Taylor Swift showing off her stylish side.
By KRISTEN TANTILLO
Staff Writer
In mid 2006, people all over the country were introduced to Taylor Swift. She topped the charts instantly with her single, Tim McGraw. After releasing her self-titled album at the age of 16, she was starting to become a role model for girls everywhere and was making her way to becoming one of the most popular artists who would eventually see all her dreams come true.
Growing up right outside of Reading, P.A, Taylor was inspired and encouraged by her opera-singing grandmother. She started singing at local events when she was just a kid, including a gig singing the national anthem at a Philadelphia 76ers basketball game when she was 11. She was so much in love with singing and song writing, she decided to take lessons on how to play the guitar. Rumor has it that she would only stop practicing when her fingers started to bleed. According to www.countrymusic.about.com,after years of practice and hard work, Taylor’s parents realized her dedication and packed up and moved to Nashville, TN to try to help their daughter become the star they knew she was.
It did not take long before her talent was discovered. She was signed to Big Machine Records and soon started the rapid fire of instant hits. Swift writes all of her songs and helps co-write other already stars songs such as Kelli Pickler. Swift says that she pours her feelings into her songs and she is telling the world about her life, and since most of her songs are about heart ache and growing up, girls all over the country can relate to each and every song in some way. Her hits are played on many stations throughout America. Starting out as a new born country star, she has made her way to topping every chart there is. According to Nielsen SoundScan( music information system that tracks the sales of music) on www.goodreads.com, “Swift is the biggest selling artist of 2008 in America with combined sales of more than four million albums. Her latest album, Fearless and her self-titled album finished 2008 at number three and number six respectively, with sales of 2.1 and 1.5 million. She was the first artist in the history of Nielsen SoundScan to have two different albums in the Top 10 on the yearend album chart.”
Girls at a young age admire Taylor for her vow to never change. She always says “I never want to change so much that people can’t recognize me.” We are so used to seeing these everyday people become famous and change their appearance, that we hardly recognize them. Taylor has stayed exactly the same. She expresses that she wants to remain natural and pure.
Taylor Swift’s songs inspire girls to go chase their dreams, fall into love and take a chance. She is now a spokes-model for the brand L.E.I and has many young girls looking up to her. Even parents and guys enjoy her personality and listen to Taylor swift and they LIKE it. “There are countless times I have pulled up to stop lights and I look over and see a young guy singing and bopping in his car to a Taylor Swift song. It is almost attractive to see them screaming “Love story” at the top of their lungs. Maybe it means they want to fall in love too, just like us girls!” said Heather Dickerson, a student at CCC.
Swift is an undeniable inspiration. She encourages everyone to be fearless, which is also the title of her latest album “Fearless is not the absence of fear. It’s not being completely unafraid. to me, Fearless is having fears. Fearless is having doubts, lots of them. To me, fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. Fearless is falling madly in love again, even though you’ve been hurt before. Fearless is walking into your freshman year of high school at fifteen. Fearless is getting back up and fighting for what you want over and over again…even though every time you’ve tried before, you’ve lost. It’s fearless to have faith that someday things will change. Fearless is having the courage
