Before Taylor Swift was a cultural icon who spearheaded an entire generation of sad girl pop music, she was a teenage country prodigy, signing to Sony at 14 and releasing her self-titled debut album at 17. Over the next few years, she became one of the few artists in music history who successfully moved from the country market to pop stardom, with records like Fearless, Speak Now and Red establishing her as America's primary authority on songwriting about the perils of love and heartbreak. 2014's 1989 saw Swift's move from country complete as she embraced synthpop and showcased her matured lyricism, thrusting her into the center of celebrity culture and related media scrutiny, which set the stage for the lyrical themes of her next record, the maximalist Reputation. Following that album, she left her original label Big Machine Records, leading to greater artistic freedom on 2019's Lover – as well as a highly publicized copyright dispute that saw Swift re-record her Big Machine albums as the contract she signed while 15 gave the ownership of her master recordings away. 2020 saw Swift move into stripped-down, indie folk-influenced territory on Folklore and Evermore, earning her the largest amount of critical acclaim to date with impressionist, nuanced storytelling. Her latest LP, 2022's Midnights, was a return to synthpop sonics with a nocturnal aesthetic.