Red (Taylor Swift album)

Red
Standard edition cover
Studio album by Taylor Swift
Released	October 22, 2012 (2012-10-22)
Recorded	2011–2012
Studio	Blackbird (Nashville) Pain in the Art (Nashville) Ballroom West (New York) Instrument Landing (Minneapolis) MXM (Stockholm) Conway (Los Angeles) Village (Los Angeles) Garage (Topanga Canyon) Ruby Red (Atlanta)[1]
Genre	Pop country rock
Length	65:09
Label	Big Machine
Producer	Taylor Swift Nathan Chapman Jeff Bhasker Dann Huff Jacknife Lee Max Martin Shellback Butch Walker Dan Wilson
Taylor Swift chronology
Speak Now World Tour – Live (2011) Red (2012) 1989 (2014)
Singles from Red
"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" Released: August 13, 2012 "Begin Again" Released: October 1, 2012 "I Knew You Were Trouble" Released: November 27, 2012 "22" Released: March 12, 2013 "Red" Released: June 24, 2013 "Everything Has Changed" Released: July 14, 2013 "The Last Time" Released: November 4, 2013

Red is the fourth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 22, 2012, by Big Machine Records. The title is the color to which Swift associated the tumultuous emotions she was experiencing from lost love while conceiving the album.

Swift designated Red as a breakup album, and its songs portray the complex and conflicting feelings that result from fading romance. Hoping to convey those sentiments sonically, she engaged new producers to experiment with sounds beyond the country pop style of her past albums. The ensemble included Dann Huff, Max Martin, Shellback, Jeff Bhasker, Dan Wilson, Jacknife Lee, Butch Walker, alongside her long-time collaborator Nathan Chapman. Red combines pop, country, and rock, using acoustic instruments alongside synths and drum machines. The tracks draw on styles such as electronic, arena rock, Britrock, dance-pop, and dubstep.

Red was supported by a world tour, the Red Tour (2013–2014), and seven singles; "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" peaked atop the US Billboard Hot 100, and "I Knew You Were Trouble" reached the top ten in Australasia and Europe. The album topped the charts and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. In the United States, it made Swift the first artist since the Beatles to have three albums each spend at least six weeks atop the Billboard 200. Initial reviews of Red mostly praised Swift's songwriting for its emotional exploration and engagement but were divided on the musical styles, with critics deeming them inconsistent and questioning Swift's identity as a country artist.

Red was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2013 Country Music Association Awards, and Album of the Year and Best Country Album at the 2014 Grammy Awards. The critical debate influenced Swift to relinquish her country identity on subsequent releases. Retrospectively, critics regard Red as a career-defining work showcasing Swift's evolved songcraft and a transitional album bridging her country roots to mainstream pop. Many publications ranked it among the best albums of the 2010s decade, and Rolling Stone placed it at number 99 on their 2023 revision of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Following a 2019 dispute regarding the ownership of Swift's back catalog, she re-recorded the album and released it as Red (Taylor's Version) in 2021.