Taylor Swift: The Whole Story

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Taylor Swift: The Whole Story
Chas Newkey-Burden

The full story of Taylor Swift’s stratospheric rise to fame; all any dedicated Swifty needs to know about the pop superstar who’s taking over the world.A small-town girl with an incredible talent, and the strength to realise her dream, Taylor has grown into an award-winning, chart-topping artist and worldwide star, as well as a strong and stylish woman. But how did she get there? And what lies in store for her in the future?From childhood dreams of a musical future in Pennsylvania, to determined and budding teen musician with a trademark she’s stayed faithful to ever since: honest lyrics about real-life events; her fight to be taken seriously in the music industry, through to the rewards of success and the intense pressure of expectation, Taylor Swift: The Whole Story is a full account of Taylor’s incredible journey, with everything you need to know about America’s Sweetheart.This compelling book is packed full of fascinating details revealing the true Taylor – what drives, motivates and moves her, how she overcame the challenges that loomed on the road to fame and how authentic her wholesome image is, plus the truth about her relationships with Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal and Conor Kennedy and who she’s really talking about on her tracks.The full portrait of a girl who could so easily have faded into the background – but who blossomed in the spotlight into a grounded, graceful and inspiring young woman.

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First published by Harper 2013

FIRST EDITION

© Chas Newkey-Burden 2013

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2013

Cover photographs © Taylor Swift portrait: Jude Edginton (Camera Press). Shutterstock.com

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Chas Newkey-Burden asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

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Source ISBN: 9780007544219

Ebook Edition © December 2013 ISBN: 9780007544226

Version 2016-10-21

Cover (#u68ba3b20-baf7-5c7c-ab4b-f551895a8c15)

Title Page (#ulink_8d1699f3-fd94-50c5-ba2a-873eea845c65)

Copyright (#ulink_c04f6cf2-f68b-5092-ae6f-3de70954721b)

Introduction (#ulink_d28096f0-02ec-5335-b8d3-b69de36bdd24)

Chapter One (#ulink_d4982c73-3e1f-55b3-b7e3-a5ba9ee798d2)

Chapter Two (#ulink_682afd08-628f-52b0-ad16-ad33f16f1f17)

Chapter Three (#ulink_04d1ad57-8a42-5f59-b23c-ef4a68c5a18c)

Chapter Four (#ulink_189dbf81-0c68-5f29-ac34-dc5ff091c0f0)

Chapter Five (#ulink_d5c02b53-4d93-5111-847f-10758ac8e3fa)

Chapter Six (#ulink_81db9b5e-b476-572a-b2e8-dd2c90373241)

Chapter Seven (#ulink_7fc88fd7-3964-507f-820e-e02a749dbe44)

Chapter Eight (#ulink_c5465097-233a-5d0a-bc5b-f8e9b4ab8feb)

The Wit and Wisdom of Taylor Swift: Her 10 Greatest Quotes (#ulink_3c0530af-87aa-5ed1-b392-9f13a9d580fa)

Taylor Swift Discography (#ulink_f35b6aac-fc99-5f3f-9b0b-43bcd018bf2e)

Bibliography (#ulink_f20c09c7-3b81-563c-ad65-71966c98b2a4)

Acknowledgements (#ulink_50c332ef-266a-5758-9034-2bfedd1c5cba)

Picture Section (#ulink_20f83a73-6e87-518f-97cf-713ebc7d9b86)

Picture Credits (#ulink_3b39fdf9-e948-587c-8b68-3877fd3c509f)

About the Publisher (#u3107414d-dea0-5b7e-9d82-b47b049c4c98)

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As Taylor Swift looked back over the year 2013, she could hardly believe what a momentous twelve months it had been for her. Sales of her fourth album, Red, had taken her total record sales beyond 26 million. Meanwhile, her songs had now been downloaded 75 million times, making her the number-one digital singles artist of all time.

Taylor’s achievements become ever more impressive when you measure them against those of other artists. For instance, at the start of the year she became the first artist since The Beatles to spend six or more weeks at number one with three consecutive albums.

She notched up all these remarkable accomplishments before she turned 24. Yet young Taylor was treated like an industry veteran when, in November 2013, the Country Music Association Awards handed her its Pinnacle Award, which is its equivalent of the lifetime achievement gong. Most awards hand such honours to artists in their fifties or beyond. At the ceremony, a video tribute was aired, in which Julia Roberts, Justin Timberlake and Mick Jagger gushed over the youngster’s talent and influence.

While the middle-aged country music industry treats Taylor like an elder stateswoman, the teenage-driven pop market screams its appreciation for her as one of its own. Serious music magazines treat her with reverence, while celebrity gossip rags obsess over her love life. And who else but Taylor could carry the banjo into the pop world with such effortless grace and hipness?

She is the princess of paradox. While some artists feel constrained by the boundaries of music and image, she flutters lightly over them. As well as dipping her feet in the waters of pop, she has written bold arena rock tunes and even experimented with dubstep.

This bewitching young lady of contrasts can, within one album, softly whisper lyrics which offer sweet, touching perspectives on love and romance, then spit out furious choruses of vengeance, defiance and denunciation. She is a conventionally stunning, leggy blonde who nonetheless plays the part of the perennial gawky outsider.

In an era of X-rated stage productions from the likes of Rihanna and Lady Gaga, Taylor stands tall as a clean-cut wholesome American – a demure diva of apple-pie sweetness. Just weeks after her friend Miley Cyrus created a global storm by ‘twerking’ at an awards ceremony, the elegantly turned-out Taylor was grabbing the headlines her own way by sharing a microphone with Prince William and Jon Bon Jovi at a posh charity event in Kensington Gardens.

And so a year that began with her kissing One Direction heart-throb Harry Styles in Manhattan ended with her high-fiving the man in line to be the future King of England. Meanwhile, the front cover of the influential New Yorker magazine named her ‘The biggest pop star in the world’. The respected – and rather serious – music monthly Rolling Stone was also joining in the cacophony of praise for Taylor. Focusing on her performances during the Red tour, it gushed: ‘Seeing Taylor Swift live in 2013 is seeing a maestro at the top of her or anyone’s game.’

On the surface, Taylor played it cool and acted as if all these experiences were just a normal part of life. Inside, though, she could scarcely believe how thrilling her existence had become. It is all so far from the world in which she grew up.