"New Romantics" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift for her fifth studio album, 1989. The final bonus track on the deluxe edition of the album, the song was released to iTunes Store on March 3, 2015 as the fifth promotional single and entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 71 due to digital sales. On February 23, 2016, "New Romantics" was serviced to contemporary hit radio in the United States through Big Machine Records and Republic Records as the seventh and final single from 1989 and eventually peaked at number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100. "New Romantics" is a synth-pop song influenced by new wave. The song received universal acclaim upon release, with many critics praising it as one of Swift's best pop songs.
Critical reception
The song received universal acclaim from music critics, many of whom named it one of the bestpop songs of Swift's catalogue. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone ranked "New Romantics" as the second best song of 2014, stating "I have no idea why she left a song this urgent and glittery and perfect off her album, but geniuses are weird". Sheffield went on to rank it second in his list "All 153 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked." Pitchforks Vrinda Jagota commented that the song exemplified Swift's new attitude towards romance and heartbreak, as it shows that "your best defense is to channel the burning energy of your big hopes and desires into a night of uninhibited hedonism." Corey Beasley from PopMatters considered "New Romantics", along with the other two songs on the deluxe edition of 1989, more "compositionally daring" than the standard edition, and noticed its reminiscence to works by indie/electro-pop group Chvrches. In 2019, Rolling Stone named "New Romantics" the fifty-eight best song of the decade, in their list titled "The 100 Best Songs of the 2010s", stating that the song "is the type of relieving dance floor soul purge that the best pop can be". Rob Sheffield of the same magazine ranked it at number seven on his list of 50 best songs of the 2010s decade. In 2020, Glamour named "New Romantics" the third best song of Swift's career, adding that it is "one of Taylor's greatest, poppiest, danciest bops".
Music video
The music video for "New Romantics" was directed by Jonas Åkerlund and was officially released on April 6 as an Apple Music exclusive, and was made available on Swift's Vevo and YouTube channels on April 13, 2016. The video contains various clips of performances and behind-the-scenes footage taken from The 1989 World Tour. As of January 2020, the video has over 90 million views on YouTube and is the least viewed music video from Swift's album 1989.
Chart performance
The song originally debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 71 due to strong digital download sales on the chart dated March 21, 2015, but fell off the chart the following week. Following its release as a single in February 2016, the song also debuted at number 28 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart, and number at 26 on Adult Top 40, eventually peaking at number 46 on the Hot 100 becoming the lowest peaking single from the album. In Australia, it debuted at number 47 on the ARIA Singles Chart where it later peaked at number 35. It also peaked at number 58 in Canada, number 132 in the UK, number 30 in Scotland and number 12 in Ireland.
