LINDA NGUYEN

It’s impressive how Taylor Swift has been able to maintain her sweetheart image. So impressive that it makes one wonder — when is she going to pull a Miley?

Unlike her fellow teen star, Swift has been able to carefully manage her image (sorry, Miley, but you have to get yourself together). Swift locked her good-girl persona in place with her second album, Fearless, but it’s interesting to think about what’s going to happen when she begins to deviate from this role. Surely she can’t maintain the appearance of being a “girl next door” well into her 30s. That would be awkward.

Miley Cyrus kick-started her career on the Disney screen, where virtue and naivety are key. Swift’s music star status came from her country roots, where the expectations were for the most part the same. Cyrus, however, began using her Hannah Montana fame to transition into the popular music scene where things are comparatively untamed.

Swift has yet to undergo a similar change.

Perhaps it could be because we have yet to see Swift really step out of her sweet country-singer zone. Sure, she had a stint in the 2010 rom-com Valentine’s Day and voiced “Audrey” in the animated film The Lorax this year, but nothing far outside the bounds of her girlish, sweetheart image.

I must admit, aggressively maintaining this public persona is a pretty good move on her part. Sometimes change isn’t for the better. But then again, Swift has a big enough fanbase that I’m pretty sure if she dyed her signature blonde hair brown, fashion bloggers and teeny-boppers would rave about her “experimental” style.

With her innocent voice, cute sundresses and pretty face, it’s no wonder that Swift has been able to captivate listeners from around the globe. Her music is simple and her lyrics are fantastically relatable. She voices exactly what she and girls around the world day dream and worry about.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not putting her down when I say that — that’s exactly what music is all about.

Music is an individual outlet. We often choose what we listen to because somehow, we “get” it. But it’s also true that everyone changes. Our experiences shape us in various ways.

So what is it going to be for Swift? Just how many more songs about boys and failed relationships can she write? (Especially now that she seems to have found true love in a young man from the Kennedy clan.)

Change can be hard sometimes, but there will always be room for another young starlet to become sucked into the unfortunate hole of adulthood problems and regrets. With her new album Red set to be released Oct. 22, I have to be honest and say that although I appreciate Swift’s well-maintained image, nothing excites me more than the prospect of seeing Taylor Swift go rogue.

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Photo: Eva Rinaldi/Flickr