Taylor Swift’s fourth album, “Red,” which debuted on Oct. 22, launched her growing pop image. Gone is the innocent, folksy style of “Tim McGraw” and “Fifteen.” Her new album leans away from the traditional country genre toward catchy tunes with repetitive lyrics –– and yet I liked it.
With each album Taylor Swift continues to develop her music, tone and style into what is now almost entirely in the popular genre. With every development her fans nationwide continue to support her.
One example of this sylistic change shows up in the song “I knew you were trouble,” which uses more computerized music than in her previous singles and makes her sound more autotuned. But even cynics who denounce Taylor Swift may find the beat and lyrics of some of her more recent songs a guilty pleasure.
At first the lyrics struck me as almost silly in their simplicity, but as I continued to listen to the album, I began to pay more attention to the beats than the lyrics, and they didn’t seem as ridiculous. For instance, the song “22” begins, “It feels like a perfect night to dress up like hipsters and make fun of our exes,” but after getting through the intro, the song’s upbeat tune was stuck in my head.
She, however, did not disappoint with the lyrics. They are just as catchy and irresistible as ever. Pop culture blogger, Perez Hilton says that her song, “22” will be everyone’s new favorite to sing in the shower. It’s upbeat tempo and fun lyrics are relatable for college students and teenage girls across the country.
Similar to her other albums, the lyrics in “Red” mostly consist of stories of relationship trials and triumphs.
In the song, “We are never ever getting back together” the lyrics may seem elementary and repetitive, but the public doesn’t seem to mind. The song’s lyrics include “I used to think that we were forever ever, and I used to say never say never,” and despite their simple nature, radio stations across the county have been playing it on air since it was released on iTunes, Aug. 16.
“Red” topped the all-genre Top Albums chart at iTunes within 36 minutes of release, and first day sales at iTunes alone topped 262,000 albums. Taylor scored 13 of the Top 20 songs on iTunes, with the song “Everything Has Changed” taking the first position on the all-genre Top Songs chart. Thus far, “Red” has sold 4.5 million song downloads at iTunes in the U.S. alone.
The Huffington Post projects that album sales within the first week will top 1 million, and if that is the case, Swift will be the first female performer since 1991 to achieve this twice, the first instance being her last album “Speak Now”.
