Band Session II 2021: Taylor Swift

Known for her narrative, often confessional songwriting and genre-spanning style, Taylor Swift released her debut album a few months before her 17th birthday.

Inspired by country musicians like Shania Twain and previous-Bird-featured-artist Dolly Parton, Swift started out writing songs about “what happened in school that day,” according to her early song-writing partner Liz Rose. Her storytelling songs still famously incorporate details of her own life, from triumphs to break-ups, leading Vox to call her the “millennial Bruce Springsteen.”

A multi-instrumentalist, Swift plays piano, banjo, ukulele and guitar – and she’s so influential that an increase in guitar sales to women and girls in recent years has been dubbed the “Taylor Swift effect.”

Swift made the tricky jump from her country roots to pop stardom, along the way producing songs with elements of rock, indie folk, EDM, R&B and more. With 11 Grammys, she’s one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and performers from Phoebe Bridgers to Billie Eilish to Shawn Mendes count her as an influence.

We’re looking forward to learning about songwriting and storytelling, as well as doing some genre-blending and genre-bending of our own, as we explore Swift’s music.

More info:

• Wikipedia
• All Taylor Swift’s songs ranked

Important Dates:

Start date: November 4, 2021
End date: January 23, 2022
(8 Weeks)
Performance/Recording: Week of January 25, 2022
Video Premiere: February 7, 2022

Holidays:
– Thanksgiving, 11/25/21-11/28/21
– Winter Break, 12/20/21-01/02/22
– MLK Jr. Day 01/17/22

Songs to explore:

• Fifteen
• 22
• I Knew You Were Trouble
• Picture to Burn
• You Belong with Me
• Shake It Off
• Love Story
• Blank Space
• All Too Well
• Holy Ground
• Red
• Wonderland
• The Story of Us
• It’s Nice to Have a Friend
• evermore
• right where you left me
• august
• New Romantics
• Mean
• Jump Then Fall
• This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
• Stay Stay Stay
• We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
• Sparks Fly