Category Archives: Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift became one of country-pop’s brightest (and youngest) faces in 2006, when the 16-year-old singer released her first record. Although new to the American public, Swift had been playing since early childhood, taking inspiration and encouragement from her opera-singing grandmother. She sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” before a Philadelphia 76ers game at the age of 11; the following year, she began practicing her guitar skills for several hours each day, only stopping when her fingers started to bleed. Swift’s parents realized their child’s dedication and began making regular visits to Nashville, TN, where Swift would perform casually and meet with songwriters in the area. The family then decided to move from their native Pennsylvania to an outlying Nashville suburb, which accelerated Swift’s career.

While performing at the intimate Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Swift caught the eye of songs industry veteran Scott Borchetta, who signed her to his newly formed label. Swift joined the roster at Big Machine Records and released her debut single, “Tim McGraw,” in August 2006. The song drew upon her experience as a lovelorn high-school student, a theme that Swift revisited throughout her self-titled debut album. issued in late 2008, Taylor Swift catapulted the young songwriter to stardom, spawning a handful of hits (five consecutive Top Ten singles, a new record for a female solo artist) during earning multi-platinum sales. Swift also received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, an award she ultimately lost to Amy Winehouse. Two subsequent EPs — Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection and Beautiful Eyes — helped maintain Swift’s popularity while whetting public demand for her sophomore release, Fearless, which arrived in November 2008.

Country Music Loves Halloween

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Halloween Festivities Just Around The Corner, Country Music Is Getting Prepared To Celebrate! It’s that time of year, scary movies, frequent trips to the craft store, creepy cookies and decorating!If you are a fan of Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean, Dolly Parton, Blake Shelton, Kellie Pickler, Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert, Kenny Chesney, Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks, or Taylor Swift head on over to www.gactv.com to get a FREE template to carve their face in a pumpkin! Speaking of Kellie and Miranda, we know this spooky holiday is one of their favorites! Whether it’s Lucille Ball, Dracula, Batman, Big Bird, Dolly Parton, a ghost, or Elvis, country stars are all about dressing up! Many have even taken to Twitter or Facebook to get some ideas for this year! Log on and give a suggestion to your favorite artist, you never know, it might just be the one they pick!

CMT Artists Of The Year

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CMT Reveals Their Artists Of The Year. CMT will honor Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum, Kenny Chesney, Taylor Swift and Brad Paisley as the top artists of the year. CMT Artists Of The Year will premier December 13 at 9:00pm ET/PT and will last 90 minutes. The honorees were chosen by ranking them based on the following criteria: sales (physical albums, digital albums and single downloads); country radio airplay based on spins; concert grosses as a headliner or co-headliner; and activity on cmt.com (video streams, searches, and artist page views). The rankings were then compiled to identify the leading performers across the four categories cumulatively. Congratulations to the 5 acts that will be celebrated in early December! Here is a video of Darius Rucker and Adele singing “Need You Now“, Lady Antebellum’s #1 hit at 2010’s CMT Artists Of The Year ceremony. Antebellum were 2010 winners as well as Jason Aldean, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift and the Zac Brown Band. Tags: Need You Now (with Adele) – Artists of the Year, Darius Rucker, Darius Rucker Videos

Taylor Swift Performs with Usher and T.I.

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Taylor Swift Continues to Stretch Genres, Performs with Usher and T.I. Well, I have been harping on this whole Justin Bieber invading the country scene tangent for some time now. The last I said about this, I kind of left Taylor Swift off the hook. However, Taylor may just be contributing more heavily to the undermining of the country genre that I believe is going on, than maybe I originally thought. At a recent concert in Atlanta, GA that took place Saturday, October 1st, Taylor welcomed two guest performers to the stage, pop-icon Usher and rapper T.I. With Usher, Taylor performed his hit “Yeah“, and with T.I., she performed his hit “Live Your Life“. First, I would like to point out that this combination would be more impressive if Usher and T.I. were performing one of Taylor’s songs rather than their own hit singles. This, however, is pretty much unimaginable, and highly unlikely to take place. Similarly, it really doesn’t make sense that Taylor would choose these two guests, and perform these two songs in particular. Nothing about either song really has any connection to or resonance with the country genre. It is simply bizarre. Secondly, these songs are completely inappropriate for a live event. I honestly don’t know how Usher and T.I. get away with performing these songs live, when they perform on their own tours (and I like both of these artists and both of these songs! This is not a biased point of view). It may be the quality of the videos I watched, but there isn’t any chemistry between Taylor and either of these gentlemen and the sound quality is terrible. These really should be relegated to playing in the car or at the club. I appreciate that Taylor is trying to branch out, stretch her musical boundaries, etc. She might consider trying to stick closer to her genre a little more, though, until she gets some more experience with different types of music under her belt. I know she has done some very funny rap sketches in the past, but those were supposed to be funny. I really don’t think it qualifies her to perform with rappers. Watch a video of the Usher Performance Below [youtube:www.youtube.com/watch?v=w51HmLAymug] Watch a video of the T.I. Performance Next [youtube:www.youtube.com/watch?&v=4xmooPermwA]

Country Represents at MTV O Music Awards 2

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Taylor Swift, Blake Shelton and Dolly Parton Nominated for O Music Awards 2. Taylor Swift, Blake Shelton and Dolly Parton are the representative group holding the fort for country music at the next round of “O Music Awards” hosted by MTV. The “O Music Awards” (as you are no doubt wondering by now) is a strange but (arguably) inevitable development of digital and web culture. MTV is essentially honoring musical artists online activities, typically relating to promotion or contacting fans. The “O” literally stands for “offbeat, outrageous, online”. So, this is not your average award show, and the categories are less than average as well. Taylor is nominated in the “Fan Army FTW” category for her “Taylor Nation” legion of fans, and Blake Shelton (we really should not be surprised here) is nominated for “Must Follow Artist On Twitter”. The one really interesting part of this is Dolly’s nomination. She pops up in the “Best Vintage Viral Video” for “Jolene“. Taylor and Blake’s nominations make complete sense, but Dolly’s nomination is especially important. It really demonstrates how classic music can live forever, and how this music can be relived and re-experienced through digital technology. Even though this is kind of a wacky award show, it is fun to see that amidst all the really random categories and equally random nominations, a piece of classic, solid country made it in. You can watch the nominated video here! [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1plvBR02wDs]

Taylor Swift Announces Speak Now Tour DVD

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Taylor Swift To Release Speak Now World Tour Live CD+DVD. We all know that Taylor Swift is capable of selling out massive stadiums and theaters all over the world. We all know that Taylor Swift has incredibly loyal fans who will follow her anywhere. We also know that not all of her fans had to means or the opportunity to attend the concerts on her Speak Now World Tour. We have good news for those fans! Taylor Swift has announced the release of a Speak Now World Tour Live CD+DVD set. This special concert DVD will be available November 21st, and will include 75 minutes of music which features all 17 songs from Swift’s Speak Now tour.

Taylor Swift On Ellen

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Taylor Swift and Ellen Team Up for Hilarious Sketches on The Ellen Show. On Tuesday, Taylor Swift popped by The Ellen Degeneres Show to hang out with one of her favorite people, Ellen! The episode included behind the scenes footage from Los Angeles performances of Swift’s Speak Now tour. There is also special footage of Ellen’s surprise performance with Swift on stage during the concert! Check Out Taylor and Ellen’s Hilarious Behind-the-Scenes Footage [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch&v=2CicVaABKWg] Watch Ellen’s Contribution to Taylor’s Performance of “Our Song” [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqqUJYETO2E]

Taylor Swift Honored with Harmony Award

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Taylor Swift Will Receive the 2011 Harmony Award. Taylor Swift will be the recipient of the 2011 Harmony Award at the 27th Annual Symphony Ball on Saturday, December 10th in Nashville. The Nashville Symphony nominates one individual for this award each year, and they choose the person they think best characterizes Nashville’s musical community. “We are proud to call our home Music City, and Taylor Swift is the perfect person to receive this award, because she has contributed so tremendously to promoting this amazing community of which we are all a part.” -Alan Valentine, CEO/President of the Nashville Symphony Swift is joining the ranks of other country icons who have received the Harmony Award in the past including LeAnn Rimes, Trisha Yearwood, Wynonna and Naomi Judd, Dolly Parton, Carrie Underwood, and Vince Gill.

Official 2011 CMA Award Nominees!

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The 2011 CMA Award Nominees Have Been Announced! Nominees have been announced for the 2011 Country Music Association Awards, which will broadcast on November 9th. Here are your contenders! CMA Awards Nominations! Entertainer of the Year: Jason Aldean Brad Paisley Blake Shelton Taylor Swift Keith Urban Vocal Group: The Band Perry Lady Antebellum Little Big Town Rascal Flatts Zac Brown Band Vocal Duo: The Civil Wars Montgomery Gentry Steel Magnolia Sugarland Thompson Square Male Vocalist: Jason Aldean Kenny Chesney Brad Paisley Blake Shelton Keith Urban Female Vocalist: Sara Evans Miranda Lambert Martina McBride Taylor Swift Carrie Underwood New Artist: The Band Perry Luke Bryan Eric Church Thompson Square Chris Young Single of the Year: “A Little Bit Stronger” Sara Evans Produced by Tony Brown RCA Nashville “Colder Weather” Zac Brown Band Produced by Keith Stegall and Zac Brown Southern Ground Artists/Atlantic Records “Don’t You Wanna Stay” Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson Produced by Michael Knox Broken Bow Records “Honey Bee” Blake Shelton Produced by Scott Hendricks Warner Bros. Nashville “If I Die Young” The Band Perry Produced by Paul Worley Republic Nashville Album of the Year: All About Tonight Blake Shelton Produced by Scott Hendricks Warner Bros. Nashville My Kinda Party Jason Aldean Produced by Michael Knox Broken Bow Records Speak Now Taylor Swift Produced by Nathan Chapman and Taylor Swift Big Machine Records This Is Country Music Brad Paisley Produced by Frank Rogers Arista Nashville You Get What You Give Zac Brown Band Produced by Keith Stegall and Zac Brown Southern Ground Artists/Atlantic Records Song of the Year: “Colder Weather” Zac Brown, Wyatt Durrette, Levi Lowrey, and Coy Bowles – songwriters “Dirt Road Anthem” Brantley Gilbert and Colt Ford – songwriters “If I Die Young” Kimberly Perry – songwriter “Mean” Taylor Swift – songwriter “You and Tequila” Matraca Berg and Deana Carter – songwriters Musical Event: “As She’s Walking Away” Zac Brown Band featuring Alan Jackson Southern Ground Artists/Atlantic Records “Coal Miner’s Daughter” Loretta Lynn, Sheryl Crow, and Miranda Lambert Columbia Records Nashville “Don’t You Wanna Stay” Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson Broken Bow Records “Old Alabama” Brad Paisley featuring Alabama Arista Nashville “You and Tequila” Kenny Chesney featuring Grace Potter BNA Records Music Video: “Honey Bee” Blake Shelton Directed by Trey Fanjoy “If I Die Young” The Band Perry Directed by David McClister “Mean” Taylor Swift Directed by Declan Whitebloom “Old Alabama” Brad Paisley featuring Alabama Directed by Jim Shea “You and Tequila” Kenny Chesney featuring Grace Potter Directd by Shaun Silva Musician: Sam Bush – Mandolin Jerry Douglas – Dobro Paul Franklin – Steel Guitar Dann Huff – Guitar Mac McAnally – Guitar The 2011 CMA Awards are scheduled for Wednesday, November 9th. The show will air live out of the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, and will be broadcast on ABC that evening at 7pm. Want to know what HaleighT thinks about this year’s nominees? Check out the first ever episode of “Takin’ a Break with HaleighT” and hear her dish about the 2011 crop of nominations! Continue reading Official 2011 CMA Award Nominees!→

Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber Perform Together

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Justin Bieber Sings Surprise Song with Taylor Swift at LA Performance. Taylor Swift is currently in the midst of the North American leg of her Speak Now world tour, and last night she began the first of four sold-out shows in Los Angeles. At last night’s concert, Swift provided a little extra bit of entertainment for her, no doubt primarily female and teenage, (I’m judging this from the screaming in the video below) fans in the form of Justin Bieber. Bieber as you may know is a teenage pop sensation being catapulted to fame and stardom by throngs upon throngs of screaming, hormonal teenage girls. Swift and Bieber performed one song together, Bieber’s hit song “Baby“, and they definitely pleased the crowd. “You think you’ve heard loud screaming in your life..then @justinbieber comes out and does a surprise song during your show. Woah. Unreal.” Taylor Swift tweeted post-performance So, the fans were happy (clearly), and that is all fine and good. But I really want to stop here and raise a question: what is going on with the country music world and Justin Bieber? At the 2011 CMT Music Awards Bieber was the recipient of the first award for the evening for his collaboration with Rascal Flatts on “That Should Be Me“. Not long after that CMT posted an article claiming something along the lines of that all Bieber needed was a banjo, and he could qualify as a country artist. Now, he is popping up and performing his songs at Taylor Swift’s concerts. Granted, Taylor Swift is not seen by many as strictly a country artist. She has always had a little bit of pop crossover, which has honestly increased as her career has progressed as is evident with her recent single The Story of Us. But still, what is the deal? I think what is bothering me the most is CMT’s heavy endorsement of Bieber. You may or may not know this, but CMT is currently owned by the MTV Networks. This definitely explains why Ludacris popped up to perform with Jason Aldean in the finale of the 2011 CMT Music Awards, and why shows like Texas Women and Sweet Home Alabama are being produced (these shows follow reality formulas made popular by MTV). Some may argue that this is MTV’s way of marketing to and providing entertainment to a specific audience (you, the country music fan). What I am afraid of however, is that this demonstrates that networks like CMT are slowly trying to change and shape the country fan’s taste instead of providing original entertainment that country music fans can relate to. So, what we end up with is “country” versions of programming or music from other genres instead of something that is genuinely country. I am not suggesting that country music is being attacked necessarily, but there is a definite trend toward the “popifification” (I just invented that word!) of country music which is demonstrated by the fact that Justin Bieber, in just the past Continue reading Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber Perform Together→

Taylor Swift – Sparks Fly – Official Video

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Taylor Swift’s new video for Sparks Fly makes its debut! Taylor Swift finally releases the video for her hit song “Sparks Fly” from the album “Speak Now”. The video features footage from her highly acclaimed Speak Now 2011 Tour, and really captures the fairytale-like atmosphere of her live shows. Tell us what you think! Sparks Fly – Taylor Swift – Taylor Swift Videos