Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is a young, comely singer-songwriter with a disarming handle on how to write songs that make comeliness just a small part of the package. She’s nominally a country artist, but there’s very little twang to her style. Instead, Swift favors lovelorn tales of teen love that actually earn the aspirations toward wisdom—not to mention the scads of awards she picked up due to her monster 2008 release, Fearless. And make no mistake: Her hooks dig deep, to the places where lovelorn tales fester most fruitfully. Swift’s latest album, 2010’sSpeak Now, is perhaps her most critically acclaimed work to date (and another chart-topper to boot), and moves even farther away from her country roots.

Updated 05/24/2011