Taylor Swift released her first album in 2006 when she was just 16 years old. Now at 33, the singer-songwriter has become the voice of love, heartbreak, and every emotion in between. The singer released her 10th album last fall, and that doesn’t include her rerecorded “Taylor’s Version” albums. She’s released two this year: July’s “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and October’s “1989 (Taylor’s Version).” Add that on to her ongoing Eras Tour, and she’s shown no plans of slowing down any time soon.
Swift’s tour features 44 songs from her catalog that she’s performing for fans around the world, and she’s released over 240 songs in total. At POPSUGAR, we decided to rank just the 30 very best Swift songs.
My methodology was both highly scientific and personal. Back in May, when the list had 25 slots, I went through Swift’s discography and put songs that I thought might make the cut into a playlist. That playlist ended up having 43 songs (and it included no Christmas tracks, though I am an avowed “Christmas Tree Farm” fan). I made a new playlist and began the painful process of cutting 18 songs to get the final 25. I tried not to consider which songs were my personal favorites; quite a few of the ones that I put on replay didn’t even make the 43-song cut. But I considered which are Swift’s most important, her most lyrically or musically impressive, or her most iconic. In October, with the release of “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” I decided to add five more songs to the list, for a total of 30, because 25 felt like leaving out too many greats.
Ahead, these are POPSUGAR’s top 30 Taylor Swift songs.