first YouTube Presents event here in Mountain View. The idea behind YouTube Presents is

to bring live performances and interviews of top and emerging musicians. And we want

to do that for Googlers as well as for YouTube audiences.

We've had a few of these already in San Bruno, and we've had musicians like entertainers

Lenny Kravitz, Colbie Caillat, Good Charlotte, Natasha Bedingfield. And the next YouTube

Presents will also include live streams from music festivals.

So we're very excited to have a very special guest. Without delay, I want to introduce

to you our YouTube Trends manager, Kevin Allocca, who is actually going to do the moderation

and the Q&A. Kevin, please come on up. [ Applause ]

>>Kevin Allocca: Thanks. >>Salar Kamangar: So thank you for doing this.

>>Kevin Allocca: Yeah, no problem. >>Salar Kamangar: It's not like anybody's

watching or anything. So I think you'll probably be just fine.

>>Kevin Allocca: It's just me and her; right? >>Salar Kamangar: Thanks very much, and enjoy

the show. >>Kevin Allocca: Cool. Thanks.

[ Cheers and applause ] >>Kevin Allocca: So as Salar mentioned, I

am the YouTube Trends manager, which is where we track viral videos, like interesting cultural

phenomenon and everything else that's popular on YouTube. And, of course, there are very

few people who are as popular on YouTube as our guest today, Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift is a multiplatinum Grammy-winning recording artist who had a lot of success

at a young age. CMA named her Entertainer of the Year, which is -- she's the youngest

person to have that honor and she's one of only a handful of women. Her videos on YouTube,

her music videos, have been seen over half a billion times. Billboard ranked her as one

of the best artists of the last decade. I don't need to say much more. But she's sold

millions of albums around the world, her songs have touched millions of people around the

world, and we couldn't be happier to have her here. So join me in welcoming Taylor Swift.

[ Cheers and applause ] >>Taylor Swift: Hi. That was nice.

>>Kevin Allocca: Welcome to the Googleplex. >>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. 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, 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.

[ Video. ] >>> I'm at lunch with this really good friend

of mine, we were having a fantastic time -- >>> 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.

[ Video concludes. ] [ Laughter ]

>>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.

[ Laughter ] >>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 --

[ Laughter ] >>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. [ Laughter ]

>>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. [ Laughter ]

>>Kevin Allocca: And over -- >>Taylor Swift: That's so many questions.

They're so curious. [ Laughter ]

>>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. It'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 musicmaniac77

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. [ Laughter ]

>>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