When you're 10 years past 15, singing about cheer captains and sitting on the bleachers doesn't have quite the same appeal, and so the Taylor Swift who showed up Saturday night at Heinz Field wasn't looking back much further than "1989."

The new album, named for her birth year, has sealed the deal on her pop conversion, dispensing with the modern country touches that once made her part of the Nashville scene.

Among the perks of being the biggest (and maybe best) pop star on the planet is that you can do whatever you want. Normally, an artist will play a half-dozen new songs, at most. She played all 13 from "1989," plus bonus cuts, leaving behind all but three earlier hits over the course of yet another dazzling, state-of-the-art, two-hour production.

She said early on, "I can tell by the three songs I did so far that you know every word to every single song."

The electropop approach obviously made for a slightly less organic musical experience than her last two stadium shows here. But if the 55,000 fans missed the old songs, it certainly didn't affect their mood Saturday night. Especially when they were accessorized with the wristbands at the gate that made the show glow with thousands of points of multi-colored light pulsing with the music.

They were beaming from the first song, "Welcome to New York," and so was she, in silver sequins and a purple skirt. "1989's" lead track, delivered with a Broadway backdrop, celebrates the city she calls home these days. The eastern Pennsylvania girl moved there for a little extra flash, which is suitable for the synthpop sound she's been generating with the Swedish team of Martin/Shellback as well as OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder.

The '80s influences are evident, one being Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy," which was played right before her entry (as her mom walked through the crowd taking pictures with fans). Also evident is the effect of Lorde, who works in the spare, beat-driven style heard on songs like "All You Had to Do Was Stay" and "Blank Space," on which Taylor dished one of the album's best lines from midway out on the catwalk: "’Cause darling I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream."

With the bracelets glowing red, to the beats, Swift first broke from "1989" with the "Red" mega-hit "I Knew You Were Trouble," reimagined as a slow, hard vamp and stripped of its sugary vibe. Later, she did a majestic "Love Story," messing with the vocal cadence over the same insistent, plodding beat.

Setting up "I Wish You Would," of "1989's" bigger stadium anthems, she talked about writing an album about love as a 24-year-old looking at love "from the outside.“ "I learned a lot about love from watching these incredible '80s teen movies like 'The Breakfast Club' and 'Sixteen Candles'." And, like in the song, there's some desperate rendezvous at 2 a.m.

The show did take a surprise country turn with Little Big Town trotting out to join her on their honky-tonk hit "Pontoon."

It led to her one of Swift’s intimate moments with the fans, doing a solo acoustic "Wonderland" on the now elevated catwalk. While up there, in a white jumper, she had a heart-to-heart with fans, telling them, "You are not someone else's opinion of you. You are not damaged goods if you made a few mistakes in your life. You are not going nowhere just because you haven't gotten there yet."

It introduced emotional ballad "Clean" that had the ramp raised and spinning in a circle, taking her to different corners of the crowd.

Back on stage with her dozen dancers, and in black leather, she belted out an angry "Bad Blood" and donned an electric guitar for a version of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" that had Joan Jett all over it. Taylor has never ever rocked quite like that.

Sitting at the piano, and laughing about the stage fog blowing in her face, she proceeded to dispel the "cliche that she only writes about boys and breakups." It's the larger idea of romantic things that interests her, she said, doing massive power ballad "Wildest Dreams" and then taking it up a notch with a U2/Coldplay-level tribal rock anthem "Out of the Woods."

For the unstoppably upbeat ending, her band kicked into the first single we heard from "1989," "Shake It Off," a dance workout that also has a laugh at her romantic foibles and highly public persona. You may have heard the fireworks and screams from miles away.

"Thank you for spending your Saturday night with us!" she said.

The pleasure was ours, as once again the incomparable T-Swift took her game to another level.

16-year-old Shawn Mendes, who just released his debut, "Handwritten," opened the show with a solo acoustic set highlighted by "Stitches," followed by Australian singer/songwriter Vance Joy, who had the fans singing along with Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" and his perky ukulele hit "Riptide."

Scott Mervis: smervis@post-gazette.com; 412-263-2576. Twitter: @scottmervis_pg

TAYLOR SWIFT SET LIST

• Welcome to New York
• New Romantics
• Blank Space
• I Knew You Were Trouble
• I Wish You Would
• How You Get the Girl
• I Know Places
• All You Had to Do Was Stay
• Pontoon (with Little Big Town)
• Wonderland
• Clean
• Love Story
• Style
• This Love
• Bad Blood
• We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
• Enchanted/Wildest Dreams
• Out of the Woods
• Shake It Off

First Published: June 7, 2015, 3:19 a.m.