Born Dec. 13, 1989.
Youngest recipient of the Grammy Album of the Year Award.
Seven-time Grammy Award winner.
One million copies sold in the first week for two different albums.
With such success from a young age, singer Taylor Swift is expected to continue creating quality music.
To the disappointment of her fans, Swift released her new cliché pop soundtrack “1989” on Oct. 27.
Not only has her hair changed, but the album brought a whole new sound contrary to her old country style.
The first song from the album is “Welcome to New York.” This song features the phrase “Welcome to New York” six times in every chorus.
Students at Blue Valley shared their thoughts about the artist’s repetitive lyrics.
“The old Taylor Swift was much more relatable to listen to,” junior Anna Arends said. “Now it’s just cheesy pop lyrics with auto-tuned vocals that take away the innocence of her voice and lyrics.”
Different students at BV deemed all 13 songs from “1989” to be filled with uninspired pop lyrics.
Junior Madison Doherty said she used to look forward to the new songs Swift wrote.
“Choosing a favorite song now from the album is really hard because every song sounds the same, and they aren’t even good,” she said.
Old Swift fans fell in love with the curly-haired country singer who wrote songs about old breakups and family. The new straight-haired pop singer now writes about old boyfriends from years ago and going to New York.
Doherty said she and her friends have compared Swift to pop musician Miley Cyrus. She said they talk about how Cyrus had a successful album that was different from her prior Hannah Montana sound.
“Taylor tried to change her sound like Miley Cyrus did, but all of [Swift’s] songs sound immature,” Doherty said. “I actually liked the ‘Bangerz’ album, unlike the new ‘1989’ album.”
Despite the reviews of the lyrics, “Shake It Off” is often played on radio stations and Doherty’s phone.
“Even though the song is really bad, it gets stuck in your head,” she said. “I end up playing the song a lot because I think her music is a joke now.”
After the release of “1989,” Swift decided to remove all of her songs and albums from Spotify.
Spotify is a commonly used free web player for millions of songs with advertisements, but for non-advertisement use, it costs $9.99 a month.
Swift argued in an editorial for the Washington Post she does not want to put all of her work out in the world for free because it does not compensate enough for the creators of the music.
“As someone who uses Spotify every day, it’s a little upsetting that she took them down,” senior Sarani Pachalla said. “Though, I never really listened to her music.”
There is no doubt about how much attention this album has brought, but the reaction others have will control Swift’s success, Doherty said.
“I guess, in time, we will see if her new sound attracts more people,” she said. “But for now, I’m not a fan.”
