In the ever-evolving landscape of popular music, Taylor Swift has once again taken the world by storm with her latest album, “1989.” Departing from her country roots and embracing a pure pop sound, Swift’s transition has captivated fans and critics alike. In this article, we’ll explore Taylor Swift’s bold move into the pop genre with her album “1989” and the reasons behind its immense success.
â1989 (Taylorâs Version)â is here. Hereâs what to know.
The Billboard charts should be prepared to leave a âBlank Space” for Taylor Swift once again.
On Friday, Swift released â1989 (Taylorâs Version)” â nine years to the day after the original album was released. The artist is now reportedly a billionaire, according to Bloomberg.
When Swift released â1989â in 2014, it seemed like she was at her peak. âShake It Offâ became a massive hit, the viral âBad Bloodâ music video featured seemingly every A-lister in Hollywood, and “1989” ended up edging out âFrozenâ as the most popular album of the year.
While Swiftâs re-recording journey may have been conceived as an effort to reclaim her work, the âTaylorâs Versionâ albums have been triumphant successes in their own right. All three re-recordings have debuted at No. 1, with each one performing better than the last.
â1989 (Taylor’s Version)â is also poised to be a huge success. Hereâs what to know.
What are the vault songs?
Swift revealed the track list in September in typical Swiftie fashion: with a complicated puzzle for fans to solve.
Google announced that its search function would populate a series of 89 puzzles that fans could solve to eventually reveal the names of those new songs.
Fans successfully decoded the names of the five vault tracks, or songs that werenât included on the original album. Swift posted the official track list to her social media platforms on Sept. 20, confirming the vault track titles: âNow That We Donât Talk,â âSuburban Legends,â âSay Donât Go,â âIs It Over Now?â and ââSlut!ââ
In an Instagram post announcing the album in August, Swift wrote it was her âmost FAVORITE re-record Iâve ever done because the 5 From The Vault tracks are so insane.â
âI canât believe they were ever left behind,â she wrote in the caption.
Does the album feature any collaborations?
Fans have posted their dream collab artists, including Harry Styles on âStyle,â a track many believe to be about Swiftâs former rumored relationship with her fellow pop star. But the former One Direction band memberâs vocals are not featured.
In terms of producers, the original â1989â was the first collaboration with Jack Antonoff, who has become an integral part of Swiftâs discography and social life. He is credited as a producer on every â1989 (Taylorâs Version)â vault track. Other original producing collaborators, such as Max Martin and Imogen Heap, also returned for the re-recorded version of the album.
Swift said Friday morning that the re-recording of “Bad Blood (featuring Kendrick Lamar)” would be available on â1989 (Taylorâs Version) Deluxe Edition.”
“Watching @kendricklamar create and record his verses on the Bad Blood remix was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life… The reality that Kendrick would go back in and re-record Bad Blood so that I could reclaim and own this work Iâm so proud of is surreal and bewildering to me,” Swift posted on X.
Were there any notable Easter eggs leading up to the release?
It wouldnât be Swiftdom without Easter eggs. Swift and her team unleashed plenty of online speculation ahead of the album release.
This week, Swift posted three photos on her Instagram story featuring handwritten notes.
The first photo was a notebook entry posted Tuesday that read, âLetâs fast forward to 300 takeout coffees later I see your profile and your smile on unsuspecting waiters.â
The second photo, posted Wednesday, featured four lines written in alternating blue and black ink. âAquamarine, Moonlit swimming pool, what if, All I need is you,â the lines read.
The third post, shared Thursday on Swiftâs story, read, âI broke my own heart, Cause you were too polite to do it.â
Fans immediately took to social media to speculate about the meaning behind the cryptic posts from the âMastermindâ singer. Theories circulating on X proposed that the handwritten notes Swift posted could be lyrics from the â1989 (Taylorâs Version)â vault tracks.