Do you know how many sit downs I got at the label about that? A lot of me making this album was me going in the studio, making something I loved, and showing it to the label and getting a principleâs-office discussion. Like, âYoung lady, you know youâre not going to sell as many albums if youâre not labeled as country.â I wasnât kicking and screaming, but I was very firm about the fact that to call this album a country album would be the biggest mistake. Because when youâre trying to fool people, you insinuating that you think theyâre stupid. And insinuating that people arenât going to see through your transparent motives is the one worst mistake you can make as an artist who is supposed to respect their fans. That was my argument. I got really, really lectured about not putting my name on the title on the front of the album coverâthat was fun. And then it was suggested to me that we use a different picture for the album cover because, they kept saying, âWe need eyes, lips, hair on an album cover. You know no oneâs going to know who that is.â And I was like, âThatâs the point. Weâre starting over.â Also, the reason I didnât put my face on the album cover is because I didnât want people to fully diagnose the emotional DNA of this album before it came out. If Iâm smiling, itâs a happy record; if Iâm frowning, itâs a sad record. I wanted people to be able to detect no emotion on my face. It was just taken on this â80s Polaroid camera that I have. I knew that I was doing something that I fully believed in when I was confronted with these people on my team, who were only going by what they knewâwhich is that there hasnât been a successful country-to-pop crossover, really ever, who has sold as well as their country career did. Theyâd say âYouâre not going to sell as much.â and I would say, âI donât care. This is the album I made, this is what Iâm going to call it, this is how Iâm going to label it.â I knew that Iâd made songs that my fans would like; I was like, âYou guys donât know them like I do. You sit in an office, Iâm out there at shows with them, Iâm on tumblr talking to them, I know what they want from me.â Thank God it worked out. If weâd sold one album less than a million in the first week, it would have been two years of âTaylor, we told you.â So glad we sold almost 1.3 [million] in the first week.
theartofmadeline
stormborns
jimmyeatworldofficial
