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When Taylor Swift announced, in August 2019, her “absolute” intention to re-record her first six albums, fans immediately raised questions.
Would she opt to make significant changes to the songs – their instrumentation, or even their lyrics – or would each re-recording simply be a carbon copy of its original? Which album would she decide to record first? Would it go in the chronological order of their outings? Or could she even re-release her greatest singles as some sort of biggest hits collection? Would there be acoustic versions? Piano versions? Remixes? Could we finally hear the legendary 10 minute version of “All Too Well”?
Some of those questions – but not all – were finally answered on Thursday, when Taylor announced in a post on her social media accounts that her re-recorded version from 2008 Intrepid – well subtitled Taylor version – would come soon. As a prelude to its release, the album’s first single, “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)”, will be released at midnight.
It may have been a little surprising, to those familiar with Taylor and her propensity for routine, that she didn’t choose to begin the journey of re-recording and re-releasing her back catalog with her self-titled debut album. It was probably what the majority of fans expected, but if the last year has taught us anything, it’s that some of Taylor’s best career moves are also some of his less predictable. The Old Taylor may have been killed in 2017, after the most tumultuous year of her career – but with “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)”, the pop superstar provides a symbolic basis for the impending resurrection of her previous ones. iterations.
It turns out that the new version of “Love Story” is almost indistinguishable from the original. There is a very slight variation in Taylor’s tone of voice, unsurprisingly more mature at 31 than at 18. There are a few examples of changing intonation, and some syllables are stressed where they weren’t before, and the instrumentals are crunchier. The difference, however, is probably only noticeable to those who have spent the past 13 years studying Taylor’s music in excruciating detail, and that is, of course, the point: in re-recording his first six albums, Taylor aims to decrease the value of their original master recordings.
The story of his battle with Big Machine Records over the rights of his masters is well documented. Taylor initially signed with the label when she was just 15 – but when the time came for her to renew her contract, she declined, announcing that she had instead signed a brand new deal with Universal Music Group. . Six months later, in an explosive post on her Tumblr account, she revealed why she was gone.
In the post, Taylor claimed that when she asked to buy the rights to her master recordings, Scott Borchetta – founder and CEO of Big Machine – refused. Instead, he counter-offered Taylor the opportunity to “win” them on the condition that she sign a new 10-year contract and produce six more albums under the label. She declined the offer, aware that Borchetta intended to sell the label, and she chose to prioritize the safety of her future work over her past. And then, in a move that Taylor called a “worst nightmare,” Borchetta sold Big Machine for $ 300 million to Scooter Braun’s company, Ithaca Holdings.
“Every time Scott Borchetta heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ slip from my lips, it was when I was crying or trying not to,” Taylor wrote on Tumblr, referring to the years ” relentless and manipulative bullying ”she said she had suffered. Braun and his famous clients, including Kanye West and Justin Bieber. “He knew what he was doing; they both did. Control a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them.”
Braun’s acquisition of the company not only meant that he and Big Machine had the ability to prevent Taylor’s music from being fired – it also meant that they profited every time a song from his back catalog was purchased. , used or streamed. In an interview with Billboard in December 2019, Taylor announced that she would categorically refuse any license applications for her old music until she was able to re-record and re-release it, in order to prevent Big Machine or Scooter Braun to profit from his work.
“Every week we get a dozen sync requests to use ‘Shake It Off’ in an advertisement or ‘Blank Space’ in a movie trailer, and we say no to each one of them,” she said. stated at the time. “The reason I’m re-recording my music next year is that I want my music to live on. I want it to be in the movies, I want it to be in commercials. But I only want it if I own it. “
So it makes sense, from a business standpoint, that Taylor started re-recording with one of his best-known and beloved songs. While her debut album may have been the start, “Love Story” arguably marks the birth of superstar Taylor Swift; after its release in 2008, the song became one of the best-selling digital singles in US history. In his most recent RIAA certification in 2015, he was awarded 8x platinum.
“Love Story” paved the way for Taylor’s journey from the little country singer to the living pop legend that she is today – one whose music is so precious that someone might think of paying $ 300 million. dollars to own it. It’s one of those songs that Everybody knows, and therefore, it will undoubtedly be endlessly broadcast and broadcast on radio and licensed for use in movie trailers, TV shows, and commercials ad infinitum. But if everything Taylor was pursuing with this re-recording process was a profit, she could have started with 1989, the album which contains “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space”, arguably his most successful hits commercially.
Instead, Taylor decided to take us back to the song that, for many of his oldest fans, it all started with. She wrote “Love Story” by herself on the floor of her childhood bedroom in “about 20 minutes,” filled with 18-year-old anguish over her parents’ disapproval of a boy she wanted out (but ultimately never did). It was written late in IntrepidThe process of creating the album was a last minute addition to the tracklist, but the song continued to record the trials and tribulations of the teenage years of countless fans.
“When I think back to the Intrepid the album and everything you’ve turned into, a completely involuntary smile creeps across my face, ”Taylor wrote in her statement announcing the completion of the re-recorded album. “It was the musical age where so many internal jokes were created between us, so many hugs exchanged and hands touched, so many unbreakable bonds were formed.
To fans who have stayed with Taylor in the years since, the announcement sounded like a familiar hug from an old friend. It resurrected a previously defunct Taylor Swift lore, with a message hidden in seemingly random capital letters spelling out “April 9” – the release date of Without fear (Taylor version). She revealed that the re-recorded version of the album will feature six unreleased songs written when the original was created, ensuring the same level of excitement that comes before Taylor Swift’s all-new music, although we’ve heard most of the tracks. countless times before. Even the two-month wait between the single and the album is reminiscent of a familiar pattern of anticipation we never experienced in the 2020s. Folklore and Always.
In short, with Without fear (Taylor version), it feels like Taylor is recreating the original’s release journey not just for herself, but for fans as well – and, at a time when all seems uncertain, the nostalgia that comes with it might not be. more appreciated comfort.
He did not escape the fans this “love story” begins and ends with the words “we were both young when I first saw you.” It’s a poignant sentiment for the countless fans who discovered Taylor through the song in 2008 and have remained by his side ever since. The lyrical video of the re-recorded version pays homage to this cherished relationship between fan and artist – a photo slideshow of Intrepid-era Taylor signing autographs and posing for photos with fans captured during a comically dated moment in time. (Borchetta’s face is blurry one of the photos.) After her release, Taylor liked a bunch of side-by-side photos from fans in tweets showing how much they’ve grown alongside her. The video ends with a simple message: “With love to all my fans.”
“I think it’s important for the people who support you, support you and support you in the world to know that you are thinking of them all the time,” Taylor, 18, told the Los Angeles Times. In 2008.
With “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)”, she proves that she still is.
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