Taylor Swift In Vogue, Talking Career Fears

She's sold over 20 million albums and 40 million digital tracks by the age of 22, but Taylor Swift isn't dwelling on her success. In fact, she's afraid that it could all go away rather quickly.

"Even though I am at a place where my dresses are really pretty and the red carpets have a lot of bright lights and I get to play to thousands of people . . . you have to take that with a grain of salt," Swift tells Vogue in their new cover story. "The stakes are really high if you mess up, if you slack off and don't make a good record, if you make mistakes based on the idea that you are larger than life and you can just coast."

It's an ironic twist for an artist whose biggest album is called "Fearless," but it keeps her working hard. Swift's most recent album, "Speak Now," has gone 3x platinum in America, selling over five million discs worldwide. She's got five Grammy awards and 7 CMAs, but as she continued to explain -- and as she said this past August in an interview with a New Zealand outlet -- she knows that it could all go away very quickly if she doesn't make the right decisions. Luckily, her next album sounds like it will have the same elements of the three that have made her a superstar.

"There's just been this earth-shattering, not recent, but absolute crash-and-burn heartbreak," she says, "nd that will turn out to be what the next album is about. The only way that I can feel better about myself -- pull myself out of that awful pain of losing someone -- is writing songs about it to get some sort of clarity."

One direction Swift looks to be taking is acting. After starring in a small role in "Valentine's Day" in 2009, she will loan her voice to the upcoming animated film "The Lorax," and then star in the star-studded big screen adaptation of "Les Miserables."

For more from Swift, including talk about her childhood trouble with bullies and her fashion aspirations, click over to Vogue.

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Comments

[reedrm]

12:22 AM on 01/26/2012

great another bloody breakup themed album....geezuz. she's going to burn off soon, same concept and not much musical growth...other than pre-pubescent girls, who takes her seriously?

[GreenSpot]

07:14 AM on 01/19/2012

Taylor Swift and other professional beards
who are using closeted gays for getting publicity
and selling bad music are PATHETIC.

[Patty Farnsley]

10:25 AM on 01/18/2012

If you don't like her, don't listen to her music or read about her. Seems pretty simple. Next.

[GreenSpot]

07:16 AM on 01/19/2012

People have thhe right top tell what they think about fake and phony Taylor Swift.

She is selling her b***s***
customers have the right to say "get lost".

[cichlid mom]

09:05 AM on 01/18/2012

whats up with the photos here and on the Michelle Williams article? dont tell me huffpo is censoring itself?

[haganj3]

06:33 AM on 01/18/2012

Swift's next greatest hits will contain music of all her breakups along with and album cover of exes.

[I7Rf7gKh6Fj5kJ4]

05:35 AM on 01/18/2012

Enough is enough.
taylor swift is good, because,
her lyrics are good,
her melodies are good.

taylor swift is bad, because:
she is an airhead,
her personality is weird,
she cannot sing,
she sounds pitchy,
her voice is whiny,
she is a virgin, becaue her personality is weird,
she is a tall, skelety, weirdo,
she was bullied, because/which is why she is a weirdo,
she belongs in the class of peoplebrands-that-any-idiot-15-or-younger-will-scream-for

[BlueZoo]

12:35 AM on 01/18/2012

Wow! Is that really her? She's finally looking like 22 and not 12. Now, if only her music would grow up too!

[jaslyn]

07:09 PM on 01/17/2012

If this article didn't say this was Taylor Swift, no one would have recognized her. What's your problem Vogue?

[Dee2day]

06:59 PM on 01/17/2012

Don't you actually have to date someone at least a little longer than few weeks to claim such heartbreak all the time?
2 dates and she is ready to stab herself with the lead-free pencil after she writes the new lyrics.

[GraceAmazing]

07:50 PM on 01/17/2012

how would you possibly know if she had dated anyone?

[Dee2day]

08:05 PM on 01/17/2012

Easy to follow the pap pictures that track her down

[Billk29]

06:43 PM on 01/17/2012

'Even though I am at a place where my dresses are really pretty and the red carpets have a lot of bright lights and I get to play to thousands of people . . . you have to take that with a grain of salt,"

I hope she's joking and really isn't that much of a simpleton. Nobody talks like that eexcept in a disney movie.

[MissIndependentLady]

06:15 PM on 01/17/2012

Wow, ANOTHER album about a breakup? I didn't expect that at all!

Sarcasm aside, I'm getting sick of her music. I'm getting sick of her in general. At some point you have to realize that having high expectations when it comes to relationships isn't going to help you out in the long run. Being single is not that bad. You don't need to be in a relationship every other day.

[GraceAmazing]

07:50 PM on 01/17/2012

coming from someone who is clearly single and trying to convince themself.

[MissIndependentLady]

08:51 PM on 01/17/2012

I don't need to convince myself that being single isn't that bad. I see relationships failing around me all the time. Relationships are overrated and I will admit that when I'm in one. I'm not saying it's bad to want to be in one but to obsess over it is psychologically unhealthy.

[Monroe7]

06:06 PM on 01/17/2012

Crash and Burn should be the title of her next album. She comes across as very needy and whiney. I think the world is "just so over Swift"

[GraceAmazing]

07:51 PM on 01/17/2012

A world thats "over swift" doesnt buy 20 million albums or sell out madison square garden in 3 hours

[Monroe7]

09:08 PM on 01/17/2012

That was sooo last year

[haganj3]

06:35 AM on 01/18/2012

Usually huge stars sell out Madison Square Garden in a matter of minutes. Just saying...

[LadyGiGi 25]

06:01 PM on 01/17/2012

Run Jake, run!!!!!

[I7Rf7gKh6Fj5kJ4]

05:36 AM on 01/18/2012

she is weird, right? just saying.

[cameron d]

05:04 PM on 01/17/2012

Zzzzzzz.

[situationcritical]

04:51 PM on 01/17/2012

"Crash And Burn" describe's Taylor's attempt to stay on key.

[I7Rf7gKh6Fj5kJ4]

05:37 AM on 01/18/2012

lol, lovato needs to publicly join the club