Fearless |
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Released: November 11, 2008 (Original Version) Released: April 9, 2021 (Taylor’s Version) Peak: 111 US, 135 CW, 5 UK, 11 CN, 2 AU Sales (in millions): 10.0 US, 0.3 UK, 12.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: country/pop |
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Song Title (Writers) [Time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.
Tracks (Original Album): Total Running Time (Original Version): 53:41 Total Running Time (Taylor’s Version): 106:20 |
Rating:  3.643 out of 5.00 (average of 21 ratings)
Awards: (Click on award to learn more).
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About the Album: Swift’s sophomore album did anything but slump. Once you count five charted songs from the 2009 re-release known as the platinum edition, Fearless was responsible for landing an astonishing 17 hits on the charts. 16 of those made it on the U.S. Hot 100 and five of those were top 10 hits. It was “the first album in music history to produce thirteen top forty hits. Swift now holds the record for most singles on the Hot 100 at the same time by a female artist with nine.” WK “The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 592,304 copies in its first week, the best first-week sales for a female artist in 2008. Fearless became the first album to sell one million copies in 2009.” WK In addition to 11 non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200, giving it the most weeks at #1 since Santana’s 1999 Supernatural album. “The album has spent 45 weeks in the top ten on the Billboard 200, becoming the longest run for a country album in the top ten since Shania Twain’s Come On Over, which had 53 weeks from 1997-1999.” WK The album also spent 35 non-consecutive weeks on top of the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. WK The album also cleaned up on awards. It is the only album in history to take home the Country Album of the Year prizes from the Academy of Country Music, American Music Award, Country Music Assocation, and the Grammys. It also won the Grammy for Album of the Year. It wasn’t just that the album was a success based on awards and sales, though. It was also a display of her growth as an artist. She “abandons any pretense that she’s a teen…which isn’t to say that she suddenly tarts herself up, running away from her youth in a manner that’s all too familiar to many teen stars. Swift’s maturation is deliberate and careful, styled after the crossover country-pop of Shania Twain and Faith Hill before they turned into divas. Despite the success of her self-titled 2006 debut, there’s nothing at all diva-like about Swift on 2008’s Fearless: she’s soft-spoken and considerate, a big sister instead of a big star.” STE “There may be a hint of youthfulness to her singing but that’s the only hint of girlishness here; her writing – and she had a hand in penning all 13 tracks here, with six of them bearing her solitary credit – is sharply, subtly crafted and the music is softly assured, never pushing its hooks too hard and settling into a warm bed of guitars and keyboards. Like many country-pop albums of the 2000s, the pop heavily outweighs the country – there aren’t fiddles here, there are violins – yet Fearless never feels garish, a crass attempt at a crossover success. It’s small-scale and sweetly tuneful, always seeming humble even when the power ballads build to a big close. Swift’s gentle touch is as enduring as her songcraft, and this musical maturity may not quite jibe with her age but it does help make Fearless one of the best mainstream pop albums of 2008.” STE The album’s first official single, Love Story, “was her first song to achieve commercial success outside the United States; it reached number one in Australia [and Canada] and number two in the United Kingdom.” WK The song also won CMT’s Video of the Year award. “White Horse was the second official US single from Fearless” WK but “like its predecessor, …became successful before its single release.” WK “You Belong with Me was the third official US single from Fearless.” WK It “has become the biggest hit of Swift’s career domestically, and became the highest charting country single since 2005, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100.” WK It won Best Female Video at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. “Controversy ensued while during Swift’s acceptance speech for the award, rapper Kanye West stole her microphone away from her, and said that Beyoncé’s ‘Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)’, which was one of the videos ‘You Belong With Me’ beat out, deserved to win the award…Beyoncé, after winning the award for Video of the Year for ‘Single Ladies’, invited Swift to the stage to finish her acceptance speech, instead of delivering her own.” WK Fifteen, which was one of the many album tracks to chart when the album was released, “was announced to be the fourth official US single from Fearless.” WK The song is “a kind warning for a teen to watch her heart sung from the perspective of a woman who’s perhaps twice that age – a sly trick for the 18-year-old Swift.” STE “On the chart week of November 14, 2009, Swift set a record for the most songs on the Billboard Hot 100 by a female artist at the same time with eight singles from the re-release of her 2008 album Fearless.” WK Three of those had previously charted or were still on the charts from the previous week, but with a non-Fearless song (Boys Like Girls’ ‘Two Is Better Than One’, which featured Swift) also debuting that week, Swift also had “six debuts in one week, the biggest number of debuts by any female artist of all time. It also lifts the number of her simultaneously-charting songs to nine, setting another record for the biggest number of charting songs by the same female artist in the same week.” WK That same week, Swift became the artist with the most number of Top 20 debuts in her career. WK Notes: The platinum edition of the album added five new songs. In 2021, Taylor re-recorded and re-released the entire album, including the tracks on the Platinum Edition, plus eight more songs. |
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First posted 11/30/2009; last updated 4/21/2022. |
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