Capri Scarcelli
a&e editor
2/11/21
Taylor Swift’s love life is more pertinent than our own – and now we get the full, transparent story.
Releasing a statement on Feb. 11, Swift announced a revived, re-recorded version of her 2008 album Fearless, now featuring six songs never-before-heard.
“I’ve decided I want you to have the whole story, see the entire vivid picture, and let you into the entire dreamscape that is my Fearless album… written when I was between the ages of 16-18, these [new songs] were the ones that killed me to leave behind,” Swift wrote in a message to fans on social media.
After ex-manager Scooter Braun bought Big Machine records in 2019, he, in turn, was able to buy the rights to Swift’s first six studio albums. Without Swift’s permission, Braun sold the albums for over $3 million to an investment fund.
Since the master records are no longer in Swift’s ownership; record labels, commercial companies and television/film studios can use Swift’s music without her permission – making profit which she doesn’t receive.
This was due to the contract she signed in 2004, giving ownership to Big Machine in exchange for a monetary boost to kick off her career.
Firing back, Swift has decided to redo her records one-by-one to reclaim her work in a new light.
“The way I’ve chosen to do this will hopefully illuminate where I’m coming from. Artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work,” Swift said on social media. “For example, only I know which songs I wrote that almost made the Fearless album, songs I absolutely adored, but were held back for different reasons (don’t want too many breakup songs, don’t want too many down tempo songs, can’t fit that many songs on the physical CD).”
Now that Swift is in charge, music is being released frequently and without warning, leaving fans in happy tears for months on end.
Look at sister albums Folklore and Evermore, which were released 5 months apart from each other – full-length studio albums that most artists put out every few years.
Her self-publishing has produced a more honest sound; unlike her pop era, her new music, as well as her future re-recordings, will be filled with her mature story-tellilng, all tracing back to her roots.
“This process has been more fulfilling and emotional than I could’ve ever imagined and has made me even more determined to re-record all of my music. I hope you’ll like this first outing as much as I liked traveling back in time to recreate it,” Swift wrote in her note to fans.
Any true Swiftie knows that a message can’t be posted without some Easter eggs. In the message she posted on social media, fans could notice that everything was written in lowercase – except for a few random letters being capitalized. Put together, the capital letters spell “APRIL 9TH,” which is the probable release date of Fearless (Taylor’s Version).
Her newly recorded, tragic rendition of hit single “Love Story” will be out tonight.
