Yesterday, Lena Dunham, from HBO’s Girls, deemed October 27, 2014 National Taylor Swift Day. With the midnight release of Swift’s long-awaited solely pop album, 1989, fans have been blowing up the Internet.
Swift has received a lot of disapproval lately for shedding the country roots that made her Taylor Swift but no matter what, critics and fans alike can’t get enough of all that is T. Swift.
The album was inspired by Swift’s birth year and contains 13 songs, which just happens to be her favorite number. The deluxe album is available at Target, which contains three bonus tracks—“Wonderland,” “You Are In Love,” and “New Romantics”. The deluxe album also features three songwriting voice memos—“I Know Places,” “I Wish You Would,” and “Blank Space”—which are personal audio recordings that have never been revealed, and take a look at Swift’s songwriting process.
1989 contains Swift’s most personal lyrics yet; fans and critics alike are praising Swift for her musical change, poignant lyrics, and dedication to her fan base. Before the album was released Taylor announced to on air with Ryan Seacrest her favorite lyrics from 1989.
“I have so many different favorite lyrics from this new album, but if I had pick a line I’d probably pick the line from a song called ‘Clean’ that says, ‘when I was drowning, that’s when I could finally breathe,’” said Swift.
1989 sales are expected to reach 900,000 copies in its first week, meaning that only 100,000 more copies would need to be sold in the last eight weeks of the year for her album to go platinum. By this point last year the RIAA had certified five new platinum albums, and so far this year there are none. That means 1989 has the potential to be the only album that went platinum in 2014.
Not only does 1989 have a shot at going platinum, but every single that Swift has released this year has topped the charts. “Shake It Off” hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. “Out of the Woods” hit number one on the digital downloads charts. Swift even topped the Canadian iTunes charts with an accidentally released track that was literally only eight seconds of static. Swifties will do just about anything for their queen.
And Swift will do just about anything for her fans. Before the album was released, Swift handpicked super fans off of social media to get the ultimate meet and greet experience. She held secret listening sessions in Los Angeles, New York City, Nashville, and Rhode Island, as well as in London and Paris.
These secret sessions were top secret. Swift invited the fans into her home, made them cookies, played the entire album for them, and then took individual Polaroid’s with each fan. Fans met her parents and were even allowed to play with Swift’s cats, Meredith Grey and Olivia Benson, whom were named after the Grey’s Anatomy and Law & Order: SVU actresses, because Swift prefers to name her pets after “strong, complex, independent women.”
One Lasell student was actually lucky enough to attend one of these secret sessions. Emily Minerowicz, junior at Lasell, attended the Rhode Island listening party in early October at Swift’s waterfront mansion in Westerly, Rhode Island.
“Being a part of the secret session felt so unreal. It was like the ultimate experience to have with Taylor, being able to listen to the whole album with her,” said Minerowicz. “I was sitting right in front of her inches away when she was playing the album and she would sing along and dance to it.”
Minerowicz noted that both her and her sister attended the secret session, and have attended all of Swift’s concerts and events together.
“It was such a great experience. I still can’t believe that it actually happened to me…I’ve had so many dreams about meeting her, and then it finally happened.”
Fans who attended the secret sessions received 1989 tote bags, t-shirts, calendars, a key chain, and most importantly, a Polaroid with Taylor! Swift shows the ultimate dedication to her fans by inviting them into her home and taking the idea of a meet and greet to a new level.
In the event that fans haven’t figured it out yet, the iTunes version of 1989 came with a digital booklet that contains personal photos of Swift from her childhood, as well as the lyrics to all of her songs. Oh and all of the lowercase letters in the lyrics spell out a secret story from Swift to her fans. You know, in case she wasn’t amazing enough as it is.