Grace Bienstock ’26
Taylor Swift has been a pop icon since her first album was released in 2006. Since then, she has released 9 studio albums, 2 album rerecordings, and won a total of 32 awards for her music. Over the years, Taylor has grown a phenomenal fanbase. The “Swifties” have stayed with her throughout all of her eras, and they have been breaking down everything from her website to her Instagram captions trying to come up with theories on which re-recording is next.
But why is Taylor rerecording her earlier albums? Well, her first six albums were produced by Big Machine Records. The record company has full ownership of her music, and Taylor has no control over the selling of her music. When Scooter Braun bought Big Machine Records, he obtained full control over her albums. Taylor had no say in the decision and was not given the chance to buy her music. However, because she played a major part in the writing of her songs, she obtained legal permission to re-record her first six studio albums.
The first album she re-recorded was Fearless. A lot of people suspected that 1989 was next, but on June 18th she announced that Red (Taylor’s Version) would be released in November. Since then, Taylor’s fans built up the excitement for the album through social media. Shortly after Taylor downloaded Tik Tok in August, she unexpectedly dropped “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)”, causing an uprising among her fans on which album she was actually releasing next.
As planned, she released a 2 hour and 11 minute long album on Friday, November 12th. The track list consisted of 30 songs, including the 10 minute version of “All Too Well”. To go along with the 10 minute version, she released a short film starring Dylan O’Brien and Sadie Sink which told the story of a broken relationship from Taylor’s point of view. She also managed to get large scale companies like Starbucks and Sour Patch kids to market for her. Starbucks turned Taylor’s order of a Grande Caramel Nonfat Latte in the (Taylor’s Version) drink. Also, on November 10th, the Empire State Building lit up red and tweeted a picture along with the caption, “#RedTaylorsVersion”. Overall, the anticipation and wait for Red (Taylor’s Version) was completely worth it. Taylor Swift is a marketing genius that built her fan base from scratch because of her hard work and loving personality.
Border by Katie Nguyen ’23