When the Russian singer Olga Buzova released her first English-language song Not Enough For Me, a post appeared on her personal Instagram page in which the girl proudly admitted to her subscribers that one of the American publications compared her work to the career of the American singer Taylor Swift. Well, let's leave the question of how correct it was to compare your performances with the work of the ten-time Grammy winner and the youngest lady on the Forbes list. Simply - in fairness - we will tell the story of Swift's 15-year ascent to the Musical Olympus and show why this young woman has long been not only the heroine of youth publications and the idol of teenage girls, but also an example of a good business strategist gifted, in addition, with remarkable talent. musician.
American (well, world) publications love the story of Taylor Swift. Classics: an outsider at school and invisible in the classroom, little Taylor, inspired by her grandmother's successful opera career, writes poetry about her experiences, learns a few guitar chords, and gradually becomes a star, first in the country and then in the pop scene. Worldwide. And if we ignore the irony, then this girl really has something to brag about: her live performances leave no doubt about the exclusivity of her vocal data, the dedication while working on the clips does not give anyone the right to accuse the singer of negligence, and her hard work during the tour can only be admired …
And yet there is in the story of Miss Swift an element of a beautiful fairy tale, the romantic veil of which the world press in some amazing way is not yet ready to dispel.
Taylor Legend
“I hope I can help people whose voices should also be heard. Therefore, I will donate money to various organizations that help victims of sexual violence, "- this statement was made by the American singer Taylor Swift in August 2017, when she won the sensational case of harassment from Colorado DJ David Mueller, which allegedly took place in 2013. The singer sued the poor fellow a little: just one dollar is a symbolic compensation for inspiring thousands of victims of sexual violence around the world with her example. Here, as Taylor thought, justice was more dear to her.
The unfortunate dollar and millions of sympathetic and admiring reviews, the star of the world pop scene received for not being afraid to admit that many years ago she was touched by the buttock. True, to her credit, I must say that at first the offended star did not want to take everything to a public court - as her mother would later tell in tears under oath, the Swift family was afraid of unnecessary publicity in the press. Therefore, then the performer, who wanted to defend her dignity, decided to close the issue quietly and peacefully: she simply called the radio station where Mueller worked and demanded to fire the DJ, whose hands were far from the mixing console.
And on that incident, they would have forgotten if the furious and unemployed Müller himself had not gone to court, accusing Swift of libel. The singer had to get out of the situation: in 2015, Taylor filed a reciprocal and very noble lawsuit (after all, even for an unemployed one dollar compensation - the amount is quite feasible) about harassment. And finally, two years later, she won it. Because good always wins - at least in the Swift universe.
More than a dozen people are guarding the excellent reputation of 29-year-old Taylor. For example, the company TAS Rights Management (named after the capital letters of the singer's name - Taylor Alison Swift) is vigilant to ensure that the girl's name is mentioned only in the most favorable contexts. The company does not even ignore the once popular network Periscope, where fans posted fragments of their favorite concert performances. This is how Taylor Swift manages to maintain record sales of her records from year to year - her "dogs" do their best not to miss a single illegal distribution of the performer's products. Swift herself is not a miss either: her songs are almost non-existent on streaming platforms. They appear - only when there is a strategic benefit. For instance,The last triumphant return of all of Taylor's songs to one of the most popular services, Spotify, happened in early June 2017 - just before the release of the new album of Katy Perry, with whom the girl has reportedly not got along very well.
But TAS Rights Management has a more serious task than catching copyright infringers - to monitor compliance with the "legend" of Taylor. Every day, the gendarmes of the pop idol sniff the entire Network for unauthorized use of its name, but not everyone gets on the block, but only those who defame the singer's reputation. Two years ago, for example, the so-called TAS members stumbled upon the site of guitarist Ronnie Kremer, who positioned himself as Taylor's first guitar teacher (the site name is ITaughtTaylorSwift.com). In those years, he worked part-time as an ordinary computer master, and, according to his version, it was then that he taught the girl to select the accompaniment to his songs.
By the way, Taylor herself never denied that it was a certain "computer master" who inspired her to pick up the guitar. But according to her (read - general) legend, it was a demonstration of just a few chords. The rest of the young talent mastered independently.
But Ronnie says otherwise. Taylor's father invited him to give lessons to his daughter six hours a week - moreover, precisely on the technique of playing for country music. They studied long and painstakingly. But the story that the future pop idol was taught by a “36-year-old balding fat man,” according to the guitarist, is selling poorly. And no, he is not offended by the Swift family for being left in the shadows. He just wants justice. But justice in the understanding of TAS Rights Management is somewhat different: now it is impossible to get to the ITaughtTaylorSwift.com website.
Mr and mrs swift
Although Ronnie Kremer, unlike his student, never took place in show business, he understands the rules of the game quite sensibly. Of course, the story of a girl who told all her innermost thoughts to the pages of a diary and guitar strings will bring her a Grammy many times faster than the story that she was prepared for a big stage since childhood. Yes, Taylor undoubtedly grew up as a talented child, but talent in our time is only half the success. The second half is competent management. And it may even be good that Mr. and Mrs Swift understood this well.
"I had a magical childhood," recalls Taylor Swift in an interview with Rolling Stone, "I could go wherever I wanted." She really had where to walk: the Swift family in their early years Taylor and her brother Austin lived on a spruce farm in Pennsylvania. You can't imagine a better background for a country performer: after all, it was American farms that at one time raised the best voices of the industry for the world.
Taylor was no exception. I just shouldn't have become one.
Her parents - Scott and Andrea - knew very well what success is and how it is built. Successful financiers (Taylor's mother soon quit her job as a broker and devoted herself to children), they predicted a dizzying career for their children on Wall Street. The androgynous name Taylor is proof of this: at one time, the parents made a bet that the gender of their daughter as little as possible interfered with the conquest of financial heights. The performer herself confirms this: “It seemed to my mother that it would be cool if“Taylor”was written on my passes and other corporate documents, and people would guess if I was a man or a woman. Yes, she wanted me to do business."
But the world of finance did not appeal to Taylor for long. She wanted to become a star - first of all, to take revenge on her classmates, who considered her, as she herself said more than once, an outsider. Decent material has accumulated for poetry and songs - unhappy love, ridicule of peers, teenage experiences. Surprisingly, Taylor is now 29 years old, and although she herself and her songs have already grown, the singer still continues to work mainly for a teenage audience.
Seeing that the daughter had no other interests besides music (it was impossible not to notice: Taylor constantly strove to grab the microphone and sing something, wherever she was), the parents almost immediately realized that their daughter was not a wolf from Wall Street will (by the way, the youngest son Austin, who today is trying to realize himself in photography and cinema, will also "disappoint"). I had to urgently rewrite my business plan - fortunately, Taylor really had excellent musical data. So the family said goodbye to their beloved spruce farm and moved to the country mecca of all America - the city of Nashville, where there is a record company on almost every street.
At that time, Taylor was 14. She moved to high school, and, as her overly chatty acquaintances say, she did not go to lessons on foot, but drove a Lexus convertible - almost the same as the popular beauty-rival of the main character from the video. Taylor You Belong With Me.
On the other hand, having moved to Nashville, Taylor had little concern about her success or failure in school. She had a goal - to become a singer, and the girl began to fulfill her dream: she sang in the streets, in bars, at karaoke contests, at sports competitions. All - in order to catch the eye of some producer who would believe in her talent. But the parents did not just follow the lead of their ambitious daughter, moving from their favorite farm in Pennsylvania to stuffy Tennessee. My father moved to the local office of the largest American bank Merrill Lynch (here he worked as a financial consultant), and at the same time bought 3% of the capital of the newly created independent record company Big Machine Records, the head of which offered the young Taylor her first contract.
The fact that Swift's father actually controls some of the company's shares is not a secret. However, the legend says: the purchase took place after the young singer was "noticed" in one of the bars (supposedly the father just tried to protect the interests of his daughter). And, alas, this is the very case where a lot changes from the change of the places of the terms.
Teen queen
One way or another, young Taylor began to take her first successful steps in the world of country music. The image of a young girl in short dresses, with angelic curls and a guitar at the ready immediately fell in love with the general public - largely due to the fact that Swift favorably differed from typical representatives of the genre. It was a great triumph - and most importantly, to maintain it, the young performer needed very little: compose songs, sing and support the image of a kind of girl-next-door.
According to the revelations of Ronnie Kremer, while the father was in charge of the girl's finances, her mother Andrea took care of her daughter's image. Ex-teacher Taylor recalls how her mother did not allow the singer to eat high-calorie food for breakfast (unlike, by the way, her brother), arguing that "the world does not need fat stars."
On the other hand, true or not, Taylor herself didn't need to be told twice how to behave. In the end, her stellar ascent came precisely at a time when one unsuccessful party or loss of self-control could erase all past successes in a moment. In front of her eyes, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie and Britney Spears lost their popular recognition because of their love for drunken brawls. So the girl, without thinking twice, immediately entered herself into a generation of healthy new American youth who jog in the morning and drink vegetable smoothies instead of coffee. No alcohol - the singer still does not get tired of emphasizing that for the first time she tried alcohol in her legal 21. No questionable parties. No inappropriate dating.
Dating is, perhaps, the only thing for which the press still dared to criticize the performer. And it's not just about friendships with young colleagues from Disney and Nickelodeon ("I sometimes think that Miley [Cyrus], Selena [Gomez] and Demi [Lovato] are the same age," Taylor admits). Much more interesting for secular reporters is the list of young people of the performer. Handsome men for selection, the most coveted bachelors of the planet huddle near Swift for no more than a year, changing one after another, which in turn gives rise to rumors that the performer not only does not know how to be in a serious relationship, but also uses novels with her boyfriends as material for songs. The latter, however, are not devoid of meaning: Taylor does not hide that her relationship with Taylor Lautner served as inspiration for her song Back to December.with Joe Jonas for Last Kiss, with singer John Mayer for the single Dear John and so on (read: "Memo to Tom Hiddleston: Taylor Swift and Her Boyfriends").
Former young people Taylor are extremely silent: they almost do not communicate with the press on the topic of novels with the performer (the exception, however, was Calvin Harris, who once said that he felt deceived by his ex-lover). This is a very atypical behavior for the heroes of Hollywood, largely thanks to which Miss Swift comes out of all this leapfrog with boyfriends relatively dry, continuing to declare in her incomplete thirty that she falls in love every time, like the first.
And more often than not they really believe her - perhaps because she herself is convinced of the sincerity of her words. Taylor is hard to convict of hypocrisy: her behavior during the incident with Kanye West in 2009 and after is a very eloquent example of the performer's strategy in any awkward situations she sometimes finds herself in (the same is proved by the case of harassment of the DJ). Naivety, sacrifice and nobility play into the hands of Swift from time to time, making millions of hearts all over the world fall in love with him (even Barack Obama supported the singer in a quarrel with Kanye West). And, perhaps, this is the case when a celebrity is not a hostage of his image, but with pleasure remains his most devoted fan (read also: "How to quarrel like Hollywood: the brightest star conflicts").
For several years in a row, Taylor has remained the unspoken queen of not only country, but also the pop scene: she buys multi-room mansions for herself and her parents (the singer's fortune is $ 280 million, according to Forbes), shines on the carpet, breaks out houses at concerts and shoots music videos exploding You Tube (her work Ready For It? is proof). Of course, like any person, she has her skeletons in the closet, but her great talent, hard work, and support from influential parents in the industry (who, I think, have their leverage over the press) leave no one a chance to ruin the dream. to which Taylor went from childhood.
Photo: Getty Images, Legion-Media, Instagram, press archives
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