Taylor Swift knows how to answer her critics. The 14-time Grammy winner has proved her haters wrong with her work multiple times in her career. Taylor had this exact motivation when she wrote an entire album by herself.
Taylor Swift's third solo album, Speak Now, was the first album that she wrote entirely on her own. The songwriter took it as a challenge when critics claimed that she doesn't write her own lyrics.
The Mine singer composed Speak Now within two years, while she was touring and promoting Fearless. The album is a manifestation of her transition from adolescence to adulthood, and talks about the nuances of relationships, heartbreaks, and other emotions of that age. Finally, Taylor replies to her critics and adversaries through the songs of Speak Now.
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Taylor Swift on her motivation behind composing Speak Now all by herself
In a Rolling Stones interview published on September 18, 2019, Taylor Swift opened up about her motivation behind her Speak Now album. She explained why she was determined to write the entire album on her own.
In 2010, Taylor Swift had already laid the foundation of her stardom with her debut eponymous album and 2008's Fearless. However, her personal life became fodder for the media, and critics accused her of not writing her own lyrics. Speak Now was a way for the Grammy winner to shut them down with her work.
"I’ve had several upheavals in my career. When I was 18, they were like, 'She doesn’t really write those songs.' So my third album I wrote by myself as a reaction to that," revealed Taylor Swift in the interview.
According to Taylor Swift, each song was like an 'open letter' dedicated to one individual. The result was one of Taylor Swift's best albums that sold fast and was lauded by fans and critics alike.
Speak Now sold more than a million copies in its first week of release, and was awarded six times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
"These songs are made up of words I didn't say when the moment was right in front of me. These songs are open letters. Each is written with a specific person in mind, telling them what I meant to tell them in person," wrote Taylor Swift in the LP's liner note (According to Grammy Awards website).
Speak Now's lyrics are generally considered more direct and confrontational as compared to Swift's previous albums. Each song is seen as a diary entry, dedicated to an individual in Taylor's life. Similar to her previous albums, Speak Now tries to be as detailed as possible, and Taylor Swift strives to maintain emotional honesty.
“For me, I write everything that I live so you’ve got to give yourself a little bit of time to live a lot of things, so you can write about a lot of things. Thankfully, in the past two years, I’ve experienced a lot of things that I’ve been dying to write about," explained Swift in an interview with Songwriter Universe published on October 11, 2010.
The Speak Now album had a total of fourteen songs. They were Mine, Speak Now, The Story of Us, Better Than Revenge, Last Kiss, Sparks Fly, Dear John, Never Grow Up, Innocent, Long Live, Back to December, Mean, Enchanted, and Haunted.
All the awards and accolades won by Speak Now
Speak Now is one of the most successful albums of Taylor Swift's illustrious career, and is considered one of her best works by fans and critics alike.
The album featured in several end-of-year lists of the best albums. For instance, The New York Times' John Caramanica ranked Speak Now at #2 in his 2010's best albums list. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone placed the album at #13 on a similar ranking.
Additionally, Rolling Stone placed Taylor Swift's album at #45 in the list of Best Female Albums of All Time.
"She [Taylor Swift] might get played on the country station, but she's one of the few genuine rock stars we've got these days, with a flawless ear for what makes a song click," commented the magazine.
The album also ranked #51 in Billboard's list of the best albums of the 2010s, and #2 on the list of the best country albums of the 2010s.
Speak Now was honored with several awards and nominations. The album was nominated for Album of the Year at the American Country Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards, and Country Music Association Awards.
At the 2011 Billboard Music Awards, Speak Now was nominated for Top Billboard 200 Album and won Top Country Album. Moreover, it was nominated for the International Album of the Year at the Juno Awards and the Canadian Independent Music Awards. At the 2011 American Music Awards, the album grabbed the Favorite Album (Country) award.
Finally, Speak Now made it big at the 54th Grammy Awards, getting a nomination for Best Country Album. Moreover, its single, Mean, won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance.
