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Taylor Swift · S2 E5
Taylor Swift (Album)
Released October 24, 2006. Self-titled, self-written, and almost entirely ignored by country radio at first.
On October 24, 2006, an independent label in Nashville releases a self-titled debut album by a sixteen-year-old who co-wrote every track. It enters the chart at number nineteen, and nobody panics, because the industry doesn't know yet that this album will refuse to leave.
"Ours" -- Taylor Swift, official music video (2011). Taylor sits in a government office surrounded by people who don't understand her, doing a job that has nothing to do with who she actually is. For an episode about a debut album released by an indie label against all industry advice, the metaphor fits perfectly.
Ours (2011)
"Ours" is written entirely by Taylor, with no co-writer, and produced by Nathan Chapman with a lightness that makes it sound almost effortless. The guitar is acoustic, the arrangement is minimal, and her vocal sits so close to the microphone that you can hear her breathe between phrases. It is the production style she and Chapman develop on the debut album, refined to its purest form. Listen for the chorus melody rising on the word "ours" each time. The interval gets slightly wider with each repetition, as though the claim is growing more confident. A small compositional detail most listeners won't notice consciously but will feel.
The Debut
“I didn't try to sound like anyone else. I just wrote about my life. I wrote about boys I liked and friends I missed and the school I went to. That was it.”
— Taylor Swift, Entertainment Weekly, November 2008
TAP TO REVEAL: What hidden message system did Taylor invent for her debut album?
I'm Only Me When I'm with You -- Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift, bonus track, 2006)
A bonus track from the debut that captures the unguarded energy of Taylor at sixteen. It is about the people who make you feel like yourself, written by someone who has just discovered that Nashville is full of people who want her to be someone else.
"Our Song" from the debut album set a specific record for Taylor Swift. What was it?
The album sells millions, but Taylor Swift is not a guitar player by training. She learns at twelve from a computer repairman who teaches her three chords, and develops a style so specific that her guitar tech later says no other artist holds the instrument the same way. Next: the guitar.
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