Evolution of a Taylor Swift Fan

Taylor Swift opens up in a recent magazine interview with nothing particularly shocking, yet remains altogether endearing and representative as to why she’s ridiculously easy to like as a person – even if you don’t like her songs.

Personally, I tend to look at anything, or anyone, that gains almost instant worldwide popularity with a huge dose of skepticism (guess it’s the inner teenager in me), so I really tried not to like Taylor when she first broke onto the scene. I wrote her off as a one-hit wonder after her song “Tim McGraw” came out to overwhelming reception. Then I tried writing her off as a two, three, and four-hit wonder after “Teardrops On My Guitar,”“Our Song,” and “Should Have Said No”were released. More hit songs continued tumbling out of the radio at a regular speed. It became apparent to me that Taylor was going to be sticking around for a while…and I finally admitted that I liked her music.

Surprisingly, it is just this year that Swift achieved her first single to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,”which is actually a departure from the more definitive country-pop genre of songs on her previous albums. The change-up has clearly gained her an even larger fan base, however, and the 22-year-old singer-songwriter is currently sitting pretty.

What makes Swift’s songs so attractive to the majority is their sincerity in expressing the primary emotions teenagers and young adults deal with on a regular basis, like falling in love, enduring breakups, feeling left out, and coming of age in general. She wrote many of the songs on her first album, simply named Taylor Swift, during her freshman year of high school.

"You listen to my album, and it sounds like I've had 500 boyfriends. But that's really not the case. I found that you don't have to date someone to write a song about them," Taylor told CMT News back in 2006.

Six years later, Swift has clearly grown up and experienced a few serious relationships. It turns out she can write a pretty awesome song about someone she has dated, too. It’s no secret around town that many of Swift’s hits in the past few years have been inspired by her ex-boyfriends. And she doesn’t go easy on them, either. If they didn’t treat her right, she’s more than happy to call them out via song and tell the world.

"Music is absolutely everything that I am and everything that I stand for. It’s not my fault if someone gets into a relationship with me and then cheats and I write a song about it,” Taylor told Marie Claire U.K. in her interview for the upcoming October issue.

But don’t go thinking Swift is a blonder, more country version of Adele with her record-setting breakup anthems. Swift loves to fall in love – and write about it! – too. In fact, she is currently head over heels for the lucky 18-year-old Connor Kennedy. The relationship just budded this summer, but got serious quickly, so there is a very good chance her next album will include an upbeat, sweet song – or two, or three – about their romance.

Although Taylor has certainly had her heart broken a few times, she insisted in her Marie Claire U.K. interview that she will never give up on love, “Even after it explodes into a million pieces and burns down and you’re standing in a pile of the ash of what it once was thinking, ‘Why did I have to meet this person, why did this have to happen?’ But then, when you make eye contact with someone across the room and it clicks and, bam, you're there. In love again.”

I’m sure Connor is glad Taylor feels that way. But let’s hope that he is mature for his age, as Taylor has kissed enough frogs to know exactly what she’s looking for in a prince. And she seems ready to settle down soon – not right away, but definitely soon.

When asked if she wants to have children some day, Taylor easily responded: “I want a bunch of them running around, minimum four... I want to wait a while, but the idea of pouring everything you are into another person when you become a parent has always been amazing to me."

Considering what excellent fodder her teenage years and love life have been thus far, I look forward to the material her future children will inspire. She has jumped multiple genres successfully, which is nearly impossible for most artists to get away with, and doesn’t seem to be slowing down for anything.

These days, I am happy to admit I think Taylor Swift is a talented songwriter, I enjoy listening to the grand majority of her songs, and I look forward to listening to her artistic maturation as she continues growing up.