Fearless is the second studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released in North America on November 11, 2008, and elsewhere on March 9, 2009, by Big Machine Records.

Inspired by Swift's adolescence, Fearless explores love and heartbreak using references to her personal life and fairy tale–inspired lyrical imagery.

A country pop album, Fearless features acoustic arrangements driven by a wide variety of string instruments such as banjos, fiddles, mandolins, and electric guitars.

In the United States, Fearless spent 11 weeks atop the Billboard 200 and was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America.

The album received multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, and it has sold 12 million copies worldwide.

Music critics lauded the album's radio-friendly tunes and emotional engagement that appealed to not only teenagers but also a broad audience, although some deemed the production formulaic.

[13] Swift first came up with the direction for her second studio album after writing "Fearless", a song about an imaginary "best first date", while touring with Brad Paisley in mid-2007.

[note 1] Continuing on the romantic themes of her first album, Swift chose to write songs about her personal feelings and observations of the world around her from the perspectives of a teenage girl, instead of the luxurious lifestyle brought by her newfound fame,[15][16] to ensure her fans could relate to her songs: "I really try to write more about what I feel and guys and love because that's what fascinates me more than anything else – love and what it does to us and how we treat people and how they treat us.

[20] Apart from newly penned songs, Swift recorded a few that she had written for her debut album, believing there were stories that deserved to be put out.

[21] Recording took place within eight months[26] and finished in October 2008, when Swift completed the track "Forever & Always" just before Fearless was mastered and published.

[28] Like Swift's debut album, Fearless's prominent themes are love and life from a high school teenage girl's perspective.

[36][37][38] Many of Fearless's songs are about starry-eyed romance and use imagery associated with fairy tales, such as princes, princesses, white horses, and kissing in the rain.

[47] Heartbreak and emotional tumult are explored in songs such as "Tell Me Why", about an on-and-off relationship with an informal love interest; "You're Not Sorry", with lyrics describing an unfaithful man; and "Forever & Always", inspired by Swift's breakup with the singer Joe Jonas.

[51] The lyrics feature high school iconography, describing the protagonist as an ordinary girl "on the bleachers", and the antagonistic girlfriend as a popular cheer captain.

[57][58] The lyrics of "Change"—the closing track of the standard edition—detail Swift's determination to succeed despite her underdog status as a singer from a small, independent record label in Nashville.

[note 4] According to Hazel Cills of Pitchfork, the country elements are minimal: Swift's "faux-country accent" and "a few bits" of banjo and fiddle scattered throughout.

[53] In the British newspaper Guardian, Alexis Petridis said the country identifiers are limited to the lyrical references to God and "one-horse towns", and the production is "orthodontically perfect pop-rock" with Swift's melodies evoking "the pitiless efficiency of a Scandinavian pop factory".

[62][67] The musicologist James E. Perone commented that the songs contain hints of country, pop, folk, and alternative rock with their instrumental mix.

[72] An international edition featuring three bonus tracks—"Our Song", "Teardrops on My Guitar", and "Should've Said No"—was released on March 9, 2009, by Big Machine in partnership with Universal Music Group.

The DVD comprises the music videos for "Change", "The Best Day", "Love Story", "White Horse", and "You Belong with Me"; behind-the-scenes footage for the latter three; behind-the-scene footage from the first concert of the Fearless Tour; and "Thug Story"—a video Swift filmed with the rapper T-Pain exclusively for the 2009 CMT Music Awards.

[74] "Untouchable" is a cover of a 2007 song by the rock band Luna Halo; its lyrics and arrangement were rewritten by Swift, leading to her earning a writing credit on her version.

[83] Besides live appearances, Swift used her MySpace account to promote to a young audience, sharing snippets of songs for streaming before they were released to radio, as she had done with her debut album.

[110] A commercial success in the United States, Fearless set many chart records and catapulted Swift to mainstream prominence.

[120][121] In December 2017, the Recording Industry Association of America certified the album Diamond for surpassing 10 million album-equivalent units based on sales and streams.

[15] Reviews published in The Boston Globe,[60] Blender,[40] Entertainment Weekly,[51] The Village Voice,[35] and USA Today remarked that Fearless was an honest and vulnerable record contrasting with albums by other teenage singers, thanks to Swift's self-penned songs.

[152] In MSN Music, Robert Christgau found the album's romantic idealism distasteful, but he lauded Swift's songwriting skills as remarkable for a teenage artist.

[62] Christgau commented that the songs were effective partly because of "the musical restraint of a strain of Nashville bigpop that avoids muscle-flexing rockism".

[note 8][183] In a 2019 review for Pitchfork, Cills commented that the simplicity and earnestness of Fearless were a testament to Swift's abilities of writing timeless songs.

According to Cills, whereas other teen idols were often sexualized, it was refreshing that Swift wrote about teenage experiences "in her own terms, [...] "redefining what 'teen pop' could sound like in the process".

[note 9] In 2024, Spin deemed Fearless the best album by Swift, upholding it as "a masterpiece of high school anxiety and adolescent heartbreak".