The year was 1989. Music was changing. Fashion was changing. Culture was changing. The world was changing. And Taylor Swift was born.
1989 marks Swift’s fifth album. This album released on Oct. 27 and in the first week sold 1.287 million copies, the most successful first week album sales debut since 2002. Thus 1989 became the first platinum album of the year.
This album shows Swift’s transition from country to pop music. With her first three albums being solely country and the fourth slightly fading from the genre, Swift finally shows her true self in this album. She is no longer the little girl with curly, blonde hair singing “Tim McGraw”. Instead she now is the red-lipped, 25 year old living in New York.
Some T-Swift fans are upset about this change of genre and don’t believe 1989 is nearly as good as her previous albums. But hard core T-Swizzle fans admire her growth and have left their iPods on repeat since the album released.
When envisioning this album, Swift wanted to show her growth as a young adult into the person she has now become. Over the past two years of working on this album, Swift has changed her priorities, hair, friends and where she lives. The first song,
highlights this as it talks about her moving to the Big Apple and living on her own in her new apartment for the first time in her life. This catchy tune does repeat itself, but only to emphasize the grandness of the city and Swift’s new life. Plus the more it repeats the more it’s stuck in one’s head.
Of course in every song, Swift takes pieces of her life and puts them into the lyrics. In
she didn’t just take the song from her life, she took it directly from her journal. The song reads like a diary and is very personal, but then there are parts that seem as though thousands of people should be screaming the lyrics, like the chorus “Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods? Are we in the clear yet? Are we in the clear yet? Are we in the clear yet? In the clear yet? Good.”
also is very true to Swift’s life as she battles harsh comments and slaps to the face. Swift has been called every name in the book and has been harassed for her multiple boyfriends and care-free attitude towards love by the media, but now she has learned to just shake it off. Swift sings that “haters gonna hate” and “players gonna play” but “I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake it off”.This shows her growth as an individual because instead of feeding into the press’s hateful comments, she has learned to forget what people say and be herself. Not only is this true for a pop star but for anyone.
Further in the album, the song
incorporates musical inspiration from the 1980’s. This song came from the snare drum in the Fine Young Cannibals’ “She Drives Me Crazy”. Jack Antonoff, one of Swift’s co-writers and co-producers of two songs on the album, introduced her to this 80s pop group that had their biggest hit in 1989.
The rest of 1989 includes your typical T-Swift love songs about boys you can’t have, can have and don’t want to have. But what’s different is Max Martin. The Swedish pop giant worked with Swift on almost half of the songs and is the executive producer of the album. Martin assisted on Swift’s previous album Red, but he is a much bigger part of 1989. He helped her create the sound that transitioned her into the pop genre.
Overall, 1989 is not only the pivotal moment in Swift’s career, but it is also an album that everyone can relate to and enjoy. Swift will tour 1989 starting in Japan on May 5, 2015. The tour will hit North America and Europe before heading to Australia in December. Vance Joy who recently released his hit “Riptide” will be joining Swift on the North America leg. Shawn Mendes will also be joining the tour for select performances. Tour dates and pre-sales for shows in Europe began Nov. 4, and North America dates released Nov. 7. Pre-sales are open to American Express Card Members and members of the taylorswift.com e-mail list.
The Hilights
Album Title: “1989”
Release date: Oct. 27, 2014
Cost: $12.99 for album, $13.99 for deluxe edition
Other: 13 polaroids in album, three songs on Target’s deluxe edition: “Wonderland”, “You Are In Love”, “New Romantics”
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars