The Story of 1989
When Taylor Swift started writing 1989 in mid-2013, she knew she wanted to make a bold musical statement. Her previous album, 2012a(TM)s Red, had pinged between the lush country-pop she was known for, and slightly edgier moments like I Knew You Were Trouble, a dark dance banger that drew from the British electronic genre dubstep. But this time around, Taylor wasna(TM)t going to hedge her bets. She recalled in an oral history of the album: aI woke up at 4am and I [decided the album is] called 1989. Ia(TM)ve been making a(TM)80s synth pop, so Ia(TM)m just gonna do that. Ia(TM)m calling it a pop record. Ia(TM)m not listening to anyone at my label. Ia(TM)m starting tomorrow.a
Taylor has always been a savvy artist as well as an incredibly talented one, so she knew she had to pick a musical lane. aIf you chase two rabbits,a she told USA Today, aat some point you end up losing both.a So, throwing herself firmly into the pop world, she recruited super-producer Max Martin, Bleachers musician Jack Antonoff and OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder for songwriting sessions that yielded some of the defining pop songs of the 2010s: Blank Space, Style, Out Of The Woods, Shake It Off and more. Even pop queen Madonna said she couldna(TM)t get Taylora(TM)s songs out of her head. Named after the year she was born, 1989 cemented Taylora(TM)s status as a pop superstar who is also one of her generationa(TM)s great songwriters. When it won Album Of The Year at the Grammy Awards in 2016, Taylor became the first solo artist to collect this prestigious prize twice. (She has since won Album Of The Year another two times, for folklore in 2021 and Midnights in 2024.) In 2023, Taylor re-recorded 1989 as part of her ongoing campaign to take ownership of her masters, and said the original album achanged my life in countless waysa . So, with this in mind, herea(TM)s a complete guide to the most iconic and best-selling album in Taylora(TM)s glittering discography.
Additional Info:
Printed in A3 format, on high quality paper. It features four A2 posters that can be pulled out and displayed, plus numerous A3 posters as well as features on key moments and milestones from Taylor's career to date.
