In 2023, Taylor Swift is probably the most famous person in the world. The kind of famous where an appearance at the football game of her rumoured new boyfriend boosts viewership by millions, and attending a wedding in New Jersey brings out a hoard of hundreds to the street just to try to catch a glimpse. The kind of famous that’s currently blocking Martin Scorsese off the box office top spot in the US for a concert film of her current tour, the Eras Tour, that’s on track to be the highest-grossing tour of all time. And the kind of famous where re-releases of her back catalogue – the most recent being her 2014 pop crossover 1989 – elicit as fervent a fan response as an artist making a comeback after 30 years away.
1989 (Taylor’s Version) is the fourth of six albums Swift is set to re-produce and, for an artist who thrives on dropping hints, its timing feels, at the very least, serendipitous. Because as famous as Taylor Swift is right now, it didn’t happen in a vacuum – it all started with 1989.
Before then Swift had already released Red, scored her first Billboard No. 1, and won an armful of Grammys, but when Swift decided to commit to being a popstar, she went all in. She roped in the help of pop maestro Max Martin and started an ongoing collaboration with Jack Antonoff, and, outside of music, moved to New York and began working with publicist Tree Paine.
LONDON, ENGLAND – JUNE 27: Martha Hunt, Kendall Jenner, Serena Williams, Taylor Swift, Karlie Kloss, Gigi Hadid and Cara Delevingne perform onstage during The 1989 World Tour at Hyde Park on June 27, 2015 in London, England. (Photo by Dave Hogan/TAS/Getty Images for TAS)Dave Hogan/TAS/Getty Images
Taylor Swift loves eras, and 1989 wasn’t just about the release of the album itself (which came out nine years before its re-release, to the day) but about everything that orbited it. With her new pop sound came a new image, and those years gave us moments like the red, white and blue-saturated Fourth of July parties in Montauk attended by Blake Lively and Cara Delevingne and an ever-expanding squad of women that included Gigi Hadid, Karlie Kloss and Lena Dunham. The group were on stage with her as part of the 1989 tour and also enrolled into her army in the “Bad Blood” music video.