Scott Borchetta, the head of Taylor Swift’s label, said of 1989, “This is extraordinary. It’s the best album you’ve ever done. Can you just give me three country songs?”
“Love you. Mean it,” Taylor Swift answered, “But this is how it’s going to be.”
This conversation with Borchetta and Swift conveys her attitude towards 1989 and her transition from a country superstar to a pop princess.
Swift’s last album, Red, was straddling the line between country and pop, but, as Swift said, “At a certain point, if you chase two rabbits, you lose them both.” Swift decided to go all the way and lose the country reputation that has been following her around to chase a new pop reputation.
For her and her fans, this is a big deal because she is giving her fans a completely different sound than what they have been hearing since 2006. She is severing her ties to country with 1989 as she will not be going to country award shows and her songs will not be heard on country radio.
Country fans may be alarmed, but Swift is excited about the new sound that she is putting out since she was an executive producer. Swift went full-on into the pop realm as the songs on this album were influenced by 80s pop artists including Phil Collins, Annie Lenox, and Madonna circa “Material Girl.” Although Swift wasn’t born until 1989 (which is why she titled her album as such), she watched all of these pop artists on VH1 and they influenced her musical choices.
Her new music choices aren’t the only things that are changing in her life; Swift has made some personal changes as well. Swift recently bought an apartment in New York City and now lives there full time. Contrary to what her reputation with boys might suggest, Taylor Swift hasn’t been on a date since breaking up with Harry Styles from One Direction a year and a half ago.
Also contrary to what her reputation with her previous albums might suggest, this album does not have any songs on it obviously dissing her ex-boyfriends. As Swift states, “So it’s not as boy-centric of an album, because my life hasn’t been boy-centric.” Swift has instead been focusing on her friends, work, and even painting.
Taylor Swift giving up her reputation as a country superstar in order to peruse a role as a pop princess paid off, because 1989 went platinum in the first week it went on the market. 1989 sold 1.287 million copies in the first week when it was only predicted to sell 650 thousand albums. This makes it the largest selling album in a week’s time since 2002 when Eminem sold 1.322 million copies of his album.
In this day in age where digital is everything, Taylor Swift also broke the mold because more than half of the albums sold were physical copies, compared to digital.
The only other artist that came close to Swift’s record shattering success was Sam Smith, with his album selling 746,000 copies.
Taylor Swift is an artist that believes 100 percent in albums, and she spoke out about this issue in an op-ed entry in The Wall Street Journal, “There are many, many people who predict the downfall of music sales and the irrelevancy of the album as an economic entity. I am not one of them.” She showed those people by selling 647,000 physical copies of 1989 in a week, which was 7,000 more copies than the digital version.
Taylor Swift believes in the album as a physical thing so much, that she had her own strategy for releasing this new album.
Swift, to the shock of her fans and Spotify, removed all of her music from this music sharing website. I admit that when I went on my Spotify and saw that I couldn’t listen to all the Taylor Swift songs I added to my playlist, I was upset.
But, Swift did this so her fans would have to buy her physical album. Swift struck an all exclusive partnership with Target that included extra songs and collectible photos in the box jacket.
Taylor Swift continues to shock the music industry and her fans, so who knows what’s next for this red-lipped country superstar gone pop princess.
Keeley Gould is a third-year student majoring in English and minoring in journalism. She can be reached at KG787739@wcupa.edu.