1989 (album)
Synth-pop album that marked Taylor Swift's transition from country to pop.
1989 is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, put out on October 27, 2014, by Big Machine Records. The title comes from Swift’s birth year and represents a symbolic fresh start, as the album shifted her artistic direction from country music to pop. The record’s synth-pop sound, inspired by the 1980s, relies heavily on dense synthesizers, programmed drum machines, and processed electronic backing vocals, leaving behind the acoustic arrangements that were typical of her earlier work.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- Taylor Swift
- Released
- 2014-10-27
- Recorded
- 2013–2014
- Studio
- Conway Recording (Los Angeles) / Jungle City (New York City) / Lamby's House (Brooklyn) / MXM (Stockholm) / Pain in the Art (Nashville) / Elevator Nobody (Gothenburg) / The Hideaway (London)
- Genre
- Synth-pop
- Length
- 48:41
- Label
- Big Machine
- Producer
- Max Martin / Taylor Swift / Shellback / Jack Antonoff / Ryan Tedder / Noel Zancanella / Ali Payami / Nathan Chapman / Imogen Heap / Mattman & Robin
- Prev Title
- Red
- Prev Year
- 2012
- Next Title
- Reputation
- Next Year
- 2017
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Swift began writing 1989 in mid-2013 while on the Red Tour. She wanted the album to be both sonically cohesive and blatant pop, believing that if you chase two rabbits, you lose them both. She considered the Red single 'I Knew You Were Trouble' her signal flare to do so. Swift enlisted Max Martin and Shellback as key collaborators, with Martin serving as co-executive producer. Jack Antonoff, Ryan Tedder, Nathan Chapman, and Imogen Heap also contributed production. The album was recorded at studios in Sweden, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and mastered by Tom Coyne in two days at Sterling Sound Studio in New York City. Big Machine's president Scott Borchetta asked Swift to include several country tracks, but she rejected his request, and he agreed not to promote the album to country radio.
Reader's Guide
1989 transformed Swift's status to that of a pop icon and promoted poptimism. The album spent 11 weeks atop the Billboard 200 and was certified 14-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. It has sold 14 million copies worldwide and received platinum certifications across Europe, the Americas, and Asia–Pacific. Its seven singles included the US Billboard Hot 100 number-ones 'Shake It Off', 'Blank Space', and 'Bad Blood', and the top-ten entries 'Style' and 'Wildest Dreams'. Swift and Big Machine withheld the album from free streaming services for nearly three years, prompting an industry discourse on the impact of streaming on record sales. The most-awarded pop album of all time, 1989 won Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2016 Grammy Awards, and Rolling Stone included it on their '500 Greatest Albums of All Time' list. Regarded by critics as a modern pop music classic, 1989 was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2026 as culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.
Did You Know?
- 1989 was promoted with the 1989 World Tour, the highest-grossing concert tour of 2015.
- The album's title references Swift's birth year and signifies a symbolic artistic rebirth.
- Swift and Big Machine withheld 1989 from free streaming services for nearly three years.
- Following a 2019 dispute over ownership of her back catalog, Swift released the re-recorded album 1989 (Taylor's Version) in 2023.
More in Albums & EPs
Elsewhere in Taylor Swift
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced