page_title: 1989 (Taylor Swift album)
section_title: Release and promotion
hierarchical_section_title: 1989 (Taylor Swift album) / Release and promotion
caption_attribution_description: Taylor Swift 1989 Tour at Ford Field in Detroit, 5/30/15
context_page_description: 1989 is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 27, 2014, through Big Machine Records. Taking total control over artistic direction for the first time in her career, Swift named the album 1989 after her birth year and took inspirations from 1980s synth-pop to create a record that shifted her sound from country-oriented to pop. She enlisted a production team composed of Max Martin, Shellback, Ryan Tedder, Jack Antonoff, Imogen Heap, and Nathan Chapman. The final product is a synth-pop album that incorporates heavy synthesizers, programmed percussions, and processed backing vocals.
  While Swift described 1989 as her first "official" pop album, some reviewers argued that Swift had always been more pop-oriented than country. While the songs are primarily about broken romance, a familiar theme for Swift, they portray lighthearted perspectives towards failed relationships, departing from Swift's previous antagonistic attitude.
context_section_description: During promotion of the album, Swift extensively used social media to communicate with her fan base; she had previously promoted her country songs online to attract a younger audience. Her posts onto her social media accounts included contemporary pop culture references in the digital era, such as hashtags and photobombing, a trick that further related to her core fan base while also attracting potential fans. From the view of scholar Sarah White, Swift's social media posts included basic level English and showcased personal aspects of Swift's life, which quickly made her a "celebrity-friend" in a parasocial interaction and helped 1989 reach out towards a broader audience. Music critic Randy Lewis from the Los Angeles Times noted that through Swift's reliance on social media, she cultivated a large fan base by establishing "Permabond-like" connections.
  Swift teased the album's release through her social media accounts beginning in August 2014. On August 18, Swift confirmed via a live stream aired by Yahoo! / ABC News that her fifth studio album, 1989, would be released on October 27. She also unveiled the covert artwork, which is a Polaroid picture with the words "T. S. 1989" written underneath. Following the live stream, Swift announced that she would distribute a total of 1989 "SwiftStakes" (a wordplay of sweepstakes) to her fans, as part of a competition. The winners would earn tickets to Swift's future concert shows or 1989-related merchandise. She also selected a number of fans based on their engagement on social media and invited them to her properties or hotel rooms for secret album-listening sessions, called "The 1989 Secret Sessions". The sessions took place in Los Angeles, New York City, Nashville, Rhode Island, and London throughout September 2014. Video footage of the sessions were released on October 16, a few days before the album's release.
  On the day of the album's release on October 27, 2014, Yahoo! and iHeartRadio live-broadcast Swift's final "1989 Secret Session", which took place in Manhattan. Both the standard and deluxe editions were released for digital download through retailer services globally, except in the US and Canada, where the deluxe edition was released as a CD exclusively by Target. Each CD copy of 1989 includes a packet of 13 Polaroid pictures, portraying Swift during the making of the album. Polaroid Corporation's chief executive reported that this strategy helped boost the brand's ailing sales. To bolster album sales, Swift had tie-ins with Subway, Keds, and Diet Coke. In August 2019, Swift announced plans to rerecord her first six studio albums, including 1989, in November 2020. The decision came after talent manager Scooter Braun acquired her masters, which she had been trying to buy for years, following her departure from Big Machine in November 2018.
  Swift made appearances on television and in live shows to promote 1989. She performed at awards shows including the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards and the 2014 American Music Awards, where she received the ceremony's inaugural Dick Clark Award for Excellence. Her appearances on television talk shows included Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Show with David Letterman, and Good Morning America. She was part of the line-ups for the 2014 iHeartRadio Music Festival on September 19 in Las Vegas and CBS Radio's "We Can Survive" benefit concert on October 23 at the Hollywood Bowl. She performed at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2014 on December 2 in London, and headlined the Jingle Ball Tour 2014, broadcast by KIIS-FM on December 5.
caption: Swift on the 1989 World Tour, the highest-grossing tour of 2015
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