Every store, radio station and person has been buzzing about Taylor Swift’s new “1989” album. The album was released on Oct. 27, 2014 through Big Machine Records and is her fifth album so far. The 24-year-old star has been a big hit winning seven Grammy awards, 15 American Music Awards, 12 Country Music Association Awards and 12 Billboard Music Awards (to name a few), all totaling up to 228 awards. Then there are all the nominations she has gotten. She is also known for her generous donations to charitable causes, such as UNICEF.
On Nov. 4, 2014, Swift tweeted that “industry experts predicted ‘1989’ would sell 650k first week. You went and bought 1.287 million albums…” To get people excited about the release, she continually released pictures on Instagram hinting at songs in the album.
Unlike her past albums, this is Taylor Swift’s first official pop album. Like always, she reveals many hidden messages within every song. Starting off with the song “Welcome to New York,” Swift talked about how “New York has been an important part of my life…I dreamt about moving to New York, I’ve been obsessed about moving to New York and then I did it.” Personally, this is one of my favorites.Hopefully it doesn’t get overplayed like “Shake It Off” did.
The songs “Shake It Off,” “Out of the Woods” and “Welcome to New York” were released before the album’s debut. This seemed to be a method to get people hyped up for it. “Out of the Woods” was an instant hit on iTunes with pre-orders.
Rumors say that the lyrics of this song point to her previous relationship with Harry Styles; others say the whole album does. The album ends on the song “Clean,” which tells the world that she realizes the negative choices she previously made and is now celebrating this realization.
Comparing album artwork, her last album “Red” was modern-looking with bright and bold capital letters on the cover. With “1989,” she is toning it down by having the artwork look vintage. It uses Polaroids and whiteboard marker writing to get a “secret diary”-like feel. Her picture on both of the covers is quite similar; both seem to have a focus on her red lips and hiding the rest of her face.
To get people even more excited, Swift recently released the dates and locations of her new “1989” tour. The tour is kicking off in Tokyo, Japan on May 5, 2015 and ending in Kentucky state on Oct. 20, 2015. She will be visiting many continents throughout the tour, including North America, Europe and Asia. In some locations, she will be joined by Shawn Mendes and Vance Joy.
Personally, I think Taylor Swift is a talented artist and because of this has made a good album. It’s not the album that bothers me; it’s the fact that people will wear it out because it is so good, causing constant repetition everywhere. This, to me, makes it lose some of its value.