Taylor Swift's best 3 albums might not be what you think

As a huge Taylor Swift fan, I knew I had to watch the MTV Video Music Awards. After all, Swift was attending in person for the short film version of her song "All Too Well" — which was nominated as video of the year, best long-form video and best direction. 

Swift ended up winning all three of these, and she used her acceptance speech for video of the year as a segue into announcing her new album, "Midnights." I'm a major Swiftie, with a tattoo of her album "Fearless" on my arm, so I was beaming with joy when she announced a new album.

I’ve been a fan of Swift since the release of her "Fearless" album, which debuted in 2008. Being there for each album after that, I’ve been able to see how much she's grown as an artist, as well as a person. From country music to pop, Swift has captured some of my favorite genres in the albums and songs that she created.

The first album that I really resonated with was "Fearless," and this is because it's a musical masterpiece. From the original album, I really appreciated songs such as "White Horse" and "The Best Day," the latter of which is a song that she wrote for her mother, singing about the comfort she gives her: "I come home crying and you hold me tight and grab the keys."

Swift re-recorded this song in 2021 and stole hearts when she dropped merch for it on Mother’s Day. When I was younger, I knew my parents were always my biggest supporters. Even now, they show how proud of me they are, so I've really appreciated this song as I've gotten older.

"Fearless" had a lot of instrumentals, but what I really loved was the guitar used in "Untouchable." Originally, the song was written and performed by a band called Luna Halo. But with Swift’s creative acoustic twist on the song, Luna Halo agreed to give Swift partial songwriting credit on the song based on its originality and musical direction.

This was also the first song that I learned how to play on the guitar. I really think that this song truly shows what Swift was capable of, even during the time in which she was in the process of creating an earlier album like "Fearless."

My second favorite album by Swift is definitely "Reputation." I think, as an era, this album shined in ways that her other albums didn’t.

In 2008, Kanye West famously dissed Swift at the MTV VMAs, by going on stage during Swift's acceptance speech and announcing that instead of Swift winning video of the year, Beyoncé instead should have won.

In 2015, during her "1989" world tour, and at the height of her success, Swift and West seemingly buried the hatchet at the 2015 MTV VMAs, where Swift presented West with the Video Vanguard Award. But things turned sour once more in 2016, and this drama made Swift go silent for a year.

In November 2017, Swift released her album "Reputation." In the 18th week of Swift’s release of "Reputation," she surpassed 2 million units in sales in the U.S. It was the first album to do so since Adele's "25" in 2015 and was 1 of only 2 albums from 2017 to hit a million units (Ed Sheeran's "Divide" was the other).

"Reputation" was partially inspired by Swift’s drama with West, but it was also shown to be a love story detailing how she met her now boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. With a very different vibe than what we were previously used to, especially with "1989," Swift was able to couple her love with Alwyn and her drama with West in one album.

My favorite song from "Reputation" is definitely "King of my Heart." This ballad describes the pressures of Swift’s life in the spotlight and how her relationship with Alwyn has been able to prevail in spite of the ups and downs that they had to face.

My third favorite album by Swift is definitely "Lover." Even though it was in a tight race with "1989," "Lover" is truly an album that brings out the best in Swift.

Swift released this album on the first day of Pride month on June 1, 2019. In an interview with Vogue, Swift stated that she started a petition in support of the federal Equality Act. She wrote a letter to her senator, Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, pressuring him to vote yes.

In the same interview, Swift discussed her song "You Need To Come Down" and stated: “The first verse is about trolls and cancel culture ... The second verse is about homophobes and the people picketing outside our concerts. The third verse is about successful women being pitted against each other.”

I thought that "Lover" was able to teach people about love and what it really stood for. Swift truly picked songs that were important to the current political moment and was finally using her platform for political statements in order to further inspire and empower others to stand up for their rights.

My favorite song from the "Lover" album is definitely "The Man." This is a song that shows men should not always be trusted. It explains that women, of all backgrounds, should be respected, especially in the corporate world. I think that this album was the most inspiring because she was finally using her platform to talk about issues that needed to be addressed.

Swift is a phenomenal artist. All the songs she creates have a message behind them, and unlike most artists, she has the platform to help empower those to do what they need to do in order to succeed.