Student Review: 1989 by Taylor Swift
By Emily Harris, Growl Staff Writer
In the past eight years, singer-songwriter, Taylor Swift, now 24, has definitely made a name for herself. With her very first smash-hit single, Tim McGraw, her future was set in stone and with a great number of more smash-hits and records to follow, along with sold-out stadium shows, Taylor Swift is a force to be reckoned with.
Her enormous success continues with her most recent album, titled after her birth year, “1989”. Some of Swift’s music off of her previous two albums before “1989”, has had somewhat of a pop influence, but for the most part she has stayed relatively country. But, for this album she decided to take a completely different angle and go all-out, full-on, pop.
This stroke of genius not only took a lot of guts to do, but also, Swift had to put a lot of trust into her fans that they would support her newly found passion for pop, and support would be a complete understatement as to how the fans reacted to this album. “1989” set history-making sales of 1.287 million, in just the first week - the biggest sales week, since Britney Spears’ album “Oops!” released in 2002.
Full of electric-toned, pulsating bass, and synthesized beats, “1989,” which is solely based on pop music from the 80’s, is dominating the pop charts. The album is started of by an upbeat song titled, Welcome To New York, in which Swift wrote about how New York City captivated her. The album ends with a warm electric melody, titled “Clean” in which she sings about getting over an intense heart-break, and also includes a number of metaphors about the overwhelming feeling of letting a relationship go. In between these two songs, you’ll find everything from the ultimate dance tune to the tear-worthy heart wrenching ballad.
Swift’s first single of this album, “Shake It Off”, is about just being yourself and not letting what people say about you get to your head, a great message for everyone to hear. “Shake It Off”, debuted at number one on the Billboard hot 100 and the video was released shortly after the song, which reached over 23,000,00 views on YouTube.
I think it’s safe to say that Taylor Swift has expertly set up her place in the pop world.
