Grammy Award-winning superstar Taylor Swift performed at the headquarters of Scholastic Inc. yesterday, in a concert to promote the importance of literature for younger students.
The surprise performance took place for a tiny audience of around two hundred first-school students. During the event, Swift discussed the crucial role that reading and writing play in an adult’s day to day life, and stressed the importance of attaining such skills at school. The show was a reward for the children, who had been selected because of an improvement in their reading scores.
"I think that smart kids are the coolest kids," declared Swift. "Without books you can let little things pass you by, little details. Like, say you're driving down the road and there's just this really beautiful autumn tree and it has these gorgeous orange leaves. You might just let that pass you by if you have never read books that describe how beautiful they are, from somebody else's perspective."
"A lot of people who gravitate toward music are really, really sort of drawn to poetry because the words all have a rhythm and it comes together just right," she said. "I love poetry, because if you get it right, if you put the right rhymes at the right ends of the sentences, you can almost make words bounce off a page."
When asked questions by the students, Swift said that reading had made her a better songwriter: “...it helps you with understanding metaphors and how to paint a picture with a song."
As well as discussing the subject, the twenty year old songwriter was joined by her band at the end to perform her new single, "Mine." Taylor Swift released her second studio album, ‘Speak Now’, last week. It is currently on track to be the fastest selling album since 2008.
The video for Taylor Swift’s ‘Mine’:
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