Anyone who knows me knows that I am a total Taylor Swift fan. If I am being honest, I am listening to her as I write this blog post. Ever since I was little, I listened to her music wherever I could, on a CD in the car with my parents, or in front of the TV with my little pink guitar when she played an award show. The presence of her and her music has been a comforting constant in my life, so every time I stumble across an opportunity to talk about her I will. No hesitation.
Unless you have been living under a rock, you have most likely heard the words “Taylor’s Version”. If you haven’t, or have and what to know its significance, you are at the right spot. Let’s start with a little background. When Taylor was 14, she sign with a record label called Big Machine Records, whose CEO at the time was Scott Borchetta. After signing with the label, she put out her first six albums with them: Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation.
Fast forward to 2019. A man named Scooter Braun and his media company acquired all of the Big Machine Records group, meaning that he now owned all of Taylors six albums that she put out signed with that label. Oh, did I mention that Taylor had NO idea that this happened????
Taylor always wanted to own her own work (as she should) and she has been an advocate for that her whole career. She tried over and over to get her work back, even saying she would pay for it, but nothing worked. The next year, in 2020, Scooter sold all of her masters without Taylor in the decision-making process at all.
Here is where “Taylor’s Version” comes in. There was a loophole in her contract with her former label that said she could rerecord her music, ultimately returning it to her. So, in February of 2021 she announced that she would be putting out her first of six rerecords of the albums that were stolen from her, “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)”. Since then, she has released “Red (Taylor’s Version)”, “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)”, and she recently released “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”.
Taylor encourages her fans and those beyond to listen to the versions that she owns to emphasize the action of artists owning their work. I hope that after reading this blog post you are more encouraged to listen to “Taylor’s Version” and support the act of artists owning what is rightfully theirs.
