5 Things We Learned From Taylor Swift’s ‘New York’ Magazine Cover Story
There’s a lengthy and rather flattering profile of Taylor Swift in this week’s New York Magazine, with a title boldly proclaiming her “the Biggest Pop Star in the World” (accurate), and the story actually does something admirable — it focuses on how and why Swift is the biggest star of her generation, not on her romantic exploits! (Those get a little bit of space on the page, but not too much.)
For Swift aficionados, it’s a delight — the emphasis is firmly on her songcraft and musicianship, where it belongs, but there are enough quirks and odd details to satisfy those more curious about the superstar’s life than her tunes.
With that in mind, here are five crucial pieces of information gleaned from the story.
1. Important: She has a picture of Kanye West stealing her thunder at the VMAs in her room.
“On the wall of her living room, I noticed a photograph in a gilded frame: the famous image of Kanye West, stage-crashing Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Underneath the picture is a caption, handwritten by Swift: Life is full of little interruptions.”
2. Important: She shades those gentleman callers foolish enough to not do their research before dating her.
“I heard from the guy that most of Red is about,” Swift said. “He was like, ‘I just listened to the album, and that was a really bittersweet experience for me. It was like going through a photo album.’ That was nice. Nicer than, like, the ranting, crazy e-mails I got from this one dude. It’s a lot more mature way of looking at a love that was wonderful until it was terrible, and both people got hurt from it—but one of those people happened to be a songwriter.” She rolled her eyes. “So what are you going to do? Did you not Wikipedia me before you called me up?”
3. Important: She’s heading back into the studio with Max Martin and Shellback for her upcoming fifth album.
Swift hopes to collaborate with new songwriters and producers. But she planned to begin, she said, by heading back into the studio with Max Martin and Shellback. “I want to go in with Max and Johan first, just to figure out what the bone structure of this record is going to be.
4. Important: She is going to continue writing love songs.
“I only write songs about crazy love,” Swift said. “If I go on two dates with a guy and we don’t click, I’m not writing a song about that. It didn’t matter in the emotional grand scheme of things. There’s a lot that goes on in daily life that isn’t really worth turning into a verse and a chorus.”
5. Important: She knows what you think about her.
“There’s a spin on every single celebrity out there,” she said. “I know that one of my spins is: ‘Oh, Taylor’s heartbroken. Oh, Taylor fell in love and the guy broke her heart. She’s sad all the time, and lonely.’
The whole profile is well worth a read; check it out over at Vulture.
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