The Charmed Evolution of Taylor Swift

Announcer: It's adjustment adjustment with katie couric. Hi, everyone, I'm katie couric, as you can see it's girls night out. Over the years they've torched and twanged and std and strutted their way... See More

Announcer: It's adjustment adjustment with katie couric. Hi, everyone, I'm katie couric, as you can see it's girls night out. Over the years they've torched and twanged and std and strutted their way in our lives and topping the charts is taylor swift. She's packed a lot into her 22 years. Taylor keeps turning her life story into lyrics and those lyrics into hits we just can't get out of our heads. ♪ We are never ever ever ♪ ♪ getting back together ♪ Reporter: Once you hear it you can't forget it. Taylor swift has done it again. Both her album "red" and her chart-topping anthem, "we are never, ever getting back together" are already are number 1 in 32 countries. I joined her where her career really began, in nashville at the country music hall of fame and museum. It's where at just 14 she signed her first record deal. Thank you for saying that. Reporter: It's also where taylor recently donated $4 million to fund a new education center. Thank you. Reporter: It's her way to connect with country music's storied past. That's her. Reporter: While ensuring the next generation keeps it going strong. Are you ready? Reporter: On display, dresses and artifacts from taylor's last tour, "speak now," the top grossing country music tour of last year, all that glitters, all that burns and even the flying balcony, all conjured up by the vivid imagination of taylor swift. That must be fun though coming up with these things that are really going to wow people and make every song kind of like an adventure, right? Going through these performances, it's like an athletic marathon. When I'm like down underneath the stage it pops me up like a toaster and I'm like six feet in the air. Okay, I made it through that, did banjo solo. Okay, on to this next blocking, change clothes. Okay, cool, flying above the crowd, awesome coming out of a bell, it's just like it's you kind of get into a cycle of it. It's fun. Reporter: Do you ever worry you're going to forget or mess up? All the time, all of the time. Reporter: Oh, and, by the way, you're singing and dancing too, right? Yes, that's kind of the nature of a live performance. You know things could go wrong, and that's part of the excitement of being there. Reporter: For taylor life itself is exciting. Taylor swift! Reporter: She's the reigning cma awards entertainer of the year and the proud owner of six grammys. It's a crowning collection of prestigious acronyms from acm, cmt, ama and, of course, mtv. I'm gonna let you finish. Welcome. Reporter: How are you? I come bearing gifts. Oh, my god. Wow! Reporter: Of the season, here's a pumpkin for you. Taylor invited me back to her home in nashville. I even brought some halloween costumes for her beloved cat meredith. Oh, my god, that's crazy. That is insane. I'm so excited, thank you. Thank you! Reporter: I mean, you live by yourself. Do you ever get a little lonely? Not really. I do really well on my own. I like to, like, watch tv, hang out with my cat, go hiking. It's fine. Reporter: Yeah, and I bet it's nice, because you're around people so much, it must be nice spending some time chilling. You're right. There's, like, sort of a committee everywhere. Reporter: You need a committee to keep her business ventures straight. In addition to her music career, she's taken on acting. Five, six, seven, eight. Oh, we haven't seen that one. Reporter: And turned her covergirl looks into a covergirl contract. Easy breezy -- Reporter: There's even a fragrance line. Wonderstruck, the beginning of something magical. Reporter: Is it enough to be a great singer/songwriter, performer, or do you have to be somebody who can market yourself and actually develop a whole brand? You become a brand as soon as you sell one thing, so you can either recognize it and embrace it, or you can deny it and pretend it's not happening. Reporter: Taylor swift, the brand, is the charm evolution of the little girl who grew up on a christmas tree farm in pennsylvania, then moved with her family to nashville to get her big break. ♪ Twinkle twinkle little star ♪ Reporter: A 2-year-old taylor was singing a classic in this home video, but after receiving a guitar for christmas, her world changed. Guitar! Oh, my goodness. Whooo! ♪ Reporter: Soon at 12 years old, she would write her first song, "lucky you," and start performing for anyone who would listen. These days the songwriter's best friend is her iphone. I'll get an idea. I don't have time to say to the person I'm with "hey, I gotta go do this real quick." I just pick up my phone, I go to the corner of the room, and I'm like, like, just this, what's this weird fragment of, like, melody, a few words, kind of like some beat, like, it's really, they're -- you don't want to listen to them, they're weird. Reporter: They must be, like, what is she doing? And they'll be like, was that what I think it was? And I'll be like, yeah, I'm going to write that tonight. Reporter: With over 20 million twitter followers and 35 million facebook friends, taylor's a total techie. So, of course, it makes perfect sense she'd announce her new album with a web chat. You told your fans that when it comes to the emotions that you write about, you say they're all pretty much about the kind of tumultuous, insane, and crazy, intense semi-toxic relationships that I've experienced in the last two years. to put it lightly. Reporter: Yeah. Gee, that doesn't sound like a ry fun two years, miss taylor swift. Well, it starts out fun. There's always got to be like a little bit of glimmer of good for a relationship to go bad for you to miss it and for you to write about it. ♪ I'm really going to miss you picking fights ♪ Reporter: And write about it, she does. With each new hit comes the new guessing game. Is it john mayer, joe jonas, taylor lautner or jake gyllenhaal? Which famous taylor ex is the song really about? And is a scarf just a scarf, or is it a clue connected to a scarf she wore while photographed with jake gyllenhaal? People sort of speculate, they imagine, they think they get clues. They kind of draw their own stories. Reporter: You're wearing a scarf in a music video, and everyone's like, gee, that scarf looks like the scarf she was wearing when she was photographed with -- eh, jake gyllenhaal, perhaps. You know, it's funny, right? For me the one thing that i keep really close is the identity of who these people, who these songs are really about. Reporter: Is it sometimes hard to get people to come into your world, because I don't know if I hung out with you, I'd be a little afraid you were going to write a song about me. The only time it's been an issue was when I was, like, going through a really bad breakup with a guy, and he's like, you better not write about this, and I'm like, oh, I won't. Reporter: Did you? Yes. Reporter: Do you ever hear from these people who maybe recognize themselves in a song and are like, "hi, um, guess what, I really didn't appreciate that"? Well, they don't say it that gracefully or that -- with that kind of an eloquent tone. If they're not liking what's written about them or what they think is written about them or what they assume and presume is about them, I probably hit the nail right on the head. It's probably really true.