Taylor Swift pulls a sweater over her knees. She's seated on a black leather couch in the lobby of Big Machine Records in Nashville, and the office is a bit chilly for the short, frilly skirt she's wearing.
Despite the brisk temperature, this room holds distinctly warm memories for the 20-year-old singer. A handful of framed wall-hangings provide a mini-retrospective of her career, including a multiplatinum award for her last album, 2008's "Fearless." The Big Machine lobby is, in fact, a significant reminder of just how far she's traveled in her quick rise from unknown teen to global star.
When she was still a 16-year-old high school student, there was nothing on the walls in this room. Swift remembers sitting on the floor in the early summer of 2006, stuffing promotional CDs of her first single, "Tim McGraw," into envelopes destined for radio stations around the country.
"With every envelope that I would seal I would look at the address and the station on there and think, 'Please, please just listen to this one time,' " she recalls.
"I would say a little message to each envelope: 'Please, whoever gets this, please listen to this.' There's no promise when you're putting out your first single that people are even going to listen to it."
Not only did the single get heard, it opened the door to sales of more than 4 million copies of her self-titled debut album, awash in songs about broken hearts and high school social dramas. Her sophomore set, "Fearless," did even better, selling 592,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, on its way to more than 6 million sales. Three of the songs reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 -- a rare feat for a country artist -- as she commanded multiple magazine covers and even a 2009 MTV Video Music Award nomination and win. When that VMA acceptance speech was infamously interrupted, fiery Kanye Westcontroversy quickly supplanted the inspirational, dreams-really-do-come-true storyline in her career narrative.
Weeks after the VMA shocker, the Country Music Assn. (CMA) presented Swift four awards, including entertainer of the year. In January, she won four more times at the Grammy Awards, with "Fearless" claiming the all-genre album of the year trophy.
With every sector of the business jittery about the future of the album, the music industry's eyes and ears will be focused quite closely on Swift when Big Machine releases her third project, "Speak Now," on Oct. 25.
Video: Taylor Swift's "Mine," the lead single from "Speak Now"
Being heard is no longer an issue. Now the questions are about being heard at the right time and the volume with which the public might react. An online leak forced Big Machine to rush-release the first single, "Mine," in August. It has since sold more than 1 million downloads. The title track, a quirky lyrical exercise that blends the dashed-wedding scenarios of "Runaway Bride" and "Friends in Low Places," debuted at No. 1 on iTunes by selling more than 85,600 downloads on its first day of release, Oct. 5.
" 'Speak Now' is the first thing we've put out that didn't leak, including an album cover," Big Machine president/CEO Scott Borchetta says.
Those leaks are a symptom of the anticipation that exists for the album. The label has shipped more than 2 million copies of the CD. No album has sold more than 1 million copies in its first week since Lil Wayne's"Tha Carter III" crossed that threshold in June 2008. As album sales continue to slide, a big debut week for Swift would be an encouraging sign.
"It will do whatever the market will bear," Borchetta says, carefully avoiding a specific number.
"When we have 2 million units in the field, you're not going to have a problem finding it."
The attention hasn't gone unnoticed by Swift, who does her best to distance herself from any expectations.
"I have a lot of anxiety about things on certain days, but I have anxiety because I care," she says.
"It's not anxiety that's crippling. It's a five-minute conversation with myself about if a [sales] number really defines this piece of art that I've created and what that means, and what the number's going to be. I try to predict what it's going to be, and then I realize that I can't predict what it's going to be, and then I sit there and say something to myself like, 'Well, you're happy today. Enjoy this and be proud of the music that you've made.'"
LADIES FIRST
To date, Swift's music has been somewhat atypical for a country singer. The genre's radio stations primarily target adults 25-54. Her youth-based lyrics made her a hit with her teen peers, but the music tested poorly among 35-plus males, according to one country radio veteran. Oddly enough, however, even that portion of the audience still liked Swift's personality and the music's ability to help some families bridge generations.
"Adult females use country music radio to do two things," says Keith Hill, founder of the UnConsultant.
"They use it for their own personal enjoyment, and in many cases, we see young women using CHR and hot AC products to stay in touch with their daughters."
Those daughters found Swift on multiple radio formats, and the singer now finds her boots aligned in both pop and country camps, an awkward balance in the current cultural landscape. Physical product still makes up more than 80% of country buyers' purchases, and in that context, the sales of "Mine" easily eclipsed all other country releases during the third quarter. It sold nearly 400,000 more copies than the quarter's No. 2 single, Sugarland's "Stuck Like Glue," which racked up 634,000 downloads.
Still, "Mine" is off the pace of some other lead singles from major pop albums in the last year. Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie" sold 2.7 million during its first nine weeks, Katy Perry's "California Gurls" netted 2.6 million, and Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" tallied 1.8 million.
Swift and Big Machine have kept her country base in their cross hairs, repeatedly suggesting in the months leading up to the album's release that the new Swift material will have an outlook that demonstrates an increasing maturity. She cites Kris Kristofferson, Faith Hill, Emmylou Harris and Paul McCartney among her creative role models, and none of those artists earned long-term success by playing to teens.
Fears that she would remain trapped thematically in Hendersonville (Tenn.) High were, according to one rival label president, obliterated with the first line of "Mine," which references college in the opening phrase.
"She left home, she's living on her own now, and she's seeing the world in a different way after growing up a bit," producer Nathan Chapman says.
"There's probably some more grown-up things that she's dealing with, and that comes out in the songs."
That change is echoed in Swift's performance.
"There's a maturity in her voice," country WKLB Boston PD Mike Brophey says.
"It's less a teenager singing and more a young woman singing. There's a more consistent sound in her vocals."
"Mine" was a turning point in the album's development. Swift and Chapman had begun recording new songs almost as soon as "Fearless" was released. The two cut demos in his basement studio and would only take those songs to larger facilities once they felt they had an emotional foundation in the basic tracks. Still, it wasn't until early 2010 when the album truly began to coalesce. Swift presented "Mine" to Borchetta in his office, just a few doors down the hall from the leather couch in the lobby.
"We probably played that song four or five times," Borchetta recalls.
"I'm jumping around playing air guitar, she's singing the song back to me, and it was just one of those crazy, fun, Taylor teen-age moments."
And then it got serious.
"I said, 'Keep going,' " Borchetta says.
"She kind of looked at me like, 'You're challenging me.' And I said,
'Yeah. You've found true north here. Keep going.' "
It was some time in the period after that challenge -- between February and June -- that Swift wrote "Innocent," her response to the Kanye West incident.
Public opinion had turned dramatically on the rapper. West tweeted in September 2010 that he "bled hard" because of his actions. He canceled a tour, had to let employees go and was called a "jackass" by the president.
Instead of piling on the venom with the song, Swift's "Innocent" takes a conciliatory tone, painting him as "32, and still growing up now."
"Who you are," she sings in forgiveness,
"is not where you've been."
"It took a while to write that song," Swift says.
"That was a huge, intense thing in my life that resonated for a long time. It was brought up to me in grocery stores and everywhere I went, and in a lot of times in my life, when I don't know how I feel about something, I say nothing. And that's what I did until I could come to the conclusion that I came to in order to write 'Innocent,' " she says.
"Even then, I didn't talk about it, and I still don't really talk about it. I just thought it was very important for me to sing about it."
Many took the conciliatory tone of "Innocent" at face value, but not everyone. The New York Times referred to it as "petty." A Los Angeles Times critic called the lyrics "slams disguised as 'forgiveness.' "
Those barbs were echoed in many online reader comments. They were, in fact, just the latest round of criticism that has been leveled at Swift, who has endured a backlash not uncommon to artists whose rise to prominence occurs at rocket pace. The 2009 CMA victories were accompanied by a negative outpouring over the female vocalist of the year honor in particular. The fallout was even more pronounced when Swift had significant pitch problems during a televised Grammy performance with Stevie Nicks.
Swift was well aware of the feedback.
"I care about what everyone thinks of me, and I'm not afraid to say that," she says.
"There have been times when it's absolutely leveled me and ruined my day. Then there are times when I can hear it and I'm kind of like, 'Oh, I've heard that before,' and I just continue on with my day."
Swift's recorded voice is stronger on "Speak Now." The studio is a different animal than the concert hall, but her vocal presence is, on the whole, something that specifically concerns her.
"That's one of the areas that I have definitely put a lot of work into," she says.
BASE JUMPING
Pop success has often been a seductive trap within the country genre. Country artists who purposely aim at crossing over take a major risk: They could fail to engage the pop audience and offend their country base at the same time.
Swift certainly pushes boundaries with some of the material on "Speak Now." At least a half-dozen tracks employ classic-pop arcs with instrumentation that's outside the norm for country, such as layered string productions or mechanized drum sounds. But the ultimate sonic outlet for the music wasn't a conscious consideration when Swift and Chapman recorded the album.
"When we were making these songs," Chapman says,
"it was 'What does this song need?' as opposed to 'How far can we push the line on one genre or the other?' " The producer describes one track on the album -- "Mean," which puts fiddle and banjo to prominent use -- as
"the most country-sounding thing she's ever done."
Swift has generally endeared herself to programmers at country radio, which remains the most important means of exposure for the genre. She's likely to receive a lot of latitude in her artistic expression, in great part because she's been a successful ambassador for country.
"I'm one of the believers that if a song crosses over from country into another format, it's a great way to turn attention to this format," country WGH Virginia Beach, Va., OM John Shomby says.
"I don't think that can hurt."
"There's always going to be an element of push-back to anybody that becomes really famous, whether it's Kenny Chesney, George Strait, Reba McEntire or Rascal Flatts," Borchetta says.
"Part of our culture is we build heroes and then tear them down. Well, you're going to have to have a little bit more in your gun belt to tear down Taylor Swift."
For all of her pop success, Swift has continued to show commitment to the country genre. When she bought her first condominium in 2009, she not only chose to stay in Nashville, she picked a home that's less than one mile from Music Row. She invariably recognizes her country roots in awards acceptance speeches and participates routinely in the CMA Music Festival in meaningful ways. In 2009, she signed autographs for 13 hours.
"The music may sound [pop], but she has not run away from [country]," Shomby says.
"It just happens that she's crossed over and become an icon in that area, too."
Swift is in no hurry to redesign her career path in other ways, either. She made her first forays into acting during the last two years, appearing on an episode of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," earning positive reviews for her monologue and skits as a guest host on "Saturday Night Live" and making her movie debut in "Valentine's Day." Those experiences were appealing, but not enough to knock her off her current course.
"At the moment, I've just made space for putting out an album and then touring the world," she says.
"Maybe in a couple years acting would be a great thing to do, but there aren't going to be any concert dates moved around for acting in the [near] future."
What that tour looks like is yet unknown, though Swift has mapped out many of the production elements for her 2011 schedule.
"I already have drawings in my journal of what the stage should look like." she says.
"I know a few of the set list orders, [and] I want there to be an entire wedding scene on the stage."
That fits nicely with the matrimonial setting of the album's title track andthe video for "Mine," which includes a wedding scene. Her 2008 "Love Story" video also had a fairy-tale wedding setting.
"It's very weird," she says of the nuptial undercurrent in her work.
"I'm not really that girl who dreams about her wedding day. It just seems like the idealistic, happy-ever-after [moment]. It's funny that my wedding references have all been like 'Marry me, Juliet,' and on my 'Speak Now' album I'm ripping one to shreds."
Where Swift's onstage weddings will take place is still to be decided. After headlining a pair of stadium dates in Boston and Baton Rouge, La., in 2010, she intends to do more venues of that magnitude this time around. Kenny Chesney booked as many as 13 stadiums in 2009, though she dodges specific numbers.
"We're still hammering out the final details," she says.
"Any comparison to Kenny is good, though."
Ultimately, "Speak Now" could prove to be a pivotal album in Swift's creative progress. Music history is littered with teen stars who were unable to maintain their commercial pace once they hit their 20s. But in most instances, those acts didn't write their own material. Swift penned every song on "Speak Now" -- often at odd hours on the road. In the end, that led her to write the entire project without enlisting any co-writers. Reflecting her growth thus became an essential component of the album experience.
"At one point, the record was not called 'Speak Now.' It was called 'Enchanted,' " Borchetta says.
"We were at lunch, and she had played me a bunch of the new songs. I looked at her and I'm like, 'Taylor, this record isn't about fairy tales and high school anymore. That's not where you're at. I don't think the record should be called "Enchanted." ' "
Swift excused herself from the table at that point. By the time she came back, she had the "Speak Now" title, which comes closer to representing the evolution that the album represents in her career and in her still-young understanding of the world.
"I'm just fascinated by people -- how they live their lives, what they live their lives for," she says.
"It's just a never-ending thought process for me about how we end up where we are -- and where we're going."
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By: Tom Roland.
Source: Billboard.com
