Taylor Swift, the world-famous singer-songwriter, has influenced society with her re-recordings, also known as “Taylor’s Version”.
Swift’s re-recordings started when her music was stolen by Scooter Braun. In 2005, Swift signed with Big Machine, giving them the rights to the tracks on her albums. Swift owned the track rights for six albums in 2019: “Taylor Swift”, “Fearless”, “Speak Now”, “Red”, “1989”, and “Reputation”. However, in June 2019, she no longer owned the rights to her music because Big Machine sold her masters to Scooter Braun for $305 million. Swift was devastated when she found out through social media that her music had been sold. She attempted to repurchase her music, but to do so she would have to sign another contract with Big Machine giving them the rights to her next six albums–which Swift was not up for. In July 2019, Swift decided to claim her music as her own again: she would re-record the tracks and even add a few new ones.
Along with the newly recorded songs, the album re-recordings contain 5 extra songs she wrote in past years that didn’t make the finished cut for the album, which are called “vault songs”. Swift first introduced the vault songs with puzzles on Google. The puzzles leaked the names and lyrics of the vault songs, and were played by millions of Swifties to the point where Google “broke” because of how many people were solving the puzzles. One of the most known vault songs is All Too Well (10 Minute Version) [Taylor’s Version] [From the Vault]. In 2012, Swift’s manager said it would be ridiculous to expect a 10-minute song to make it on the Top 100 chart, so she didn’t publish the song; instead, she cut some parts of the song, released it, and it became a fan favorite. When Swift released the 10-minute version, Swifties went crazy, and it ended up being the longest song ever to reach number one on the Hot 100 Chart.
When a couple of Swifties were asked at random in the halls, it was unanimous that they all loved her re-recordings. One junior, Hannah Gray, described how happy she was that the re-recordings were being released because it was a way to show Taylor’s growth as a singer.
“I really like them because it gives people a chance to hear her voice evolve. And she also gets money from it too. Because before, the guy took all of her money from the original recording. So I think it’s good,” Gray said.
In addition to the rerecordings being a way to show her growth, sophomore Claire Michalak expressed that she loves them because Taylor can own her music again and make a profit from it, just like she deserves.
“I think it’s good that she gets to own her own music again,” Michalak said.
Finally, when asking the Swifties what their favorite Vault song was, we heard multiple answers. Grey had a hard time choosing but her final answer were songs from the albums “Red (Taylor’s Version)” and “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)”.
“So my favorite vault song would probably be Better Man because I love her country era. And then, I really like All Too Well Ten Minute Version and Timeless too,” Gray said.
Swift has come up with a fun way to drop a Taylor’s Version album by dropping hidden messages everywhere to let her fans make many theories about when they think the album will come out. These are called easter eggs. One easter egg Swift dropped to indicate “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” was coming soon was in her “Karma” music video, where Swift was standing over Roman numerals for 1989. She likes to give her fans a fun way to get excited and feel more involved. Another way of doing this is in Swift’s “Bejeweled” music video. Swift had purposely dropped a ton of easter eggs indicating another Taylor’s version was coming soon. Swift released the “Bejeweled” music video exactly 12 years after her third album “Speak Now” released, playing in the background was also the song “Enchanted” from “Speak Now” album.
As of now, Swifties have come up with many theories about when Swift is going to drop “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)”. Swifties all over the world have been watching her every move, trying to find as many easter eggs as possible to see if their theories are correct. Though Swifties have come up with thousands of theories, most theories have been through what Taylor wears. Swift wore snake-looking boots to dinner with Blake Lively on January 10th, and she also wore a very reputation-looking dress to the 2023 VMAS, indicating the re-release would be coming soon.
You must be thinking how boring it has to be to listen to her sing the re-recordings. But Swift is a mastermind. To spice it up a little, she decided to change some minor details. Usually, the changes in sound and quality are really subtle. One example is in the song “Dear John” on her album “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)”, in which the guitar intro is louder and clearer. In addition to these minor changes, Swift decided to also change some controversial lyrics. For example, in the song “Better than Revenge”, she switched the original lyrics “But she’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress” to “He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches”.
Now go! Stream the Taylor’s Version so there is no bad blood between us! And you bet there will be more Taylor’s Versions released soon!
