That was nice.

Taylor Swift: It's great to be here.

This is amazing.

Kevin Allocca: We were talking before, you've actually been here before; is that right?

Taylor Swift: Yes.

I came here, I think, about five years ago, I was 16.

And just about to release my first single Tim McGraw.

And so we were traveling up the West Coast in a rental car, in a TAURUS, and I was doing

my homework in the back seat, I was home schooled in 10th grade.

That was when we made this trip to San Jose and came to see you for the first time.

It's wonderful to be back here and have so many of you come out this time around.

It's amazing.

Kevin Allocca: We're a very forward-thinking company apparently, having you here when you

were 16.

I want to thank you for being here, first of all, for all of us.

This is really an honor and a treat.

You're in the middle of your tour, Speak Now.

I know you have posted some videos to your channel, sort of outlining your tour, and,

specifically, your trip to Asia.

And I want to show a clip from when you were in Singapore.

I know you were in Chinatown, but the Chinatown of Singapore?

Is that right?

Taylor Swift: Yes.

We started out the year going on tour and started off in Asia.

And then we were in Europe for two months.

It was, like, three months of major worldwide touring.

So Singapore was the first place that we went on the tour.

Kevin Allocca: Cool.

Let's roll that clip.

Everywhere, sort of fascinated by the waving cats, because, you know, of course, as long

as you keep fresh batteries in them, they're always going to be saying hello to you, just

always.

Symbolize forever, waving cats.

What's better than a cat that's always like, hey?

There's nothing better than that.

Kevin Allocca: So this, of course, has all the makings of a viral video.

There's a big celebrity.

It's a global thing.

There's a cat in the video.

Taylor Swift: That will do it.

I think you just said it.

That's the essential ingredient is a cat.

Kevin Allocca: Now your YouTube channel is very popular.

I know you have over a half a million subscribers that get your blogs when you post them, which

is really cool.

I wanted to ask you off the bat, how important is your channel and social media in general

as a tool for expression but also connecting with your audience.

Taylor Swift: I think we've all seen the effect of social media and how that can affect people.

For me, I grew up when that was just about to set fire to the world.

You know, I was, I think, in seventh and eighth grade when everybody started having a profile

online and everybody was -- you know, it was all about who's your friend and who's commenting

on whose page.

And then it became the YouTube generation, where everybody's looking at videos, everybody's

making video blogs and, you know, makeup tutorials or this or that or back to school outfit shopping,

you know.

Everybody is kind of catching on to communicating by making videos and learning how to edit

them.

And it's -- I think it's fantastic, because it's just a new skill set for this new generation.

Kevin Allocca: And I would be remiss if it were a YouTube interview and I didn't ask

you if you had any favorite -- I know you're busy -- but any favorite YouTube videos or

channels that you like to watch? Taylor Swift: Yes.

I have watched this one three times this week because it makes me so happy.

And it's got these, like, five or six lion cubs.

And there's the lion trainer.

And you're like, oh, the lion cubs are cute.

And they're walking around.

And then they jump up on the lion trainer and start hugging him.

And then they're, like, making all these little lion sounds that you don't -- you didn't know

what the sounds are that lion cubs make, but it's amazing.

It's just like RRRR.

They're like hugging him, and he's, like, oh, go for my hair.

You keep going for my hair.

And then he's like, oh, yeah, telling me stories.

Kevin Allocca: Where was this zoo? Taylor Swift: It's amazing.

It's -- Taylor Swift: 'Cause he's like Scottish and

they're, like, hugging him and they love him so much.

And -- I don't know.

It's – you -- just watch it.

Kevin Allocca: I guess everybody is going to run -- it's going to be popular now.

Kevin Allocca: Well, this isn't just our interview.

This is also your fans' interview.

And you have some very rabid fans, the Swifties I believe is how they call themselves.

Taylor Swift: I know.

It's so cute.

They came up with that.

Kevin Allocca: They're very serious, by the way.

They don't mess around.

They submitted 30,000 questions to this interview.

Kevin Allocca: And over… Taylor Swift: That's so much questions.

They're so curious.

Kevin Allocca: Yeah.

We only can do a few of them.

And we also have some from Google.

But the biggest topic by far was songwriting, because I think that a lot of your fans have

a big connection to the stories you that tell in your songs.

Let's start with this topic.

This one comes from pandabearlover13.

I mean, a lot of the user names are not meant to be read outloud.

This is from Florida.

Which comes first for you as a songwriter, the music or the lyrics?

Taylor Swift: I think for me, it more comes as a general idea.

And my favorite thing about songwriting is that it's so spontaneous and unpredictable

what's going to hit me first, whether it's going to be a general thought.

Like, for example, you know, I'll be going through something.

When I wrote the song "love story," that's a song I wrote sitting on my bedroom floor

because I liked a guy and my parents didn't want me to date him.

So I got this idea in my head, it just popped into my head, you were Romeo, you were throwing

pebbles, and my daddy said stay away from Juliet.

I didn't know where that was going to fit, but I started there and built out from there.

And it's crazy how the fastest songs that I write end up being my favorites, the ones

that just happen (snapping fingers) in just a surge of idea, a surge of inspiration.

It's usually something I'm going through at the time.

It's very hard for me to come up with just some random metaphor for a situation if I'm

not going through it or haven't recently just gone through it.

But, you know, I think when I was growing up, my mom was always -- my mom talks in metaphor

a lot.

And so I think I grew up just understanding metaphor and just kind of loving that, how

you could take something you're going through and speak about it in a different way that

applies how you're feeling to something completely different but connects it.

So I think for me, it starts as an idea and a feeling and an emotion.

Kevin Allocca: Yeah.

We had a lot of questions about the process, from budding song writers who submitted questions

that are big fans of yours, from Buffalo and a bunch of different places.

And -- I mean, you know, we were wondering, is there one favorite part of the songwriting

process that you have?

I mean, is it when you get that idea?

Or when you're sitting on the floor in the bedroom or --

Taylor Swift: Yes.

Kevin Allocca: -- in the studio? Taylor Swift: There are several moments in

a song -- and I won't finish a song if I don't have these moments -- where you go, "ooh,

ooh, ooh," like, after you write a line.

It's always that same feeling of, like, oh, that's exactly what I meant.

You know, if you're in a cowriting session, I'm always the one who will, like, be, like,

sitting there for a second, and then I'll say a line, and if it's that moment where

you're just, like, that's the one.

That's the line, I have to have about four or five of those lines in a song for me to

put it on a record.

Kevin Allocca: Yeah.

Taylor Swift: Like, lines where I'm just like, "Yes!"

That's my favorite part, is, then, when the song goes into its phase of being recorded

and then being put on an album and when you're playing it for people for the first time,

when it comes across those lines that you really feel are like, I don't know, like zingers

or, like, say it really well.

I love watching people's reactions if they -- if it comes across, like, if they get those

lines.

I'm like, "Yes.

I knew it."

Kevin Allocca: We'll get back to the cowriting thing in a second.

There were some questions about that as well.

Here's another question, from musicmaniac in Los Angeles.

You've said you're already writing for the next record.

Can you tell us anything about it?

Taylor Swift: Well, yeah.

For me, I never really switch the writing switch off.

It's always on.

Because I kind of have always felt, like, to make an album that I am proud enough of

to give to my fans and say, "Here," you know, "allow this into your life," it has to be,

like -- it has to be two to two and a half years of writing.

And that way, you know you have your best stuff, because I'm so tough on myself.

I drive myself insane writing records and albums, because it's, like, I'll write, like,

40 to 50 songs, and then 13 or 14 make it.

That's a lot of paring it down and making sure you're getting to the best stuff.

So for me, it takes a while.

And I've been writing ever since I stopped writing the last album.

And there's been a lot that's happened.

And I never really talk about my personal life, but I write about it.

So that's basically what the album is about, as always.

Kevin Allocca: Yeah.

The unreleased thing was something that came up a lot.

And one of the top-voted questions was about, you know, would you ever make a CD of your

unreleased songs.

This is from tayswiftfearless in Missouri.

But, I mean, what happens to those songs that don't make it to the album?

And would you ever release some of those songs that you wrote especially when you were younger,

like 14, 15?

Taylor Swift: Well, I'm obsessed with the latest song that I've written.

I'm very guilty of that.

Because my favorite thing is always the newest thing I have written.

But lately, I've become a little more self-aware, because I had this song that I wrote when

I was 16.

It's called "Sparks Fly."

And I played it in a few shows, these little bar shows, when, you know -- when I was playing

to crowds of, like, 40 and 50 people and being psyched about that many people showing up.

And I played it a few times, and it got on the Internet.

And when I was putting together the Speak Now album, the fans just kept saying over

and over again, "Sparks Fly, we want this to be on the record."

And so I went back and I revisited it, and I kind of rewrote some things and updated

it.

And when we put it out as a single, it's been one of the fastest-rising songs we've had

on the record.

So it kind of taught me a lesson about the old stuff maybe possibly being good enough

to put on new projects.

Kevin Allocca: I'm sure there are a lot of people who would love to hear some of that

stuff.

Let's move on to some of the released songs.

This is a question from cookie13cupcake.

Kevin Allocca: This is in the United Kingdom.

This is going to be a long one.

All right.

So out of all of your released songs, which song took the longest to write?

Taylor Swift: I think that the song Sparks Fly, the fact that it technically was started

when I was 16 and ended up on an album in sort of a different form in 2010, that took

a while for it to turn into what it was going to be.

So I'd say that was probably the longest developing song that I've ever put out, because most

of them -- and especially having written this entire new record without any cowriters -- it

all happened really fast, because I'm very impatient.

Like, if I don't have a song finished, I'll obsess over it.

I won't sleep that night.

And I'll just edit constantly to the point where I can't focus on a conversation.

Everyone around me is annoyed, because they're like, "Clearly, you're working on something.

Just finish it."

So that one was a long time to kind of get where it needed to be.