“1989”: Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift’s new album “1989” released on October 27, 2014 through Big Machine Records- and it became an instant hit. Industry forecasters even went as far as to say that 1989 would sell at least 1.3 million copies before November 2nd, having been released only five days before. The album set the largest sales week for an album since 2002- beating the record previously set by “The Eminem Show” by Eminem. “1989” even surpassed Brittany Spears’ “Oops!... I Did it Again” for one week sales record for an album by a woman. This album has been Taylor’s third consecutive album to sell over one million copies in one weeks time and she is now the only artist to ever earn three million-selling weeks on three consecutive albums. 
“1989” is Swift’s first official all-pop album and it is evident that the once country girl is clearly headed down a successful path in the world of pop music. Critics have referred to “1989” as Swift’s official breakup with the country music genre- saying that it was the end of a process of separation that started years ago. The name of the album is also the year that Taylor was born; some would go as far as to say that it symbolizes her birth into the Pop genre. The album includes numerous songs, which became popular in an extremely short period of time. “1989” was even named 2014’s best album and was the best selling album of the year.
Is it worth the hype? In my opinion, Swift’s new album offers a glimpse of the successful future she has to come in her pop career. The album offers happy-go-lucky upbeat songs like “Shake It Off”, and further dives into more emotional complex songs, like “Wildest Dream” and “All You Had To Do Was Stay”. With her past history of intense songs about messy breakups, Taylor has done an amazing job at keeping the overall tone of the album positive. Swift has said in numerous interviews that the production of “1989” was a two year process, and that it was inspired by the process of self discovery she has been going through in her recent years as an artist and public figure.  The hard work and inspiration put into the “1989” clearly paid off, as it has resulted in an extremely terrific album.
How successful were the songs on the “1989” album? According to the Billboard Music Charts, the song “Blank Space” has only been on the charts for 7 weeks and has been at the number one spot for more than four. It’s hard to beat that, but another song on Swift’s album “Shake It Off” did. “Shake It Off” was certified 4x platinum by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) and even took the number one spot. SIO spent 8 consecutive weeks at number two on the Billboard Top 100, then when the complete 1989 album came out, the single returned to the number one spot once again- before moving down three spots (over two months after its release).  “Shake it Off” topped the charts around the world, holding the number one spot on the US Adult Top 40, Us Billboard Hot 100,  New Zealand Recorded Music Chart, Mexico Airplay, , Canadian Hot 100, Austria Top 40, Brazil Hot 100, Hungary Single Top 20, Japan Hot 100, Netherlands Dutch Top 100, and many more. 
Along with Taylor’s new album came numerous new music videos- including the video for “Shake it Off”’ which garnered over 387 million views on YouTube. Being online for three months less than SIO is another popular song, “Blank Space”.  In a little over a month the “Blank Space” video has reached over 216 million views- and that number is still growing. The video features 2013’s highest paid model worldwide, Sean O’Pry. The video is a drastic difference from the recent works of pop artists like Miley Cyrus and the modern and futuristic music videos for Katy Perry’s latest album. The “Blank Space” music video tells the story of a relationship that went extremely wrong. It is a reminder that although she has toned down the breakup songs, Swift’s songs will always hold meaning that other artists have seemed to lack in their recent albums.
After topping charts around the world- it is clear that the hard work put into the album has paid off. Taylor Swift has entered the pop world with her best foot forward and has already made a lasting impression on the genre. Her transition to pop has been swift and successful. Overall, “1989” is a step in a promising direction for Taylor Swift.