BY DAVID KRONKE >Film Critic

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While the number of teen pop idols succumbing to public scandal increases on an almost daily basis - add Miley Cyrus' suggestive Vanity Fair photo shoot of this past week to the previous tabloid trainwrecks that are Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan - country music's teen sensation Taylor Swift stands alone, firm in her resolve to remain a role model for her young fans.

"It's kind of critical for me," the 18-year-old Swift proudly declares of her clean-cut image.

"I tour all the time, and I'm constantly face-to-face with people who are buying my music; I look them in the eye every single night. And I hear it all the time, but I only had to hear it once, where a mother would come up to me and say, `Thank you for being a role model.' "

She continues, "I came to the conclusion that I never, ever want to let those people down. I let that govern my life, and I'm proud of it. I do what I can to live right and to set an example. I consider myself lucky to be in this position."

Proving her commitment, Swift even became part of a campaign against Internet predators after scrolling through a message board dedicated to her music and finding a spurious message offering young fans a chance to meet her backstage.

Swift is just one of a number of country-music superstars taking part in the three-day Stagecoach festival - which replaces last weekend's Coachella rock- and dance-music lineup under the desert stars in Indio - and includes such headliners as the Eagles, Rascal Flatts, John Fogerty, the Judds and Carrie Underwood, along with dozens of other acts. Even at her age, she'll be one of the most accomplished.

Her eponymously titled debut album, which came out when Swift was 16, became the first triple-platinum album to be released by a female country artist who wrote or co-wrote every song on the recording.

Last week, she became the first musician to be named the Superstar of Tomorrow at the Young Hollywood Awards (previous winners include Katherine Heigl, Shia LaBeouf and Brandon Routh). And when, earlier this month, her coquettish performance in her video "Our Song" - which begins with the long-legged, 5-foot-11 singer airing out her pedicure - was named CMT's Video of the Year, she beat out a formidable field, for all of whom she had been serving as an opening act, including her current headliner, Rascal Flatts.

"I'm still in shock about it; I had absolutely no expectations of having my name heard," she says, adding of her competition, "I got calls from each of them. It was the coolest thing."

At an early age, Swift was seduced by country music and inspired by young performers such as LeAnn Rimes - but she lived in Pennsylvania, hardly the home of celebrated country superstars. Since she didn't relate to her friends' party-hearty attitudes, she felt an outcast and convinced her parents to move to Nashville so she could pursue her dreams.

"The thing that set me apart in junior high was that on weekends I was going to songwriter nights and guitar lessons, while my friends were going to parties and stealing their parents' alcohol," she reflects.

"I didn't get it - I was not into the same things. It hurt me socially, but I've never regretted any choice I've made. Being not accepted in school inspired me to start writing and putting my emotions to music. My first songs were about that, and I've always appreciated that."

Once in Nashville, Swift says, her parents "never saw my passion fade. They could never write it off as a crazy phase that kids go through; it just became more intense. They saw how happy it made me, how obsessed I was with going to Nashville, and for them, it was a remarkable leap of faith."

At age 13, Swift got a development deal with RCA Records, country music's biggest label, but when it wasn't ready to record her, she bolted to Big Machine, a nascent label that at the time not only had no artists but, as Swift puts it, "had no furniture and no paint on the walls.

"Nobody does that," she concedes. "But they didn't worry about their credibility.

"It was a tough decision," she continues. "I love everyone (at RCA). They took a chance on me before everyone else, but ... helping to start up a different label was a cool thing, and I'm extremely proud of that."

Swift's songs essayed the travails of teen romance, yet managed to expand them to a bigger canvas, to which all who heard them could relate Her first hit single, "Tim McGraw," concerned an ill-fated yet star-struck couple who fall in and out of love to the country singer's music.

Ever since Swift performed the song in front of McGraw at an awards show, she says, he and his wife, Faith Hill, send her flowers on her birthday.

Swift insists, "I promise you that" her real life isn't as wrenching as her relationship songs might lead one to believe. Outside of a prom date recently manufactured for an MTV special (her date was "the best possible"), she hasn't so much as kissed a boy in two years.

"I've gone through breakups and the core emotions behind them, but it doesn't take much to get that sort of emotion out in a song, luckily for me," she says. "For my second record (due later this year), such inspiration has not been wrung dry, believe me."

And, just as she drew upon McGraw's material to inspire her hit, does she imagine a lyricist somewhere writing a song titled "Taylor Swift"?

Swift laughs, but also seriously answers: "I can only hope."

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David Kronke, (818) 713-3638

david.kronke@dailynews.com

www.insidesocal.com/tv/

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STAGECOACH

>What: Three-day country-music festival featuring (among many others):

Friday: the Eagles, John Fogerty, Trisha Yearwood and Shelby Lynne.

Saturday: Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift, the Judds and Dwight Yoakam.

Sunday: Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson.

>Where: Empire Polo Field, Indio.

>When: Gates open noon Friday.

>Tickets: $95 per day; $249 for the entire weekend (camping sites extra) at www.ticketmaster.com, (213) 480-3232 or (714) 740-2000.

>Info: Go to www.stagecoachfestival.com for a schedule of times and additional acts.

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