Music: Taylor, swiftly
Taylor Swift is standing tall. Not just because she's 5 feet 11. No one has sold more albums in the past three years. No one in recent years has had as big a crossover from country to pop. And no country artist had won an MTV Video Music Award until she did last month. Of course, that was the award heard 'round the world because hip-hop superstar Kanye West barged onstage and sabotaged Swift's moment in the spotlight. Still, she stood tall, taking the sucker punch without losing her composure. Swift, 19, talked with us about her first U.S. headline tour, her parody video with T-Pain, and yes, Kanye West. She plays Target Center Sunday.
Q How has the tour compared with your expectations?
A What I never expected was going out on my first headlining tour and never having to worry about ticket sales. I look at things from a practical place and a very realistic place. I've always had crazy dreams, but I've never expected them to come true. That's why success has been really exciting for me, because I never expect it.
Q One of the reasons you're popular, I think, is that you capture what it's like to be a teenage girl more effectively than any songwriter has for years.
A Thank you. I just write what I'm going through. I don't try to write for older than I am and I don't try and write for younger than I am. I write in real time. I write songs about real people. I write details and personal things into the songs. Hopefully, when people are looking back on my music, they'll feel they were able to read my diary.
Q You're famous for when a guy burns you, you write a song about him. What song have you written about Kanye?
A Ho, ho, ho. I have not written anything about that. Heh, heh, heh. It's just wonderful to have gotten a lot of love and support from other artists who I didn't even know knew who I was. And that's kind of what I take away from that whole thing -- other than a VMA award. I'm stoked to be able to bring a Moon Man back to Nashville.
Q You showed a lot of humor at the CMT Awards this summer with your hip-hop video with a different rapper, T-Pain.
A Doing the video with T-Pain was one of the funniest experiences of my life, because CMT let me write that rap. So my mind-set was "What do rappers rap about? They rap about being hard-core. I've got the most boring personal life of anyone out there, so why don't I just rap about that." So I write this whole thing and I've got it on a piece of paper, and T-Pain rolls into the studio. They started the track, and I just started rapping in front of him. And he absolutely lost it. He could not stop laughing for a good 15 minutes.
