Everything You Need To Know About 1989 (Taylor's Version)
Friday marked the release of the highly anticipated 1989 (Taylor’s Version), an album that perfectly encompasses the fun and free feelings of a 20-something living in the big city. 1989 is widely known as a light pop summer album that speaks on the power of friendship, heartbreak, and ignoring society’s expectations.
Source: Spotify
Swift is known for her transition from country darling to pop icon and 1989 is her first full pop album. 1989 draws a lot of inspiration from the decade when Swift was born. 80s pop synth influences are heard heavily throughout the tracks and the songs are laced with high-energy, punchy choruses.
While this era of Swift’s life lacked media respect, she did show up when it came to awards with the original 1989 being the most-awarded pop album in history. Swift racked up a total of 158 awards for her album, including a Grammy for Album of the Year, making her the first female solo artist to receive this award twice. Overall, she received 10 nominations and three awards at the 57th Grammy Awards.
1989 follows a tumultuous relationship from the highs of falling deeply in love, to the lows of life after that person is gone. Swift dives deep into a partnership in which the two people are very back and forth with one person unable to fully commit. As Swift wrote this album in her early 20s, this kind of relationship is very relatable for younger individuals who are discovering both themselves and the kind of people they want to invest time into.
During this era, Swift formed a high-profile “girl squad” with celebrities like Selena Gomez, Gigi Hadid, and the Haim sisters being frequently featured in her social media posts and paparazzi appearances. Swift speaks on this time of her life in songs like “Welcome To New York” as she had sworn off dating, moved to the city, and focused on fun and friendship.
However, in the media, Swift was highly criticized for flaunting a group of rich, beautiful models as opposed to genuine friendship. In the 1989 (Taylor’s Version) prologue, Swift states, “that maybe a girl who surrounds herself with female friends in adulthood is making up for a lack of them in childhood”, as she has often spoken out about her struggles with bullying throughout high school. And in a very cheeky manner, she shoots back that she was “not starting a tyrannical hot girl cult”.
Not only was Swift criticized in the media for her friendships, she also experienced an enormous amount of slut shaming for her dating life. At the time, people used her dating history to minimize the legitimacy of her work by saying she only knew how to write songs about her exes. In her new vault track, “Slut!”, she says “Everyone wants him, that was my crime/ The wrong place at the right time”. Her famous hit “Blank Space” is an anthem calling out the media for their portrayal of her as a crazy ex-girlfriend. She has said that she wrote the song from the perspective of this character people had created for her, a perfect call out to all of the haters.
Unfortunately, Swift’s problems do not end there. Her song “Bad Blood” chronicles a very public feud between her and Katy Perry. Perry had bought out Swift’s backup dancers during Swift’s Red world tour. This is all water under the bridge now as Perry appeared in Swift’s 2019 music video for her song “You Need To Calm Down”.
The big concern for fans of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is that before the release, Swift had not announced any features for the album even though “Bad Blood” originally had a Kendrick Lamar feature. This was quickly solved as Swift released a deluxe version with the Lamar feature at 8 a.m. on Friday.
The 1989 era marked a pivotal point in Swift’s life as her fame had reached an all-time high and she was struggling to keep up with the public life. Her lack of privacy became a very big problem as she was unable to go anywhere without being photographed. Media opinions continued to turn negative until finally, Swift decided to disappear completely from the public eye for a year and a half.
Regardless of all the negative aspects of Swift’s life at the time, she still speaks fondly of her experience of being young and free. Songs like “Shake It Off” add that upbeat, loving life feel that so accurately captures this time in people’s lives. This pop album has a wide array of emotions and as she says of this life stage in her song “New Romantics”, “every day is like a battle/ But every night with us is like a dream”.
1989 (Taylor’s Version) is now available for streaming on Spotify and Apple Music.
What’s your favorite song on 1989 (Taylor’s Version)? Comment down below.