By Lexy Perez

Arts and Entertainment Assistant

Rating: 5/5

Thanks to Taylor Swift, I now want to live in her eccentric, dance party pop universe that she has created in her new 80’s inspired techno album, “1989.”

With the release of her fifth studio album, Swift departed from her image as a country music sweetheart, singing about the fairy-tale love she hoped would enter her life, to a now full-fledged pop singer ready to tackle the world, one head bob at a time to her new “sick beats.”

It surprises no one that Swift became the ultimate “girl’s girl,” singing melodies that reflect the experiences and diary pages of what seems to be every girl in the country. Swift’s past albums consistently conspired of tunes outlining the loss of yet another love gone wrong, seeming as if a cult of girls were assembled and ready to fight in the battlefield of love.

With “1989,” Swift attempts to take an alternate approach with depicting herself. She is no longer that girl who is an expert on battling the ruthless game of love, but rather a woman who is comfortable enough to acknowledge that she is simply an outsider learning to navigate the world all with emerging confidence. The game of love is ruthless, but now the game of life is the most fun battle of it all.

While the sound of this album is a departure from her signature country roots, a Taylor Swift album wouldn’t be a Taylor Swift album if it didn’t outline her experiences with love and life. It can be assumed that songs such as, “Style,” “Out of the Woods” and “All You Had to Do Was Stay,” are odes to her ex-boyfriend, Harry Styles from One Direction. Before assuming that she’s releasing a compilation of yet more cliché heartbreak formulaic songs, the important thing to note about this album is the level of maturity.

Swift is no longer yearning for that “fairy-tale” romance and why love can’t seem to go her way, but rather acknowledges that the reality of life is a far cry from a fairy tale. When listening to this album, it is clear of the message that she is trying to convey: Having a great love doesn’t define your happiness in life; rather, you yourself define your own happiness, so why not go out and live a life for yourself?

Songs such as, “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space” are Swift’s messages to the public that she understands her false stereotype as a man-hating, insane ex-girlfriend and will laugh with us, proving she is not one to allow any criticism to make her belittle herself.

Swift emphasizes that not everyone is going to be your friend in her almost “Hollaback Girl”-inspired anthem “Bad Blood,” but that it’s okay, because you keep moving on with your life despite the sticks and stones that are thrown at you along the way. In her opening track, “Welcome to New York,” she urges everyone to take a risk as she did with moving to New York, for a change is the start of a new adventure.

“1989” is an album that embodies the idea to live a life for yourself despite the hardships and criticism that can come with it. This album marks a new chapter for Swift as she was once the girl that taught everyone that it’s okay to believe in love and to now learn that it’s okay to be yourself.