Hello! Welcome To A Deep Dive Of 1989 Before Taylor’s Version
Hello! 1989 is a VERY complex era so this will be kinda long… LOL. I hope you learned something after reading this!
Read time: About 4 Minutes
Part One
SECTION ONE (PRE 1989)
(Late 2012-Early 2014)
Taylor in this era was starting to make extra singles for her Red era such as “Red”, “22”, ETC. Two singles that weren’t from Red were released which were “Highway Don’t Care”. Which was a collaboration between, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, and Taylor Swift for Tim McGraw's album “Two Lanes Of Freedom” (of course) which was released to critical acclaim and commercial success hitting number one on Billboard’s Country Airplay Chart making it Swifts seventh number one on the chart. It was certified Triple Platinum by the RIAA. It peaked at number 22 (of course it came out after 22 was a single).
The second single was a promotional single titled “Sweeter Than Fiction” for the One Chance soundtrack (pay attention this will be the target bonus track for the tangerine vinyl) this song was the first collaboration for the iconic duo Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift. This song was notorious for being a “flop” (It didn’t perform the best but Taylor NEVER flops) it peaked at number 34 on the hot 100 (This was a VERY important part for Swifts career being her first official pop song) While not being a huge success it received critical acclaim being called “A sweet song” it was described as a simple yet powerful bubblegum pop song.
August 2014: Red Tour finally concluded (it was a VERY long tour)
Section 1.5: Announcement And Right Before Release
Timeline: (August 18th-October 27th)
On August Eighteenth Swift had a World Wide livestream via Yahoo! Which was sponsored by ABC also were she released lead single “Shake It Off” (more info on that in part two) and premiered the music video which for one week was a commercial flop charting on the bubbling under hot 100 but one week later hit number one on the billboard hot 100. On that live stream she announced her fifth studio album 1989 and gave slight details like stating there will be a deluxe, it would be her first official pop album, etc.
From September-October the 1989 Secret Sessions took place in houses and hotels. I couldn’t find details on specific dates from them all, if you don’t know she flys people from all around the world and invites fans to her house and bakes food for her fans and plays the album for them. She would proceed to do secret sessions for albums, Reputation and, Lover. They took place in the US and UK (Maybe more).
Swift collaborated with big brands like to promote the album such as, Subway, Keds and Diet Coke
Unfortunately, for slightly over a week the track list for 1989 leaked and days before release it leaked in full.
Part Two: After Release
1989 released to commercial success and mostly positive reviews being called the perfect pop album.
Section 2: Commercial Success
1989 sold 1.287 million copies in the first week being the most for Swift at the time. 1989 debuted at number one on the billboard 200 and has been charting since then. It spent the first year of release in the top 10. On the first day it sold 1 million copies. It is Swift’s most sold album having over 10 million worldwide sales. 1989 shattered expectations with estimates of only selling 600,000-750,000 in the first week but selling 1.287 in the first week.
Section 3: Critical Reception
1989 has an average of 7.5 stars. It had mostly positive reviews. It was admired for its songwriting and perception of love. It also got love for being mature and honest. Some critics said it was not a perfect transition into pop (It’s my favorite album of all time and I think it’s perfect pop). Others said it was too capitalistic.
Part Three: Theory’s
Here i’m going to put a trigger warning because we will be talking about Gaylors and Haylors i’m going to go into my honest opinion but if this topic is offensive this is your warning.
Section 4: Gaylors
One thing that I think is the worst thing for swiftys is when they are Gaylors, not being homophobic but in my opinion I think it’s invasive and rude to guess someone’s sexuality. If you don’t know it’s Swiftys who assume that Taylor is gay and/or bisexual. There was an alleged romance which I think is false between Taylor and Karlie Kloss or Taylor and Dianna Agron due to parallels in lyrics which i’m not going to talk about here so I don’t violate rules but in my opinion I don’t think this is true and I really don’t like these theories.
Section 5: Haylors
I also don’t think I can go in-depth here due to fandom rules but there was an alleged romance between Harry Styles and Taylor Swift, which is more realistic but I still don’t 100% believe and this wasn’t confirmed as it was a theory.
Part Four: Controversy And Miscellaneous
Section 6: The Start Of The Fallout Between Her And Her Label
When 1989 was in production the fallout between her and big machine records started and the longtime public feud began. 1989 was notable for being her first fully pop album and it was also marketed like that. Big Machine thought this would be a bad decision and would ruin her career (how wrong they were) and she had to fight with her label (not physically… obviously) to release the album. Her label begged her to put one country song on the album but fortunately Swift told them no.
Section 7: Tour
I was going to make a separate part for it but I didn’t think there was enough to write an entire part so it ended up here. The 1989 World Tour started May Fifth 2015 in Tokyo Japan and concluded December 12, 2015 ended in Australia. The 1989 Tour was notable for its number of guests with there being a special surprise guest for almost every show. The 1989 World Tour was a commercial success and ended up making millions in profit. The Tour also had universal acclaim for its unique and creative ideas. It also got a concert film exclusive to Apple Music which released December 20th.
THANKS FOR READING THIS ALL IT TOOK SO LONG TO MAKE AND THERE WILL BE A PART TWO WHICH WILL BE A TRACK BY TRACK DEEP DIVE
Resources For Further Research
1: Wikipedia
2: Fandom (Your own it right now)
3: YouTube