Fifth Album Release for Swift
Navya Kaur
Editor-in-Chief
Taylor Swift never stops surprising us.
On October 27, 2014, Swift released her full pop album, titled “1989” for the year she was born.
Fans should be used to Swift’s changing music. Swift’s track record shows that she rarely sticks with the same style. From “Speak Now” to “Red,” she made a drastic leap, switching out her acoustic guitar for a more upbeat, dance sound.
While “1989” is completely different from anything she’s done before, it somehow still retains the same Swift aura. Her style continues to mature along with her character.
Being an avid Swift fan, my main concern with her new album was that it would blend in too well with the mainstream pop sound and bring nothing original. But while Swift’s album is classified under pop, she is able to do something most artists can never accomplish: she is able to finesse together poetic lyrics and a catchy beat to create songs that are not only fun to dance to, but easy to relate to as well.
For example, take her second release on the album, “Out of the Woods.” She tests out her vocals and combines them with lyrics such as “the rest of the world was in black and white, but we were in screaming colors,” defining her work as timeless. In this way, Swift is aiming for something higher than simply a new sound in her music.
But those who miss the curly hair, “Speak Now” phase, me included, songs such as “Wonderland” and “Clean,” which are my favorites, are somewhat similar to her past albums.
But the best thing about her album is that she has songs that pertain to every one of my moods. I can feel liberated along “Welcome to New York,” cheer up to “New Romantics,” or dance along to the “sick beat” of “Shake It Off.” This album defies all those who criticized her for writing only about her exes. Because these songs are not all about her break-ups and hook-ups; they are about the stories of her friends, about embracing change, and falling in love with new and different things. And those who don’t like her album… well, Swift says it best: “haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.”
Eagle Era 