MINNEAPOLIS, MN. (Top40 Charts/ Best Buy) - Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) today unveiled a new TSA ('Teen Service Announcement') featuring multi-platinum Big Machine Records artist Taylor Swift, at www.at15.com. Swift, an American country-pop singer-songwriter, and the biggest-selling U.S. artist of 2008, participated in the TSA as the latest supporter of @15, a new teen-led social change platform underwritten by Best Buy to give teens a voice and give them opportunities to direct the company's philanthropy through the newly-created @15 Fund.
The New York Times described Taylor Swift as "one of pop's finest songwriters, country's foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults.' 'Fifteen,' an intensely personal song Swift penned about her own life experiences, speaks directly to young teens and the faith they should have in themselves.
'I think when you first step into the doors of high school, and you walk in, there are seniors and juniors and sophomores, and then you - freshmen,' Swift says in her online TSA. 'You think you're all alone. When you're 15, you think you're the only person in the world feeling this way? You're not.
'Looking back at being 15, I wouldn't have changed anything. If I had been popular, I would have been perfectly content with staying where I was�.It just wasn't the cool thing to be trying to do anything different, and I think that caused me to spend a lot of time alone - and spending a lot of time alone gave me a lot of time to think, and having a lot of time to think allowed me to write songs.
'In high school, it's cool to be different. And the farther away you get from middle school, junior high, the more you realize that. In the real world, if you have something about yourself that's different, you're lucky. It's not a curse.
'Don't make high school everything. Because if high school is everything, then you've got a long life to live, and I'd like to think that the best years of my life are still ahead of me.'
Like a traditional PSA, the @15 TSAs are short, unscripted videos that share the collective thoughts and experiences of teens - and former teens - with messages of hope and inspiration for America's youth. Over the next several months, the @15 Web site, along with its social networking pages and YouTube channel, will feature messages from teens engaged in Best Buy programs, celebrities and musicians, and Members of Congress.
Nineteen-year-old Taylor Swift currently has singles climbing both the country and pop radio charts, and sold more albums in 2008 than any other recording artist, in any genre of music. Her sophomore release, Fearless, reached double platinum in just four weeks and was the year's biggest debut for any female artist, and the fourth highest debut of 2008, over all. Taylor currently holds the Billboard all-genre record for most Top 20 debuts in a calendar year. Just last week, Taylor sold out a show at Los Angeles' STAPLES center in just two minutes.
At 17, Taylor became the youngest person to single-handedly write and sing a number-one country single entirely on her own and she is the first female solo artist in country music history to write or co-write every song on a platinum-selling debut CD. At 14, she signed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Music, and in 2006 released her self-titled debut CD on Big Machine Records. Taylor Swift has surpassed triple-platinum (3 million sales) status and spent more than 20 weeks in the No 1 position atop Billboard's Country CD Sales Chart. Taylor is consistently ranked Country's No 1 artist on MySpace, and was named Country Music's Hottest Female Artist of 2007 by AOL Music and Best New Artist of 2007 by the editors of iTunes.
Taylor was named 2008's Favorite Female Country Artist at the American Music Awards, Top New Female Vocalist by the Academy of Country Music, and won 2008 CMT Music Awards for Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year. She was recently named Choice Breakout Artist at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards, and was as the 2008 Superstar of Tomorrow at the 10th Annual Young Hollywood Awards, making her the first musician to ever receive this prestigious award. In 2007 she won the CMA Horizon Award, as well as the Nashville Songwriters Association International's Songwriter / Artist of the Year, and she received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. Taylor has been featured on the covers of Rolling Stone, Billboard, Blender, USA Weekend, Seventeen, Redbook, Us Weekly, CosmoGirl, Girl's Life, Women's Health, First, Your Prom, and Southwest Airlines Spirit magazine. She was featured in a Vanity Fair spotlight, was named one of People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People of 2008, was Cosmopolitan magazine's Fun Fearless Female of December, 2008, Allure's Face of December, was named a Style Star of 2008 by the editors of Seventeen, and was featured on Maxim's 2008 Hot 100 list. She recently appeared on Saturday Night Live.
Taylor launches her first-ever headlining tour this spring, the TAYLOR SWIFT FEARLESS 2009 TOUR. In the past she has toured with Rascal Flatts, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw & Faith Hill and Brad Paisley.
About @15
Best Buy believes in the power of teens, and @15 is a new platform to connect with them, give voice to their perspectives, and invest our resources - including the energy and talents of our employees - to turn their ideas into action and support their efforts to lead social change. Teens bring passion and enthusiasm to tackling tough issues. They're also important to our business - they shop in our stores, and they're our future employees. There's a real opportunity to listen to - and learn from - what teens have to say. And through the @15 Fund, we'll put the philanthropic power of @15 directly into their hands. To learn more, visit www.at15.com.
