Swiftie Trivia Warm-Up, Day 1: The Eras, Album by Album

Unofficial fan trivia. Boston Made is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Taylor Swift or her team. Every fact below comes from her public career.

Friday, November 13 at 1:13 p.m. ET is the Swiftie Finale: thirteen questions, one perfect score, and bragging rights for the fan who knows the catalog cold. Between now and then, Boston Made is running a daily warm-up. Today we start where every Swiftie conversation eventually lands: the eras. Read it through, then test yourself with the quick check at the bottom. No spoilers for the finale, but everything here is fair game on Friday.

Why “eras” became the way fans talk about her music

Most artists release albums. Taylor Swift built chapters. Each record arrives with its own color palette, its own visual world, its own wardrobe and, often, its own story about where she was in life when she wrote it. Fans picked up on that early, and by the time she announced a stadium tour built around every chapter at once, “era” had become shorthand for a whole mood: the sparkle of one record, the quiet cardigan of another, the snakes and black-and-white of a third.

That habit of thinking in chapters is what makes Swiftie trivia so much fun. You are not just remembering release dates. You are remembering what each chapter felt like, and the details she hid inside it for fans to find.

The studio albums, in order

If you want to win on Friday, this list is the backbone. Her original studio albums arrived in this order:

1. Taylor Swift (2006), the country debut she released as a teenager.
2. Fearless (2008), the record that made her a global star and won Album of the Year at the Grammys.
3. Speak Now (2010), which she famously wrote entirely on her own.
4. Red (2012), the bridge between country and pop.
5. 1989 (2014), her full pop pivot, named for the year she was born, and her second Album of the Year win.
6. reputation (2017), the dark, black-and-white chapter (stylized in lowercase).
7. Lover (2019), pastel and pink after the storm.
8. folklore (2020), the surprise indie-folk record made during the pandemic, and her third Album of the Year.
9. evermore (2020), folklore’s “sister record,” released just months later.
10. Midnights (2022), a concept album about sleepless nights, and her record-setting fourth Album of the Year.
11. The Tortured Poets Department (2024).
12. The Life of a Showgirl (2025).

Notice the lowercase titles on reputation, folklore and evermore. Swifties notice things like that, and so does our finale.

The re-recordings: “Taylor’s Version”

Starting in 2021, she began re-recording her early albums so she would own new master recordings of her own songs. Each one carries the tag “(Taylor’s Version)” and usually comes with extra “From the Vault” songs that did not make the original album. Four arrived before she bought back her original masters in 2025:

• Fearless (Taylor’s Version), April 2021
• Red (Taylor’s Version), November 2021
• Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), July 2023
• 1989 (Taylor’s Version), October 2023

The re-recording project became one of the most talked-about stories in the music business, because it turned a dispute over ownership into something millions of listeners took part in simply by choosing which version to stream.

Thirteen, and why the finale lands on Friday the 13th

She was born on December 13, 1989, and she has long called 13 her lucky number. Fans have spotted it everywhere over the years: in song lengths, in hidden messages, in dates. So when Boston Made picked a day for the big finale, Friday the 13th was the only real choice, and 1:13 p.m. was the only real time.

The Eras Tour, by the numbers

The Eras Tour opened in Glendale, Arizona, in March 2023 and closed in Vancouver in December 2024 after 149 shows across five continents. It became the highest-grossing concert tour of all time and the first to pass $2 billion in ticket sales. Each night ran past three hours and moved through her catalog era by era, with a “surprise songs” segment that changed every show, which fans tracked like a sport of its own.

The tour also produced the friendship-bracelet tradition you see in today’s photo. Fans traded handmade bead bracelets spelling out song titles and inside jokes, a nod to a lyric about making friendship bracelets. If you went to a show, you probably came home with a wrist full of them.

How to prepare for Friday

• Know the order. At least one finale question depends on knowing which album came before which.
• Know the wins. Four Album of the Year Grammys, more than any other artist: Fearless, 1989, folklore and Midnights.
• Know the versions. Which albums got a “Taylor’s Version,” and roughly when.
• Know the numbers. 13, 149 and 2023 to 2024 are all worth remembering.
• Come back tomorrow. Each day this week adds a new warm-up round, and every one of them feeds the finale.

See you at 1:13

The Swiftie Finale opens Friday, November 13 at 1:13 p.m. ET on bostonmade.com. Thirteen questions, no tricks, all public facts. Bring your best friend, your bracelets and your sharpest memory. Until then, here is today’s warm-up.