February 2010
Features / Taylor Swift
Photos Courtesy Big Machine Records
Taylor Swift is calling me today.
A year ago, I, like so many Americans, was being introduced to the teen star. Her debut album was in rotation on my iPod, I made my daily runs up P.J. McArdle Roadway to “Picture to Burn,” and I was smitten with the scene of this teenage girl singing her “Tim McGraw” song to the big man himself at the Academy of Country Music Awards.
I signed on to write a story about her for WHIRL’s October 2008 cover, diving right into the research, even unearthing a journalism goldmine: Froggy radio’s VP of Programming, Frank Bell, a Swift family friend, showed me home videos of the star writing songs and dancing around the living room in her socks, movies only ever before seen by an intimate circle. These, along with interviews from Scott Borchetta, the executive who discovered her, and of course a call from Swift herself, inspired Bell to call my piece one of the most complete ever compiled on the artist up to that point (I got further validation when a producer friend at E! True Hollywood Story said that he was using Swift’s WHIRL as a reference for his show).
I landed a spot on the artist’s personal list for the Post-Gazette Pavilion show, where she opened for Rascal Flatts. But, I have a confession to make: I was late for the concert. I mis-gauged the traffic or left the house too late (in my confused confirmation that I did not, in fact, own any cowboy boots). Because of my tardiness, I only caught the tail end of Swift’s performance: her McGraw song and my road warrior anthem. An even graver sin: I missed the meet-and-greet. (Are you cringing?)
Today, Taylor Swift is not the biggest star in country music. She’s the biggest star in the world. She’s the only artist, this year, to outsell Michael Jackson. Her albums glisten in gold and platinum in 14 countries over five continents. And, iPods like mine are still spinning her country twang to the tune of 20 million paid downloads.
It’s safe to say, she’s had a pretty good year. So, when she calls back to check in with “her friends in her home state of Pennsylvania,” I am humbled (and, now, a little star-struck, admittedly).
It’s hard not to recap with Swift. We all squealed right along with her when her song made it onto an episode of Grey’s Anatomy last fall (“Grey’s Anatomy is love,” she blogged), and we smiled with pride when she sang the National Anthem before Game 3 of the World Series, taking the pitcher’s mound toting that sparkling crystal guitar. We upped our calcium intake when she posed for the “Got Milk” ad, watched her herald in a new golden age with that dress during CMT Crossroads with Def Leppard, and reveled in the “Love Story” white-dress reveal at the 42nd Annual Country Music Awards, a move that solidified Swift as a mega-entertainer. We watched her wind-whipped, ringing in the New Year in Times Square, and then polished and pretty, taking home an Awards.
When she was nominated for a Grammy and sauntered out onto the stage at the Nominees TV special to Brenda Lee’s “I’m Sorry” and then segued into her own “White Horse,” we felt a new pain in her, as she beat a red-nailed fist against her chest (à la Celine Dion). The album had only been out for two months when the Associated Press named Fearless among the Top 10 of the Year, but Swift stayed grounded, even participating in a tongue-in-cheek skit for Saturday Night Live, where she played a rough, tough Annie in a room of Broadway rejects. She was even tougher in her jet-black wig, pierced with lip rings, as a guest on CSI, but showed her softer side again when she did a duet with friend Miley Cyrus at the Grammy Awards. Then, there was the “magic” entrance on the Academy of Country Music awards, where she sang a hypnotic “You’re Not Sorry” (a song we can personally recommend to carry you through your next break-up) and Oprah, when Swift surprised a 10-year-old fan as part of the “World’s Smartest & Most Talented Kids Special” series. She gifted young Jordan a guitar, scribbled over with a handwritten note, and offered the advice, “I never felt entitled to success.” (The message is markered on a post-it, stuck to my Mac at the office.)
“As far as motivation and drive, that’s just something that I guess is in my nature,” Swift says. “When I found music, I found something that I could be competitive about within myself. For me, the most amazing sound in the entire world is the sound of thousands of people screaming. The sound of the crowd can motivate me to do anything.”
We laugh, talking about when Taylor Swift became “T-Swizzle” at the CMT Awards for her collaboration with T-Pain, a rap anthem where she made fun of her squeaky clean lifestyle. Though merely a playful promotion, the track earned her the attention of Timbaland, for whom Swift says she’ll soon clear her schedule.
In fact, this year, Swift was widely named the new queen of collaboration, with the T-Pain bit being the farthest departure from her Colbie Caillat duet for Fearless’ “Breathe.”
And in her most recent collaboration, Swift plays West Side Story’s “Maria” in an ad for MTV’s Video Music Awards. She belts out her own version of “Tonight” from a taxi cab, glittering with raindrops, and garners the jealousy of Katy Perry, who believes she should have played Natalie Wood’s part, “since [she’s] got the big brown hair and brown eyes.” (Perry settles for Anita, and Cobra Starship and Ne-Yo get parts, too.)
Swift says that collaboration is a business plan.
So is Twitter.
More than a million tweens (and, well, the rest of us) follow Taylor on Twitter, a social media that Swift insists she captains herself. She maintains a delicious down-to-earthness, with tweets like, “There was something really romantic about Polaroid cameras. I miss them and want them back,” and, “Cooking myself dinner while wearing glasses. I’m so, like, totally a grown-up right now.” Another favorite: “Cooked all night with some of my favorite girls, then watched CSI. Then YouTubed videos of cute kittens. What can I say, I’m a thug.”
(My best friend, Erin, texts me to be sure I’m not missing a single Taylor Tweet, and was especially excited one day about a dreamy pair of flats the starlet had found, inscribed with the words, “Fairy tales are true.”)
“I absolutely am the only person who knows how to get into my Twitter,” Swift says. “So, it’s all me. The cool thing about the music industry is that, especially now, it’s always changing. There are always new platforms to get in touch with people, and I always want to be on the cutting edge of all those platforms. Twitter has just become big in the last couple of months. And, my dad’s a stockbroker, so it’s all about trying to figure out what’s going to be huge tomorrow and getting in front of it.”
Borchetta, the owner of Big Machine Records, Swift’s label, admires the artist’s business sense. “When I met her, she was 14 years old,” he says. “She always had a certain savvy about her, an awareness about the right thing to do. She’s taken on a greater role within the business decisions.”
“When I found music, I found something that I could be competitive about within myself. For me, the most amazing sound in the entire world is the sound of thousands of people screaming. The sound of the crowd can motivate me to do anything.”
— Taylor Swift
Swift Tweets with other stars, too. We recently saw this directed at up-and-comer Jessie James: “About to go antique shopping. I’ll think of you if I see anything bohemian, Moroccan, or gypsy-art-like. :)”
And while James is kind of a brunette version of Swift, we can’t help but speculate about the number of Next-Taylor-Swifts coming out of Nashville. The blonde brigade to emerge in the wake of Swift has included Kellie Pickler, Julianne Hough, Miranda Lambert, and most recently, Whitney Duncan. The formula extends internationally with One More Girl’s Brit and Carly McKillip, golden-haired sisters out of Canada.
Swift says the scene was similar during her coming out; everyone was looking for a cookie-cutter country star.
“I remember when I was walking into every record label, trying to get a deal, and every single one of them informed me that they were looking for an Australian male who had hair that looked like Keith Urban’s,” Swift says. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘That is so warped.’ Something’s working, so they want to find a billion things to try to copy it. And then I took a step back and realized the reason that they were trying to copy Keith Urban was because they wanted to figure out how he had been so successful, and it was actually, in a way, a compliment to him.”
The day that Swift calls, she says her life has come full circle. She has just pulled a prank on Urban during his Kansas City concert, coming out on stage in full KISS make up to surprise him during his song, “Kiss a Girl.”
She wears much less make up on the big screen. We got a taste of Swift’s acting chops when she did a cameo in Hannah Montana: The Movie, but this February, she is slated to play a slightly bigger role in Gary Marshall’s Valentine’s Day. Early photos have pictured Swift on set lip locked with Twilight’s Taylor Lautner, and the rumors suggest she’s playing the prom queen to his king.
“There were two Taylors on the set at the same time, in the same scenes,” Swift says. “So all of the production guys kept saying, ‘Taylor, on your mark — no, not you, Taylor — no, the other Taylor — not that one, the other.’ So halfway through the day, I was like, ‘OK look, call him, ‘Taylor,’ and call me, ‘Swifty.’ Confusion solved.”
It’s an all-star cast, including Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Bradley Cooper, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Alba, Ashton Kutcher, Emma Roberts, and most recently, Swift’s arch-ex, Joe Jonas (who appropriately got dumped by his after-Taylor girlfriend, Camilla Belle.)
We feel pretty victorious about the Swift/Jonas breakup, having now lost count of how many times our girl has gotten the last word: the tearful “White Horse” moment on American Music Awards or the angry “Forever and Always” performance on Saturday Night Live or the shameful (and hilarious) recount of the 27-second break-up call on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Though, our favorite might be the video blog where Swift holds up a Joe Jonas doll and quips, “This one even comes with a phone … so he can break up with other dolls.”
In this digital world, becoming a video game is the new “getting a doll.” Swift is slated for living room stardom in the new Band Hero, in which karaoke enthusiasts can choose between “Love Story,” “You Belong With Me,” and “Picture to Burn” and “be” Taylor Swift by controlling a dead ringer icon in a silver dress with torrents of blonde curls.
“Anything that encourages people to pick up an instrument and play, I’m fully behind,” Swift says. “And, I’m really excited about Band Hero, because not only are fans getting to play my songs, but I’m actually in the game.”
The media mogul in Swift insisted on designing the game’s backup band to also resemble her touring band.
And it’s a band we’ve gotten to know well. We’re enamored with video blogs, where Swift jokes with Amos Heller, her bass player, who apparently has stolen her headband (“We’re sharing it,” he says with gold lamé donning his forehead.) There’s fiddle player Caitlin Evanson, who’s become a YouTube favorite, as well as guitarist Paul Sidoti, banjo player Mike Meadows, and drummer Al Wilson. But those are just the guys we see.
Which begs the question: How many people exactly does it take to run the Taylor Swift show? Online videos introduce us to sound guys and video guys and dancers and even parking lot attendants (Swift is friendly with her camera, and shares often). But who’s calling the shots? Who’s writing this rigorous promotion schedule?
“I don’t really have a manager,” Swift says. “I have about five or six people who I really trust. I think it’s important that I’m there at every single meeting. When I’m home, it’s not playtime and fun games and days off. I’m at the management building every single day, planning our next step and organizing our next move. It’s gotten to a place where it’s like, well, do we really need a manager if it’s all been us the whole time? … If it ain’t broke … you know?”
And suddenly, my famous friend sounds a little tired. The voice heard around the world is quiet and a little raspy this morning. She’s not the kid I saw dancing around a living room in socks anymore. She’s full-grown businesswoman, an entrepreneur putting in countless hours and making the sipping of Coca-Cola on London sidewalks in cherry red dresses and sky-high stilettos look like it’s not work (even though it really is). Delivering Dominos pizzas to a score of waiting fans is kindness, yes, but it’s also a big-buck marketing tool. She’s earned the platinum stamp of promotion for selling herself across the continents, and has earned the widest crossover appeal in music history. But she’s not yet 20 years old. “Fearless” now seems like an apt title for her life, not just her album.
“It isn’t that you’re completely unafraid,” she says. “I think fearless is having fears, but jumping anyway.”
Swift is weathered, but witty. She’s savvy and smart. She’s cool enough for us 20-somethings (and 30-, 40-, and 50-somethings) to thoroughly dig. But by the rasp in her voice, she’s someone we can relate to, and learn from, as well.
I’m on the list again for Swift’s show. She’ll take the stage at Mellon Arena October 1. I’ll be sure to get there early.