“For life, for you, for the fact that I get to reclaim my work. Thank you a million times, for the memories that break our fall,” said singer Taylor Swift in an Instagram post depicting the release of ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’.
Swift has been adored worldwide since 2006, releasing ten albums and three rerecordings with another coming in October. But why is she recording albums she’s already released? What’s the difference between now and then?
First, let’s dive into Taylor’s version of Taylor’s Version. In an interview with Seth Myers in 2021, she stated that most of the world’s favorite music artists do not own their work. But if they don’t own their work, who does?
It’s typically the production company or record label. By signing a deal with Big Machine Records when she was 15, Swift gives them the ability to do whatever they please to her music. Advertise it anywhere, change it, withhold it, all of it.
After thirteen years, in 2018, Swift’s favorite and lucky number, she parted ways with Big Machine Records and signed with Republic Records.
Even while overjoyed with her new signing, the clouds quickly came in. In 2020, when a man named Scooter Braun bought Big Machine Records, Swift called it her ‘worst case scenario’. She has explained numerous times that she and Scooter never got along and that he manipulated and bullied her throughout her time with this very record label.
Inevitably, along with Braun’s purchase came six of Taylor’s albums and every ounce of ownership she had.
A year later, Taylor took the initiative and started claiming her master’s. Masters are the original recording of an artist’s work before it has been sent to the record label.
She rerecorded her second album from 2009 “Fearless” and released it in January 2021, later that year she released her fourth album from 2012 “Red”. In between those two releases, she put out “Wildest Dreams” as a single in September 2021 from her fifth album from 2014 “1989”.
Swift is still going, with her most recent rerelease “Speak Now” from 2010 and another coming in October being the full version of 1989 with numerous vault tracks. She will keep rereleasing till she’s claimed all of her remaining work.
Taylor Swift is currently on top of the world and hasn’t been very far off from it throughout her career. She continues to shock people with her lyrics, vocals, and dedication and isn’t going to stop now.
