Taylor Swift addresses the haters, moving to New York and her evolving sound in a new interview with Billboard. Here's what we learned:
1. She is living life on her own terms now and no longer feels defeated by criticism and gossip.
"You know what? If you're upset and irritated that I'm just being myself, I'm going to be myself more, and I'm having more fun than you so it doesn't matter."
2. She said there was no underlying reason to move to New York other than she felt like doing it. Her song "Welcome To New York" is about the optimism and inspiration she felt when she arrived.
"I was so excited by the idea of embarking on a new adventure, and the way that that song sounds is basically mirroring that emotion, like, "Anything's possible here."
3. Her album doesn't have the "boycentric" songs you're used to hearing from Swift because she hasn't been concerned about having a boyfriend the past few years.
"So if there's a song about relationships, it's reflecting back on an old relationship and what I learned from it. I don't think anyone from my past or in my life will be really upset by this album. This is the most excited I've ever been about an album -- it in no way feels like, "Oh, this again..."
4. She decided to do a pop album because she gravitated toward her poppier songs and wanted write music that was different than her past work. She also didn't want to be disingenuous to the country world.
"But it wasn't until about a year in that I admitted to myself and my team that this is a pop album. We can't call it country; that would be the most disingenuous thing we can do, and out of respect for a [genre] and a music town that I adore, I have to be honest. I think being upfront with people that you care about is the most honest way of going about your life and your decisions."
5. She says she loves how pop music opens up what she can do with her songwriting, especially with hooks.
You can shout, speak, whisper — if it's clever enough, it can be a hook. Playing around with different sounds has been exciting as well — sounds from the '80s I was obsessed with, like, synth pop. I love the production of Peter Gabriel and Madonna in the late '80s, and Annie Lennox and Sinéad O'Connor as far as vocal styling.
6. She was inspired by the '80s because of how people were always trying to push the limits during that decade.
"There was a general feeling of intense optimism and endless potential, that really anything was possible. All those things seem to have incorporated themselves into my life in the last two years. I look at this album as me starting over."
Swift's new album 1989 is due out Monday (Oct. 27) via Big Machine Records.
Read the full interview over at Billboard, and let us know what you think in the comments section!
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