Taylor Swift ready to 'Speak Now'
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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 said. "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.'"
TEEN APPEAL
To date, Swift's music has been somewhat atypical for a country singer. The genre's radio stations primarily target adults between the ages of 25-54. Her youth-based lyrics made her a hit with her teen peers.
Fears that she would remain trapped thematically in Hendersonville (Tennessee) High were, according to one rival label president, obliterated with the first line of "Mine," which references college in the opening phrase.
"Mine" was a turning point in the album's development. Swift and producer Nathan Chapman had begun recording new songs almost as soon as "Fearless" was released. Still, it wasn't until early 2010 when the album truly began to coalesce, first with "Mine" and then with "Innocent," Swift's 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 said. "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 continued. "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.
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