Taylor Swift

In this day and age, there can't be a "biggest artist in the world" discussion and have it not include Taylor Swift. Everyone knows who Taylor Swift is, and everyone knows what Taylor Swift has done. Arguably already the biggest artist of the 2010s, even being honored with the titles of "Artist of the Decade" by the American Music Awards, and "Woman of the Decade" by Billboard. However, the biggest leap of her career was about to be taken this decade.

To begin the decade, Taylor Swift had made her intentions clear to re-record the albums and songs she didn't own the masters for, those being owned by her previous record label Big Machine Records, which was later sold to Ithica Holdings for $300 million, with Swift not getting a chance to buy those herself. An act completely unheard of for an artist of this stature, it has inspired artists across the world to fight to have the right to own their music and has possibly changed the music industry for the better. A Netflix documentary based on her life and career titled Miss Americana was also released. Set to embark on a tour to promote her seventh studio album Lover called Lover Fest, the COVID-19 pandemic put a sudden end to any plans that Swift had of touring and performing live in front of an audience. During the initial stages of the pandemic, Swift continued to write and produce songs, alongside long-time collaborator Jack Antonoff and founding member of the band "The National" Aaron Dessner, and in July, she announced a surprise album, her eight studio album folklore. folklore was a full non-autobiographical indie folk album, a complete shift, as she had been known for upbeat pop songs and autobiographical lyrics. The album was universally praised by fans and critics alike, some even citing it as Swift's "best album ever". The album broke the record for the biggest opening day on Spotify for an album by a female act, and the album's lead single "cardigan" reached #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The album itself debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200, reigning atop for eight weeks straight, and became the best-selling album of 2020. The album won the Album of the Year award at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, marking her third, alongside Fearless (2008) and 1989 (2014). She became the first female artist to ever win the Album of the Year award three times. Toward the end of 2020, Swift announced another surprise album, folklore's "sister record", her ninth studio album evermore. Similar to its predecessor, evermore explored the indie folk genre, even blending in alternative rock. The album debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200, and its lead single "willow" debuted at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it her the first ever act to simultaneously debut atop both Billboard 200 and Hot 100 charts two times.

2021 saw Taylor Swift finally publicly embark on her journey of re-recording her early albums, with her first, her sophomore album from 2008 Fearless, being released in April as Fearless (Taylor's Version). The song consisted of the regular 19 songs from the original 2008 record, her 2010 soundtrack single "Today Was A Fairytale", alongside 6 never-before-heard songs known as "From The Vault" tracks, which would soon become a recurring theme for her re-recorded albums. The album was a near-complete recreation of the songs from the original album. The album debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200, making it the first re-recorded album ever to achieve that. The album was also critically praised, especially with praise towards the precise replication of the original compositions, crisper production quality, nostalgic sentiment, and Swift's strong, matured vocals. Later that year, Swift announced her second re-recorded album Red (Taylor's Version), the re-recording of her 2012 album Red. The album debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200 marking her fourth number-one album in 16 months and making her the fastest artist to collect four number-one albums. The album's final track, the highly requested 10-minute version of her critically acclaimed song "All Too Well", debuted at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it the longest song to ever top the chart. The album even broke the record for the vinyl sales week in MRC Data history and the Spotify record for the most single-day streams for an album by a female artist.

2022 looked to be even better for Swift, as she received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from New York University. Throughout the year, Swift even released two promotional singles for a possible upcoming re-record of her hit 2014 album 1989, "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" and "This Love (Taylor's Version)", and even released a soundtrack single "Carolina" for the movie Where The Crawdads Sing. Later that year, as she received the "Video of the Year" award at the MTV Video Music Awards, Swift announced her tenth studio album, set to be released in October, called Midnights. The album broke records all over the place, with the album and its lead single "Anti-Hero" becoming the most streamed album and song in a single day, and became the best-selling album and digital song of 2022, respectively. The album sold over 1.5 million physical units within its first week, being the first album since her own reputation in 2017, to sell over a million copies within the first week. The album debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200, tying the record for most number-one albums by a female artist at 11 (alongside Barbra Streisand). Swift would also become the first artist in history to occupy the entire Top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100, with "Anti-Hero" at the top. To promote the four albums and two re-recorded albums Swift released in the span of 2019-2023, Swift announced that she will be embarking on the Eras Tour, which broke its own record for the most concert tickets ever sold in a day, and is even set to be the highest grossing tour in the United States. On the day of the first show of her tour, she released four songs to commemorate her Eras Tour, including three re-recordings: "All of the Girls You Loved Before", "If This Was a Movie (Taylor's Version)", "Eyes Open (Taylor's Version)", and "Safe & Sound (Taylor's Version)" with Joy Williams and John Paul White.

The 2020s have proven that despite the fact that Taylor Swift was the biggest artist of the previous decade, she is not ready to head into the twilight years of her career just yet, still being one of the biggest artists in the world, a whole 17 years since her debut. With still more re-recordings and possible new albums to come, Swift definitely emerges as the biggest artist of the decade.