泰勒·斯威夫特：我歌写我心，错爱亦无憾

by Nancy Jo Sales

On a cold February day in Nashville， Swift was at SIR Studios rehearsing for the current 47-city tour to support her album Red（2012）. She was 2）strumming on a Taylor guitar（she favors the brand） 3）inlaid with 4）mother-ofpearl.

Swift writes perfect pop songs that stick in your head like lollipops stuck in your hair. She is sometimes criticized for the thinness of her voice， but it sounded sweet and melodic， with a bit of country 5）twang. Swift cultivates a 6）gawky 7）adorkability in her music videos， in which she often plays the unloved girl alone in her room 8）pining over the cute guy. The bio Swifts publicist had sent me was adorkable too：“Hi， Im Taylor. I love the number 13. I was born in December on a Christmas tree farm”—actually a hospital， in Reading， Pennsylvania， in 1989. Swift spent her early childhood on a Christmas-tree farm in Montgomery County， Pennsylvania， in a picturesque house owned by her parents， Andrea， who had worked in finance， and Scott， then a stockbroker with Merrill Lynch. “My favorite thing in life is writing about life， specifically the parts of life concerning love，” her bio went on. “Because， as far as Im concerned， love is absolutely everything.”

在纳什维尔一个冰冷的二月天，斯威夫特在SIR录音室为其进行中的47城巡回演唱会进行排练，宣传自己的专辑《红》（2012）。她当时正漫不经心地弹着一把镶着珍珠母的泰勒吉他，那是她最钟爱的品牌。

斯威夫特擅长写很好听的流行歌曲，这些歌余音袅袅，萦绕你心头就像是棒棒糖粘在你的头发上一样。她的嗓音有时会为人诟病，因为纤细单薄，但是听着很甜美优雅，还带着那么点乡村鼻音。斯威夫特在自己的录影带中塑造笨拙可爱的形象，通常在其中她扮演不被爱的女孩，在自己的房中单相思可爱的男孩。斯威夫特的公关发来的她那份简介也很笨拙可爱：“你好，我是泰勒。我喜欢数字13。我是十二月在一个圣诞树农场出生的”——其实是在1989年，宾夕法尼亚州雷丁的一家医院出生。斯威夫特早期童年是在宾夕法尼亚州蒙哥马利郡的圣诞树农场度过，在她父母漂亮的大房子里，母亲安德莉亚在金融界工作，父亲斯科特在美林证券公司做股票经纪人。“我最喜欢的事就是写生活，特别是和爱有关的，”她在简介中继续说到，“因为，对于我来说，爱简直就是一切。”

Watching her rehearse that day， it became clear that Swift works incredibly hard. “Im the type of person， I have to study to get an A on the test，” she would tell me later. “I have to work really hard to get the record deal—I have to spend years at it to get good. I have to practice to be good at guitar. I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.”

Her determination has paid off. The Taylor Swift triumphant music stats can go on and on， but here are a few： Shes a seven-time Grammy winner and the youngest person ever to win Album of the Year （for Fearless，？ in 2009）. Shes the only female artist， and the fourth artist ever， to twice have an album （Red and 2010s Speak Now） sell a million copies in its first week. With Red， she became the first artist since the Beatles—and the only female artist ever—to have three consecutive albums spend six or more weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. She has sold more than 26 million albums and 75 million song downloads worldwide. She holds the Billboard record for the most Top 10 debuts in the history of its Hot 100.

And then there are the inevitable 9）endorsements. Swift is a brand. Shes been called “Americas Sweetheart”： she rarely drinks， doesnt smoke， go clubbing， or get arrested—shes the anti-10）Lohan， and this 11）squeaky-clean image has made her an attractive advertising partner for Target， Sony， CoverGirl， Keds， Elizabeth Arden， and， recently， Diet Coke.

But something happened to Swifts long media honeymoon sometime over the last year. Suddenly people—and not just haters on the Internet but public figures—were making fun of her. And then our conversation turned to the Golden Globes. “I was just sort of like， Oh well， you know， I can laugh at myself，” Swift said. “But what it ended up adding to was this whole kind of everyone jumping on the 12）bandwagon of ‘Taylor dates too much—which， you know， if you want some big revelation， since 2010 I have dated exactly two people.” Conor Kennedy and Harry Styles.

It probably doesnt help this situation that Swift writes songs about the guys she dates and then sends her fans on 13）scavenger hunts to find out who they are. While some women are content to just leave an angry voice-mail message or throw the guys clothes in the street， Swift lets the whole world know hes been a 14）heel. After dating former Disney star Joe Jonas in 2008， she publicly announced hed broken up with her in a 27-second phone call. She then allegedly wrote several songs about their breakup， including “Better than Revenge，” released in 2010. And then there was Twilight 15）hunk Taylor Lautner， whom Swift also dated in 2009 after meeting him on the set of Valentines Day （2010）， and about whom she allegedly wrote the apologetic breakup song “Back to December，”released in 2010.

Its ironic that Swift， who has often spoken of having lived through a miserable middle-school experience in Wyomissing， where she was 16）ostracized for being different—an “awkward，” temporarily overweight girl who sang the 17）national anthem at professional sports events—now finds herself at the center of a celebrity culture infused with all the meanness of junior high. The source of her appeal has always been her ability to dig deep into her youthful feelings and reveal them in all their painfulness. One of her most moving songs， “Fifteen” （2009）， is a ballad about the vulnerability of a girl at the edge of 18）maturation.

“Ive never thought about songwriting as a weapon，”Swift said. “Ive only thought about it as a way to help me get through love and loss and sadness and loneliness and growing up. When I write songs its never a conscious decision—its an idea that floats down in front of me at four in the morning or in the middle of a conversation or on a tour bus or in the mall or in an airport bathroom. I never know when Im gonna get an idea and I never know what its gonna be.”

When she walks out onto the stage， Swift always takes a moment to close her eyes and just feel the love of her cheering fans. Shes a girl who loves love and wants to be in love—but she says shes willing to wait until she gets it right.“Im perfectly happy for all my past relationships to be wrong until I find the one thats right， because Im very happy not having found my great love yet.

“If I could find someone who just looked at me like Im a girl，” she said， “like a girl they want to be their girlfriend， with all my accomplishments and my criticisms， without this big cartoon character that most people see me as because they dont know me … I just want a guy to be dating me as a girl.”

“You know what I always do？” she said. “I have my 19）sanity button that I push. I push this button thats like ‘Stop complaining， your lifes great， stop， do not complain about this life， stop， this life is amaaaazing. Sanity button.”

那天看了她的排练，有一件事非常明确：她工作非常努力。“我就是这样一种人，为了考试得到A，我要努力学习。”她后来告诉我。“我必须很努力才能争取到唱片合约——为了把专辑做好，必须得花上数年的时间。我必须得不断练习才能把吉他弹好。我必须写上一百首歌，然后才能挑出一首好的。”

她的决心得到了回报。泰勒·斯威夫特音乐上的成功一波又一波地袭来，其中有这么一些：她是七次格莱美大奖得主，也是最年轻的“年度专辑”获得者（获奖专辑是2009年的《无惧的爱》）。她是首位女性，也是史上第四位，两次专辑推出首周就能售出一百万张的歌手（这两张专辑是《红》以及2010年的《爱的告白》）。凭借专辑《红》，她成为继披头士乐队之后——也是史上首位女性，连续三张专辑都能在“告示牌200大碟榜”上守住第一位长达六周或以上的歌手。她的专辑销量超过两千六百万，全球下载次数达到了七千五百万次。在《告示牌》“热门100”的历史排名中，她是拥有最多排名“前十”首发歌的纪录保持者。

接下来免不了的就是品牌代言。斯威夫特本身就是一个品牌。她被视作“美国甜心”：她既不爱喝酒又不抽烟，不爱泡夜店，也没有犯罪记录——她是个“反罗翰”分子，而这冰清玉洁的形象让她成为众多广告商青睐的对象，例如塔吉特百货、索尼、封面女郎化妆品、科迪斯运动鞋、伊丽莎白·雅顿化妆品以及最近的健怡可乐。

但是去年某个时候，斯威夫特与媒体漫长的“蜜月期”结束了。忽然之间，不仅仅是网络上的愤青，连公众人物都拿她来开玩笑。然后我与她的对话转到了金球奖颁奖礼上。“我当时，噢天，你知道，我本可以自嘲化解，”斯威夫特说道，“但最终增添的效果竟是所有人都倒向附和‘泰勒男朋友太多了——你知道的，如果你想知道一些大‘爆料，那就是，自2010年起，我只交过两个男朋友。”她指的是康纳·肯尼迪和哈利·斯泰尔。

对缓解这一形象毫无助益的是，斯威夫特会写关于自己男朋友的歌，然后令其“粉丝”寻宝似地猜到底写的是谁。有些女人失恋只是留下一段愤怒的语音留言，又或者把男朋友的衣服扔到大街上就算了，但斯威夫特要让全世界都知道这男的有多浑。2008年，和前迪士尼明星乔·乔纳斯交往过后，她公然说乔纳斯用一个27秒的电话来跟她分手。接着据说她写了几首歌是关于这次分手的，包括《比复仇要好》，于2010年推出。接下来是《暮光之城》的肌肉男泰勒·洛特纳。2009年，在电影《情人节》（2010年上映）的拍摄片场相识后，两人开始约会，对此据说她写的是充满歉意的分手歌——《重回十二月》，于2010年发行。

讽刺的的是，斯威夫特经常公开说自己在怀奥米辛的中学经历非常糟糕，那时候因为与众不同而被排斥——笨拙又一度肥胖的女孩，在专业体育赛事上唱国歌——现在她所处的名人文化充满了当时初中的恶毒无情氛围。她内心的诉求总是源自她能够深刻发掘自己的儿时感受，并且将这些痛苦表达出来。她的其中一首最为感人的歌是2009年发行的《十五岁》，歌中叙述的就是即将走向成熟的女孩的脆弱。

“我从来都没想过要把歌曲创作视为一种武器，”斯威夫特说道。“我只是把它视作一种助我走过爱、失落、悲伤、孤单、成长的方式。当我创作歌曲的时候，这些都是无意之举——那种想法会很自然地浮现在我面前，在凌晨四点时分，在一次谈话之间，在旅游大巴上，在商场，又或是在机场的洗手间。我从来都不知道我什么时候会有灵感浮现，也不知道那会是怎样的感受。”

当她走上舞台的时候，斯威夫特总是有那么一刻闭上自己的眼睛，只是去感受为自己鼓掌的“粉丝”所传递的爱。她是一个需要爱，也希望能沐浴在爱之中的女孩子——不过她说她宁愿等到合适的时机到来。“在我能找到对的那个人之前，我很高兴我过去的那么多段感情都没成功，因为我很高兴自己还没找到挚爱。

“如果我有幸能够找到某个只把我视作小女孩的人，”她说，“就像一个他们想要她成为女朋友的那种女孩，既接受我的成就也接受我的批评，而不是视我为那种大大的卡通形象——大部分人都这么看我，因为他们根本不了解我……我只想和一个视我为普通女孩的男人约会。”

“你知道我经常怎么做吗？”她说，“我有‘理智这个按钮。我会按下这个‘不要再抱怨了，你的生活很好了，停止抱怨，不要抱怨这种生活，不要，生活很美，美得不得了。理智按钮。”

小链接

泰勒冷嘲热讽记事簿

·脱口秀主持人艾伦·德杰尼勒斯（Ellen DeGeneres）每次邀请斯威夫特上她的节目都开她的玩笑。

·2012 年的乡村音乐颁奖礼上，主持人卡丽·安德伍德（Carrie Underwood）和布拉德·佩斯利（Brad Paisley）拿斯威夫特跟 18 岁的肯尼迪家族继承人康纳·肯尼迪开玩笑。“他们会复合吗？”佩斯利问。“不会，永远永远都不会。”安德伍德引用斯威夫特的歌词（《Red》专辑主打歌《We Are Never Getting Back Together》）回答道。

·《明星》（The Star）日报曾以《泰勒·斯威夫特：笑柄》为头条，配上了一张斯威夫特抹泪的照片。

·今年 1 月的金球奖颁奖礼上，主持人蒂娜·菲（Tina Fey）在台上说了一句玩笑话：“泰勒·斯威夫特，别打迈克尔·J·福克斯儿子的主意！”，全场爆出哄堂大笑。