Taylor Swift is currently the biggest pop star in the world. It goes beyond her album records, the scale of her Eras tour that's fueling the global economy, gossip about her love life or even her household name — in 2023, familiarity with the 34-year-old singer-songwriter's lyrics, where she is and Condiment choices are almost essential to conducting an informed conversation about pop culture.
That's why, as the years go by, it becomes harder and harder to believe that Swift didn't start her career in pop music. And while the Pennsylvania-born musician has always displayed sensibilities and mass appeal, country was an identity she eagerly embodied for several albums as she rose to stardom—from the cowboy boots she paired with every outfit to the now-faded Southern drawl she adopted. after moving her family to the genre mecca of Nashville Tennessee when she was just a teenager.
He began flirting with pop soics in the early 2010s, when he was still in a committed relationship with country, but had already pulled pop star numbers with mainstream crossover hits. That same year, he won Artist of the Year at the 2012 Academy of Country Music Awards, dropped the EDM-influenced “I Knew You Were Trouble” and sang about dressing like “hipsters” on the glittery earworm “22,” all at once . accumulating radio and chart recognition in both country and pop.
But come on 1989, Her love affair with pop had become a full-blown love affair, for which she chose to publicly and amicably break up with country music indefinitely. “For the record, this is my first documented, official pop album,” he said announcing the project atop the Empire State Building in a live stream hosted by Yahoo. Later, he explained to Advertising sign, “I followed my instincts and tried not to think about how hard it would be to break it on country radio … I didn't want to break anyone's heart.”
From top to bottom, 1989 it was unflinchingly pop, heavily inspired by the glittering majesty of '80s Top 40 hits. The collaborators included some of the biggest producers in the mainstream – Max Martin, Shellback, Ryan Tedder – and there was not a trace of violin, twangy guitar or mention of the word “y'all”.
Also missing were any of the commercial benchmarks Swift had previously set for herself – 1989 blew them out of the water. Upon its release on October 27, 2014, the album spent 11 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, becoming Swift's first LP to produce multiple Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits. 1 – “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space” and “Bad Blood” featuring Kendrick Lamar – and debuted with 1.287 million copies sold in its first week, the highest of her career to date (the album was not originally available in streaming). Her departure from the country would go down as one of the biggest business moves in the modern music industry, one that only continues to pay off for the supernova. nearly a decade later, the origins of Swift's current status as a cultural dominant can still be traced back to the overwhelming success of 1989.
But how exactly did the Swift pull off a crossover that didn't just live up to expectations, but exceeded them beyond belief? In talking about this topic with pop and country radio experts and veteran Swifties, one word comes up a lot: authenticity.
This story is part of Billboard's Genre Now package, highlighting artists who are pushing their genres forward — even making their own news.
“People kind of expected this [would be] a natural transition for her,” recalls Audacy's Erik Bradley, director and music director of Chicago pop radio. “The reality of it just helped make it so much easier. Her personality and her demeanor just all seem to have come together perfectly for a smooth transition. You have to be authentic [to cross over successfully]. And she is.”
“[Swift’s] The approach was like, “How can we do this? What do I need to improve? Do you like this;” agrees SiriusXM + Pandora vice president of music programming Alex Tear, noting the singer-songwriter's humility as a newcomer to the format. “When you have that kind of dialogue and you're open-minded and your ego allows it, you can start to shape exactly what you need to raise to the levels that it's raised to. She listened.”
Essentially, Swift's genre jump has fans fending off naysayers who might assume the star just wanted to gain more money or fame by crossing over. She approached 1989 with genuine love, appreciation and care for the genre you can hear across the album's 13 songs – which have been embraced by critics, industry heads and fans alike.
“The music was so superior,” says Bradley. “That resonated. People played a lot of songs because everything was so unmistakable. 'Style', 'Blank Space' and 'Shake it Off' were on the radio at the same time, which is not easy for the top 40 to play so many songs [from one album] once.”
Swift was also smart enough to know that while her lyricism already made her stand out in any modern music space, she needed to bring something fresh to the pop landscape if she wanted to stand out. It wouldn't be enough to simply sing “Out of the Woods” to a beat borrowed from the EDM or R&B tracks that dominated the charts at the time. She also had to fill a space not yet occupied by her mid-2010s peers like Ariana Grande, Meghan Trainor, Drake or Pharrell.
That's where those star producers came in, as well as an up-and-coming Jack Antonoff, helping Swift find a certain blend of comfortable, progressive sounds accented by synths and programmed drums that was all her own. Working with some of the biggest names in mainstream music 1989 was another solid calculation on Swift's part, giving her 'a lot of credibility' in her pop entry,” says 25-year-old Swift expert and pop culture podcaster Brooke Uhlenhop.
“She's already established herself as such a great artist that people could trust that she knew what she was doing,” continued Uhlenhop, who has been a fan since Swift debuted around 2006. “When she finally made that leap, people it was like, “Oh, okay. This is really good.” I think so 1989 it was more of a representation of her true self than she let people know before.”
It probably helped that Swift was upfront about the change from the start 1989his album cycle. He didn't necessarily have to shout that he was going pop and could just let the music speak for itself, but by making a direct statement clarifying 1989Her influences made her change into a cultural moment in its own right. She had fans and casual observers paying attention before the record even came out, eager to see if Swift could pull it off.
“I really liked that, the honesty of 'Here's what's going to happen,'” recalls the 25-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner and Swiftie Kristine White, who remembers sneaking into her elementary school's computer lab to watch videos of the star. “There were so many people when I was in high school who became Swifties for the first time because of it 1989, because they were not fans of the country. If he had continued to ease into this transition, I don't think he would have had the following that he did.”
Swift has also gone to great lengths to distinguish her public image as different from Taylors of the past, from chopping off her famous blonde locks to moving out of Tennessee to a glitzy apartment in lower Manhattan. For the first time, she also incorporated specific objects into her album imagery – seagulls, paper airplane necklaces, Polaroid photos – to further cement and commercialize her new pop identity.
“She completely reinvented herself,” adds White. “He went to New York. She cut her hair. She was always with her big one [#Squad] group of friends. He had a completely different style. Everything about her was completely new, saying, “No, I'm really moving forward. You're not going to see those country curls again.”
Bradley agrees – 1989 it was the complete package, as an album and an era. “She and her team made all the right moves,” says the radio executive. “Everything went very well. Aesthetics, video, press, TV appearances. It just felt like everything connected, everything was right.”
However, that doesn't mean she completely abandoned her old self. She still went out of her way to remind her OG Swifties that she was “still a girl like me,” White says, touching on Swift's interactions with fans on Tumblr, her inaugural Secret Session listening parties, and keeping up beloved traditions like coded messages. in her lyric booklets. “Keeping that authenticity has really helped keep the biggest fans.”
Swift also wisely flirted with people who measured in pop without “giving a finger to country music,” according to country radio consultant and former Max Media COO John Sobey, who met Swift when she was 16. . “She stayed true to herself and knew who her friends were in the business and stayed close to them, but she also respected everyone else and didn't push back when they pushed her.”
“Here's what's really refreshing: Taylor Swift was available,” recalls Tear of the pop side. “He traveled, he did the miles, he met everybody, he had such deep relationships that people became cheerleaders. One of the main types was visiting the developers who pushed the buttons. Then, they feel part of the movement.”
This story is part of Billboard's Genre Now package, highlighting artists who are pushing their genres forward — even making their own news.
A decade later, Swift has only exponentially expanded what she started with 1989, which remains just as popular today. Just as 2014 closed with 1989 at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, recently reached 2024 with the re-recording of 1989 (Taylor Edition) once again topped the chart, posting even higher first-week sales numbers than the first time around (1.359 million in traditional sales, to be exact). And between the two iterations, she continued to do what had worked for her in his first coming. 1989 — trying out different genres in works such as folk Folklore and Forever and staying curious, hungry, humble, smart and yes, authentic.
For example, Shomby still maintains a relationship with Swift and her team, even though it's been a decade since his industry coincided with hers.
“The last time I saw her was three years ago when she was here at the Nissan Stadium [in 2019], and I turned to see her. My wife and daughter weren't there and the first thing he said was, 'Where are my girls?'” he recalls with a smile that can be heard over the phone. “I'm one of those people, anybody who criticizes Taylor, I'm going to pull them aside and say, 'Let me tell you about her.'
“You feel like you're the only person in the room when he's talking to you,” she adds. “That's rare — especially in our business, especially on the pop side.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/taylor-swift-1989-turns-10-pop-crossover-1235578854/
