By Katie Seaman

Who doesn’t love a great dance song? These days, everybody from kids to adults, girls to boys, and even your local police officers seem to be shake, shake, shaking it off to Taylor Swift’s hit album, 1989.

It is risky for any artist to make a break from his or her core audience. Some would even say it is ill advised, but not for Taylor; she hit a home run with this album. The newly turned pop singer slowly started leaning into a new genre with her previous album, Red, with songs such as “I Knew You Were Trouble” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” long before she actually took the leap of faith. Swift’s new album is much more diverse than her previous albums, captivating people worldwide. In essence, she is setting herself up for a longer career than music lovers originally thought based on her versatility.

When announcing the album, Swift made sure all of her fans, and everyone around the world knew she was officially breaking up with country music and making her debut into the pop world.

Even though Swift is no longer a country singer, she is still the same songwriter we’ve all grown to love. The songs on her album still revolve around past relationships, love, and the media. She mainly makes references to ex-boyfriend, Harry Styles from One Direction. There’s even a song that points to old friend, Katy Perry. In the song, “Bad Blood,” her lyrics “Did you think we’d be fine? Still got scars on my back from your knife,” clearly point to Katy Perry and the feud between the two ladies. In the song, “Blank Space,” her lyrics “Got a long list of ex-lovers they’ll tell you I’m insane cause’ you know I love the players and you love the game,” is Swift’s way of standing up to the media and tabloids for the constant, unwanted opinions on her love life. In the song, “Style,” her lyrics “You got that James Dean day dream look in your eyes and I got that red lip classic thing you like,” are clearly pointing to ex, Harry Styles. These are just three of the thirteen songs Swift uses in her new album to strike back at all of her “haters.”

With this album still revolving around love and relationships some might ask, what’s so different? There are tons of differences. In past albums there were always guitars, drums, violins, mandolins, and acoustics. There’s not even one live drum on this new album. Swift and her team decided to take a whole new approach this time around using drum programming, pulsating bass and synthesizers, making this whole album more electronic than any of her previous albums. Swift is growing up, and it shows more than ever on this album.

Swift is currently making her way around the world on her 1989 tour. She is visiting multiple cities around the world and other countries such as Japan, Canada, and Ireland. She will be in Miami on October 27th and then make her way to Tampa on October 31st later this year. If any music lovers want to jump on the bandwagon and shake, shake, shake it off with Swift and her fans, check out the link below: http://taylorswift.com/events

Images and music are property of Big Machine Records.