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Post by Admin on Aug 14, 2014 4:22:11 GMT
Swifties, take note! Yahoo has an event coming up that will totally cap off your summer in the best way possible. On Monday, Aug. 18, Yahoo will host seven-time Grammy Award-winning musician Taylor Swift in an exclusive worldwide livestream event from New York City. You’ll be able to catch the action on Yahoo Screen in an event you definitely won’t want to miss!  Make sure to tune in to Yahoo Screen or GMA at 5:00pm EST / 2:00pm PST on Monday, Aug. 18 to join in. We — and Taylor — will be waiting for you, so don't miss out! Be sure to set your clock to be certain you'll be able to join us. yahoo.com/TaylorSwift |
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Post by Admin on Aug 18, 2014 21:59:02 GMT
Taylor Swift debuted single Shake It Off Monday during her live stream on Yahoo. But she had more news for her fans. Swift began the stream at the top of New York's Empire State Building, but made her announcements before a group of hand-picked fans.  Swift began the stream at the top of New York's Empire State Building, but made her announcements before a group of hand-picked fans. "I have three big surprises for you today," the 24-year-old singer told the crowd. She began by playing Shake It Off, the first single from her much-anticipated fifth album. Swift says she wrote and produced the song with Max Martin and Shellback, the team that created I Knew You Were Trouble and We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. Their goal, she said, was to created something that sounded "like nothing like anything I had done." The song's inspiration came from a lesson she had to learn over the past couple years. "People can say whatever want about us, at any time and we cannot control that," she said. "The only thing we can control is our reaction to that." Swift also announced her "first documented, official pop album," to be called 1989. She found inspiration in listening to late-'80s pop. "I really loved the chances they were taking. I loved how bold it was," she said. "It was, apparently, a time of limitless potential. … The idea of endless possibility was kind of a theme in the last year of my life."  Swift debuted the 1989 cover, a Polaroid photo with "T.S. 1989" written underneath. Each physical copy, she says, will come with a packet of 13 photos, though the photos will differ from copy to copy. "You'll get various different kinds of photos," she said. In addition, she'll continue to hide secret messages within the album's liner copy. Swift will release 1989 Oct. 27, and the album already can be pre-ordered through her website. A deluxe version of the album will include three bonus tracks that are "just voice memos from my phone."  Swift also revealed plans for The 1989 Swiftstakes — "It's like sweepstakes, but we made it annoying." She'll give away 1,000 tickets and 500 meet 'n' greets to her next tour. She'll give away a total of 1,989 prizes, "which is just 1989 with a comma in it." Swift's final surprise was the video for Shake It Off, directed by Mark Romanek, known for Johnny Cash's Hurt and Michael and Janet Jackson's Scream videos. The Shake It Off video features a troupe of professional dancers, with Swift thrown into the middle of the proceedings. It also has a group of fans chosen from Instagram, Twitter, fan letters and other places. "They have kept the secret that they were in this music video for two months," Swift said. |
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Post by Admin on Aug 20, 2014 0:51:26 GMT
 The just-released song, "Shake It Off," comes from Swift's upcoming album, "1989," whose title refers nostalgically to her birth year. Likewise, the new music harkens back to that era, with a shiny '80s beat that could have bounced right off of Toni Basil's "Hey Mickey" and a whole new style, at least for Swift. "Shake It Off" hasn't a trace of the star’s ostensible, original genre: country. It sounds more like a new Katy Perry record than anything Swift has cut before. Not that this star was ever exactly Patsy Cline. Swift has been steadily erasing even the slightest hint of Nashville from her sound over the course of her four previous albums. "Shake" completes the trend. It's pure Hollywood pop — glossy, brisk and aiming for fun.  The video has more going for it, with dancers twerking around Swift, thereby drawing a sly comparison between Miley’s mode and Taylor’s. Even so, “Shake It Off” clearly aims for the kind of candied girl-pop that obsesses so much modern teen music. Swift promises that the rest of the album will follow suit. That should only expand her already huge popularity. But we’ll have to wait for the full album (coming Oct. 27) to see if it does anything for her art.  |
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Post by Admin on Aug 20, 2014 6:15:53 GMT
 For the past few weeks, country-pop songstress Taylor Swift has been the ultimate tease, dropping hints via Instagram about what many guessed was her much-awaited fifth studio album. Well, the wait if over, folks! In a tell-all live-stream with Yahoo yesterday, Tay revealed that her upcoming LP is called 1989, which is a tribute of sorts to her birth-year and her first official entrance into the world of pop. What’s more, the now-not-so-country diva also premiered her latest Max Martin/Shellback-produced single “Shake It Off,” as well as the track’s rather dorky video, during the stream. :: The Guardian thought that the “Shake It Off” visual was not her best work: “The incongruent blend of modern dance, ballet, and breakdancing is fun, but the conceit falls flat. Taylor is a little too skilled a dancer for the comedy to really work, though watching her shake it in a Swan Lake tutu is nevertheless pretty great. That said, her twerking scenes — with closeups of the gyrating butts of anonymous, primarily black female dancers — come off as somewhat misguided.” :: Forbes predicts that while Taylor’s upcoming LP might be a late entry into the pop world, it will still come out on top: “Every August in an even year for the past several years, Taylor Swift has put a new album campaign in motion, so even before any of this was announced, the music world was buzzing, wondering if she would do it again. Swift is by far one of the industry’s biggest names and best sellers, so the timing of this release (in Q4) is no mistake. Expect this to become one of the biggest (if not the number one) sellers this year, even if it’s getting a late start.” :: Hollywood Life noted that “Shake It Off” will not only be a sure-fire hit, but it also has a clear message to all of the anti-Swifties out there: “Taylor debuted an amazing new diss song on Aug. 18, but this time her feisty message wasn’t intended for an ex-boyfriend — it was for all of her ‘haters!’”  :: NOISEY compared Taylor to that of a one-woman boy band, saying that while she preaches not to conform to the norm, she is actually doing just that: “She loves conforming, so you get a pop paradox, where in order to be as poised and successful as she can be, Taylor has to dumb herself down, yet even this she manages to do with a weird adorable aplomb. So congratulations Taylor Swift, you’ve done it. You’re a one-woman boy band. Can’t wait till you split-up in two years and your left arm makes a shit indie solo album.” |
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