THE story of teen music sensation Taylor Swift's rise to stardom is well worth documenting, writes Subhadran Devan.
Young Nashville songwriter Taylor Swift held the No 1 spot on to the US Billboard Country Album Chart for 17 weeks with her second album, Fearless.
According to a New York Times report, only five other solo female artistes have had albums with 11 or more weeks at the top spot in the five-decade history of Billboard's chart: Alanis Morissette, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Carole King and Judy Garland.
Grammy-nominated Swift's Fearless is all about teenage love and heartbreak. The unique ingredient is that the 20-year-old singer- songwriter keeps the real names intact in the lyrics.
Swift, whose maternal grandmother was an opera singer, is not just country. She has crossed over to pop and hosted the MTV Video Music Awards preshow last year.
And she didn't do this overnight. When tweens are still being tweens, the artiste best known for Teardrops On My Guitar, Tim McGraw and now Love Story, stated in a Universal Music release that she became obsessed with music when "I was six".
"I brought my first LeAnn Rimes album and I was hooked. Aged 10 was when I realised that I didn't have to be what my Dad was. I'd just assumed that because he was a stockbroker, then that's what I would do."
When she was 11, Swift begged her parents to take her to Nashville because she'd seen a TV special on Shania Twain and Faith Hill which said that they made it in the music industry because they went to Nashville.
"I was the most obnoxious kid for about a year, begging every day. So, finally my mum took my brother and I to Nashville for spring break. I walked into all the record labels with my demo CD with me singing karaoke songs, and said, "Hey, I'm Taylor, I'm 11, I want a record deal. Call me.'
"She realised that there were thousands of people just like her.
"That's when I discovered songwriting and playing the guitar."
Before she started high school she was already been singing at coffee shops and minor league baseball games.
She hit the teen music scene with her first single, Tim McGraw while her third single, Teardrops On My Guitar, on her first album, became a crossover hit, peaking at No. 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100 last year.
The country music breakthrough artiste has a New Age marketing strategy. Once the songs are finished Swift used the online social networks - MySpace, Facebook, Twitter - to stay connected with her fans. She also blogs and posts her own videos of her travels online.
Taylor Swift told Universal Music (which distributes her albums) that there were times where she had to work a bit harder to gain respect when she started out because she was only 14.
"I was the youngest person ever signed to a writer's deal.
"I took it very seriously. Every single day at school, I would be studying but thinking about 10 to 15 different ideas to bring to my writing sessions that day. I was really intense about it."
Nashville, says Swift, is focused on the songwriters. "There's New York, then L.A, and then Nashville. About 80 per cent of the artistes depend on those songwriters for their material, for their hit songs. It's so important to this town to have great songwriters."
She snagged a record deal by doing a showcase, "just me and my guitar", for all the record labels at a legendary songwriter's place in Nashville called the Bluebird Cafe.
Afterwards, she was contacted by some major labels but she soon found out they weren't keen on her writing the whole record.
One guy, Scott Borchetta, told her he didn't have a record label then but she became one of his first artistes to be signed on.
Swift, who often plays a Swarovski crystal-encrusted guitar, says she writes her music late at night, and always keeps a pen and notepad by the bed. "I've done this before where I say, `Oh, I'll remember it tomorrow, I'm really comfortable and I don't wanna get out of bed!' But then I always forget it the next morning."
Swift says she looks up to the Dixie Chicks because they play their own instruments, and Shania Twain because she wasn't afraid to "run around on stage, break a sweat and get the crowd going crazy".
"I can listen to a CD as much as I like at home, but watching a performance is not really about hearing the song as much as it's about seeing how it can be interpreted live into a different light, and seeing how that artist can paint a new picture for me to think of when I hear that song."
Swift's unique performance style includes wearing lots of bracelets that she would later toss out to fans.
She says as a songwriter, her favourite is always the last one she wrote. The single, Love Story, is "kind of based on Romeo & Juliet" with a modern twist. "It's got a really cool ending, a happy ending rather than a sad ending. I'm really proud of it."
Swift loves all the travelling fame has brought her. "Travelling is one of my favourite things to do. I live on a tour bus now, it's crazy, and so that's really interesting." You can visit Swift's own Youtube channel to check out her online blog of her life on the bus.
Taylor Swift is almost the only young one today making waves on the Billboard charts. She is also becoming a brand in the US with her own line of Taylor Swift dolls and is the face of l.e.i. clothing brand, carried exclusively at Wal-Mart.
The blonde teen has made cameo appearances in the Hannah Montana film and the Jonas Brothers 3D concert offering. "My favourite show ever is Grey's Anatomy. I will never stop loving it, ever. If I was offered a guest spot on that, my life would be complete."
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