Taylor Swift has left her old country roots behind for synthesized pop beat in her newest album titled ‘1989’, named after her birth year. Swift is now turning 25, and has remained popular on the charts with 5 albums. Her newest album is especially beautiful in terms of visuals.

The album has surprises inside, there’s exclusive polaroid pictures that any hipster would be proud to own. Swift is a smart businesswoman, because people didn’t just download her music from iTunes, but actually went out and purchased the album in stores.

With her first major switch to pop in the 2012, she has gained new fans on the mainstream charts as well as those who still love to indulge in her “country twang” songs from her sophomore album, Fearless. Regardless of the genre, Swift never fails to dazzle fans all over the world with the very personal and poetic lyrics found in each of her songs.

Swift opens up her album with an upbeat tune called “Welcome to New York”. Setting the tone for the album, it’s filled with hip hop and pop synthesizer beats as expected. Swift said that the inspiration for this album came from the ‘80s, when ideas for music seemed limitless.
The lyrics consist of the age old tale that if you go to New York, you’ll be immersed in a different state of mind. It’s not so much about entering into the city, but the feeling it gives a person. Swift soars over the first bars singing, “everybody here was someone else before”. After all, that’s the typical reason most travel to the big city; to finally make it somewhere and leave their past behind.

One of the hit singles on the album is “Blank Space”, which is also an extremely interesting dynamic. Swift takes the liberty of fully admitting her relationship struggles singing, “got a long list of ex-lovers/they’ll tell you I’m insane”. It’s also filled with sharp spoken parts that make it feel even more powerful as she finishes off her last note to jump into, “Darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream.”

In ‘1989,’ Swift is more forthcoming than ever about her dating life. However, it may be the new surge of confidence that you can hear not only on her vocals in “Blank Space”, but her other hit single “Shake It Off”.

“Shake It Off” is a song that needs no introduction and takes no prisoners on who it’s about as it seems to be about everyone who has ever uttered the words: “I don’t like Taylor Swift.” On this track, she takes the liberty to point out that she doesn’t care in the slightest about these people because she sings “I kept cruising” no matter if the “haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate” or not. This is an anthem that everyone can enjoy, also featuring spoken word parts “about the liars and the dirty, dirty cheats of the world” and how instead “you could’ve been getting down to this sick beat”. The message is clear, reminiscent of her Speak Now country song “Mean”, that bullies in any form should never be given any satisfaction.

Taylor Swift’s fifth song is called “All You Had To Do Was Stay”. This song takes a bit of a different turn from “Shake It Off’ and “Blank Space”, with the meaning being more complicated. This song is about a relationship between an indecisive guy and a girl who knew what she wanted, and the two clashed. Like all Swift songs, she starts off with a story. This one is about a guy that she was involved with who left her, and later wanted to get together again. Swift clearly states that she doesn’t want to get back together with him by her lyrics, “but people like me are gone forever when you say goodbye”, and with that it would have worked out, if he simply would’ve stayed.

Overall, the meaning of this song is carried out perfectly by the emotions Swift conducts in her vocals and lyrics. As she has before with all of her previous albums, ‘1989’ is not an exception to masterful musicianship. We also have her ‘1989’ tour to look forward to, which will be making a stop in Pittsburgh Pa. on June 6, 2015.

Overall, ‘1989’ is a surprising turn of events for Taylor Swift fans. Some favor her former country sound, and enthusiastically embrace the new pop sound. In any case, it’s obvious that she still puts a tremendous amount of effort into her albums, regardless of the genre. Along with that, teenage girls around the world can rejoice that her sound may have changed, but her diary-like song lyrics will always have the same feeling of relatability that they crave. We can all agree Taylor Swift has done the impossible: successfully switching from country to pop and still managing to be the only album to go platinum this year. With this in mind, fans can’t wait to see what Swift has in store for the music industry in the coming years. ‘1989’ gets five out of five stars.