Taylor Swift and New Romantics

When Taylor Swift announced a music video for ‘Out of the Woods’ on December 22nd, we all thought it was over. The world decided Swift’s hit album 1989 had been exhausted after its domination of pop radio; a sixth single would be sure to close everything out with a bang. Well, we were wrong.

On February 19th, Swift tweeted a short yet electrifying message:

“I’m very happy to say the next single from 1989 will be ‘New Romantics’.”

Understandably, every Swiftie lost their minds.

‘New Romantics’ will be the seventh single from 1989, tying the amount of singles in this record with that of her previous album, Red. Seven is the largest amount of singles known to be released from any album. With five out of 1989’s current six singles having topped the charts, Swift is one hit song away from tying with Katy Perry for the most hit singles in one album. Can Swift emblazon her name on yet another prestigious achievement? It’s all up to ‘New Romantics’.

‘New Romantics’ is a bonus track from the deluxe edition of 1989, available only from Target and iTunes. Its lyrics contain a message about staying strong and positive amid tragedy, especially romantic tragedy, as well as a satirical point of view about love and life. Though the release date for its music video has not been announced yet, ‘New Romantics’ was aired on pop radio on February 23rd.

Swift seems to love breaking records. She just won three Grammys (Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Music Video for ‘Bad Blood’), giving her ten Grammy wins since 2008. She is also the first female artist in Grammy history to win Album of the Year twice. But beyond Grammys, she has won countless other awards: Billboard Magazine’s Woman of the Year (twice, and she’s also the youngest candidate ever), Time magazine’s Person of the Year and 100 Most Influential People in the World awards, nineteen total CMA and ACM awards, and many others. 1989 itself outsold Swift’s previous two albums, and held a record for the fastest reach of a multi-million sale mark in more than a decade, until its recent dethronement by Adele’s 25. 1989 is almost as popular today as it was at its release in October 2014.
The world’s millions of ‘Swifties’ await the music video for ‘New Romantics’ with bated breath. If both the song itself and the music video can measure up to the success of their predecessors, Taylor Swift just might add another award or two to her ever-expanding collection.