Taylor Swift’s folklore, which includes “august,” is her eighth studio album. The record marked a major stylistic and conceptual shift in her catalog.
Swift conceived folklore during quarantine in early 2020, collaborating remotely with Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff while recording her own vocals at home in Los Angeles. Instead of centering every song on autobiographical details, she built fictional characters and storylines. “august,” “cardigan,” and “betty” form the album’s most prominent connected narrative.
The album followed Lover, Swift’s seventh studio album, and preceded evermore, which arrived later in 2020. folklore was released on July 24, 2020, as a surprise album through Republic Records. It spent eight weeks at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 and became the best-selling album of 2020 in the United States. Its success also earned Swift the Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.