1989 (album)

1989 is the fifth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 27, 2014, by Big Machine Records. Executive-produced by Swift and the Swedish producer Max Martin, it was Swift's effort to recalibrate her artistic identity from country to pop. Swift produced 1989 with an ensemble including Martin, Shellback, Jack Antonoff, Ryan Tedder, Nathan Chapman, and Imogen Heap. Recorded in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Sweden, the album was titled after Swift's birth year as a symbolic rebirth. Inspired by 1980s synth-pop, the production incorporates dense synthesizers, programmed drum machines, and processed electronic backing vocals—a stark contrast to the acoustic arrangements that had characterized Swift's past albums. The lyrics expand on her autobiographical songwriting about love and heartbreak, but they depict failed relationships from relatively lighthearted and more complex perspectives. 1989 was promoted with the 1989 World Tour, the highest-grossing concert tour of 2015. Five of the album's singles—"Shake It Off", "Blank Space", "Bad Blood", "Style", and "Wildest Dreams"—charted in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, with the first three reaching number one. In the United States, 1989 spent 11 weeks atop the Billboard 200 and was certified nine-times platinum. The album has sold 14 million copies worldwide and received platinum certifications in many countries across Europe, the Americas, and Asia–Pacific. Swift and Big Machine withheld the album from free streaming services for nearly three years, which prompted an industry discourse on the relationship between streaming and record sales. Initial reviews of 1989 generally complimented its catchy production but were divided over the songwriting. Some critics argued that the synth-pop production undermined Swift's singer-songwriter identity—a criticism that has been retrospectively regarded as rockist. 1989 won Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2016 Grammy Awards, and Rolling Stone listed it among their "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. The album transformed Swift's status to a pop icon and promoted poptimism, but Swift's heightened fame was accompanied by media scrutiny on her public and private lives. Following a 2019 dispute regarding the ownership of Swift's back catalog, she released a re-recording, 1989 (Taylor's Version), on October 27, 2023.