How ‘1989’ turned me into a ride-or-die Taylor Swift fan

Confession: I never was into Taylor Swift until ‘1989’ came along and changed everything for me.

At 8:16 PM on Sunday October 26th, my pre-order for Taylor Swift’s album ‘1989’ was available in my iTunes library. I was going with my gut on this purchase, even though I wasn’t her biggest fan. Taylor’s recent singles ‘Shake It Off’ and ‘Out of the Woods’ had become two major guilty pleasures for me. Like, on the level of singing along to loudly when you’re walking to work and dancing across the street. The hype around this album had been extremely positive for weeks now. A million stoked fangirls couldn’t be wrong, so I followed my heart and trusted the Swifties with the $12.99 I had just spent at iTunes.

Within the first minute of ‘Welcome to New York’ I was throwing my hands up in the air and screaming along loudly to the lyrics in my bedroom. Oh hot damn, this was my jam! I tweeted, Instagrammed, Facebook’d and Tumbl’d all my feels as the album progressed. Oh, Taylor. TAYLOR! Girl, if I quit my job tomorrow to move to New York, it would be because you convinced me that NYC had been waiting for me all along!

‘1989’ is an absolute rollercoaster of emotions. I was barely hanging on for the ride, totally out of breath and ready to go again and again afterward. Like anyone else listening to the album, I mused about the stories behind the lyrics. +1 to Taylor giving a shout-out to all the red-lipped ladies of the world in ‘Style!’

When she crooned out, “Oh, it’s so sad to think about the good times” in ‘Bad Blood’ I don’t think there was a girl in the world listening who wasn’t taking a moment to reminiscence about what could have been with their exes.

The dreamy, Lana Del Rey-esque quality of ‘Wildest Dreams’ coupled with the forceful powerhouse that was ‘Out of the Woods’ locked down that the moment Taylor starts touring again; I’ll be there. I’ll be yelling at the top of my lungs with the rest of the TaylorNATION, holding a homemade poster in my hands and loving every second of it.

How did I get here? It’s hard to put my finger on why I was always kind of “meh” about Taylor in the past. More often than not, I think it was because she had started from country roots, which is the one genre of music I never really got into. Little by little over the years, she slowly edged into pop and that sat with me nicely.

I grew up on pop. I got pop. That genre has changed over the years too, but I still remain loyal and enthusiastic about everyone in that space from Britney to One Direction. Before long, I found myself liking ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ on Pandora and dancing along as Taylor performed ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ during the 2013 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

2014 has taught me to avoid being an elitist when it comes to music. Acting like I was too good to listen to Taylor just because she sang in a genre I wasn’t fully into was stupid. This was a girl who looked, judging from her Instagram alone, like she was a blast to hang out with. She exudes best friend vibes, genuine kindness and is naturally talented.

But maybe, just maybe, another reason why I had a hard time listening to her sooner was because I felt like I was too old. I’m 27. That’s not ancient at all, but it is old enough to actually be alive during 1989. There’s a part of me that does wonder if I’m going to grow out of pop one day.

It’s an unsettling thought.

But you know what? I’m 100% sure that’s not going to happen.

I was born into pop and I’m planning to lead a long and happy life with an iTunes playlist full of all these sick beats forever. Someday this album will be considered a #tbt classic and Taylor will have moved on to bigger (!) and better (HOW THO!!!) things. I’m already really, really ridiculously excited for what her future musical endeavors look like.

I’ll be blasting this album all week long and well into the rest of 2014 and beyond. I’m a full-on Swiftie now and it feels good to be here!

Image courtesy of taylorswift.com.