"Ours" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter
Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bor ...
for the deluxe edition of her third studio album, ''
Speak Now
''Speak Now'' is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 25, 2010, through Big Machine Records. Swift wrote the album entirely herself within two years, while she was promoting her second studio alb ...
'' (2010). It was released to US
country radio Country radio refers to radio stations that play country music. Most country radio stations are commercial radio stations. Most country radio stations usually play only music which has been officially released to country radio by record labels. The ...
as the album's last single on December 5, 2011, by
Big Machine Records
Big Machine Records is an American independent record label, distributed by Universal Music Group. Specializing in country and pop artists, Big Machine is based on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. The label was founded in September 2005 by fo ...
. Produced by Chad Carlson and
Nathan Chapman, "Ours" is an understated
country pop
Country pop (also known as pop country or urban cowboy) is a fusion genre of country music and pop music that was developed by members of the country genre out of a desire to reach a larger, mainstream audience. Country pop music blends genres ...
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
with a
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fo ...
-influenced production. The lyrics depict a young couple's resilience to protect their relationship despite others' scrutiny.
Music critics
Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...
noted that "Ours" features an understated production as opposed to Swift's previous upbeat singles, and complimented the intricate lyrical details. In the United States, the song peaked at number one on the
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...
chart and at number 13 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100, and was certified Platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
(RIAA). Internationally, the song charted on the singles charts of Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
The single was supported by a music video directed by Declan Whitebloon featuring
Zach Gilford
Zachary Michael Gilford (born January 14, 1982) is an American actor, known for his role as Matt Saracen on the NBC sports drama series '' Friday Night Lights''. In 2021, he starred in the Netflix horror limited series ''Midnight Mass''. In 2022, ...
. Swift performed the song live at the
2011 Country Music Association Awards and included it in the concerts of her
Speak Now World Tour
The Speak Now World Tour was the second concert tour by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, and it was launched in support of her third studio album '' Speak Now'' (2010). The Speak Now tour began on February 9, 2011 in Singapore and the to ...
.
Background and composition
American singer-songwriter
Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bor ...
began work on her third studio album, ''
Speak Now
''Speak Now'' is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 25, 2010, through Big Machine Records. Swift wrote the album entirely herself within two years, while she was promoting her second studio alb ...
'' (2010), two years prior to its release.
"Ours" is a bonus song on the album's deluxe edition, which was available exclusively via
Target
Target may refer to:
Physical items
* Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports
** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports
** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...
in the United States. On November 8, 2011, "Ours" was released for
download
In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote s ...
through the US
iTunes Store
The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...
by
Big Machine Records
Big Machine Records is an American independent record label, distributed by Universal Music Group. Specializing in country and pop artists, Big Machine is based on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. The label was founded in September 2005 by fo ...
.
A promotional
CD single
A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...
was released on November 21, 2011; the CD single includes the song and a recorded live performance of "Ours".
It was released to US
country radio Country radio refers to radio stations that play country music. Most country radio stations are commercial radio stations. Most country radio stations usually play only music which has been officially released to country radio by record labels. The ...
as the album's sixth and final single on December 5, 2011.
Swift wrote "Ours", which was produced by Chad Carlson and
Nathan Chapman.
The song is a
country pop
Country pop (also known as pop country or urban cowboy) is a fusion genre of country music and pop music that was developed by members of the country genre out of a desire to reach a larger, mainstream audience. Country pop music blends genres ...
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
with a
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fo ...
-influenced production.
Compared to other ''Speak Now'' tracks, "Ours" features an understated production that highlights Swift's vocals.
The lyrics depict a young couple's resilience to protect their relationship despite others' scrutiny.
The first line that Swift wrote for the song was, "The stakes are high, the water's rough." The song's couple have experienced the hardships of life and realize, "Life makes love look hard." She tells the boyfriend that she loves him for him, " 'Cause I love the gap between your teeth/ And I love the riddles that you speak/ And any snide remarks from my father about your tattoos/ Will be ignored/ 'Cause my heart is yours," and affirms that she does not care what others think.
Reception
Music critics
Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...
gave "Ours" generally positive reviews. Billy Dukes of ''
Taste of Country
Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wi ...
'' gave the song a four-and-a-half out of five rating and praised the understated production compared to the "shine and polish" of Swift's past singles.
Karen Goodner of All Access similarly complimented the folksy and midtempo production.
Allen Jacobs of ''Roughstock'' claimed "Ours" as Swift's "best single" since "
White Horse" (2008). ''
The Arizona Republic
''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. Copies are sold at $2 daily or at $3 ...
'' Ed Masley complimented the "bittersweet ache" in Swift's vocals and said that the track sounds like what
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. Fleetwood Mac were founded by guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer, before bassist John McVie joined the line-up for their epony ...
would release.
In ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'',
Rob Sheffield
Robert James Sheffield (born February 2, 1966) is an American music journalist and author.
He is a long time contributing editor at ''Rolling Stone'', writing about music, TV, and pop culture. Previously, he was a contributing editor at '' Ble ...
favorably compared the song to
the Replacements' music and said it is one of his most-repeated among Swift's discography.
The lyrics "Don't you worry your pretty little mind / People throw rocks at things that shine" were highlighted by some critics as the song's most memorable.
On a less positive side,
Alexis Petridis from ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' found the song not as groundbreaking as Swift's other singles, but said it contains "a certain low-key charm".
Erin Thompson of ''
Seattle Weekly
The ''Seattle Weekly'' is an alternative biweekly distributed newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded by Darrell Oldham and David Brewster as ''The Weekly.'' Its first issue was published on March 31, 1976. The newspaper ...
'' opined that "Ours" is inferior to "If This Was a Movie", another ''Speak Now'' deluxe edition track. Thompson wrote that after a few listens, the former sounds like "a mess of mixed metaphors".
Hannah Mylrea from ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' dismissed the lyrics as "mawkish" and the production as "sickly sweet".
After its digital release in November 2011, "Ours" debuted at number 13 (which later became its peak) on the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number five on the
Hot Digital Songs
The Digital Songs or Digital Song Sales chart (previously named Hot Digital Songs) ranks the best-selling digital songs in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published by ''Billboard'' magazine. Although it originally starte ...
chart, with first-week digital sales of 148,000 copies.
It spent 20 weeks in total on the Hot 100.
On the
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...
chart, "Ours" reached number one on the week ending March 31, 2012, becoming Swift's sixth chart topper. The single was certified
Platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver".
Platinu ...
by the
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
(RIAA) for one million digital US copies.
As of November 2017, "Ours" had sold 1.5 million copies in the United States.
Elsewhere, the song appeared at number 91 on Australia's
ARIA Charts
The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...
,
number 68 on Canada's
Canadian Hot 100
The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007, and is currently the standard record chart in Canada; a n ...
,
and at number 181 on the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
.
Live performances and music video
Swift debuted the song live at the
2011 Country Music Association Awards on November 9.
She sang an acoustic version and performed in a bright pink sweater on a living room sofa. "Ours" was added to the set lists of some U.S. shows in late 2011, and the Australian shows in 2012, as part of the
Speak Now World Tour
The Speak Now World Tour was the second concert tour by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, and it was launched in support of her third studio album '' Speak Now'' (2010). The Speak Now tour began on February 9, 2011 in Singapore and the to ...
. In 2012, Swift sang the song as part of a ''
VH1 Storytellers
''Storytellers'' is a television music series produced by the VH1 network.
In each episode, artists perform in front of a (mostly small and intimate) live audience, and tell stories about their music, writing experiences and memories, somewhat ...
'' episode taped at
Harvey Mudd College in California. Swift performed the song on select dates of her later tour, including
the Red Tour
The Red Tour was the third concert tour by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, in support of her fourth studio album, ''Red'' (2012). The tour started on March 13, 2013, at CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska and concluded on June 12, 2 ...
(Los Angeles, August 2013) and the
Reputation Stadium Tour
The Reputation Stadium Tour was the fifth concert tour by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, in support of her sixth studio album ''Reputation'' (2017). The all- stadium tour began on May 8, 2018, in Glendale, Arizona, and concluded on ...
(
Foxborough, Massachusetts
Foxborough is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, about southwest of Boston, northeast of Providence, Rhode Island and about northwest of Cape Cod. Foxborough is part of the Greater Boston area. The population was 18,618 at ...
, July 2018).
The music video for "Ours" premiered on
E! on December 2, 2011. The video was directed by Declan Whitebloom, who had directed the video for ''Speak Now'' single "
Mean
There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set.
For a data set, the ''arithme ...
".
Swift conceptualized the video's narrative herself.
In the video, Swift plays an office worker, donning tennis shoes and messy hair.
She engages in mundane daily corporate experience such as riding the bus to work, waiting to drink at the water cooler, and enduring annoying co-workers.
As the video approaches the end, Swift's character is excited to leave work and meet her boyfriend (portrayed by
Zach Gilford
Zachary Michael Gilford (born January 14, 1982) is an American actor, known for his role as Matt Saracen on the NBC sports drama series '' Friday Night Lights''. In 2021, he starred in the Netflix horror limited series ''Midnight Mass''. In 2022, ...
). They meet at the airport; the boyfriend appears in military attire.
Much of the video is monotonous until the moment the couple meet;
in the ''
Nanaimo Daily News
The ''Nanaimo Daily News'' was a Canadian daily newspaper published weekdays in Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island in British Columbia for 141 years until ceasing publication in January 2016.
The paper's final owner was Black Press, which also publishes ...
'', Leah Collins noted that the part where Swift meets her boyfriend is the video's only "warm and fuzzy thing".
''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' Erin Strecker considered the video more adult and realistic than Swift's previous romantic videos, but praised it because it "still captures that butterflies-in-your-stomach, crazy-in-love tone that she is so famous for".
The video spent seven weeks at number one on
CMT; it also reached number one on
Great American Country
Great American Family is an American cable television network. Owned by Great American Media, it broadcasts family-oriented general entertainment programming, including television series and made-for-TV movies.
It was originally established in ...
and Australia's
Country Music Channel
Country Music Channel (CMC) was an Australian cable and satellite music television channel owned and operated by Foxtel Networks. It was the only country music video channel in Australia, created after the departure of MusicCountry from the Au ...
.
Accolades
Credits and personnel
Credits are adapted from the
liner notes
Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes.
Origin
Liner notes are desce ...
of the
CD single
A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...
.
*Taylor Swift – lead vocals, songwriter
*Brian David Willis – additional engineering
*
Bryan Sutton
Bryan Sutton is an American musician. Primarily known as a flatpicking acoustic guitar player, Sutton also plays mandolin, banjo, ukulele, and electric guitar. He also sings and writes songs.
Biography Early career
Sutton's grandfather and ...
–
12-string guitar
A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in o ...
, ukulele
*Chad Carlson – recording, producer
*Drew Bollman – assistant mixing
*Emily Mueller – production assistant
*Hank Williams –
mastering
*Jason Campbell – production coordinator
*Justin Niebank –
mixing
*Matt Rausch – assistant mixing
*Nathan Chapman – producer, recording, acoustic guitar,
audio programming,
Rhodes piano
The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...
, harmony vocals, additional engineering
*Steve Blackmon – assistant mixing
*Matt Rausch – background vocals, producer, writer
*Tristan Brock-Jones – assistant engineer
*Todd Tidwell – assistant engineer
*Whitney Sutton – copy coordinator
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
References
Print source
*
{{Authority control
2010 songs
2011 singles
Songs written by Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift songs
Song recordings produced by Nathan Chapman (record producer)
Big Machine Records singles
Country ballads
2010s ballads
Song recordings produced by Taylor Swift
Pop ballads