Taylor Swift: Hi. That was nice. Taylor Swift: It's great to be here. This is amazing. Kevin Allocca: We were talking before, you'veactually been here before; is that right? Taylor Swift: Yes. I came here, I think, about five years ago,I was 16. And just about to release my first singleTim McGraw. And so we were traveling up the West Coastin a rental car, in a TAURUS, and I was doing my homework in the back seat, I was home schooledin 10th grade.
That was when we made this trip to San Joseand came to see you for the first time. It's wonderful to be back here and have somany of you come out this time around. It's amazing. Kevin Allocca: We're a very forward-thinkingcompany apparently, having you here when you were 16. I want to thank you for being here, firstof all, for all of us. This is really an honor and a treat. You're in the middle of your tour, Speak Now. I know you have posted some videos to yourchannel, sort of outlining your tour, and, specifically, your trip to Asia. And I want to show a clip from when you werein Singapore. I know you were in Chinatown, but the Chinatownof Singapore? Is that right? Taylor Swift: Yes. We started out the year going on tour andstarted off in Asia. And then we were in Europe for two months. It was, like, three months of major worldwidetouring. So Singapore was the first place that we wenton the tour. Kevin Allocca: Cool. Let's roll that clip. Everywhere, sort of fascinated by the wavingcats, because, you know, of course, as long as you keep fresh batteries in them, they'realways going to be saying hello to you, just always. Symbolize forever, waving cats. What's better than a cat that's always like,hey? There's nothing better than that. Kevin Allocca: So this, of course, has allthe makings of a viral video. There's a big celebrity. It's a global thing. There's a cat in the video. Taylor Swift: That will do it. I think you just said it. That's the essential ingredient is a cat. Kevin Allocca: Now your YouTube channel isvery popular. I know you have over a half a million subscribersthat get your blogs when you post them, which is really cool. I wanted to ask you off the bat, how importantis your channel and social media in general as a tool for expression but also connectingwith your audience. Taylor Swift: I think we've all seen the effectof social media and how that can affect people. For me, I grew up when that was just aboutto set fire to the world. You know, I was, I think, in seventh and eighthgrade when everybody started having a profile online and everybody was -- you know, it wasall about who's your friend and who's commenting on whose page. And then it became the YouTube generation,where everybody's looking at videos, everybody's making video blogs and, you know, makeup tutorialsor this or that or back to school outfit shopping, you know. Everybody is kind of catching on to communicatingby making videos and learning how to edit them. And it's -- I think it's fantastic, becauseit's just a new skill set for this new generation. Kevin Allocca: And I would be remiss if itwere a YouTube interview and I didn't ask you if you had any favorite -- I know you'rebusy -- but any favorite YouTube videos or channels that you like to watch?Taylor Swift: Yes. I have watched this one three times this weekbecause it makes me so happy. And it's got these, like, five or six lioncubs. And there's the lion trainer. And you're like, oh, the lion cubs are cute. And they're walking around. And then they jump up on the lion trainerand start hugging him. And then they're, like, making all these littlelion sounds that you don't -- you didn't know what the sounds are that lion cubs make, butit's amazing. It's just like RRRR. They're like hugging him, and he's, like,oh, go for my hair. You keep going for my hair. And then he's like, oh, yeah, telling me stories. Kevin Allocca: Where was this zoo?Taylor Swift: It's amazing. It's --Taylor Swift: 'Cause he's like Scottish and they're, like, hugging him and they love himso much. And -- I don't know. It's – you -- just watch it. Kevin Allocca: I guess everybody is goingto run -- it's going to be popular now. Kevin Allocca: Well, this isn't just our interview. This is also your fans' interview. And you have some very rabid fans, the SwiftiesI believe is how they call themselves. Taylor Swift: I know. It's so cute. They came up with that. Kevin Allocca: They're very serious, by theway. They don't mess around. They submitted 30,000 questions to this interview. Kevin Allocca: And over…Taylor Swift: That's so much questions. They're so curious. Kevin Allocca: Yeah. We only can do a few of them. And we also have some from Google. But the biggest topic by far was songwriting,because I think that a lot of your fans have a big connection to the stories you that tellin your songs. Let's start with this topic. This one comes from pandabearlover13. I mean, a lot of the user names are not meantto be read outloud. This is from Florida. Which comes first for you as a songwriter,the music or the lyrics? Taylor Swift: I think for me, it more comesas a general idea. And my favorite thing about songwriting isthat it's so spontaneous and unpredictable what's going to hit me first, whether it'sgoing to be a general thought. Like, for example, you know, I'll be goingthrough something. When I wrote the song "love story," that'sa song I wrote sitting on my bedroom floor because I liked a guy and my parents didn'twant me to date him. So I got this idea in my head, it just poppedinto my head, you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles, and my daddy said stay away fromJuliet. I didn't know where that was going to fit,but I started there and built out from there. And it's crazy how the fastest songs thatI write end up being my favorites, the ones that just happen (snapping fingers) in justa surge of idea, a surge of inspiration. It's usually something I'm going through atthe time. It's very hard for me to come up with justsome random metaphor for a situation if I'm not going through it or haven't recently justgone through it. But, you know, I think when I was growingup, my mom was always -- my mom talks in metaphor a lot. And so I think I grew up just understandingmetaphor and just kind of loving that, how you could take something you're going throughand speak about it in a different way that applies how you're feeling to something completelydifferent but connects it. So I think for me, it starts as an idea anda feeling and an emotion. Kevin Allocca: Yeah. We had a lot of questions about the process,from budding song writers who submitted questions that are big fans of yours, from Buffalo anda bunch of different places. And -- I mean, you know, we were wondering,is there one favorite part of the songwriting process that you have? I mean, is it when you get that idea? Or when you're sitting on the floor in thebedroom or -- Taylor Swift: Yes. Kevin Allocca: -- in the studio?Taylor Swift: There are several moments in a song -- and I won't finish a song if I don'thave these moments -- where you go, "ooh, ooh, ooh," like, after you write a line. It's always that same feeling of, like, oh,that's exactly what I meant. You know, if you're in a cowriting session,I'm always the one who will, like, be, like, sitting there for a second, and then I'llsay a line, and if it's that moment where you're just, like, that's the one. That's the line, I have to have about fouror five of those lines in a song for me to put it on a record. Kevin Allocca: Yeah. Taylor Swift: Like, lines where I'm just like,"Yes!" That's my favorite part, is, then, when thesong goes into its phase of being recorded and then being put on an album and when you'replaying it for people for the first time, when it comes across those lines that youreally feel are like, I don't know, like zingers or, like, say it really well. I love watching people's reactions if they-- if it comes across, like, if they get those lines. I'm like, "Yes. I knew it." Kevin Allocca: We'll get back to the cowritingthing in a second. There were some questions about that as well. Here's another question, from musicmaniacin Los Angeles. You've said you're already writing for thenext record. Can you tell us anything about it? Taylor Swift: Well, yeah. For me, I never really switch the writingswitch off. It's always on. Because I kind of have always felt, like,to make an album that I am proud enough of to give to my fans and say, "Here," you know,"allow this into your life," it has to be, like -- it has to be two to two and a halfyears of writing. And that way, you know you have your beststuff, because I'm so tough on myself. I drive myself insane writing records andalbums, because it's, like, I'll write, like, 40 to 50 songs, and then 13 or 14 make it. That's a lot of paring it down and makingsure you're getting to the best stuff. So for me, it takes a while. And I've been writing ever since I stoppedwriting the last album. And there's been a lot that's happened. And I never really talk about my personallife, but I write about it. So that's basically what the album is about,as always. Kevin Allocca: Yeah. The unreleased thing was something that cameup a lot. And one of the top-voted questions was about,you know, would you ever make a CD of your unreleased songs. This is from tayswiftfearless in Missouri. But, I mean, what happens to those songs thatdon't make it to the album? And would you ever release some of those songsthat you wrote especially when you were younger, like 14, 15? Taylor Swift: Well, I'm obsessed with thelatest song that I've written. I'm very guilty of that. Because my favorite thing is always the newestthing I have written. But lately, I've become a little more self-aware,because I had this song that I wrote when I was 16. It's called "Sparks Fly." And I played it in a few shows, these littlebar shows, when, you know -- when I was playing to crowds of, like, 40 and 50 people and beingpsyched about that many people showing up. And I played it a few times, and it got onthe Internet. And when I was putting together the SpeakNow album, the fans just kept saying over and over again, "Sparks Fly, we want thisto be on the record." And so I went back and I revisited it, andI kind of rewrote some things and updated it. And when we put it out as a single, it's beenone of the fastest-rising songs we've had on the record. So it kind of taught me a lesson about theold stuff maybe possibly being good enough to put on new projects. Kevin Allocca: I'm sure there are a lot ofpeople who would love to hear some of that stuff. Let's move on to some of the released songs. This is a question from cookie13cupcake. Kevin Allocca: This is in the United Kingdom. This is going to be a long one. All right. So out of all of your released songs, whichsong took the longest to write? Taylor Swift: I think that the song SparksFly, the fact that it technically was started when I was 16 and ended up on an album insort of a different form in 2010, that took a while for it to turn into what it was goingto be. So I'd say that was probably the longest developingsong that I've ever put out, because most of them -- and especially having written thisentire new record without any cowriters -- it all happened really fast, because I'm veryimpatient. Like, if I don't have a song finished, I'llobsess over it. I won't sleep that night. And I'll just edit constantly to the pointwhere I can't focus on a conversation. Everyone around me is annoyed, because they'relike, "Clearly, you're working on something. Just finish it." So that one was a long time to kind of getwhere it needed to be. Kevin Allocca: Cool. So let's talk about that cowriter thing fora second. As you mentioned, this album was all you asfar as for Speak Now. But you do often work with cowriters. And how do you decide if you're going to writea song with a cowriter or whether you're going to tackle it yourself?Taylor Swift: Well, there are a bunch of different circumstances that could bring about a cowrite. If I'm writing for somebody else's project,that's always exciting for me. Like, I love to put myself in somebody else'sshoes and, you know, think about their style of music, incorporating their story line,what they're feeling. It's really fun for me to do that. So I love, you know, writing for other people. And then, you know, if I'm working on an ideabut there's, like, a stopping point where I can't really figure out, like, where thischorus is going or if my hunch is right about the hook or things like that, if there's adefinite stopping point, I'll bring it to a writer that I trust or a writer that I admireand just ask them what they think. A lot of times, cowriting, you know, I writereally well with people who don't even play instruments or sing. Because, you know, a lot of times, my bestcowriters are just really great at giving advice. Like, do you think this chorus is too long? "Yes." Like, "Thank you." Kevin Allocca: Is there anybody you're workingwith right now that you can talk about? Taylor Swift: Yes. You know, for me, since I write so much andI don't know what's going to end up on the record, it's -- I never want to say, well,you know, wrote with this person, and -- because then what if it doesn't make it on the record? Kevin Allocca: Of course. Taylor Swift: And then writing for some otherpeople's projects, in which case I feel weird talking about it because it's, like, theirproject. So I -- So yes, but --Kevin Allocca: Okay. Taylor Swift: Yeah. Kevin Allocca: This was a popular -- a lotof votes for this question. This is from quadraticfomulaabc in Michigan. Appropriate for the Google. Taylor Swift: Wow. Kevin Allocca: Do you sing your own songsin the shower? Taylor Swift: Yeah. Kevin Allocca: Awesome. That's great. Kevin Allocca: Do you have, like, any sortof favorite place for writing songs? Taylor Swift: No, actually. I kind of have become -- you have to adaptyourself to a million different places to write when you're always on the road, becauseI just -- I don't have the luxury of saying, "Well, I have to be in this certain room atthis certain part of town and it has to be, you know, all one color tone and there hasto be Smart Water in there." Taylor Swift: You know? It's just like you're never, ever anywherefor more than two and a half seconds. So I've written songs in airport bathrooms,on paper towels. I've written --Kevin Allocca: What song was on a bathroom towel at one point? Taylor Swift: Oh, it hasn't come out yet. Kevin Allocca: Oh. Taylor Swift: You know, in the bus bunk, you'llwake up in the middle of the night and have this idea. So you write it, and you're up at 4:00 a.m. Or, you know, I get awakened by song ideasall the time. And it's just -- it's like I wake up and I'mjust like, "Oh, great." Because I know I won't remember it in themorning. So you have to record it. And then it's this whole thing where you checkyour phone and it's, like, mumbling, and you don't understand -- you thought it was greatat the time. Kevin Allocca: Yeah. Actually, one of our Googler questions wasabout you recording songs into your cell phone. Is that something that you do regularly?Taylor Swift: Yeah. The ideas always end up in my phone, becauseit has a great recording thing in there. And, you know, for me, it's, like, you justwrite whenever and wherever you can. And that's been really fun for me, becausesometimes I'll walk into a hotel room and I'll be like, "I've been here. I wrote Back to December here." Like, it's fun, because you have these memoriesof writing songs all over the world. Kevin Allocca: Yeah. Cool. So I know a lot of your songs are very personalsongs, and a lot of your fans are very interested in that stuff. But this one came from MicaylaK in south Florida. Has any guy asked you not to write a songabout him before you went on a date? Taylor Swift: Not at that point in the relationship. Taylor Swift: Because at that point, they'rethinking that, you know, I would never have any reason to write a song about them. And then it's when, you know --Taylor Swift: When they start to, you know, treat me in a way that wouldn't reflect wellon them in a song, if I were to be honest about it, I've had a guy be, like, "You'renot going to write about this, are you?" Taylor Swift: I'm like, "Yeah, I am." Kevin Allocca: I think that's interesting. That's a point in a relationship that youwould have to have is, this is the part where I tell her not to write a song about me, youknow. Taylor Swift: And you'd think that they woulddecide that before asking me on the date or before we become a couple or before all thisstuff happens. But it only occurs to -- it only -- well,him, it only occurred to him when -- Taylor Swift: -- when he -- it occurred tohim that it wouldn't be a good song. Kevin Allocca: Do you always write about,you know, people that you know? Taylor Swift: Yeah. Because I feel like in a song I love it whena song is a story, and the story develops. And my favorite stories have really beautifulcharacters. And I feel like you can most accurately describea character if you know them. One of my favorite songs that I've ever putout is called "15." It's about my freshman year of high school. And it kind of chronicles my best friend Abigailand me and the way that we went through our freshman year of high school and the lessonsthat we learned. And that's kind of how I like to tell a story,is from the point of view of really knowing what you're talking about and knowing whereyou're coming from because you were there. Kevin Allocca: Yeah. So let's actually go to another video -- ourfirst video question. And this one comes from Cleveland, Ohio. Let's roll it. Video: Hey, Taylor, I have a question foryou. I know a lot of us can relate really stronglyto your songs and your lyrics. Considering I have gotten choked up a coupleof times just listening to your songs, I wonder if you ever get choked up on stage or whatyou're thinking about when you're on stage. Taylor Swift: She's pretty. I'm really in it when I'm on stage. And I go through a roller coaster of emotionswhen I'm performing my show, because these are all songs about people who have been inmy life, who a lot of them -- some of them aren't in my life anymore, and, you know,sometimes that will hit you in just the right way. And when an emotion hits you strongly, itdoesn't matter if you're in front of 20,000 people, it hits you. And, you know, for me, I'm in those songs,fully feeling all of it, until I hear the crowd start screaming at the end of the song,at which point, I'm just like -- like, can't stop smiling, because my favorite sound inthe world is the sound of thousands of people screaming all at once. It's a really amazing sound. And so I'm completely feeling all the sadnessand frustration and anger and hurt, and then the crowd starts screaming, and then everythingis right in the world. Kevin Allocca: Wow. We'll talk about the tour and some of thatstuff in a second. I want to ask one more Googler question aboutsongwriting. And that was, has that process that you sortof talked about earlier, has that changed over the years? 'Cause, you know, you've grown up a lot andeverybody has sort of heard you grow up. Taylor Swift: Yeah, I think it really has. I think that you can only hope that as a writeryou start trying different things and you try different chords or different structuresof songs, different beats that you've never really explored that path before. You know, and I think having always been awriter first, I'm obsessed with the syncopation of the way that words sound when they're seta certain way. And once I've kind of done something once,I always want to go to a different direction and never repeat myself. So as a writer, I think that I've always hopedthat my music would constantly be changing, because you never want to make the same albumtwice, the same song twice. And, you know, my greatest hope has been thatas I grow, my fans will grow up with me, and as I change and my life changes, my musicwill change as well. So wish me luck there. Kevin Allocca: Let's talk about your fansa little bit more. This is a question from Canada, from YouTube. What was the funniest thing a fan has everdone to get your attention? Taylor Swift: Well, there's a lot of thatlately, because we have this thing called the Tea Party Room, and, you know, I have,like, four or five meet and greets before the show. But after the show, there's a meet and greetfor surprise people who did not know that they were going to get a meet and greet, becausethey were picked for the Tea Party Room, which means that they were, like, going crazy, dancingthe whole time, dressed in some absurd, crazy costume from one of my music videos or justknew every single word and were just screaming the whole time. Like, people get picked for different reasons. But it's been crazy lately because a lot ofpeople have been going for the costume route. Kevin Allocca: Really?Taylor Swift: So we'll look out, and, like, my guitar player will lean over to me andsay, "That girl is dressed like a chicken." And, like, I'm trying to find the meaning. I don't know why. But, you know, we'll look out. And there's, like, a Santa Claus. Kevin Allocca: And these are just --Taylor Swift: Or, like, people who like duct-taped their entire body in neon duct tape. Or people who have just made giant cupcakesaround themselves, and they're, like -- they're this big. Or people who have likelihood dressed up fromthe mean video or something like that. But then there's just these ones where, like,the girl is dressed as this -- there's like a clown and a starfish. And we're, like, "I don't know why, but Ilove it." Taylor Swift: Like, and so there's been alot of costume stuff going on lately on the tour. So if you look around you and see someonedressed up as a giant cow and you don't know why, we don't know why, either. But it's welcome. Kevin Allocca: Now, this is iloveswift1 fromToronto. Another Canada question. Has a fan ever made you cry?Taylor Swift: Yeah. You know, for me, like, it's never going tobe okay, no matter how many times I see little kids with cancer. Like, there's -- at no point do you ever becomeaccustomed to it. At no point do you ever just brush it offand say, oh, well, there's another kid who's dying. And over the years, I've toured in these places,and you see, like, a little girl who will come through, and she's, like, so full oflife, but she's lost her hair. And then you come through a year later, andyou're like, "Hey, Lexie, how are you doing?" She's, like, "I'm doing good." And then her parents update you. And then you come by, like, a year and a halflater, and she's not there. So it's.... Kevin Allocca: Yeah. Taylor Swift: Yeah. Kevin Allocca: You have all of these fansall over the world of all different ages and types. And when you were young, did you think therewould be any other career paths that you would take that you might not have ended up in thisway? Taylor Swift: Ever since I was a little kid,ever since I was, like, eight years old, my dad has been telling me to save my money orinvest in utilities. Kevin Allocca: What? Taylor Swift: And -- 'cause my dad is a stockbroker. And he lives and breathes it. He's like -- my dad is so passionate aboutwhat he does in the way that I'm passionate about music, this guy lives for being a stockbroker. Taylor Swift: That is his thing, like. And anybody who talks to him, like, he'lltalk about me for the first five minutes, and then it's, like, "Say, what are you investingin?" It's just like he loves it. And so I thought -- I didn't know what a stockbrokerwas when I was eight, but I would just tell everybody that's what I was going to be, like,you know, it would be, like -- you know, first day of school, and they're like, "So whatdo you guys want to be when you grow up?" And everybody is, "I want to be an astronaut"or "I want to be a ballerina." And I'm, like, "I want to be a financial advisor." Taylor Swift: I don't know. I love my dad so much, because he's so gung-hofor his job, and I just saw how happy it made him, and I just thought, I can broke stocks. Kevin Allocca: Taylor Swift, commodities trader. All right, let's talk about music videos fora second. There's a lot of questions about your musicvideos. As I mentioned before, the music videos thatyou have on YouTube have been seen over half a billion times. Was there -- what was your favorite musicvideo to make and why? That's from sophiekerrie in London. Taylor Swift: My favorite music video to make. I loved making the video from Mine, becauseit dealt with this whole story line, and it's got flashbacks and flash forwards. And there were also a bunch of little kidson the set. And they're so fun. They make it so much fun, because there'sa lot of sitting around and waiting on sets, and we were in Maine, so we're sitting aroundand waiting on a beach. All of a sudden, you're just playing withten kids. And they're, like, wrestling with each otherand throwing sand and, like, playing catch. And it just makes the whole thing much morefun. So I think that was my favorite one to make. Kevin Allocca: Were there any cool locationsor anything for any of those videos? Taylor Swift: We went to Kennebunkport, Maine,which was this little town that I've always dreamed of going to. It was amazing. It's a little coastal town. It was really awesome. I loved it. Kevin Allocca: Let's talk about the tour fora second. You're in the middle of the Speak Now tour. Very famously, you've had some really coolsurprise duets. And you do covers of classic songs prettymuch every night. How do you choose what covers you'll do inany particular concert? Taylor Swift: Well, I go online and just kindof Google what people -- what famous musicians are from a certain area, and I just pick myfavorites, because, you know, I've -- I've loved so many different kinds of music, andI've never really been genre-specific as far as what I listen to. There's always, like, a favorite song of minefrom a certain area. And, you know, it's really fun to do, like,a few every night, like, you know, in California, I do, like, God Only Knows by The Beach Boys,and then Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani. It's just been really, really fun, becauseit's just me and my guitar during the acoustic set. You can just do whatever because it's justyou and your instrument. It's a spontaneous part of the show. Kevin Allocca: Have you done any particularlyunusual ones? Taylor Swift: Yeah. You know, it's kind of unusual when I rap.Taylor Swift: You know. People don't really, like -- I guess peopledon't see that coming. But I love "lose yourself," so we were inan area, I think Michigan, and I just started -- like, I started playing acoustically, LoseYourself. And I just started off, like, "Yo." And everybody's just, like, "What is happening? This is really weird." But I just -- I love a great song. I don't care what genre it's in. I don't care if it's completely opposite fromwhat people think is, you know, country music. And I just love a great song. Kevin Allocca: Yeah. One of the Googler questions that we got wasabout which song of yours is the most fun for you to perform. Taylor Swift: I really like Better than Revenge. It's a song off of the album Speak Now. And it's about a girl who stole my boyfriends. Taylor Swift: And I got mad. And I wrote a song about it. And we do this, like, just -- it's just furiousand angry and fun and, like, we have this gigantic bridge that be drops down from theceiling, and me and my two backup singers are on the bridge, just, like, throwing ourhair around and head-banging. And so that's a really fun one to do. And for me, they're all really -- I thinkDear John has a fun payoff. If you go see the show, I really love singingthat, because in the end, it's got this, you know, pyro-filled payoff in the end. Kevin Allocca: Would you say those are twoof the songs that get the crowd going the most? Or are there other ones?Taylor Swift: I'd say -- you know, you ought to come to a show, because the crowds arereally kind of steadily ear-piercingly loud throughout the whole show. They're amazing. Like, it's really hard to gauge, like, whichis the moment that -- that they're the loudest, because they're just really, really loud. Taylor Swift: All the time. Kevin Allocca: Here's a funny question. This is from alylaw42 in Dunlap, Tennessee. You seem like the kind of person that wouldname their guitars. Do you name your guitars? And what are their names?Taylor Swift: I do seem like that kind of person. But I haven't done it yet. I kind of think back on the situations whenI got them. Like, when -- when I fell in love with thatparticular guitar, like, there's one of my guitars, it's an acoustic, and it's blue,and it's got KOI fish swimming up the neck in, like, inlays. It's just beautiful. It was -- Bob Taylor sent it to me for my18th birthday. I remember the first time I opened up thisguitar case. And I'm just like, "There's fish on the guitar." It's, like, this gorgeous guitar. And so that's what I remember about that. And then there's this sparkly guitar thatI play that has hundreds of tiny little crystals on it. And it looks like we had it especially made. But, really, we just glued them on. Kevin Allocca: Oh, really? Taylor Swift: Yeah. And sometimes little ones fall -- they falloff. So we'll have to super glue more on with tweezers. That's always what cracked me up about that. It's like, everyone is, "Where did you haveyour guitar specially made?" I'm like, "Super glue." Kevin Allocca: How many guitars do you usein a show? How many of those do you go through?Taylor Swift: Okay. That was a weird sound that I just made. That was weird. Sorry. The first one is electric. The second one is acoustic koa. Then there's the 12-string. Then there's the blue koi fish one. There's, like, four or five. Kevin Allocca: Yeah, wow.Taylor Swift: And then a ukulele and a ganjo and a piano. Kevin Allocca: Obviously, you're on tour alot, and you -- that's where you spend a lot of your time. But there were a lot of questions about youwhat do when you're not performing and you're in between gigs besides writing songs likeyou do. So I guess the first question, are there anymovies that you like to watch while you're on tour?Taylor Swift: I watch a lot of TV. Like, a lot of TV. And my favorites are, like, the crime shows,where it starts out and, you know, you can't miss the first scene or else you miss, like,the discovery of this crime scene. And then, you know, the -- the, like, twistsand turns of it all. I love CSI, Law and Order SVU, Without a Trace,NCIS, Lockup Raw. Kevin Allocca: Wow.Taylor Swift: I just am really afraid of getting in trouble. You have no idea. Kevin Allocca: All right. That's who watches Lockup, is Taylor Swift,actually. Taylor Swift: Yeah. Kevin Allocca: That's awesome. But also one of the questions that we gotwas about what books that you read in your free time. Taylor Swift: Oh, mostly history. I'm obsessed with other time periods. And, like, I just -- I'm always looking upmuseums or, like, the historical society or, like, historical landmarks that we can goto in a particular city where we are. And recently, I've been reading a lot of bookson, like, John Adams and Abraham Lincoln. And I read this, like, 750-page book calledThe Kennedy Women, and it dates back to, like, the lineage of the first Kennedy woman whocame across from Ireland on the boat in, like, the 1860s. It's just this crazy interesting read. So that's what I've been reading lately. I'm sort of obsessed with history. Kevin Allocca: Let's talk about books fora second. One of the other questions that we got, actually,from one of the future Googlers in the audience was about how you wrote a novel when you were11 years old. Taylor Swift: I was 14. Kevin Allocca: 14? Taylor Swift: No, wait. Kevin Allocca: You were younger?Taylor Swift: I was, like, 13, I think. Kevin Allocca: 13? Taylor Swift: Yeah. But I did. I was -- I was -- I have a lot of differentepiphanies. I always have different ideas as to, ooh,this would be a good idea. And one summer, I was at the shore. We used to spend our summers in Stone Harbor,New Jersey. And all my friends were back in Pennsylvania. And so I had nothing to do, and so I had thisepiphany: I'm going to be a novelist and I'm going to write novels and that's going tobe my career path. And so I would write different chapters ofthis book and send them back to my friends. And I'd write them into the book under differentnames, but totally describe their personalities and -- it was a really fun way to spend thesummer. My parents were so frustrated, because I wouldnever go outside. I'd just be, like, locked in this little studywith my computer. But you've always been a writer first. It's my favorite thing, is how you can conveya thought or a story or completely describe a character or a situation through words,and the right combination of words, and the whole process of editing and re-editing andrethinking and imagining and you get these little mini just epiphany ideas that cometo you. And I think that that's what I loved aboutwriting the novel. And that's what I love about poetry. And that's what I love about songwriting. Kevin Allocca: Yeah. And while we're on this topic of things youdo while you're on tour and stuff, we had a lot of questions about what it is that youlike to do when you're on tour and you're not performing. Is there any other things that you like tospend your time doing? Taylor Swift: What I love to do. Yeah, I watch a lot of TV. Kevin Allocca: Mm-hmm. Right. Crime shows. Taylor Swift: Yeah, crime shows. That's pretty much the hobby list. Kevin Allocca: So have another question froma Googler here. And this is -- it says as a father of a teenageddaughter, it's great to see that solid songwriting and hard work can get recognized. Do you have any advice for young aspiringmusicians? Taylor Swift: Absolutely. I think that you have to love it more thananything else. And you have to love it for so many more reasonsother than your idea of what the end result could be. Like, you don't make an album so that youcan get a platinum record to hang on your wall. Kevin Allocca: Right. Taylor Swift: And you don't go on tour sothat you can hang the sold-out plaques up in, you know, your bedroom. It's, like, it's so many little stepping-stones,and so many people have this idea that it's like, you get discovered and then you getthe record deal, and then you record the song, and then the song goes number one and -- andit's like, it's never like that. Like, very rarely is it, like, one thing leadsto another which leads to another, end result. It's so many dead-ends and switching directionsand going back and replanning and rethinking, and so many interviews and strategy meetingsand management meetings and PR meetings, and so many things that are so outside of music,that you have to love music so much that just your hour and a half to two hours of stageevery night is worth everything else that you're going to go through. And also, I would say play your own instrument,because it's easier than dragging around, like, a karaoke machine. Taylor Swift: You know? Like, when you're starting out, you have toprovide your own background music. And it's just so much easier to play yourown instrument. Kevin Allocca: Okay. Cool. All right. So we have one last question. This is a video question, another video question. And it comes from Chicago, Illinois. It's a little bit different than some of thequestions we've been talking about. Let's roll that. > Hey, Taylor. It's Nick. I have a question for you. What does being beautiful mean to you? I mean, define your definition of beauty,what beauty means in your eyes and why. Taylor Swift: I love him. I think for me, beauty is sincerity. I think that there are so many different waysthat someone can be beautiful. You know, someone so funny that it makes thembeautiful no matter how they look, because they're sincere in it. Or somebody's, like, really emotional andmoody and thoughtful and stoic, but that makes them beautiful because that's sincerely whothey are. Or you look out into the crowd you and seesomeone so happy that they're smiling from ear to ear, and that sincerity comes through. I think that's what makes somebody beautiful. And I've never felt like there's just oneway to be beautiful, you know, tall or short, straight hair or curly or whatever, some peoplehave their definitions of their "types." For me, I think that when I meet someone andthere's that magical think about them that makes them unforgettable, it's that they'resincere and honest in whoever they are, be that funny, happy, sad, you know, going througha rough time, sarcastic. I think that these personality traits thatcome through when somebody is really sincere is what makes them beautiful. Kevin Allocca: Cool. I think that's a great note to end this on. Since this is a YouTube interview, there'ssort of a tradition that we have that -- where are they? Oh, there they are. So you -- it's honorary for me to give youa pair of the YouTube tube socks. Taylor Swift: Thank you. Kevin Allocca: And I'm sure --Taylor Swift: I can wear these with sandals and --Kevin Allocca: You're going to be -- Taylor Swift: Those are going to look so great. Kevin Allocca: They'll be really great foryou on tour. We actually -- we handed out some tube socksto people who were coming in. Who got tube socks? All of you who got tube socks, you're actuallygetting tickets to Taylor's show tonight. Taylor Swift: I will see you later. Kevin Allocca: Let's hear it one more timefor Taylor Swift. Thank you for being here. Taylor Swift: Thank you.
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