Taylor Swift's ascent to the top of pop music continues on her newest single from 1989, "Welcome to New York." She's already got the 2014 IRL equivalent to Lego Movie's "Everything is Awesome" with "Shake It Off"'s "the world isn't nice but I'm nice with it" message. In Taylor Swift's world, everything truly is awesome, even if some of her songs serve as a catharsis to lost and broken loves. Now she's ready to take on New York.
On "Welcome to New York," Swift's wide-eyed idealism is once again on display. It's easy to consume, and it's so, so good. Swift, who purchased a $19.9 million Tribeca penthouse in April, approaches New York with the kind of naive attitude that an NYU freshman from the Flyover States would have. She told Good Morning America her thoughts behind the making of track:
"The inspiration that I found in that city is kind of hard to describe and hard to compare to any other force of inspiration I've ever experienced in my life. I approached moving there with such wide-eyed optimism and sort of saw it as a place of endless potential and possibilities. You can kind of hear that reflected in this music and this first song especially."
That's cute. It's easy to write and record a song about New York with so much non-native love and life when you wake up every morning in a Tribeca penthouse. There's no need to worry about the transgressions (that's putting it lightly) of the NYPD or the painful and often ugly social underbelly of the city. This is New York, baby. It's where dreamers come to win and start anew. Or, where supremely talented pop musicians commoditize the brand of New York and sell its nicer, more digestible side to listeners. On how the city and the song itself has impacted her life, Swift said:
"I wanted to start the album with this song because New York has been an important landscape and location for the story of my life in the last couple of years,"
Stream "Welcome to New York" below.
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(via Tumblr)
Yet while Swift will have her critics pertaining "Welcome to New York" and the rest of 1989, she's not prepared to take the heat lying down. On Australian television today, she slammed critics for being sexist when discussing how her love life has impacted her music.
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Swift's ready to fight for her place within pop. Let's see if 1989 backs her up.
