1989 (album)

1989
Standard North American cover
Studio album by Taylor Swift
Released	October 27, 2014 (2014-10-27)
Studio	Conway Recording (Los Angeles) Jungle City (New York City) Lamby's House (Brooklyn) MXM (Stockholm) Pain in the Art (Nashville) Elevator Nobody (Göteborg) The Hideaway (London)
Genre	Synth-pop
Length	48:41
Label	Big Machine
Producer	Max Martin Taylor Swift Shellback Jack Antonoff Ryan Tedder Noel Zancanella Ali Payami Nathan Chapman Imogen Heap Mattman & Robin
Taylor Swift chronology
Red (2012) 1989 (2014) Reputation (2017)
Singles from 1989
"Shake It Off" Released: August 18, 2014 "Blank Space" Released: November 10, 2014 "Style" Released: February 9, 2015 "Bad Blood" Released: May 17, 2015 "Wildest Dreams" Released: August 31, 2015 "Out of the Woods" Released: January 19, 2016 "New Romantics" Released: February 23, 2016

1989 is the fifth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 27, 2014, by Big Machine Records. Titled after Swift's birth year as a symbolic rebirth, it was the album that recalibrated her artistic identity from country music to pop.

Swift produced 1989 with Max Martin, Shellback, Jack Antonoff, Ryan Tedder, Nathan Chapman, and Imogen Heap. Its 1980s-inspired synth-pop production incorporates dense synthesizers, programmed drum machines, and processed electronic backing vocals, abandoning the acoustic arrangements that had characterized Swift's past albums. The songs chronicle the aftermath of a failed relationship with lyrics that expand on Swift's autobiographical details; they depict heartbreak, recovery, and self-discovery from lighthearted, wistful, and nostalgic perspectives.

1989 was promoted with the 1989 World Tour, the highest-grossing concert tour of 2015. Seven singles supported the album, including the Billboard Hot 100 number-ones "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", and "Bad Blood", and the top-ten entries "Style" and "Wildest Dreams". 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 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 impact of streaming on record sales.

Initial reviews of 1989 generally complimented its production as catchy but were divided over the lyrics. 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, and her heightened fame intensified media scrutiny on her public and private lives. Following a 2019 dispute regarding the ownership of Swift's back catalog, she re-recorded the album as 1989 (Taylor's Version), released on October 27, 2023.