Change (Taylor Swift Song) - Background

Background

When Swift was first signed to Big Machine Records, it was a new and extremely small record label, the smallest in Nashville, Tennessee, that consisted of approximately twelve employees and her as the only signed artist. At some point, Swift realized that it would be more difficult for her to achieve success through a small label, than in a larger label, constricting their contacts and making it nearly impossible to embark on concert tours and have presenter or performer slots on award shows. In addition, as the only signed artist, she could not ask for favors and only had herself to encourage the hope that scenarios would eventually change. Swift described the scenario as an "uphill climb" and said, "There was this moment where I sat there and was like, ‘When are we going to get a fighting chance? We’re the smallest record label in Nashville, but we want this really bad.’" After reassuring to herself that it would be different in the future, she wrote the beginning of "Change". She let the track sit for a while, waiting for a remarkable event to trigger its completion. She then completed the track the day after she won the Horizon Award at the 2007 Country Music Association Awards and saw Scott Borchetta, the president of Big Machine Records, crying. "That’s when I finished, because I knew I couldn’t finish it until something like that happened. It was absolutely the most amazing night of my life, getting to see the emotion of all the people who worked so hard for me."

The song was recorded in December 2007, when she recognized it applied to more scenarios and had a "bigger meaning" than originally. American television network National Broadcasting Company (NBC) had asked Swift to perform at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. However, an appearance could not be scheduled because Swift was touring at the time. Instead, Swift's father suggested using "Change" as a theme for the event. Therefore, "Change" was used during NBC's daily video highlights in August 2008, prior to the release of Fearless. "I wrote the song ‘Change’ as an underdog story. It’s kind of crazy to think that the Olympics chose this as one of the songs to play during the Olympic Games", Swift commented. It was included on the AT&T Team USA Soundtrack (2008). The song was released as a promotional single on the iTunes Store on August 8, 2008. All proceeds were donated to the United States Olympic team.