Diagram of a Taylor Swift Album

The very first time I heard Taylor Swift sing a song, I thought "Bleahhh." I don't really have anything against the girl, she just wasn't my cup of tea.

But, they've played her stuff so much on the radio that she's sort of grown on me.....so much so that I actually went out and bought her CD.

Usually, a CD will contain songs about different topics. A country music CD is a good example. For instance, a good country music CD will have a ballad or two about an ex or somebody that is dead or dying. It will also have a drinking song or a party song. It will have a song about kids and a spouse. It may have a song about a favorite place. And it will finish off with a song about how wonderful country music is, how they love everybody, and thank God for putting it all together.

Which brings us to Taylor Swift's CD. I believe she was all of was 17 at the time the CD was released. She wrote or cowrote all of the songs on the CD. Since she is underage, it just wouldn't be right for her to have a drinking song on the CD. She's too young to have kids or a spouse....well, technically she's not, but the executives on Music Row would just have a conniption fit if she did. I've never met her, so I don't know if she's ever had anybody die on her.

In other words, she's just a little young to have any serious stuff happen. She just finished high school, so the worst thing that has probably happened to her is that she wasn't able to get her parking sticker so she can drive to school or that Vivian Hatfield beat her out for first chair flute in the marching band.

So she really has nothing to draw on for songwriting material......except boys.

The Taylor Swift album consists of three basic types of songs:

A) Taylor's mad.
B) Taylor's bad.
C) Taylor's glad.

Let's disect example A: Taylor's mad. It goes like this:

Taylor meets boy.
Taylor likes boy.
Boy likes Taylor.
Boy does something to p*ss Taylor off.
Taylor gets mad.
Taylor writes song calling boy a scumbag.
Taylor records it and sells a million copies.

Now...let's look at example B: Taylor's bad. It's a little similar to Taylor's mad.
Taylor meets boy.
Taylor likes boy.
Boy likes Taylor.
Boy does something to p*ss Taylor off.
Taylor gets mad.
Taylor plots revenge.
Taylor chickens out because record company will drop her contract and she'll wind up in charge of blow drying Bill Anderson's toupee before his Grand Ole Opry appearances.
Taylor writes song about revenge, instead.
Taylor records it and sells a million copies.

Lastly, let's examine example C: Taylor's glad.
Taylor meets boy.
Taylor likes boy.
Boy likes Taylor.
Boy and Taylor so happy.
Boy doesn't do anything to make Taylor sad or mad.
Taylor writes song about how boy is so wonderful.
Taylor records it and sells a million copies.
Two days later, boy p*sses Taylor off.
Taylor pulls out notes for Taylor Swift song type A and B.

Taylor goes through this cycle 4 times to get enough material for a new CD.
Taylor goes records album, goes on tour and makes several million dollars.
Taylor's new CD goes on sale November 11.