Fearless is the second studio album by the American singer-songwriterTaylor Swift. It was released in North America on November 11, 2008, and elsewhere on March 9, 2009, throughBig Machine Records. She wrote the majority of the album while touring in 2007–2008 and produced it withNathan Chapman.
Inspired by Swift's adolescence,Fearless explores love and heartbreak using references to her personal life andfairy tale–inspired lyrical imagery. It features co-writing credits fromLiz Rose,Hillary Lindsey,Colbie Caillat, andJohn Rich. Acountry pop album,Fearless features acoustic arrangements driven by a wide variety ofstring instruments such as banjos, fiddles, mandolins, and electric guitars. Its songs follow the standardverse–chorus–bridge form with dynamicbridges andchoruses. The elements ofpop,folk, androck ofFearless led to some critics arguing against its categorization as a country album.
To promoteTaylor Swift, Swift toured as theopening act for other country musicians, includingRascal Flatts andGeorge Strait, during 2007–2008. While on tour, she continued writing songs for her follow-up album mostly by herself on the road, "at the concert venue... a quiet place in some room at the venue, like the locker room".[10][11] In addition to self-penned material, Swift had songwriting sessions withLiz Rose, with whom she had largely collaborated on her first album.[12] She also wrote with the musicianJohn Rich and the singer-songwriterColbie Caillat.[13]
Swift first came up with the direction for her second studio album after writing "Fearless", a song about an imaginary "best first date", while touring withBrad Paisley in mid-2007.[14] Swift's songwriting was influenced by Paisley andSheryl Crow's approach to expressing emotions.[note 1] Continuing on the romantic themes of her first album, Swift chose to write songs about her personal feelings and observations of the world around her from the perspectives of a teenage girl, instead of the luxurious lifestyle brought by her newfound fame,[15][16] to ensure her fans could relate to her songs: "I really try to write more about what I feel and guys and love because that's what fascinates me more than anything else – love and what it does to us and how we treat people and how they treat us. So pretty much every song on the album has a face that I associate with it."[17]
Swift usually started writing by identifying a core emotion she wanted to convey through the melody onguitar. For other songs, she sometimes came up with the title first before writing thehook.[14] While some songs were inspired by Swift's personal relationships, she said that most songs were dramatized observations rather than real-life experiences: "I've gone through breakups and the core emotions behind them, but it doesn't take much to get that sort of emotion out in a song, luckily for me."[18] She explained that certain emotions on her songs such as frustration or heartbreak came easily without her actually going through emotional turmoil.[11] By July 2007, Swift had written as many as 75 songs.[14] She recorded the album within a few months after touring with George Strait.[19] Chapman, who produced Swift's debut, returned as producer,[20] and recording took place at studios in Tennessee, including six in Nashville and one inFranklin.[21]
During the recording sessions, Swift emphasized the authenticity of the songs' emotional sentiments over technical rigidity: "I think it's the writer in me that's a little more obsessed with the meaning of the song than the vocal technique."[22] By March 2008, Swift had recorded six songs, including one co-written by and featuring Caillat, "Breathe";[11][23] Swift had used Caillat's 2007 song "Bubbly" as a reference point during the recording sessions, because of its simple arrangements and honest sentiments.[20] Apart from newly penned songs, Swift recorded a few that she had written for her debut album, believing there were stories that deserved to be put out.[11] Swift made her debut as a record producer, co-producing all tracks with Chapman.[24] The standard edition consists of 13 tracks, which Swift had planned because she considered 13 her lucky number.[14][25] Of the 13 tracks, Swift wrote seven by herself; the remaining were co-written with Caillat, Rose, Rich, andHillary Lindsey.[21] Recording took place within eight months[26] and finished in October 2008, when Swift completed the track "Forever & Always" just beforeFearless wasmastered and published.[22][27] The tracks "Change" and "Breathe" were recorded in December 2007.[28]
Like Swift's debut album,Fearless's prominent themes are love and life from a high school teenage girl's perspective.[15][29] The songs inFearless examine those themes with a more nuanced and mature observation.[30] Swift embraced country music's narrative songwriting to convey hercoming of age.[31][32] She wrote the track "Fifteen" during her freshman high school year atHendersonville High School.[33] In the narrative, Swift and another girl named Abigail—her real-life high school friend—go through teenage love and heartbreak together.[30][34] As the song concludes, Swift realizes she could accomplish more than dating high school senior boys.[35]Music critics highlighted "Fifteen" as an example of Swift's songwriting about teenage themes, both with a starry-eyed innocence and a sense of nostalgia.[36][37][38]
Many ofFearless's songs are about starry-eyed romance and use imagery associated withfairy tales, such as princes, princesses, white horses, and kissing in the rain.[15][39] The title track "Fearless" is Swift's imagination of a perfect first date, on which she is caught in her "best dress" in the rain.[40][41] Inspired by a love interest unpopular to Swift's family and friends, "Love Story" is based onRomeo and Juliet byWilliam Shakespeare.[33][42] In the lyrics, Swift replaced the original story's conclusion with a marriage proposal, an ending she believed the two characters deserved.[22] The optimistic "Love Story" is contradicted by "White Horse", which was inspired by the same love interest.[43][44] In "White Horse", Swift is disillusioned that the love interest is not her idealPrince Charming who could treat her like a princess after his unfaithfulness.[45] "Hey Stephen" is about Swift's hidden feelings for Stephen Barker Liles ofLove and Theft, a country band that had opened shows for her.[46] Heartbreak and emotional tumult are explored in songs such as "Tell Me Why", about an on-and-off relationship with an informal love interest; "You're Not Sorry", with lyrics describing an unfaithful man; and "Forever & Always", inspired by Swift's breakup with the singerJoe Jonas.[47][48]
Other songs were inspired by romantic relationships of Swift's friends.[43] Swift wrote "You Belong with Me" after overhearing one of her band members speaking to his unsympathetic girlfriend over the phone.[49] Out of sympathy, she wrote a story in which the protagonist harbors feelings for an out-of-reach love interest.[50] The lyrics feature high school iconography, describing the protagonist as an ordinary girl "on the bleachers", and the antagonistic girlfriend as a popularcheer captain.[51][52] In "The Way I Loved You", Swift sings about her passionate feelings for a complicated ex-lover, despite her current relationship with a decent boyfriend.[53][54] Apart from romance,Fearless explores friendship, family love, and life lessons from Swift's underdog perspective.[52][55] "Breathe" is about a fallout with a close friend.[55] She dedicated "The Best Day" to her mother after they went shopping together because Swift was turned down by her schoolmates.[56][57] The lyrics of "Change"—the closing track of the standard edition—detail Swift's determination to succeed despite her underdog status as a singer from a small, independent record label in Nashville.[58] She finished writing "Change" the night she won the Horizon Award at the2007 Country Music Association Awards.[57]
Music critics debated the album's genre.[31] Many consideredFearless more pop than country, citing the pop-friendly musical arrangements[note 3] and the elements of styles of pop,rock, andfolk, namelyteen pop,pop rock, andsoft rock.[note 4] According to Hazel Cills ofPitchfork, the country elements are minimal: Swift's "faux-country accent" and "a few bits" of banjo and fiddle scattered throughout.[52] In the British newspaperGuardian,Alexis Petridis said the country identifiers are limited to the lyrical references to God and "one-horse towns", and the production is "orthodontically perfect pop-rock" with Swift's melodies evoking "the pitiless efficiency of a Scandinavian pop factory".[38] Swift, in an interview withThe Philadelphia Inquirer, responded to the critical debate: "[Whether] you tell stories about how you live on a farm and cherish your family and God, or whether you tell stories about being in high school and being cheated on, they're stories about your life. That's what makes me a country artist."[31] Some retrospective reviews deemedFearless a record steeped in country music.[64][65]
Many of the songs contain a radio–friendly pop production, demonstrated through tracks such as "Fearless", "Fifteen", "Love Story", "You Belong with Me", "Tell Me Why", "The Way I Loved You", and "Change".[61][66] Themusicologist James E. Perone commented that the songs contain hints of country, pop, folk, andalternative rock with their instrumental mix.[29] "You Belong with Me" has a banjo–led country pop production in the verses andnew wave–inspired electric guitars in the buildup,[62] with elements of 1980s new wave rock portrayed by the repeatedeighth notes joined by fiddle, mandolin, and guitar.[67] "Tell Me Why" opens with country fiddles and incorporates influences of 1990s alternative rock andhip hop in thesyncopated drum beats and rock in the guitar instrumentation.[67] The dynamic "The Way I Loved You" featuresdistorted electric guitars with textual shifts that recall 1990sgrunge.[67] Theballads "White Horse" and "You're Not Sorry" also have pop hooks.[44][66] The standard edition's penultimate track, "The Best Day", features a stripped-downcountry rock[68] production with guitarstrums.[54][59]
Swift named the albumFearless inspired by the title track: "[Being] fearless doesn't mean you're completely unafraid and it doesn't mean that you're bulletproof. It means that you have a lot of fears, but you jump anyway."[69] All the songs on the album reflected her "fearless" attitude to embrace the hardships and challenges in love and life.[57][70] Swift was thebooklet's designer; Joseph Anthony Barker, Ash Newell, andSheryl Nields were responsible for the photography; and Leen Ann Ramey designed thecover artwork.[21] The 13-track standard edition was released on November 11, 2008, by Big Machine Records.[71] An international edition featuring three bonus tracks—"Our Song", "Teardrops on My Guitar", and "Should've Said No"—was released on March 9, 2009, by Big Machine in partnership withUniversal Music Group.[72]
Swift announced areissue ofFearless, subtitledPlatinum Edition, on September 10, 2009.[73] The reissue was released on October 26, 2009.[74] ThePlatinum Edition package includes a CD and aDVD; the CD features six additional songs—"Jump Then Fall", "Untouchable", "Forever & Always" (Piano Version), "Come in with the Rain", "SuperStar", and "The Other Side of the Door"—placed prior to the original tracks. The DVD comprises themusic videos for "Change", "The Best Day", "Love Story", "White Horse", and "You Belong with Me"; behind-the-scenes footage for the latter three; behind-the-scene footage from the first concert of theFearless Tour; and "Thug Story"—a video Swift filmed with the rapperT-Pain exclusively for the 2009CMT Music Awards.[73] "Untouchable" is acover of a 2007 song by the rock bandLuna Halo; its lyrics and arrangement were rewritten by Swift, leading to her earning a writing credit on her version.[75]
On June 8, 2008, Swift performed songs fromFearless onClear Channel'sStripped; the performance was recorded and included in thePlatinum Edition reissue.[21] Prior to the album's commercial release, "Change" was made available via theiTunes Store on August 8 as apromotional single.[77] It was included on theAT&T Team USA Soundtrack, a compilation of songs played during the United States' participation in the2008 Summer Olympics.[78] A digital campaign launched through the iTunes Store, called "Countdown toFearless", featured one song released each week during the five weeks leading to the album's release.[79] "Breathe" was released as a promotional single exclusively viaRhapsody on October 21, 2008.[80]
Five songs were released as singles fromFearless. The lead single, "Love Story", was released on September 15, 2008.[92] It peaked atop Hot Country Songs and was the first country song to reach number one onPop Songs, aBillboard chart monitoringpop radio in the United States.[93] The single peaked at number four on the USBillboard Hot 100,[94] number two on theUK Singles Chart,[95] and number one in Australia.[96] The four remaining singles were "White Horse" (December 8, 2008),[97] "You Belong with Me" (April 20, 2009),[98] "Fifteen" (August 31, 2009),[99] and "Fearless" (January 4, 2010).[100] All four peaked within the top 40 of theBillboard Hot 100, with "You Belong with Me" peaking at number two,[94] and within the top ten of Hot Country Songs, with "You Belong with Me" reaching number one.[note 5] Similar to "Love Story", "You Belong with Me" was a crossover success,[20][102] becoming the first country song to top the all-genreRadio Songs chart, driven mostly by non-countryairplay.[103] According toNielsen SoundScan, "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me" were the two most-played songs on US radio throughout 2009.[104]
Swift performing on theFearless Tour (pictured in 2010)
Swift announced the Fearless Tour, her first headlining tour, in January 2009. The tour started inEvansville, Indiana on April 23, and visited the United States and Canada over six months. Prior to the Fearless Tour, Swift headlined three music festivals: theSan Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo in February 2009, and theHouston Livestock Show and Rodeo and theFlorida Strawberry Festival in March.[105] In October, when the first North American leg finished, Swift announced a second North American leg beginning on March 4, 2010, inTampa, Florida.[106] Outside North America, the Fearless Tour visited Australia and Japan in February 2010.[107] The tour was met with high demand, selling out tickets within minutes.[108] Swift wrapped up the North American leg at theGillette Stadium inFoxborough, Massachusetts on June 5, 2010.[109] The tour grossed over $63 million and played to over 1.1 million fans.[110]
A commercial success in the United States,Fearless set many chart records and catapulted Swift to mainstream prominence.[111] On theBillboard 200, it debuted at number one with first-week sales of 592,000 copies[112] and spent 11 non-consecutive weeks at number one—the longest run for a female country album[113] and for any album in the 2000s decade.[93][114] It is the album with the most top-40 entries on theBillboard Hot 100 (13, including tracks from thePlatinum Edition).[115][note 6] Five tracks peaked within the top 10: "Fearless", "Love Story", "You Belong with Me", "Change", and "Jump Then Fall".[116] On theTop Country Albums chart,Fearless spent 35 weeks at number one,[117] becoming the female album with the second-longest weeks at number one, behindShania Twain'sCome On Over (1997, 50 weeks).[118]
With 3.217 million copies sold in the United States, throughout 2009,Fearless was the year's best-selling album in the country. The achievement made Swift, then 20 years old, the youngest artist and the only female country musician to have a best-selling album of a calendar year.[119] It was the only album from the 2000s decade to spend its first full year in the top 10 of theBillboard 200 and spent a total of 58 weeks in the top 10—a record for a country musician.[120][121] In September 2025, theRecording Industry Association of America certified the album11-times platinum for surpassing 11 millionalbum-equivalent units based on sales and streams.[122] By January 2024,Fearless had sold 7.285 million copies in the United States.[123]
Fearless marked Swift's international breakthrough.[124] It peaked atop the charts of Canada and New Zealand[125][126] and within the top five of Australia (number two),[127] Scotland (number four),[128] and the United Kingdom (number five).[129][130] It receivedmulti-platinum certifications in Ireland and the United Kingdom (double platinum),[131][132] Canada (four-times platinum),[133] New Zealand (six-times platinum),[134] and Australia (eight-times platinum).[135] The album reached the top 10 in Japan,[136] and top 20 in Austria, Brazil, Germany, Greece, and Sweden.[137][138][139] It was certified gold in Japan,[140] Germany,[141] Austria,[142] and Norway;[143] platinum in Denmark;[144] double-platinum in Singapore,[145] and nine-times platinum in the Philippines.[146] As of April 2021, the album had sold 12 million copies worldwide.[147]
Fearless received generally positive reviews from music critics in the press.[70] OnMetacritic, which assigns anaggregated score out of 100 to reviews in mainstream publications, the album earned a score of 73, based on 14 reviews.[148]
Many critics lauded Swift's songwriting craftsmanship.[15] Reviews published inThe Boston Globe,[59]Blender,[40]Entertainment Weekly,[50]The Village Voice,[35] andUSA Today remarked thatFearless was an honest and vulnerable record contrasting with albums by other teenage singers, thanks to Swift's self-penned songs.[153] Other reviews from AllMusic,[36]Billboard,[37] andThe Observer deemed the lyrics mature for her age.[151] InMSN Music,Robert Christgau found the album's romantic idealism distasteful, but he lauded Swift's songwriting skills as remarkable for a teenage artist.[150] Jonathan Keefe fromSlant Magazine agreed the songs were well-written but felt they fell short of refinement.[66]
Some critics praisedFearless's crossover appeal. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine andThe Boston Globe's James Reed remarked that the album straddled the perceived boundary between country and pop; the former called it "one of the best mainstream pop albums of 2008".[36][59] InRolling Stone,Jody Rosen hailed Swift as a "songwriting savant with an intuitive gift for the verse-chorus-bridge architecture".[61] Christgau commented that the songs were effective partly because of "the musical restraint of a strain ofNashville bigpop that avoids muscle-flexingrockism".[150]
Other reviewers were divided over the production. Chris Richards ofThe Washington Post commended the radio-friendly tunes, but he commented that the album was repetitive overall.[62] Although Richards praised Swift's vocals for what he deemed a "chirpycadence" that made her assign "fresh notes to almost every syllable",[62] Keefe deemed her voice weak and strained, which blemished the album with occasional breath controls and nasal tones.[66] Petridis found the praise in the American press surprising: though he agreed Swift's songwriting was remarkable, he found the music "bland and uninventive", which occasionally left the audience "wondering if the world really needs any more music like this".[38] The British magazineQ wrote: "Her giggly peers will find she speaks their language, while grown-ups will prefer her to keep quiet."[152]
Fearless featured on 2008 year-end lists by theAssociated Press (7th),[154]Blender (32nd),[155]Rolling Stone (39th),[156] andThe Village Voice'sPazz & Jop (58th);[157] and 2009 year-end list byThe Guardian (40th).[158]Jon Caramanica inThe New York Times placed the album at number four on his list of 2008's best albums and called Swift "one of pop's finest songwriters, country's foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults".[159]
Fearless's critical and commercial successes earned Swift mainstream popularity beyond country music.[173] The widespread success of "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me" particularly attracted criticism against her identity as a country artist, with several commentaries labelling her a pop artist.[174][175] Perone wrote thatFearless moved Swift's status from a "singer-songwriter prodigy to singer-songwriter superstar", highlighting the critical praise that she received.[176] He also attributed the album's high sales to Swift's savvy marketing: with enhanced bonus material for the CD instead of download,Fearless became "indicative of a 21st century marketing trend in CD recordings".[70] Swift's rising fame prompted media scrutiny on her public image; despite her popularity with teenage girls, some feminist writers took issue withFearless's themes, such as pining for boys and competing against girls, asantifeminist and harmful to her audience.[177][178]
Fearless... has endured – not so much for the banjos and mandolins Swift geared to country radio, but for its teen-pop tension between happy-ending romances and bitter reflections on youthful naïveté, neatly chiseled into Swift's terse lyrics.
Swift's songwriting onFearless embodied the "Swiftian" confessional narratives that became emblematic in her artistry.[note 8][182] In a 2019 review forPitchfork, Cills commented that the simplicity and earnestness ofFearless were a testament to Swift's abilities of writing timeless songs. According to Cills, whereas other teen idols were often sexualized, it was refreshing that Swift wrote about teenage experiences "in her own terms, [...] "redefining what 'teen pop' could sound like in the process".[52] Other retrospective reviews attributed the album's enduring popularity to the universal feelings that it evokes—heartbreak, frustration, first love, and aspirations.[note 9]
In 2024,Spin deemedFearless the best album by Swift, upholding it as "a masterpiece of high school anxiety and adolescent heartbreak".[186] Caramanica rankedFearless the second-best in Swift's 11-album discography: he said that the album solidified Swift's success in country music while its songwriting retained her teenage earnestness that had been frequently overlooked in the industry, which was a "powerful" feat both artistically and commercially.[187] The album placed at number 99 on NPR's "150 Greatest Albums Made by Women" (2017)[188] and number 10 onRolling Stone's "100 Greatest Country Albums of All Time" (2022).[189] According toBillboard's Andrew Unterberger, the album popularized country music to teenage girls and its Grammy win for Album of the Year proved Swift as "one of the most important singer-songwriters of her generation".[190]
Swift beganre-recording her first six studio albums, includingFearless, in November 2020.[191] The decision came after a publicdispute between her and the music executiveScooter Braun, who acquired themasters of Swift's first six studio albums—which Swift had been trying to buy for years—following her departure from Big Machine Records in November 2018.[192][193] The re-recording ofFearless, subtitledTaylor's Version, was released on April 9, 2021, throughRepublic Records.Fearless (Taylor's Version) contains re-recordings of all tracks from thePlatinum Edition and theValentine's Day soundtrack single "Today Was a Fairytale" (2010), and new recordings of six previously unreleased "From the Vault" tracks.[194] Following the release ofFearless (Taylor's Version), the original album reached a new peak on charts in Austria (number two),[195] Germany (number two),[196] and Switzerland (number three).[197] The ownership of the original album was sold back to Swift on May 30, 2025, alongside her other five albums released under Big Machine.[198]
"Untouchable" is a reworked version ofLuna Halo's "Untouchable" (2007), written by Cary Barlowe, Nathan Barlowe, and Tommy Lee James.[75]
All tracks are produced by Swift andNathan Chapman, except the three bonus tracks on the international version, which are produced by Chapman only.[72]
"Superstar" is stylized asSuperStar.
Track-listing variants
Target-exclusive DVDs include behind-the-scene recordings of "Breathe" and "Change".[199]
Target-exclusivePlatinum Edition copies include live performances of "Untouchable" and "Fearless" fromClear Channel'sStripped.[21]
Walmart-exclusive copies include live performances of "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me" at theV Festival.[200]
Japanese release includes four bonus tracks: "Beautiful Eyes", "Picture to Burn" (2008 radio edit), "I'm Only Me When I'm with You", and "I Heart ?"[201]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
^Swift admired Crow for her "candidness,... how she tells it like it is, but still is vulnerable". Speaking on Paisley, Swift said: "He can write something so touching it can make you cry, and then he can make you laugh so hard that you can't breathe."[14]
^"White Horse", "Fifteen", and "Fearless" peaked at numbers two, seven, and ten, respectively.[101]
^"Fearless", "Fifteen", "Love Story", "White Horse", "You Belong with Me", "Forever & Always", "You're Not Sorry", "Change", "Jump Then Fall", "Untouchable", "Come In with the Rain", "SuperStar", and "The Other Side of the Door"[94]
^Upon release, AllMusic gaveFearless a four stars rating.[148] The site reassessed the album with a four and a half stars rating since at least 2012,[149] and awarded the album a five stars rating in 2018.[36]
^The chart positions listed below coincided with the release of the 2021 re-recordingFearless (Taylor's Version). In Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, the sales performance of the originalFearless was combined with that ofFearless (Taylor's Version).
^Malec, Jim (May 2, 2011)."Taylor Swift: The Garden in the Machine".American Songwriter. p. 4.Archived from the original on March 26, 2016. RetrievedMay 21, 2012.It also established her as one of only a handful of new female voices to break out at country radio in a decade that was almost completely dominated by males
^Peters, Mitchell (August 30, 2008)."Going for the Gold".Billboard. Vol. 120, no. 35. p. 10.Archived from the original on August 27, 2021. RetrievedApril 25, 2021.
^Titus, Christa (April 17, 2010)."Backbeat".Billboard. Vol. 122, no. 13. p. 58.Archived from the original on November 15, 2021. RetrievedNovember 13, 2021.
Edmonson, Jacqueline (2013).Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories that Shaped Our Culture.ABC-CLIO.ISBN978-0-313-39348-8.
Perone, James E. (2017). "BecomingFearless".The Words and Music of Taylor Swift. The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection.ABC-Clio. pp. 5–25.ISBN978-1-4408-5294-7.
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