9781422273326

CHAPTER 1

A STAR

IS BORN

STARTING OUT STRONG Just seven months after Taylor Swift linked with Big Machine, she released “TimMcGraw” as her first single—a song she co-wrote about a guy who also loved country music. Since the label was so new, she had to put in work to make sure the people who controlled radio content heard the song. She even stuffed copies of the song into envelopes to send out herself.

“With every envelope that I would seal I would look at the address and the station on there and think, ‘Please, please just listen to this one time.’ ”

After months of hard work to get radio play for her single, Big Machine released her debut album, the self-titled Taylor Swift , in 2006. Thanks to the hard work promoting the single, the album was a smash! Three of the songs were written while Swift was in high school. The rest were co-written primarily with Liz Rose, who would become a frequent collaborator on Swift albums. All the songs were authentic and catchy. Taylor Swift was No. 1 on the Top Country Albums Chart for 24 weeks and sold more than seven

11

a star is born