Out of the woods, Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ heralds the return of a pop-music mastermind
March 2, 2013|By Amy B Wang
Taylor Swift could be the next Jagger.
She has the look. She’s just 21, and her songs — delivered with a steady pace and impeccable timing — are already making her a star.
But the real story of Swift is much more complex than the typical pop-tweeter, reality-TV star. She is a woman who has found herself in the wilderness — an indie-rock goddess who turned away from the spotlight, who turned inward, who became the ultimate artist-songwriter.
The songs she has written, as well as this pop-star’s life story, are told here.
“If I’m not getting love,” Swift sings, seduced by the idea of romance in the world of pop music, “I’m gonna get a new song.” The song that is on the record now, “You Belong with Me,” is just one of a handful of songs she is working on. “I wrote it in 15 minutes,” Swift says. “I don’t like to write songs on the run.”
The songs we know about her now, Swift says, aren’t always the songs she’s most excited about creating. And she’s far from done with her music career.
But that’s not why she turned away from the spotlight last year.
Instead, the “Bad Blood” singer says she turned away from her music career because, after making “a big deal” about becoming a model in front of millions, she found she didn’t like that part of her life at all.
Swift said she was a huge fan of Adele, who became a global figure in the music world by walking on stage in her revealing, high-cut dress and baring her perfect white-veined buttocks to the world. But, Swift says, she didn’t want to be that same kind of person.
“I always feel like I’m trying too hard,” Swift says of her career choice to become a star. “Somehow, all the other stuff I get to do, I don’t want to