2 minute read
Taylor Swift
WHATHE MADE HERDO
Taylor Swift re-records her albums
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After the year 2020 brought all of us an upheaval, Taylor Swift decided to make it her year. While the world was shut down, Swift decided to make the most of it and do what she does best: write music.
She surprised her fans with both Folklore in July and the sister album Evermore in December. Not only did Taylor Swift drop two albums within six months, but she also announced she was re-recording albums one through six. When Swift was a teenager she signed to a record label known as Big Machine Records, where she had a 13-year contract. Through those 13 years, she dropped six albums under them which include Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation. In 2019 Big Machine Records was bought by an investment company, Ithaca Holdings, under the man of Scooter Braun. With Braun buying out Big Machine Records, that also included masters to all six of Swift’s albums, leaving her with no rights to her own music she recorded. This means she owns the lyrics and melodies of her songs, but she does not own the particular version of her songs she produced at that time. Swift decided to turn this “worst-case scenario” into her “best-case scenario” by re-recording all six albums so she can own all the master recordings once again. Since the beginning of January, Swift has been dropping hints of when her first rerecord would come out. She let actor and friend Ryan Reynolds use a clip of her top charts hit “Love Story” in a Tinder commercial, which led to fans speculating when she would drop the rerecord of Fearless. Swift teased her fans with dropping one single, “Love Story,” on Valentine’s Day, and announced on Good Morning America she was releasing the full album plus six songs from the vault on April 9. Taylor Swift also didn’t forget to leave her mark at the 2021 Grammys. Swift was up for six Grammys but only came home with one win, which is arguably the best Grammy: Album of the Year. Swift became the first woman in history to win Album of the Year three times with three different genres of music. Taylor Swift is one strong woman who dominated 2020 and will continue to dominate in years to come.
Isabel Hoaglin, Feature Editor
