Q&A: Swift makes quick ascent as country star

By Ken Tucker

NASHVILLE (Billboard) - Country singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has accomplished a lot for someone who turned 18 in December.

At 11 she was dropping off CDs of her singing to karaoke tracks at Nashville labels; at 14 she signed with Sony/ATV Tree Publishing; and at 16 she released her self-titled debut on Nashville independent Big Machine Records.

That album, which has sold 2.5 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, has spawned three top 10 singles, including the six-week No. 1 "Our Song." A fourth single, "Picture to Burn," is No. 12 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart.

In April 2007 she was named breakthrough artist at the CMT Music Awards, and in November she won the Country Music Assn. Horizon Award. She also nabbed her first BMI award in November for debut single "Tim McGraw." Swift was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the best new artist category, but lost to Amy Winehouse.

She is in the process of recording her sophomore effort, which is tentatively scheduled for a fourth-quarter release.

Q: Not to put the weight of the music business on your shoulders, but the music business, particularly country music, is struggling to capture a younger demographic. As an 18-year-old, what do you think the business needs to do to engage today's youth?

Taylor Swift: The problem with the music business today in trying to capture today's youth is they're trying too hard. There are record labels that are admitting to the fact that they're trying to copy the "model" that has worked for Taylor Swift and Big Machine Records. And the thing is, we just didn't know any better. I was 16 years old and wrote all these songs about being in high school and sophomore relationships, not thinking that people would relate to it, hoping they would, but there really was no business model to make it work for the younger demographic. If we can relate to lyrics, then we're going to buy the music, and I don't think that's a hard formula to figure out. People my age are really, really honest about what they like and what they don't, and they know it when they hear it and they know if they can relate to the lyrics.

Q: You've had a Web site for years, even before you had a record deal. How did that come about?