", because avant-garde is not the only way to experiment with music, as Swift "opened a door for every other musician" in 2012 to coalesce multiple genres.[164] Jordan Sargent of Spin named Red "one of the best pop albums of our time".[165]
Various media outlets have credited Red with inspiring a generation of artists; The New York Times critic Steven Hyden said Red encouraged new indie artists to put out music that is "aesthetically much closer to Swift's pop than anything in the rock underground".[166] MTV said Red normalized intimacy in pop music and popularized Swift's vulnerable songwriting style with future artists such as Halsey, Kacey Musgraves, Troye Sivan, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and Conan Gray.[167] Fans and critics have also dubbed Red an "autumnal album" due to its aesthetic and lyrical imagery.[168] In 2019, an indie rock album titled ReRed, featuring Wild Pink, Adult Mom, Chris Farren, and other artists, was released as a tribute to Red. All of its proceeds go to Equal Justice Initiative.[169]
2021 re-recording
In November 2020, following a dispute over the ownership of the masters to her back catalog, Swift began re-recording her first six studio albums.[170] Fearless (Taylor's Version), the first of her re-recorded albums, was released on April 9, 2021.[171] On June 18, 2021, Swift announced Red (Taylor's Version) would be released on November 12, 2021, seven days earlier than originally planned.[172] The new album contains all 30 songs Swift recorded for the 2012 release of Red;[173] these include the charity single "Ronan", her recordings of the 2016 Little Big Town single "Better Man" and 2018 Sugarland single "Babe", the ten-minute version of "All Too Well", and six other new tracks.[174][175]
Track listing
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "State of Grace" | Taylor Swift |
| 4:55 |
2. | "Red" | Swift |
| 3:43 |
3. | "Treacherous" |
| Wilson | 4:02 |
4. | "I Knew You Were Trouble" |
|
| 3:39 |
5. | "All Too Well" |
|
| 5:29 |
6. | "22" |
|
| 3:52 |
7. | "I Almost Do" | Swift |
| 4:04 |
8. | "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" |
|
| 3:13 |
9. | "Stay Stay Stay" | Swift |
| 3:25 |
10. | "The Last Time" (featuring Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol) |
| Lee | 4:59 |
11. | "Holy Ground" | Swift | Jeff Bhasker | 3:22 |
12. | "Sad Beautiful Tragic" | Swift |
| 4:44 |
13. | "The Lucky One" | Swift | Bhasker | 4:00 |
14. | "Everything Has Changed" (featuring Ed Sheeran) |
| Butch Walker | 4:05 |
15. | "Starlight" | Swift |
| 3:40 |
16. | "Begin Again" | Swift |
| 3:57 |
Total length: | 65:09 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
17. | "The Moment I Knew" | Swift |
| 4:46 |
18. | "Come Back... Be Here" |
| Wilson | 3:43 |
19. | "Girl at Home" | Swift |
| 3:40 |
20. | "Treacherous" (original demo recording) |
| Wilson | 4:00 |
21. | "Red" (original demo recording) | Swift |
| 3:47 |
22. | "State of Grace" (acoustic version) | Swift |
| 5:23 |
Total length: | 25:19 |
Notes
- "I Knew You Were Trouble" is stylized as "I Knew You Were Trouble.".
Personnel
Credits are adapted from AllMusic.[14]
Musicians
- Taylor Swift – lead vocals, background vocals, acoustic guitar
- Nathan Chapman – bass guitar, drums, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, mandolin, percussion, piano, soloist, synthesizer, background vocals
- Peggy Baldwin – cello
- Brett Banducci – viola
- Jeff Bhasker – bass guitar, keyboards, piano, background vocals
- J. Bonilla – drums, percussion
- Nick Buda – drums
- Tom Bukovac – electric guitar
- David Campbell – string arrangements, conducting
- Daphne Chen – violin
- Lauren Chipman – viola
- Eric Darken – percussion
- Marcia Dickstein – harp
- Richard Dodd – cello
- Paul Franklin – steel guitar
- Eric Gorfain – violin
- Dann Huff – bouzouki, electric guitar, high strung guitar, mandolin
- Charlie Judge – accordion, Hammond B3, piano, upright piano, strings, synthaxe, synthesizer
- Gina Kronstadt – violin
- John Krovoza – cello
- Marisa Kuney – violin
- Jacknife Lee – bass guitar, guitar, keyboards
- Max Martin – keyboards
- Grant Mickelson – guitar
- Anders Mouridsen – guitar
- Jamie Muhoberac – cello
- Neli Nikolaeva – violin
- Owen Pallett – conductor, orchestration
- Radu Pieptea – violin
- Simeon Pillich – contrabass
- Wes Precourt – violin
- Bill Rieflin – drums
- Shellback – bass guitar, guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboards
- Jake Sinclair – bass guitar, background vocals
- Jimmie Lee Sloas – bass guitar
- Aaron Sterling – drums
- Jeff Takiguchi – contrabass
- Andy Thompson – guitar, electric piano
- Ilya Toshinsky – mandolin
- Butch Walker – drums, guitar, keyboards, percussion, background vocals
- Patrick Warren – string arrangements
- Amy Wickman – violin
- Dan Wilson – bass guitar, electric guitar, piano, background vocals
- Rodney Wirtz – violin
- Jonathan Yudkin – fiddle, violin
- Caitlin Evanson – background vocals
- Elizabeth Huett – background vocals ("The Moment I Knew")
- Tyler Sam Johnson – background vocals
- Gary Lightbody – featured artist, background vocals
- Ciara O'Leary – background vocals
- Ed Sheeran – featured artist
Production
- Taylor Swift – songwriting, production
- Nathan Chapman – production, engineering
- Joe Baldridge – engineering
- Sam Bell – engineering
- Matt Bishop – engineering
- Delbert Bowers – assistant
- Chad Carlson – engineering
- Tom Coyne – mastering
- Leland Elliott – assistant
- Jeff Bhasker – production
- Eric Eylands – assistant
- Greg Fuess – assistant
- Chris Galland – assistant
- Serban Ghenea – mixing
- Matty Green – assistant
- John Hanes – mixing engineering
- Sam Holland – engineering
- Dann Huff – production
- David Huff – digital editing
- Michael Ilbert – engineer
- Tyler Sam Johnson – guitar engineer
- Jacknife Lee – engineering, production, songwriting, programming
- Gary Lightbody – songwriting
- Steve Marcantonio – engineer
- Manny Marroquin – mixing
- Max Martin – production, songwriting
- Seth Morton – assistant
- Justin Niebank – mixing
- Chris Owens – assistant
- John Rausch – engineering
- Matt Rausch – engineering
- Tim Roberts – assistant
- Eric Robinson – engineeringg
- Liz Rose – songwriting
- Pawel Sek – engineering
- Shellback – production, songwriting, programming
- Ed Sheeran – songwriting
- Jake Sinclair – engineering
- Mark "Spike" Stent – mixing
- Andy Thompson – engineering
- Butch Walker – production
- Hank Williams – mastering
- Brian David Willis – engineer
- Dan Wilson – production, songwriting
Visuals and design
|
Managerial
|
Charts
Weekly charts
Chart (2012) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums (ARIA)[126] | 1 |
Australian Country Albums (ARIA)[177] | 1 |
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[178] | 3 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[179] | 2 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[180] | 25 |
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[127] | 1 |
Croatian Albums (HDU)[181] | 27 |
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[182] | 3 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[183] | 7 |
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[184] | 49 |
French Albums (SNEP)[185] | 30 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[186] | 5 |
Irish Albums (IRMA)[129] | 1 |
Italian Albums (FIMI)[187] | 3 |
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[188] | 3 |
Mexican Albums (Top 100 Mexico)[189] | 4 |
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[128] | 1 |
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[190] | 2 |
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[191] | 8 |
Scottish Albums (OCC)[130] | 1 |
South African Albums (RISA)[192] | 4 |
South Korean Albums (Gaon)[193] | 12 |
South Korean International Albums (Gaon)[194] | 1 |
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[195] | 4 |
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[196] | 8 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[197] | 9 |
UK Albums (OCC)[198] | 1 |
US Billboard 200[199] | 1 |
US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[200] | 1 |
Chart (2019–2021) | Peak position |
---|---|
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[201] | 4 |
Croatian Albums (HDU)[202] | 4 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[203] | 7 |
US Independent Albums (Billboard)[204] | 3 |
Year-end charts
|
Decade-end charts
All-time charts
|
Certifications and sales
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA)[139] | 5× Platinum | 350,000 |
Belgium (BEA)[244] | 2× Platinum | 60,000 |
Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[245] | Gold | 20,000* |
Canada (Music Canada)[140] | 4× Platinum | 320,000^ |
Colombia (ASINCOL)[246] | Gold | |
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[247] | Platinum | 20,000 |
France (SNEP)[248] | Gold | 50,000 |
Germany (BVMI)[249] | Gold | 100,000^ |
Ireland (IRMA)[250] | Platinum | 15,000^ |
Japan (RIAJ)[251] | Platinum | 256,000[note 6] |
Japan (RIAJ)[254] Digital download |
Gold | 100,000* |
Mexico (AMPROFON)[255] | Gold | 30,000^ |
New Zealand (RMNZ)[141] | 2× Platinum | 30,000^ |
Poland (ZPAV)[256] | Gold | 10,000* |
Singapore (RIAS)[257] | Platinum | 10,000* |
Sweden (GLF)[258] | Gold | 20,000 |
United Kingdom (BPI)[133] | 2× Platinum | 695,000[note 7] |
United States (RIAA)[138] | 7× Platinum | 4,490,000[note 8] |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Release history
Country | Date | Edition(s) | Label |
---|---|---|---|
Canada[260][261] | October 22, 2012 |
|
Universal Music |
India[262] | Standard | ||
New Zealand[263] |
| ||
United Kingdom[264][265] | Mercury Records | ||
United States[266][267][268][269] |
|
Big Machine Records | |
December 4, 2012 | Vinyl LP | ||
February 5, 2013 | Karaoke CD+G/DVD | ||
Italy[270][271] | October 23, 2012 |
|
Universal Music |
Australia[272] | |||
Spain[273][274] | |||
Japan[275][276] | October 24, 2012 | ||
Netherlands[277][278] | October 25, 2012 | ||
Germany[279][280] | October 26, 2012 | ||
Thailand[281][282] | October 27, 2012 | Deluxe | |
October 31, 2012 | Standard | ||
France[283][284][285] | November 5, 2012 |
|
Mercury Records |
April 22, 2013 | Limited CD/DVD | ||
Philippines[286] | November 5, 2012 |
|
MCA Music Inc. |
Indonesia[287][288] | Standard | Universal Music | |
February 28, 2013 | Deluxe | ||
China[289][290] | December 31, 2012 | Standard | Universal Music |
May 25, 2013 | Deluxe |
See also
- List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2012
- List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2013
- List of Billboard Top Country Albums number ones of 2012
- List of Billboard Top Country Albums number ones of 2013
- List of number-one albums of 2012 (Australia)
- List of number-one albums of 2012 (Canada)
- List of number-one albums from the 2010s (New Zealand)
- List of UK Albums Chart number ones of the 2010s
Footnotes
- "I Knew You Were Trouble", "22", and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" were produced by Swedish pop producers Max Martin and Shellback.[21]
- Swift spoke about her appreciation of Neruda: "When I read that line, I absolutely connected to it. I felt like my favorite writers have almost musical hooks in their work, whether it's poetry or a hook at the end of a chapter that makes you want to read the next one [...] in saying something so relatable and universal and so simple."[33]
- The media had described Swift as "America's Sweetheart" for her wholesome girl next door image. As she became a household name in popular music, her dating history with a series of well-known male celebrities became a subject of tabloid scrutiny and began to diminish that image.[21]
- Swift's previous studio albums Fearless and Speak Now respectively spent 11 weeks in 2008–09 and six weeks in 2010–11).[123]
- The album's liner notes credit Martin and Shellback as producers, but the Recording Academy, in a list announcing nominees for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 2012, additionally credits Swift as a producer.[176]
- Japanese sales figure for Red as of December 2013[252][253]
- UK sales figure for Red of August 2019[259]
- US sales figure for Red as of October 2020[137]
References
Citations
- Red (vinyl liner notes). Taylor Swift. Nashville: Big Machine Records. 2012. BMR310400D.
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