The Story Behind “Taylor’s Version”

I’m sure everyone has heard of Taylor Swift. She is arguably the most famous music artist in the world right now. With currently 104.5 million monthly listeners, she is making history. 

With all of the buzz around her music and love life, you may have heard about her album “1989 Taylor’s Version,” which just recently came out on October 27th. She already had her album “1989”, so you may be wondering, “What is the importance of Taylor’s Version?” There is actually a pretty long story behind “Taylor’s Version.” 

Very early in her career, Swift signed with Big Machine Label Group. Between 2006 and 2017, she released six incredible albums, starting with her self-titled debut album, and then Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation. All of these albums were very different from each other, making them outstanding in unique ways. This is one of the reasons why she quickly became extremely popular and well loved by millions.

Of course, Swift dealt with many conflicts in her music career, but one of her worst obstacles sprung about two years after the release of her Reputation album. In 2019, a man named Scooter Braun, who belonged to the company Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Label Group, the group Swift recorded her first albums under. 

This transfer of ownership stirred up many issues for Swift. After this, Swift technically did not own her music that she wrote, sung, and recorded. There was unfortunately nothing Swift could do to get back her original songs. She was extremely frustrated at this unfair incident. However, she did not give up.

Though she did not own her original songs, she decided to re-record all of her songs, so she could release them, have rights to them, and earn money when her songs are listened to, instead of Scooter Braun. 

Before releasing her first re-recorded album, she announced, and shortly after released her Lover album in 2019. During 2020, she also released two completely new albums, Folklore and Evermore. After this, her long awaited first re-recorded album was released in 2021. Her first re-recorded album was Fearless (Taylor’s Version), and shortly after that in the same year, she released Red (Taylor’s Version). These albums consisted of the same songs, but re-recorded, plus multiple “Vault Tracks”, which were never before heard songs that Swift decided to add to her re-recorded albums.

Swift’s decision to do this was incredible. It gained her a lot of popularity, and it also showed that when she put her mind to something, she could accomplish it. After the excitement of her first two re-recorded albums, she released a brand new album, Midnights in 2022. Shortly after, in the summer 2023, she announced and released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).  This also consisted of every song re-recorded, plus her “Vault Tracks.” 

Her most recent re-recorded album, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was just recently released on October 27, 2023. This caused a lot of excitement. 1989 was an album that made Taylor extremely popular, and it made history. This is when she switched her music style to pop, and it was an iconic event that changed the music industry. This made 1989 (Taylor’s Version) an extremely exciting listen. All of Swift’s fans are thrilled with her re-recorded albums, and are already looking for hints to her next one. Reputation (Taylor’s Version) and Debut (Taylor’s Version) are also expected to be announced in the very near future, and will be her last re-recorded albums.

To make a long story short, there is a very interesting story behind why some of Taylor’s albums say “Taylor’s Version” next to it. So, next time you want to listen to a Taylor Swift song, make sure you choose “Taylor’s Version”!