At the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards in February 2010, Fearless won Album of the Year and Best Country Album, and its single " White Horse" won Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song. The former was the first country song to peak atop the Mainstream Top 40 chart, and the latter was the first country song to top the all-genre Radio Songs chart. Two of the album's singles, " Love Story" and " You Belong with Me", performed well on both country and pop radio, catapulting Swift to mainstream prominence. It was the best-selling album of 2009 in the United States, making Swift, then 20 years old, the youngest artist to have an annual best-seller since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking album sales in 1991. The album spent 11 weeks at number one on the US Billboard 200, the longest chart run for a female country music artist.
Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift released her second studio album, Fearless, in November 2008 through Nashville-based Big Machine Records. The album featured in 2010s decade-end lists by Billboard and Spin, and on Rolling Stone 's 2012 list of the "50 Best Female Albums of All Time". At the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012, Speak Now was nominated for Best Country Album, and its third single " Mean" won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance. Some critics complimented Swift's grown-up perspective in her songwriting, but some others considered the lyrics short of maturity and refinement. Speak Now received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics for its radio-friendly songs. The fastest-selling album by a female country artist in the United States, it spent six weeks atop the Billboard 200 and was certified six times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Speak Now peaked atop charts and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia (double platinum) and Canada (triple platinum). Six singles supported the album two singles reached the top ten of the US Billboard Hot 100-" Mine" and " Back to December", and two peaked atop the US Hot Country Songs chart-" Sparks Fly" and " Ours". The melodies are characterized by acoustic instruments intertwined with dynamic electric guitars, strings, and drums.Īfter the album's release, Swift embarked on the Speak Now World Tour, which visited Asia, Europe, North America, and Australasia from February 2011 to March 2012. Produced by Swift and Nathan Chapman, it is a country pop and pop rock album and its songs incorporate subgenres such as bluegrass, pop punk, arena rock, and goth rock. Much of Speak Now is about love and heartbreak, but Swift abandoned Fearless 's youthful optimism for introspection, inspired by her growth into adulthood.
She developed it as a loose concept album about the confessions she wanted to make to people she had met but never had the chance to. Swift wrote the album in a two-year period while she was promoting her second studio album, Fearless (2008). Speak Now is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 25, 2010, through Big Machine Records.