Top Favorite Albums of 2014 - 1989 by Taylor Swift

Favorite tracks
“Blank Space”
“Shake It Off”
“Style”
“I Know Places”

It’d be very easy for me to act like a music elitist. Being an aspiring music blogger and journalist, it gets very tempting to fit the stereotypical pretentious journalist mold and push up my rectangular frames with a disapproving glare at the top 40. But honestly, how incredibly boring is that? I am all aboard the Taylor Swift train after the release of her record-breaking album 1989. After purchasing Swift’s latest album, I fell in love with it in all its mainstream pop glory.

Early in the fall, Swift put out her first single “Shake it Off” and I tried to hold out for as long as possible, but that lasted all of maybe a couple weeks. That drum line style and funky horn section brought out an early 2000’s pop playfulness that I just had to dance to. The lyrics carried too much sass to not sing along with and by the ending chorus, I was yelling “Shake it off!” into a car dashboard in my best T-Swift impression. My skepticism about Swift’s supposed pop “rebranding” wavered just enough for me to check out some of the outtake videos from the “Shake It Off” video shoot and smile endearingly at Swift’s incredibly down to earth persona.

Then, “Blank Space” came and sealed my fate as a Swift supporter. The twisted fairytale embedded into the lyrics is wonderfully delivered by Swift’s cheeky and impish voice. Pair that with the straight up crazy caricature Swift paints in the music video and you get another sassy yet smart song to drive me to the repeat button over and over and over. Listening to “Blank Space,” I finally came to understand what 1989 is all about. Swift finally is taking ownership of her image and herself as an artist. This is her most pop filled record to date, but it is also the first time I feel like I see the Taylor Swift instead of everything that everyone else says about her.

Swift’s music has historically been the soundtrack to every 15-year-old girl’s diary, but 1989 sounds like a woman expressing herself and speaking her mind. It’s a coming of age work for her and that tone is set with the album’s first track “Welcome to New York.” The track’s surging feeling of grandiosity captures the thrill of growing up and moving forward, reminding me of the moment I moved out of my parents’ home to go to a college across the country. As a 20 year old slowly beginning to deal with some of the very same questions Swift touches on in her fifth album, I respect her for standing up for who she is and making the artistic choices she wants to make rather than the choices everyone else expects. She wanted to make a pop record, filled with her trademark honest lyrics and paired with retro 80’s elements. And she succeeded. Brilliantly.

My music knowledge and expertise begins and ends with the way a song moves my foot, controls my lips, and steals my breath. So, I knew I would be hooked on 1989 from the moment I first heard “Shake It Off” in early September. It made me smile, it made me laugh, it made me shake and sway down the street with my head held high despite running on nothing but coffee for days on end. 1989 is most definitely one of my favorite records of 2014 and I am proud to admit it. Taylor Swift is my girl and if that ruins what little indie music cred I may have had, so be it. I will never be a music elitist, as enticing as all those trendy hipster kids make it out to be.