Taylor Swift announced at the SoFi Stadium, in Los Angeles, on the final night of the US leg of the “Eras Tour” that she will be re-releasing her album “1989” as “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” as well as five additional vault tracks, including “Say Don’t Go,” “Now That We Don’t Talk,” “Suburban Legends,” “Is It Over Now?” and “SLUT!” on the nine-year anniversary, Oct. 27, 2023. “1989” was Swift’s first true pop album with popular singles like “Shake It Off,” “Wildest Dreams” and “Blank Space.” The album was a complete shift from her past albums like “Speak Now” and “Fearless” which are both country albums. “1989” marked the transition of a young country singer to a pop star. The album follows her experience as a young woman in her 20s living in New York, with her friends and her love. Throughout the album, Swift reflects on past mistakes and how they can be turned into life lessons. The album hit number one on the Billboard 200 on its initial release and became Swift’s best-selling album and the best-selling album of 2014 with over 14 million sales. Taylor Swift succeeded in ways no other artist had.
Over the past decade, record labels struggled with finding the “best new thing”; a breakthrough artist that can create a media and cultural impact and stay relevant with a compelling discography that people gravitate towards. However, with the lack of connection and effort record labels are putting into the production and advertisement of an artist’s public brand to reach a target audience or release any music that captivates a new sound, people have become less excited when a new upcoming artist debuts or releases new music because of lack of originality and repetition of themes. The dominance of pop amongst the general public has been heavily decreased and overshadowed by other genres more popular with younger audiences that have a stronger influence.
“Pop music’s impact used to be at a larger scale from over the years like 2014 to 2015. I feel like it died in 2018,” FHS senior Gabriella Manoilow said.
Nothing in the music industry is expected to stay the same however artists that do not create hype or appeal to their music, maybe simply giving a clue of how they are presented themselves lose the ability to connect to their audience gives them the platform they are trying to get; there is nothing to care for, there is nothing that the artist can give those people would want to receive and there is nothing new. However, Taylor partnered with Google to release 33 million puzzles that would reveal the names of the new vault tracks when solved. No artist had partnered with Google to create a joint effort between fans and market the re-release of their biggest-selling album. All 33 million puzzles were solved in less than a week, the names of the new vault tracks were public and only the success of completing all puzzles made fans more eager for the release date to come to listen to the tracks.
Some might question why an album that is already out can be so popular that people are looking forward to listening to it once again even though it is released on streaming platforms easily accessible to people; it might just be nostalgia. FHS senior Ethan Llamas recalls the album’s impact nine years ago.
“1989 was always in the radio and you can always see it on the ‘Vevo’ channel on your TV,” Llamas said. “You could see it everywhere. So if it were to be rereleased, it is going to have the same effect. Maybe more stronger.”
Taylor has always been popular among younger generations but now the kids who would watch her on the TV and listen to the radio to listen to her are older, it brings a huge wave of reminiscence and nostalgia back to her fans who have grown up and changed at the same time as she did. The popularity of the album holds a personal connection to the people who were there at the peak of the pop.
Taylor Swift has now sold over 500,000 million pre-order copies surpassing her pre-order count for her album “Midnights” which was released in November of 2022. Taylor Swift has never left her prime after all these years. Album after album, Taylor Swift has proven that it might not be pop music that is dying but rather can be simply a lack of expression that can hold such meaning across audiences. There’s no doubt Taylor Swift will not set new standards of what a moving and impactful era should look like once again.
