Taylor Swift Tickets : Speak Now Expands On The Country Pop Style Of Her Previous Work

Speak Now is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released on October 25, 2010 by Big Machine Records.

Production for the album took place during 2008 to 2010 at several recording studios, and was handled by Swift and country music producer Nathan Chapman. Written entirely by Swift, Speak Now expands on the country pop style of her previous work, and features lyrical themes concerning love, romance and heartbreak.

Speak Now received positive reviews from most music critics, who complimented Swift's songwriting and themes. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling approximately 1,047,000 units in its first week.

Due to strong digital sales, all fourteen songs from the standard edition of the album charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with the lead single "Mine" having the highest peak of number three. It was also an international success, charting within the top-10 in several countries, including Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The album has sold 3,048,000 copies in the United States and has been certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). According to Big Machine Records, it has sold over 4.8 million copies worldwide.

The lead single from the album, "Mine" was released on August 4, 2010. The single was released twelve days ahead of its planned August 16 release, due to an online leak of the song. The music video for the song was shot in Kennebunkport, Maine, during July.Swift said the single was about her tendency to "run from love".The song has peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100. "Mine" sold 1,734,000 copies becoming Swift's fifth best-selling song to date.

The music video premiered on January 13, 2011, on CMT and Great American Country.The third single, Swift's 13th single of her career, was released as a double A-side being "Mean" and "The Story of Us" respectively. The former was released on March 7, 2011 on country radio[20] while the latter was released on April 19, 2011 on mainstream pop."The Story of Us" was released first in the UK on April 4, 2011.

Swift performed the song "Innocent" at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. Some of the tracks were previewed in advance of the release date: "Speak Now" on October 4, "Back to December" on October 11, and "Mean" on October 18, 2010.

These three were subsequently released to the iTunes Store the following day, respectively .Additionally, "The Story of Us" was previewed October 22, 2010, through Comcast on-demand and XfinityTv. "Speak Now" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number eight and on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart at number sixty the week of October 11, 2010, selling 217,000 digital downloads.

Back to December debuted at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, with 242,000 digital downloads."Mean" debuted at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 163,000 downloads. All fourteen songs on the standard edition of the album have charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with ten tracks debuting the week of the album's release. The highest-charting of these was "Sparks Fly" at number seventeen with 113,000 downloads.

Speak Now received positive reviews from most music critics.At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 77, based on 20 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".Allmusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave it four out of five stars and commended Swift for her lyrical maturity, stating "she writes from the perspective of the moment yet has the skill of a songwriter beyond her years".

Los Angeles Times writer Ann Powers stated "she makes memorable music by honing in on the tiny stuff: the half-notes in a hummed phrase, the lyrical images that communicate precisely what it is like to feel uncomfortable, or disappointed, or happy".