Taylor Alison Swift is not from a music business background at all, in fact her parents were in the financial industry originally. Taylor was given her name by her mother, who didn't want her to have a typical 'girl's name' as she thought a more masculine one would give her a good start in business. So it was thought that she would go into business or finance rather than the arts.
In fact her first love was horses. She spent part of her childhood on a farm and was especially involved with the family's horses, but then at the age of 9 was introduced to musical theatre and from then on she wanted to perform. She appeared in several school productions, took acting and music lessons in New York and took part in all the youth music competitions she could. At 11 she won a talent contest, was given a public singing role and soon after became determined to be a country singer. She first went to Nashville at 11, but failed to get the attention of any music producers.
However, at 12 she started writing songs and got a manager and a record deal; when she was 14, her parents moved to Nashville and Taylor Swift's music career really began.