Speak Now

I was invited to see Taylor Swift in concert at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto over the week-end. I brought my youngest son along not because we are fans of Taylor Swift. More to enjoy an evening out.

I really did not know much about Taylor Swift other than she was a pop star idolized by a young and largely female audience.

She sells a lot of product. Swift is the most successful digital artist with well over 34 million digital tracks sold. In 2010, she earned around $45 million. And her concert surprised me.

She is very talented.

Her production and musical team did a terrific job. The sound and lighting was excellent. The show was more of a musical production than a concert. And it was very entertaining.

The tunes were catchy — good pop tunes. The performance? Energetic. And the fans. They LOVE this entertainer. Over 50,000 strong and almost each one seemed to know all of the songs by heart. Word for word.

I had an SPL meter with me and the audience noise when clapping and screaming easily topped 100dB. And we were up in a box near the stage line.

At the end of the concert I was given a copy of her latest CD. I gave it a listen over the week-end and I can see why she sells a lot of product. Top flight recording, production and musicians. Along with some good radio-friendly songs.

The album was largely engineered by Chuck Ainlay (Dire Straits, Brothers In Arms). The project was produced over two years and recording took place at Aimeeland Studio, Blackbird Studios, Capitol Studios, Starstruck Studios and Stonehurst Studio. Some very nice rooms in that list of studios. Nathan Chapman produced the project alongside Taylor Swift. I know of Nathan’s work through his time with Point of Grace. Small world.