Chart Rewind: In 2014, Taylor Swift Went Pop — and to No. 1 Again — With ‘1989’
Written by djfrosty on November 15, 2024
While it was largely assumed that Taylor Swift’s 1989 would have a big debut when it arrived on the Billboard 200 albums chart dated Nov. 15, 2014 — after all, she was coming off three straight No. 1 sets that had sold in the millions — no one knew just how big it would be.
And then … it exploded atop the chart.
After 1989’s release on Oct. 27, 2014, the project not only sold more than a million copies in its first week in the United States — 1.29 million to be exact, according to Luminate — but also cleared the largest sales week for an album in over a decade (since Eminem’s The Eminem Show debuted with 1.32 million in 2002).
“Another way to look at it,” Billboard further noted at the time, “1989 outsold the Nos. 2-107 albums on the Nov. 15-dated Billboard 200 combined.”
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In fact, in the 10 years since 1989’s arrival, there have only been three weeks in which an album has sold more copies — and two of those weeks are also by Swift: the debuts of 2023’s rerecorded 1989 (Taylor’s Version) and 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department. (The third: the opening week of Adele’s 25 in 2015, when it logged a Luminate-era single-week record 3.38 million.)
Swift called 1989 a “bit of a rebirth” when she announced the set during a livestream event on Aug. 18, 2014. She said that she “woke up every single day that I was recording this record not wanting, but needing, to make a new style of music than I had ever made before.”
She added: “And for the record, this is my very first documented official pop album.”
While that may seem quaint today, as the Swift we know in 2024 is a globe-trotting, stadium-filling, mega-mega Pop star with a capital P, back in 2014, she was following four albums that straddled the worlds of country and pop. She had reached No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart with her first four studio full-lengths, while also topping the Pop Airplay chart with “Love Story,” from her second LP, Fearless, and “I Knew You Were Trouble,” from her third, Red.
But with her decisive “official pop album” declaration, Swift was moving into new territory. Would the move pay off? Would the sonic shift influenced by pop of the late-1980s yield even bigger success than she had already experienced? Turns out, yes! The set spent 11 weeks atop the Billboard 200, generated three No. 1s on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, the most from any Swift album, and five enduring No. 1s on Pop Airplay: “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” “Style,” “Bad Blood” and “Wildest Dreams,” also the most from a Swift LP.
1989 would also garner Swift her first nomination, and win, for best pop vocal album at the Grammy Awards. Plus, it won for album of the year — the second of her record four trophies in the coveted category.
1989 arrived with a wall-to-wall promotional blitz and media campaign. During release week, Swift engaged with her fanbase on social media, heavily leaning into Twitter (now called X) and Tumblr to reach existing and newly converted Swifties. She blanketed terrestrial media during the album’s rollout, including appearances on the MTV Video Music Awards, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS’ The Late Show With David Letterman. She had promotional tie-ins with Subway and Diet Coke, while the album was carried in non-traditional sellers such as Kroger supermarkets, Starbucks and Walgreens.
Notably, 1989’s first-week sales were bolstered by its lack of availability on streaming services; a deluxe edition exclusive to Target, with six bonus tracks; its CDs being packaged with one of five sets of 13 collectible Polaroid-like images of Swift (with fans not knowing which set they would get); and a contest, dubbed the “1989 Swiftstakes,” whereby every purchase of the album through the final day of the set’s first week could be entered to win one of 1,989 prizes. (Such contests are no longer allowed to count toward Billboard’s charts.)
1989 has gone on to spend more than 500 nonconsecutive weeks on the Billboard 200, the most of any Swift album. It’s one of her 14 leaders on the list, the most among women. She boasts 12 No. 1s on the Hot 100, having tied Madonna and The Supremes for the sixth-best sum among all acts.
In 2023-24, 1989 has been showcased as one of the eras in Swift’s retrospective The Eras Tour. The trek began on March 17, 2023, in Glendale, Ariz., and is scheduled to conclude on Dec. 8 in Vancouver, B.C. On Aug. 9, 2023, during her final Los Angeles-area show at SoFi Stadium, Swift announced the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version). It arrived at retail and via streamers on Oct. 27, 2023 — exactly, nine years after the original 1989 was released. The rerecorded album continued the epic 1989 story, as it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, buoyed by an even larger first-week sales figure than the original 1989: 1.36 million sold.