Showing posts with label Big Machine Records. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big Machine Records. Show all posts

Thursday, July 25, 2013

If Taylor Swift fell in Love, got married & lived happily ever after, would her songwriting end?

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America's most popular teenager, even at age 23, has created a phenomenal music machine in the six short years since she exploded on the scene.  A singing and songwriting prodigy if ever there was one, Taylor took about the hardest path possible in her "swift" ascent foregoing the huge Nashville record labels and opting for an independent label, Big Machine Records.
 
Though her label was just a start up it had a solid platinum 16 year old in young Taylor Swift.  She probably does not remember but I exchanged several emails with her before she had the record deal and was famous, and interestingly enough we discussed what she would have to give up to sign with a major label.
 
 
At the time she insisted she would never sign with a major label because she intended to write and perform her own songs and they would never let her at her young age.  She was far wiser than her years.
 
Today, six years later, she has sold over 26 million albums and over 75 million digital downloads worldwide and Forbes magazine says the 23 year old is now worth over $220 million.  So far in 2013 her income this year exceeds $55 million.
 
 
She has a penthouse in midtown Nashville, Tennessee, a cottage in Beverly Hills, California and an eight bedroom vacation home in coastal Watch Hill, Rhode Island.
 
She recently made several hundred thousand dollars profit selling a million dollar mansion she bought in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts next door to the most famous political royalty in America, the Kennedy family.  She bought it to be close to one of the Kennedy boys she was dating.
 
 
And that brings us to the subject of this story.  Taylor Swift sells millions of records to teens telling the tragic stories of her lost loves of life, what she acknowledges is the source of her often heartbreaking compositions.
 
Since becoming a super star her romances read like a celebrity whose who and have made extremely good material for the tearful tales she tells in song.  Just look at this partial list from Swiftipedia of the more public mates she has dated.
 
 
The song Tim McGraw was inspired by an ex-boyfriend named Brandon Borello. Their relationship ended because he had to go to college. She told USA today, "He bought the album and said he really loved it, which is sweet. His current girlfriend isn't too pleased with it, though." It was named after a musician whose songs she liked. He was going away to college so she wanted to write him something to remember her by.
 
Picture to Burn was written about an ex-boyfriend, whom she calls a redneck, and says he never let her drive his pick-up truck.
 
Teardrops on My Guitar was written about a boy she liked, whom she never actually dated. "Drew was a real person!" she tells. Drew was surprised when he heard his name in the song. "I never knew she liked me" Drew says. Taylor stated that two years after the song came out Drew showed up at her house and asked her on a date. She declined. "It was the perfect fairytale ending but a little too late."
 

 Should've Said No was about an ex-boyfriend that cheated on her. The boyfriend's name was Sam Armstrong, and, in the CD booklet, every S, A, and M was capitalized if it was in the correct order.
 
Joe Jonas broke up with her over the phone, which is something she has complained about on Ellen Degeneres' show and elsewhere. She got her record company to let her record a song about it, to add at the last minute to her album. Forever & Always is the name of that song. She also wrote 'Last Kiss' about him and 'Better than Revenge' is about his ex-girlfriend, Camila Belle.
 
 
Taylor Lautner became her boyfriend after they met on set for the film Valentine's Day. Their relationship was popularly known as Taylor Squared. They broke up in early 2010. She mentioned going to a hockey game with him during her October 29th 2009 appearance on the Ellen Show.
 
According to MTV he was more into her than she was into him, he going everywhere he could to see her, but it was not working out. They have apparently decided to just be friends.  The song, Back to December is suspected to be about Taylor Lautner. The song is an apology to him.
 
Some of the lyrics go..." Your guard is up and I know why. Because the last time you saw me is still burned in the back of your mind ...you gave me roses and I left them there to die. So this is me swallowing my pride, standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that night. And I go back to December all the time. You gave me all your love and all I gave you was goodbye."
 
 
At the end of the song she asks for his forgiveness and hints to the fact she wants to be with him again. The couple hasn't reunited and at the recent American Music Awards Swift performed the song and at the end added "and he said it's too late to 'pologize" from popular song "Apologize" by the band One Republic. She is alluding to the parody video Taylor Lautner made for "Apologize".  Time magazine listed this is one of the top apologies of 2010.
 
Jake Gyllenhaal reported spent $160,000 to have her flown over on a private jet for a date. He later broke up with her through text. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, State of Grace, All Too Well, Girl at Home and The Moment I Knew are rumored to be about him.
 
The songs Dear John and I Knew You Were Trouble are rumored to be about her ex-boyfriend John Mayer, whom she had a fling with at one time.
 
 
The song Enchanted is about Adam Young of Owl City but she never dated him, although he did state his interest in her.
 
Former beaus Harry Styles and Connor Kennedy are yet to be immortalized in Taylor's songs.

 
So, if Taylor were to fall in love, get married and live happily ever after would that signal the end of her songwriting and recording career?  What is a country queen, or should we say princess, to do with no new material for songs?
 
How could the hundreds of millions of teenagers around the world in love with Taylor and her music handle a happy married Taylor?  Feeling good, sharing happiness and being content are very un-teen like in this day and age.
 

How in the world will the big pharmaceutical companies keep making their insane profits if kids aren't depressed like their parents?  Nearly 50% of all Americans are now on prescription drugs for depression.
 
At the same time, can Taylor make the transition and actually write happy songs that teens will buy?  It would be yet another first in the bonnet of this young woman who shattered all kinds of glass ceilings in the country music and record industries doing things her way.
 
Let us hope teens today will not hold candle light vigils pleading with Taylor to "dump the chumps" so she can keep on writing country hits.
 
 
I say Taylor has given us an incredible slice of her life to share the intimacy of her relationships through her music.  She deserves to be happy too.
 
What do you say?
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