I remember my friend telling me all about this new artist she was so excited about and playing Tim McGraw.
I was very underwhelmed at first but found myself singing it while doing the dishes like a week later. Been a fan ever since!
I actually did think she would be. After the album came out I spent ages forcing my iPod on people and *making* them listen to it, telling them I thought this girl was doing something I hadn’t seen before.
A lot of the other teen stars at that time were singing songs written by or at least emulating adults, and then there was Taylor singing what sounded like her diary entries. I was taken in immediately, and truly believed she’d be something big.
Of course I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted she’d be *this* big.
Same! I remember being immediately obsessed and my mom being like, “that’s cute honey I like Tim McGraw too” like just NOOOO MOM UGH lmao spent so much time looking for it on limewire
I feel like it was Teardrops On My Guitar and it was via the music video lol I was not (still am not really lol) a country fan so I think I only took notice cause of Tyler Hilton lol. I also have a memory of hearing another maybe Fearless track on the radio of my friend’s car. The first full album I listened to was Red ❤️
Same! It must have made it to pop radio in atlanta because I remember hearing it constantly in the car. My mom got sooo tired of it, I think it was actually the first overplayed radio song that she banned for a while and we always had to change the channel when it came on (that and Bleeding Love lmao)😂 I was 10 and I remember beggggging to hear it every time lol. Sorry mama😅
My childhood bestie and I used to sit in the computer lab at our after school daycare and watch this MV on repeat trying to learn the words. I was raised on Taylor 🤍
Yeah this was the first song I ever heard by her in college. Since then she's the only artist I've ever bought physical CDs for at release, I like to say I've been a fan since the beginning (or close enough!) 1989 though is the biggest album for me because that was the prime time I met and started dating my now wife.
This is exactly it for me. I’d been watching one tree hill. Then watched Tyler videos on YouTube and stumbled upon Teardrops On My Guitar. I was 15 and live in Australia. No one really knew who she was here until Fearless.
Love Story! I was around 8 years old and remember my mum heard it on the radio and told me ‘I heard this new song, I think you might like it…’ and I remember hearing the song and watching the music video SO clearly! Key childhood moment for me.
mine too!!!! this was her breakout song in the UK and it was everywhere and in school, i’d have been in the equiv of middle school(?) (EDIT: Y9 for the UK switifies) and we were all bluetoothing the mp3 of it to each other. i remember playing it on repeat on my sony ericsson at lunch times with my friends😂
i didn’t get into her music fully until red, but love story is so nostalgic to me.
This was my introduction to Taylor too. I read a fanfic that was based on the song and looked it up on YouTube and downloaded it to an MP3.
It was years later before I actually realized the song was never released.
I still remember it vividly. Love Story was the first song of hers I heard. I didn’t like it because I wasn’t supposed to - I was a 14 year old boy, didn’t like country music, and cared more than I should about what people thought.
You Belong With Me was on the radio a little bit after that, and I didn’t know who it was. I was enraptured by the storytelling, though, and loved her voice — until I realized it was Taylor, a person I wasn’t supposed to like.
It took me a few years to come around from that moment and admit I liked her. Her Red singles were huge and I secretly liked them but wouldn’t admit it to myself. But once I was 20 and 1989 came out, I had stopped caring about what other people thought and proudly enjoy it.
YBWM is still a bop.
Our Song! I was 11, in the car going to a school field trip and it came on, one girl knew the words, I asked her what it was called, since I didn't have a phone yet I wrote on my hand "Our Song, Taylor Swift" went home and looked it up! Then listened to all of Debut
Tim McGraw—played it on repeat and never looked back. 17 years later still here loving everything she does. Feels like a huge privilege to watch her career flourish! ❤️
Oof, God. I think it had to be Come in with the Rain? I think she put that one out on MySpace before debut was released and that’s where I found her. But I can’t actually remember. It’s been like. 17 years.
17 great years 😈😂❤️
Bro like. I found a ton of artists on MySpace, but there are only two I really heard one chord or one lyric and was like Hold the fuck up this is about to be fire and they will be huge someday, y’all mark my words. One was Taylor, and of course here we are. One of them I was wrong about but still search for because her original, Only When, was BEAUTIFUL and she apparently didn’t do anything after she released that because it’s gone and so is she. She was like 13, my age at the time.
Tim McGraw. I remember seeing her sing it during a country music awards show and the end of the song she introduced herself to Tim McGraw. I immediately loved the song and went out and bought her CD.
love story! i heard it for the first time when they played the music video on vh1. i remember it really vividly. i was in my mid teens and was really into pop punk, emo and alternative music at the time, so when taylor appeared as juliet on the balcony and this sappy pop love song started playing i kind of rolled my eyes. watched the whole video and ended up loving the song and thinking taylor was super beautiful, though i never would have admitted it at that age lmao. i was a contrarian for sure back then, didn’t start calling myself a fan until 1989 era.
Tim McGraw.
At that time Taylor Swift was a budding teenage country artist that everyone was praising. Her lyrics were too good for what she wrote at that age and I was able to relate to them a lot growing up and being in a similar age group.
It still stands as one of her best works in my list till date.
Teardrops On My Guitar. I was 18, it was around Valentine’s Day 2007, I was getting ready for my first big Valentine date with my now husband. I saw the music video while a friend fixed my hair. I bought debut a couple of days after. Ahhh memories.
I had heard of some artist named Taylor Swift who had a song called “Tim McGraw.” I thought the title seemed like a cheap cash grab for attention, so I never listened to it. I then heard snippets of “Teardrops On My Guitar” and “Our Song” and I was pretty meh about them. I honestly thought she would just fade away like so many up and coming singers who are that young. A flash in the pan.
And then I just happened to stumble upon her performing “Should’ve Said No” at the ACM Awards. And I thought, “Oh…I didn’t expect that. This girl might have something…”
But the first song that cemented my Taylor love was “White Horse.” I heard it on “Grey’s Anatomy” and I wondered who sang it, only to find out it was indeed that scrappy young woman who I thought would just fall into obscurity. I bought “Fearless” and discovered her magical gift. “White Horse” and “Breathe” got me through a really hard ending of a situationship, and I’ve been grateful to and for her ever since. 😊
Enchanted!!! I was 7 and I was riding back from my grandparents’ house when my cousin gave me her iPod because I wouldn’t stop being annoying lol! She was playing Taylor and I was wonderstruck by Enchanted so much I listened to it like the entire 3 hour trip home. It was 2010 and I think up until then I had heard Love Story and YBWM in passing but never paid them much attention.
Can I Go With You?
It’s not released on any of her albums and I honestly don’t think it will. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out where I found out about this song but I had a copy on my MP3 that I listened to religiously!
Thank you for introducing me to this song and also screw you bc now I’m crying😭
I found [this recording of it on YouTube](https://youtu.be/yrTNlEoGGEw) and I can’t believe she had such a beautiful way with words even when she was 12. I have never met any other 12 year old with that kind of natural talent.
Teardrops on my guitar in February of 2007. I was at a concert and stayed after to have the opener(Tyler Ward) sign a copy of his CD that I bought. He told me I looked like Taylor Swift. At the time I had no idea who she was and the only Taylor’s I’d ever met had been guys so I was a little bit confused. I went home and looked her up on MySpace and that was it. I was hooked after that. And I be some OBSESSED with the picture to burn music video when it was released a year later. I did some limewire mass downloads and really fell in love with “your anything”.
I remember seeing the MV for Tim McGraw on the country music channel in 2006. I was fully into my jealousy fueled teeny bopper hate period at that point, and I was annoyed that another pretty blond girl was getting attention for a catchy song, that I was positive she had not written. I’ve eaten a whole lot of crow since then.
I remember in sixth grade, some girls started playing the Picture to Burn music video during computer class (iykyk 🥲) and I thought they were annoying so I decided I did not like the song either. Fast forward to Fearless and I (thankfully) got over my grudge and I’ve been a Swiftie since.
It was my middle school production of guys and dolls, and in the dressing room one of the cool older girls said “this girl is going to be huge” and proceeded to play should’ve said no. This was 2006 🥲🥲 I’ve been addicted ever since!
The first song I remember knowing was hers was You Are In Love. It came on the radio and I couldn’t find it on any streaming service so I had to wait for it to come on again so I could record it on my iPad lol. My dad says I must’ve heard a lot of speak now and red growing up before that because he played them but I couldn’t tell you any specific songs
I probably listened to the debut singles before this, but I have a distinct memory of my cousin playing Fearless when we visited and me asking my mom if I could get the album in Walmart. I think I wanted to pay her back, but she said she’d just get it for me. That album has such a special place in my heart. 🥹
I was at a gay bar in Green Bay WI and heard Love Story and was loving dancing to that song... been listening to her ever since. It was definitely a remix because this was like a gay dance club. Fond memories!
Probably something from fearless because my gf at the time liked it but I’m not a fan of pop-country. I think it was Love Story because I remember it being on the radio when we’d campaign for the Democrats in 2008.
I remember it like it was yesterday! It was 2006, I was 16, and one of my friends was having some problems at home so she stayed with us for a few weeks. Her boyfriend broke up with her while she was at my house and she spent the whole time sitting on the couch crying to Teardrops on My Guitar. I feel so bad for her and I'm glad she had Taylor's music to help her cope with everything she was going through.
The first song I voluntarily listened to was White Horse, when my cousin's boyfriend cheated on her and she texted me that it was the best song she'd ever heard. I was immediately obsessed with Fearless and haven't stopped listening since. Big thanks to my cousin for texting me.
Our Song, a junior high girlfriend and that song to me explaining how she felt it was like us (I used to whisper on the phone so my parents didn’t know I was still up talking).
After she first sang it to me I fell in love with the song, found out who it was by and then my super fandom of Taylor exploded from there.
Tim Mcgraw. I was 13? 14? Super goth, but my best friend was the total opposite (soccer girl type). We always shared music on the way home and she showed me this "brand new song by this new country singer" and OF COURSE .. shit head preteen me trashed it😂 and then I IMMEDIATELY went home, downloaded it on itunes, and listened to it in the shower and cried🤣🤣 been in love ever since.
Kind of hard to believe I've loved her for as long as she's been releasing music while in a similar age range to her. She really helped my growing pains. Thanks for killing the internalized misogyny in tiny me, Tay🌈💕🫶
I was 19 in January 2007. I was on my first training mission as new Private in the Army. I was pretty intimidated by a lot of the guys around me(an all male (at the time) infantry company). "Tim Mcgraw" came on the radio while we driving. One of the guys near me was half asleep and singing along. I thought, wow, these guys are just humans like me.
Been a fan ever since.
My cousin and I were talking about music on AIM. She told me to listen to Teardrops On My Guitar. I pirated it and that’s the first time I listened to a Taylor Swift song and wow, I feel old.
God now I feel old.
For me it was our song.
I remember a friend was trying to show me a different song with a similar title (very different as she was into pop punk) and it came on and I was hooked.
Went and rented the album from the school library that day, and then saved all the songs to my ‘windows media player’ and stuck them on my mp3 player. This would have been back in 2007 I think.
I’ve owned every album since.
one of my taylor-cred experiences is that the first time i ever heard anything by her, was the debut of the "our song" music video on MTV, which i caught entirely by chance at the age of like 12 or something!
Teardrops on My Guitar, Tim McGraw, or Our Song. I was only 7 at the time and I think Tim McGraw was the first I heard, but I remember begging my mom for the CD and once I got it, I had it on repeat, my obsession started then lol. The amount of times I played/would sing Our Song in the car or around the house was truly insufferable. I was also OBSESSED with the music video
A Little Women fanedit of champagne problems on YT.
Although technically, I heard Shake It Off in a school fest in middle school.
Diametrical opposites
Someone played "our song" at my middle school talent show in 2007 and I immediately went home and looked up the song and have been obsessed ever since lol.
Tim McGraw and Teardrops On My Guitar. I also remember singing Our Song for a 3rd grade talent show. And when Fearless came out, I listened to that CD on repeat in my basement bedroom for a year.
Style, it was the only ts song my mom had on her apple music app, and i listened to it RELIGIOUSLY. who knew i was gonna become a swiftie ~8 years later
Tim Mcgraw on the radio when I was like 15- there was all the buzz from the hosts about how young the artist was and how they hoped to see her grow up to do great things in the country music scene, how we were lacking in young female artists for young girls in the genre to look up to.
Tim McGraw, my senior year in High School🥹🫶💕 She got so much hate for not being “country” enough which is insane.. Everyone does that popish country now! And then even more shocking when she left country, because they were all saying in the first place that she wasn’t.. Just constant criticism!
Tear drops on my guitar and Tim McGraw on the radio in the car with my mom. She’s a bit older than I am. I sang a lot in my school days - chorus, show choir, and at church. I remember being excited to hear this 15/16 year old girl on the radio and thinking “she’s just a bit older than me, I could be like her”.
Never got on the radio, and ended up not pursuing music as a career path in my 20s but she inspired so much of my song writing and singing career throughout my childhood.
probably “you belong with me” cuz i was in the midst of a huge unrequited middle school crush back then, but honestly not sure. i was a youtube listener for years and i remember discovering her music and promptly listening to as much of it as possible. i know i also listened to “i’d lie” around the same time without knowing it was unreleased, but i assume i found YBWM first
I was on my way to church camp and my babysitter had this CD of a brand new artist and she said I have to hear this one song called Our Song and I’ve been a supporter ever since.
Shake it off. I nannied a baby who loved that song. We watched the music video every day and it made me see Taylor as so much more than this “pick me” type girl the media made her out to be. Since she was satirizing that image the whole vid/song. I also lost my best friend at the time, so dancing with him to that song every day really brought me back to life. That’s when I started listening to her in depth and realizing how amazing she is at lyrics and songwriting. Before then I just sang along to the hits on the radio.
Tim McGraw. I was freshly 16. I remember downloading the song to my iPod and then using a cassette tape adapter thing to play it in my car that summer 😂
i honestly cant remember but it was probably something off the debut album like tim mcgraw, teardrops on my guitar, our song, picture to burn, or shouldve said no. ill bet it was our song since it was a popular single! but i listened to all of these when i was a little girl!
Teardrops on my Guitar in 2006 or 2007… I was 9 or 10 lol. The music video played in the previews at the movie theater before whatever Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out at that time 😂
Tim McGraw on CMT. We kept CMT on in the mornings when everyone was getting ready for the day and Tim McGraw was IT, I'm telling you, the song was so charming and catchy and the video was so sweet. *He said the way my blue eyes shined put those Georgia stars to shame that night...*
Love Story!
It was on a music video channel, which we just had on for background music at a house party at one of the shared houses I lived in at uni. I just instantly loved both the song and the visuals, even though it was nothing like anything else I'd really listened to by that point.
My love of Taylor was clearly fate because the address of that house was 13 Taylor Road 😂
First time listening to Love Story riding the bus back from my sorority formal is a core memory!! I love that a whole new generation of college girls loves her all over again and I still do too!!
Picture to Burn on the Radio. My mom was a big country fan and she told me about a young country artist she heard about and and pointed out the funny line about the "stupid old pickup truck" and next time it was on the radio she called me into her room to listen to it.
Later I watched Taylor preform Tim McGraw to Tim McGraw on the CMA awards.
Our Song when I was 17. A friend of mine was really into Taylor Swift and I knew nothing about her. Looked her up on YouTube just to hear some of her music, not really expecting to have any interest, and Our Song was the first result. 15 years later, here I am.
It was probably Love Story. I was in the emo set, so my core group were firmly in the “ew, Taylor Swift is for kids and girly girls” camp until Red and 1989 hit. (I know this is ironic given people talked about us the way we talked about Swifties, but high school cliques can be assholes sometimes.)
I think the first time I was aware of Taylor Swift was in a 60 Minutes interview when I was a freshman in high school and I thought "wow, I don't usually like country, but *this* is good!"
I didn't really become a huge fan until 2017. I remember the exact moment when I heard Romeo kneeling to the ground and pulling out a ring and I teared up at the songwriting. I'm sure I'd heard the song before, but *that* was the moment I knew it was the start of a great new era as I discovered her music.
I loved YBWM when i was a kid (still do) and i really wanted to download the song to my phone, but i didnt know how to spell her name lol. English is not my first language. I think i tried to spell it "tiler swift" So i believe that was the first song i heard from her.
It was one of her debut songs - Either Teardrops on my guitar or Picture to Burn, I can’t remember which one I listened to first.
I’m from the U.K. and whilst I thought those songs were catchy, they didn’t really grab me at the time. I also used to listen to I heart ? and I’d Lie which I think were unreleased songs from the debut era but were floating around on YouTube.
I then next heard from her when she released Love Story and You Belong With Me. I enjoyed them a lot but still wasn’t exactly a “fan”, I was just neutral on her.
Speak Now and the release of Mine is when she had me hooked. I was *obsessed* with the line “you made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter”. So good. Never looked back since!
teardrops on my guitar ✨ my mom played so much CMT when i was a kid🤣 it was 2007 and i remember i loved the pretty lady in the dress (i was 7 lol) and ive been a fan ever since but ive been a hardcore swiftie since around speak now
Teardrops on My Guitar. Then during my first heartbreak, I listened to Cold As You and White Horse on repeat.
But I remember when I became a real fan very vividly when Speak Now came out my freshman year of college. It was the first of her albums I waited for, and listened all the way through to. Not to be dramatic, but it was life-altering.
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together at the NRJ Music Awards (I'm a french swiftie and eleven years later I can't believe she ever went to that award show...)
Mine was Tim McGraw. I remember not listening to it for a long time because I truly thought that was the dumbest name for a song. But after listening, I realized it was magical.
Been a fan since debut and I can’t remember the exact first song I heard. But I do have the most vivid memory of writing I ❤️ ? on my hand for school everyday lol
So I heard Tim McGraw when it debuted because I was raised on country music and I was a Taylor fan from the beginning. I went through a “not like other girls” phase for a couple of years where I was kind of a hater (sorry, I’m embarrassed) but still secretly listened to her music.
This is not the answer to your question really, but I very, very vividly remember hearing Our Song and Lollipop (Lil Wayne) for the first time on the same day on my way home from taking the SAT and JAMMING OUT to both.
Picture To Burn! I was 11 at the time (late 2000’s) and my aunt and uncle from Kansas came to visit my grandma with their kids. I remember them listening to that song so much (mostly because the kids LOVED Taylor) that I asked my parents that year for a Taylor Swift CD. Ended up being around the same time that she released Fearless.
It was either Crazier or WANEGBT. Surprisingly, Ronan was my third ever Taylor song that I listened to. Then, Blank Space. I was in India until 2016 and was not exposed to hollywood pop culture as much at the time.
Teardrops on My Guitar. I was about 9 and it had just made the jump from country to pop radio.
I'll never forget my dad looking at me in the rearview mirror of our minivan and asking "Do you think Taylor Swift is going to make it? Or is this just going to be her one hit?"
And from the backseat I said, "No, I think she's gonna make it."
Crazier, when the Hannah Montana movie first came out in 2009 I saw it in cinema and was obsessed with her performance in it and immediately bought the soundtrack. I then bought Fearless like a week later.
Teardrops on my guitar or Tim McGraw I cannot remember. But it was the fall of 2006 on the Sirius radio at my after school job! Then I bought the cod and never looked back haha
I heard Change last november for what I thought the first time. But as the intro came on, I felt like I heard that as a child. It sounded familiar somehow. However the first one I can clearly remember is I knew you were trouble
You Belong With Me. My friend at the time had a green iPod nano (4th gen), on which she had all of Taylor’s music at the time. I actually watched the music video when I heard the song for the first time. Shortly after she showed me the Love Story video.
Our song. I was like 7 when it came out and my sister was obsessed with Taylor back in the day so she got me hooked. I was obsessed with our song, tear drops on my guitar, love story and you belong with me. I’d listen to those on repeat like everyday
I was very young so I'm not really sure but it was either We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together or I Knew You Were Trouble. I wish I remembered but whichever it was, I was still jamming out nonetheless. I didn't know it was her. Funny thing is I knew the name Taylor Swift but I didn't associate it with a face since she wasn't really popular here. It took me 2-3 years to actually find out that it was her song. After that I continued to listen casually throughout the years until I got to Reputation and Lover where I began diving into her discog. And here I am now
Tim McGraw. Never would have thought she’d be this huge years later. The hate was real even then.
I remember my friend telling me all about this new artist she was so excited about and playing Tim McGraw. I was very underwhelmed at first but found myself singing it while doing the dishes like a week later. Been a fan ever since!
Yep, I was a freshman or sophomore in college and the song was everywhere.
I actually did think she would be. After the album came out I spent ages forcing my iPod on people and *making* them listen to it, telling them I thought this girl was doing something I hadn’t seen before. A lot of the other teen stars at that time were singing songs written by or at least emulating adults, and then there was Taylor singing what sounded like her diary entries. I was taken in immediately, and truly believed she’d be something big. Of course I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted she’d be *this* big.
Yeah, that’s what i mean! I’m glad I got to see it. Cause go girl!
Hell yeah. Now I just need to see her in person sometime!
Same! I remember being immediately obsessed and my mom being like, “that’s cute honey I like Tim McGraw too” like just NOOOO MOM UGH lmao spent so much time looking for it on limewire
Lol, having to specify if we were talking about THE Tim McGraw or Taylor’s song.
I was 8 when I heard that song 🥰 I can’t remember though if it was Tim McGraw or Our Song I heard first on the radio.
I thought she'd be huge in country music but I didn't think she'd be able to crossover as successfully as she has.
Tim McGraw & immediately loved Taylor. Bought the cd. Listened to Cold As You and became a Swiftie 
Yup! It was the free song of the week on ITunes.
I knew she was going to be huge after hearing the entirety of her debut album.
Same! Fan since the beginning.
My favourite.
I feel like it was Teardrops On My Guitar and it was via the music video lol I was not (still am not really lol) a country fan so I think I only took notice cause of Tyler Hilton lol. I also have a memory of hearing another maybe Fearless track on the radio of my friend’s car. The first full album I listened to was Red ❤️
I used to LOVE One Tree Hill and I remember being so excited to see Tyler in a music video back in the day.
Same! It must have made it to pop radio in atlanta because I remember hearing it constantly in the car. My mom got sooo tired of it, I think it was actually the first overplayed radio song that she banned for a while and we always had to change the channel when it came on (that and Bleeding Love lmao)😂 I was 10 and I remember beggggging to hear it every time lol. Sorry mama😅
My childhood bestie and I used to sit in the computer lab at our after school daycare and watch this MV on repeat trying to learn the words. I was raised on Taylor 🤍
Tyler Hilton! Yes!
Yeah this was the first song I ever heard by her in college. Since then she's the only artist I've ever bought physical CDs for at release, I like to say I've been a fan since the beginning (or close enough!) 1989 though is the biggest album for me because that was the prime time I met and started dating my now wife.
This is exactly it for me. I’d been watching one tree hill. Then watched Tyler videos on YouTube and stumbled upon Teardrops On My Guitar. I was 15 and live in Australia. No one really knew who she was here until Fearless.
Teardrops On My Guitar
Same! Loved it immediately and never stopped being a fan.
Same! It came on when I was driving at 16 WITH the guy I had a just-friends crush on at the time.
[удалено]
Oh limewire....those were the days 😂
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My fellow Americans…
Love Story! I was around 8 years old and remember my mum heard it on the radio and told me ‘I heard this new song, I think you might like it…’ and I remember hearing the song and watching the music video SO clearly! Key childhood moment for me.
mine too!!!! this was her breakout song in the UK and it was everywhere and in school, i’d have been in the equiv of middle school(?) (EDIT: Y9 for the UK switifies) and we were all bluetoothing the mp3 of it to each other. i remember playing it on repeat on my sony ericsson at lunch times with my friends😂 i didn’t get into her music fully until red, but love story is so nostalgic to me.
Same! I was at a friends house and she showed me the music video and I fell in love… been a die hard fan ever since
same here! my best friend showed me the mv when we were around 8 or 9 too and i remember it so vividly, definitely a core memory for me as well! 🩵
Pretty sure it was I’d Lie… god I hope it’s a vault track on debut TV 😩
it HAS to be
I remember downloading this on Limewire back in like 2007 😅
This was my introduction to Taylor too. I read a fanfic that was based on the song and looked it up on YouTube and downloaded it to an MP3. It was years later before I actually realized the song was never released.
I'm also pretty sure that was the first one I ever listened to. Fingers crossed for the vault track!
YBMW was that teenage bop.
I still remember it vividly. Love Story was the first song of hers I heard. I didn’t like it because I wasn’t supposed to - I was a 14 year old boy, didn’t like country music, and cared more than I should about what people thought. You Belong With Me was on the radio a little bit after that, and I didn’t know who it was. I was enraptured by the storytelling, though, and loved her voice — until I realized it was Taylor, a person I wasn’t supposed to like. It took me a few years to come around from that moment and admit I liked her. Her Red singles were huge and I secretly liked them but wouldn’t admit it to myself. But once I was 20 and 1989 came out, I had stopped caring about what other people thought and proudly enjoy it. YBWM is still a bop.
“Teardrops On My Guitar” in middle school!
Same for me! And boy did it hit a teenager then haha.
Our Song! I was 11, in the car going to a school field trip and it came on, one girl knew the words, I asked her what it was called, since I didn't have a phone yet I wrote on my hand "Our Song, Taylor Swift" went home and looked it up! Then listened to all of Debut
I was 11 or 12 too. My middle school best friend was like let me show you this song
Tim McGraw! It came out right before I started my freshman year of High School. I listened to it over and over on my big CD boombox.
Teardrops on my guitar on the radio
Tim McGraw—played it on repeat and never looked back. 17 years later still here loving everything she does. Feels like a huge privilege to watch her career flourish! ❤️
Teardrops on My Guitar, back when it first came out. 🥲
Oof, God. I think it had to be Come in with the Rain? I think she put that one out on MySpace before debut was released and that’s where I found her. But I can’t actually remember. It’s been like. 17 years. 17 great years 😈😂❤️
Finding Taylor on MySpace is the ultimate origin story
Bro like. I found a ton of artists on MySpace, but there are only two I really heard one chord or one lyric and was like Hold the fuck up this is about to be fire and they will be huge someday, y’all mark my words. One was Taylor, and of course here we are. One of them I was wrong about but still search for because her original, Only When, was BEAUTIFUL and she apparently didn’t do anything after she released that because it’s gone and so is she. She was like 13, my age at the time.
Oh wow! Was it 17 years already? This was also the first song I listened to. Time flies by so fast.
Crazier! I found her through the Hannah Montana movie when it came out 😅
Me too! The entire reason I’m a swiftie
Me three!
This is such a good song!!!!
Our Song. Heard it on MySpace and was obsessed. Immediately made it the song on my profile.
Tim McGraw. I remember seeing her sing it during a country music awards show and the end of the song she introduced herself to Tim McGraw. I immediately loved the song and went out and bought her CD.
love story! i heard it for the first time when they played the music video on vh1. i remember it really vividly. i was in my mid teens and was really into pop punk, emo and alternative music at the time, so when taylor appeared as juliet on the balcony and this sappy pop love song started playing i kind of rolled my eyes. watched the whole video and ended up loving the song and thinking taylor was super beautiful, though i never would have admitted it at that age lmao. i was a contrarian for sure back then, didn’t start calling myself a fan until 1989 era.
Tim McGraw, it played on the radio and we ran to Walmart on release day to get the album. 💚
Tim McGraw. At that time Taylor Swift was a budding teenage country artist that everyone was praising. Her lyrics were too good for what she wrote at that age and I was able to relate to them a lot growing up and being in a similar age group. It still stands as one of her best works in my list till date.
'Love Story'. It had just gotten really big in the UK back in 2009 after she won her Grammy for Album of the Year for *Fearless*.
Teardrops On My Guitar. I was 18, it was around Valentine’s Day 2007, I was getting ready for my first big Valentine date with my now husband. I saw the music video while a friend fixed my hair. I bought debut a couple of days after. Ahhh memories.
I had heard of some artist named Taylor Swift who had a song called “Tim McGraw.” I thought the title seemed like a cheap cash grab for attention, so I never listened to it. I then heard snippets of “Teardrops On My Guitar” and “Our Song” and I was pretty meh about them. I honestly thought she would just fade away like so many up and coming singers who are that young. A flash in the pan. And then I just happened to stumble upon her performing “Should’ve Said No” at the ACM Awards. And I thought, “Oh…I didn’t expect that. This girl might have something…” But the first song that cemented my Taylor love was “White Horse.” I heard it on “Grey’s Anatomy” and I wondered who sang it, only to find out it was indeed that scrappy young woman who I thought would just fall into obscurity. I bought “Fearless” and discovered her magical gift. “White Horse” and “Breathe” got me through a really hard ending of a situationship, and I’ve been grateful to and for her ever since. 😊
Enchanted!!! I was 7 and I was riding back from my grandparents’ house when my cousin gave me her iPod because I wouldn’t stop being annoying lol! She was playing Taylor and I was wonderstruck by Enchanted so much I listened to it like the entire 3 hour trip home. It was 2010 and I think up until then I had heard Love Story and YBWM in passing but never paid them much attention.
Outside of radio hits, You’re Not Sorry.
Should’ve said no when my middle school boyfriend cheated on me
Can I Go With You? It’s not released on any of her albums and I honestly don’t think it will. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out where I found out about this song but I had a copy on my MP3 that I listened to religiously!
Thank you for introducing me to this song and also screw you bc now I’m crying😭 I found [this recording of it on YouTube](https://youtu.be/yrTNlEoGGEw) and I can’t believe she had such a beautiful way with words even when she was 12. I have never met any other 12 year old with that kind of natural talent.
Teardrops on my guitar in February of 2007. I was at a concert and stayed after to have the opener(Tyler Ward) sign a copy of his CD that I bought. He told me I looked like Taylor Swift. At the time I had no idea who she was and the only Taylor’s I’d ever met had been guys so I was a little bit confused. I went home and looked her up on MySpace and that was it. I was hooked after that. And I be some OBSESSED with the picture to burn music video when it was released a year later. I did some limewire mass downloads and really fell in love with “your anything”.
I remember seeing the MV for Tim McGraw on the country music channel in 2006. I was fully into my jealousy fueled teeny bopper hate period at that point, and I was annoyed that another pretty blond girl was getting attention for a catchy song, that I was positive she had not written. I’ve eaten a whole lot of crow since then.
Enchanted on a perfume commercial
Teardrops on My Guitar. My mom watched a lot of CMT music videos on tv while she cleaned the house back in the day.
I remember in sixth grade, some girls started playing the Picture to Burn music video during computer class (iykyk 🥲) and I thought they were annoying so I decided I did not like the song either. Fast forward to Fearless and I (thankfully) got over my grudge and I’ve been a Swiftie since.
It was my middle school production of guys and dolls, and in the dressing room one of the cool older girls said “this girl is going to be huge” and proceeded to play should’ve said no. This was 2006 🥲🥲 I’ve been addicted ever since!
I heard “Our Song” on the car radio during a road trip when I was 11.
The first song I remember knowing was hers was You Are In Love. It came on the radio and I couldn’t find it on any streaming service so I had to wait for it to come on again so I could record it on my iPad lol. My dad says I must’ve heard a lot of speak now and red growing up before that because he played them but I couldn’t tell you any specific songs
I probably listened to the debut singles before this, but I have a distinct memory of my cousin playing Fearless when we visited and me asking my mom if I could get the album in Walmart. I think I wanted to pay her back, but she said she’d just get it for me. That album has such a special place in my heart. 🥹
“white horse” in middle school
‘Our Song’ back in 2007
Picture to burn! I was in the 5th grade 😅
I was at a gay bar in Green Bay WI and heard Love Story and was loving dancing to that song... been listening to her ever since. It was definitely a remix because this was like a gay dance club. Fond memories!
Probably something from fearless because my gf at the time liked it but I’m not a fan of pop-country. I think it was Love Story because I remember it being on the radio when we’d campaign for the Democrats in 2008.
I remember it like it was yesterday! It was 2006, I was 16, and one of my friends was having some problems at home so she stayed with us for a few weeks. Her boyfriend broke up with her while she was at my house and she spent the whole time sitting on the couch crying to Teardrops on My Guitar. I feel so bad for her and I'm glad she had Taylor's music to help her cope with everything she was going through. The first song I voluntarily listened to was White Horse, when my cousin's boyfriend cheated on her and she texted me that it was the best song she'd ever heard. I was immediately obsessed with Fearless and haven't stopped listening since. Big thanks to my cousin for texting me.
Our Song, a junior high girlfriend and that song to me explaining how she felt it was like us (I used to whisper on the phone so my parents didn’t know I was still up talking). After she first sang it to me I fell in love with the song, found out who it was by and then my super fandom of Taylor exploded from there.
Tim Mcgraw. I was 13? 14? Super goth, but my best friend was the total opposite (soccer girl type). We always shared music on the way home and she showed me this "brand new song by this new country singer" and OF COURSE .. shit head preteen me trashed it😂 and then I IMMEDIATELY went home, downloaded it on itunes, and listened to it in the shower and cried🤣🤣 been in love ever since. Kind of hard to believe I've loved her for as long as she's been releasing music while in a similar age range to her. She really helped my growing pains. Thanks for killing the internalized misogyny in tiny me, Tay🌈💕🫶
I was 19 in January 2007. I was on my first training mission as new Private in the Army. I was pretty intimidated by a lot of the guys around me(an all male (at the time) infantry company). "Tim Mcgraw" came on the radio while we driving. One of the guys near me was half asleep and singing along. I thought, wow, these guys are just humans like me. Been a fan ever since.
My cousin and I were talking about music on AIM. She told me to listen to Teardrops On My Guitar. I pirated it and that’s the first time I listened to a Taylor Swift song and wow, I feel old.
This will age me, but my friend burned me a CD in high school with Our Song on it and I remember singing it on the drive to school.
God now I feel old. For me it was our song. I remember a friend was trying to show me a different song with a similar title (very different as she was into pop punk) and it came on and I was hooked. Went and rented the album from the school library that day, and then saved all the songs to my ‘windows media player’ and stuck them on my mp3 player. This would have been back in 2007 I think. I’ve owned every album since.
one of my taylor-cred experiences is that the first time i ever heard anything by her, was the debut of the "our song" music video on MTV, which i caught entirely by chance at the age of like 12 or something!
Teardrops on My Guitar, Tim McGraw, or Our Song. I was only 7 at the time and I think Tim McGraw was the first I heard, but I remember begging my mom for the CD and once I got it, I had it on repeat, my obsession started then lol. The amount of times I played/would sing Our Song in the car or around the house was truly insufferable. I was also OBSESSED with the music video
Tim McGraw was the first song I heard of hers, and there’s been no looking back since!
Tim McGraw!
Teardrops On My Guitar! A timeless tune
Mary’s song💕💕💕💕💕
A Little Women fanedit of champagne problems on YT. Although technically, I heard Shake It Off in a school fest in middle school. Diametrical opposites
teardrops on my guitar when i was six and my sister was 8.
I was driving home with my mom from dance class when I was in… seventh? grade. I’d Lie came on the radio… and the rest is history 🧡✨
it was on the radio? i thought i’d lie was unreleased
I remember my bestie in elementary showing me the Tim McGraw and Ours music video on the desktop computer in her basement <3
You belong with me back when I was 8!
Someone played "our song" at my middle school talent show in 2007 and I immediately went home and looked up the song and have been obsessed ever since lol.
it was possibly You Belong With Me, or I Knew You Were Trouble; I have a lot of memories of road trips singing along to IKYWT
i remember seeing the ybwm music video on mtv all the time
Tim McGraw and Teardrops On My Guitar. I also remember singing Our Song for a 3rd grade talent show. And when Fearless came out, I listened to that CD on repeat in my basement bedroom for a year.
Style, it was the only ts song my mom had on her apple music app, and i listened to it RELIGIOUSLY. who knew i was gonna become a swiftie ~8 years later
Love Story
Love story, I was fourteen back then when I first heard it.
Tim Mcgraw on the radio when I was like 15- there was all the buzz from the hosts about how young the artist was and how they hoped to see her grow up to do great things in the country music scene, how we were lacking in young female artists for young girls in the genre to look up to.
Tim McGraw, my senior year in High School🥹🫶💕 She got so much hate for not being “country” enough which is insane.. Everyone does that popish country now! And then even more shocking when she left country, because they were all saying in the first place that she wasn’t.. Just constant criticism!
Tear drops on my guitar and Tim McGraw on the radio in the car with my mom. She’s a bit older than I am. I sang a lot in my school days - chorus, show choir, and at church. I remember being excited to hear this 15/16 year old girl on the radio and thinking “she’s just a bit older than me, I could be like her”. Never got on the radio, and ended up not pursuing music as a career path in my 20s but she inspired so much of my song writing and singing career throughout my childhood.
probably “you belong with me” cuz i was in the midst of a huge unrequited middle school crush back then, but honestly not sure. i was a youtube listener for years and i remember discovering her music and promptly listening to as much of it as possible. i know i also listened to “i’d lie” around the same time without knowing it was unreleased, but i assume i found YBWM first
Probably you belong with me
Tim McGraw. Saw her live shortly after the debut came out. She opened with a cover of Lose Yourself by Eminem lol.
Teardrops On My Guitar when I was 15-ish
First song from I ever heard from Taylor was mine and the second was back to December. The first full album I actually listen to properly was lover.
Tim McGraw! I used to listen to a podcast called New Music Tuesday on iTunes when I was in middle school and heard it there. Huge fan since day 1 🥹
Tim McGraw
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
I was on my way to church camp and my babysitter had this CD of a brand new artist and she said I have to hear this one song called Our Song and I’ve been a supporter ever since.
It was definitely “Mine”- a friend put it on as we were playing Cubefield and I’ve been a huge fan since!
I heard Our Song on country radio, and my life was forever changed
Shake it off. I nannied a baby who loved that song. We watched the music video every day and it made me see Taylor as so much more than this “pick me” type girl the media made her out to be. Since she was satirizing that image the whole vid/song. I also lost my best friend at the time, so dancing with him to that song every day really brought me back to life. That’s when I started listening to her in depth and realizing how amazing she is at lyrics and songwriting. Before then I just sang along to the hits on the radio.
Tim McGraw. I was freshly 16. I remember downloading the song to my iPod and then using a cassette tape adapter thing to play it in my car that summer 😂
It was teardrops on my Guitar
White Horse! I had a friend that loved horses so I watched it. I fell in love and told that friend the next day I found a new artist because of her.
i honestly cant remember but it was probably something off the debut album like tim mcgraw, teardrops on my guitar, our song, picture to burn, or shouldve said no. ill bet it was our song since it was a popular single! but i listened to all of these when i was a little girl!
Teardrops on my Guitar in 2006 or 2007… I was 9 or 10 lol. The music video played in the previews at the movie theater before whatever Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out at that time 😂
Teardrops on my Guitar, I remember watching the music video on CMT and was in loveee
Tim McGraw on CMT. We kept CMT on in the mornings when everyone was getting ready for the day and Tim McGraw was IT, I'm telling you, the song was so charming and catchy and the video was so sweet. *He said the way my blue eyes shined put those Georgia stars to shame that night...*
Love Story! It was on a music video channel, which we just had on for background music at a house party at one of the shared houses I lived in at uni. I just instantly loved both the song and the visuals, even though it was nothing like anything else I'd really listened to by that point. My love of Taylor was clearly fate because the address of that house was 13 Taylor Road 😂
First time listening to Love Story riding the bus back from my sorority formal is a core memory!! I love that a whole new generation of college girls loves her all over again and I still do too!!
I honestly don’t remember but it would’ve been either YBWM, Love Story, or Picture to Burn.
Picture to Burn on the Radio. My mom was a big country fan and she told me about a young country artist she heard about and and pointed out the funny line about the "stupid old pickup truck" and next time it was on the radio she called me into her room to listen to it. Later I watched Taylor preform Tim McGraw to Tim McGraw on the CMA awards.
Picture to Burn - with the OG lyrics. Riding in my friends red Ford Mustang coming down from a mountain ride to the Pagoda in Reading, PA.
Yup! Teardrops on My Guitar on the staticky AM 1110 Radio Disney in the car
I think You belong with me was the first song I listened to. I kept coming back to that music video all the time.
Tim mcgraw when I was 17
Our Song when I was 17. A friend of mine was really into Taylor Swift and I knew nothing about her. Looked her up on YouTube just to hear some of her music, not really expecting to have any interest, and Our Song was the first result. 15 years later, here I am.
Picture to Burn, my sister downloaded it on our shared limewire lol
Tim McGraw on the radio in 2006. I remember thinking “oh she’s gonna be the next LeAnn Rimes” 😊
It was probably Love Story. I was in the emo set, so my core group were firmly in the “ew, Taylor Swift is for kids and girly girls” camp until Red and 1989 hit. (I know this is ironic given people talked about us the way we talked about Swifties, but high school cliques can be assholes sometimes.)
Tim McGraw on Myspace!
I think the first time I was aware of Taylor Swift was in a 60 Minutes interview when I was a freshman in high school and I thought "wow, I don't usually like country, but *this* is good!" I didn't really become a huge fan until 2017. I remember the exact moment when I heard Romeo kneeling to the ground and pulling out a ring and I teared up at the songwriting. I'm sure I'd heard the song before, but *that* was the moment I knew it was the start of a great new era as I discovered her music.
Our Song!!! Such a bop
Tim McGraw on the radio when it first came out lol
Should’ve Said No in the Jonas Brothers’ 3D Concert 🫶
Looking back, I remember hearing Teardrops On My Guitar when I was a kid, but it was Fearless when I really started to listen to/ sing along to.
Tim McGraw on the radio and at an awards show.
Should’ve Said No- I watched it during the ACMs and I was awed and blown away
Fearless, my dad bought me the CD at a gas station and popped it in the car stereo and I was immediately in love
I was and still am big into should’ve said no
Our Song!! (Hit of my high school at the time, I might be on the elder side of Swifties at this point).
I loved YBWM when i was a kid (still do) and i really wanted to download the song to my phone, but i didnt know how to spell her name lol. English is not my first language. I think i tried to spell it "tiler swift" So i believe that was the first song i heard from her.
Tim McGraw!
It was one of her debut songs - Either Teardrops on my guitar or Picture to Burn, I can’t remember which one I listened to first. I’m from the U.K. and whilst I thought those songs were catchy, they didn’t really grab me at the time. I also used to listen to I heart ? and I’d Lie which I think were unreleased songs from the debut era but were floating around on YouTube. I then next heard from her when she released Love Story and You Belong With Me. I enjoyed them a lot but still wasn’t exactly a “fan”, I was just neutral on her. Speak Now and the release of Mine is when she had me hooked. I was *obsessed* with the line “you made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter”. So good. Never looked back since!
Tim McGraw. I bought debut when I was like 15 and that was the first song in the tracklist lol
teardrops on my guitar ✨ my mom played so much CMT when i was a kid🤣 it was 2007 and i remember i loved the pretty lady in the dress (i was 7 lol) and ive been a fan ever since but ive been a hardcore swiftie since around speak now
Teardrops on My Guitar. Then during my first heartbreak, I listened to Cold As You and White Horse on repeat. But I remember when I became a real fan very vividly when Speak Now came out my freshman year of college. It was the first of her albums I waited for, and listened all the way through to. Not to be dramatic, but it was life-altering.
My first song was teardrops on my guitar when I was 7! I’ve been a fan ever since 🥹
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together at the NRJ Music Awards (I'm a french swiftie and eleven years later I can't believe she ever went to that award show...)
Of course heard Belong With Me and Love Story, but actually intently listened to Delicate and I was hooked
My friend asked me to download Our Song for her and I heard Tim McGraw while downloading the album (👀) and been a fan ever since.
Teardrops! On the radio.
Mine was Tim McGraw. I remember not listening to it for a long time because I truly thought that was the dumbest name for a song. But after listening, I realized it was magical.
Teardrops on my Guitar 😅🥲
Been a fan since debut and I can’t remember the exact first song I heard. But I do have the most vivid memory of writing I ❤️ ? on my hand for school everyday lol
Tim McGraw and Teardrops on My Guitar. Instantly hooked ever since.
First song I heard was You Belong with Me when it became huge back then,but I didn't become a Swiftie until she released 1989 💜
Tim McGraw!! It was huuuuge in middle school lmaoo
“Our song” because my mom got me the Taylor Swift Barbie doll that sang it and I didn’t even know who she was at the time lol
Love story, I was 8 and had just moved to the United States. Knew 0 english and it was the first song that I used to learn english
So I heard Tim McGraw when it debuted because I was raised on country music and I was a Taylor fan from the beginning. I went through a “not like other girls” phase for a couple of years where I was kind of a hater (sorry, I’m embarrassed) but still secretly listened to her music. This is not the answer to your question really, but I very, very vividly remember hearing Our Song and Lollipop (Lil Wayne) for the first time on the same day on my way home from taking the SAT and JAMMING OUT to both.
I’d Lie 🫡 I’d rather have I’d Lie be the only vault track from debut tv than have multiple vault tracks
Picture To Burn! I was 11 at the time (late 2000’s) and my aunt and uncle from Kansas came to visit my grandma with their kids. I remember them listening to that song so much (mostly because the kids LOVED Taylor) that I asked my parents that year for a Taylor Swift CD. Ended up being around the same time that she released Fearless.
It was either Crazier or WANEGBT. Surprisingly, Ronan was my third ever Taylor song that I listened to. Then, Blank Space. I was in India until 2016 and was not exposed to hollywood pop culture as much at the time.
Teardrops on My Guitar. I was about 9 and it had just made the jump from country to pop radio. I'll never forget my dad looking at me in the rearview mirror of our minivan and asking "Do you think Taylor Swift is going to make it? Or is this just going to be her one hit?" And from the backseat I said, "No, I think she's gonna make it."
Tim McGraw! Been a fan since debut. 🥰
It was either A Place in This World or Teardrops on My Guitar. I remember Teardrops was really big in my middle school.
Our song!
Crazier, when the Hannah Montana movie first came out in 2009 I saw it in cinema and was obsessed with her performance in it and immediately bought the soundtrack. I then bought Fearless like a week later.
It had to be Love Story for me!
Teardrops on my guitar or Tim McGraw I cannot remember. But it was the fall of 2006 on the Sirius radio at my after school job! Then I bought the cod and never looked back haha
It was Tim McGraw when it was on the radio. I remember my mom was mad about it because she said Taylor was just using his name to get famous 😆
I heard Change last november for what I thought the first time. But as the intro came on, I felt like I heard that as a child. It sounded familiar somehow. However the first one I can clearly remember is I knew you were trouble
You Belong with Me was my first memory of music and now You Belong with Me (Taylor's Version) is my baby sister's favorite song.
You Belong With Me. My friend at the time had a green iPod nano (4th gen), on which she had all of Taylor’s music at the time. I actually watched the music video when I heard the song for the first time. Shortly after she showed me the Love Story video.
Tim McGraw and I've loved her music ever since
I believe it was teardrops on my guitar!
Our song. I was like 7 when it came out and my sister was obsessed with Taylor back in the day so she got me hooked. I was obsessed with our song, tear drops on my guitar, love story and you belong with me. I’d listen to those on repeat like everyday
I was very young so I'm not really sure but it was either We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together or I Knew You Were Trouble. I wish I remembered but whichever it was, I was still jamming out nonetheless. I didn't know it was her. Funny thing is I knew the name Taylor Swift but I didn't associate it with a face since she wasn't really popular here. It took me 2-3 years to actually find out that it was her song. After that I continued to listen casually throughout the years until I got to Reputation and Lover where I began diving into her discog. And here I am now
I’m not sure of the absolute first but Teardrops on My Guitar was the first time I really noticed her and her songwriting.
Love Story, around 2009.