While many young stars have a programmed, slightly robotic affect, she radiates unjaded sincerity no matter how contrived the situation-press junkets, awards shows, meet and greets. She has an Oprah-like gift for emotional expressiveness. Swift is sometimes called a twenty-one-year-old 2.0-the girl next door, but with a superior talent set. So thatвЂ™ll be really fun, because the past two times IвЂ™ve been at this party I havenвЂ™t had any of my close friends.вЂќ She exhaled loudly. вЂњOne of my best friendsвЂќ-the actress Emma Stone-вЂњis here tonight. вЂњItвЂ™s so fun!вЂќ she said, talking about the ball. The only sound came from SwiftвЂ™s iPhone, which emitted an occasional ding!ДЄfter a minute, Swift looked up from her phone. None of the carвЂ™s other passengers-her bodyguard, Greg, a burly former Washington, D.C., cop her publicist, Paula Erickson, a tall blond woman in a black blazer-spoke. Mendel spilled its train around her feet her hair was up her lips were dark red and her eyes were smoky. Swift is known for sparkly, beaded dresses that make her look like a flapper, but she had adopted a more polished look for the ball: a gauzy, black-and-peach dress by the designer J.

One afternoon this spring, the twenty-one-year-old country pop star Taylor Swift was in the back seat of a black Escalade going up Madison Avenue, on her way to the annual Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum. Swift hooked a previously unrecognized audience: teen-age girls who listen to country music.

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