Fans react as Taylor Swift rewrites her history

Taylor Swift takes a ‘fearless’ approach after making the decision to begin re-recording her 2008 album. Although the album will be completed in April, on February 12 fans got a sneak peak of Taylor’s take on one of her old hits, “Love Story.” As the song continues to reach record downloads, it marks one of Swift’s first actions in reclaiming the rights to her music from Scooter Braun’s company, Ithaca Holdings. 

On February 11, Swift tweeted a teaser about her new version of her album, “Taylor’s Version.” This tweet included a hidden message of the release date, April 9, and additional information of six new songs to go along with re-recordings. Swift’s attempt to re-record her old albums isn’t new information. In 2019, Swift confirmed her plans reclaiming her songs after completing her hit album “Lover.” 

So what’s the point of Swift going through all the trouble of recording her old albums? Swift doesn’t actually own her master recordings of songs created before her album “Lover.” She signed a label with Big Machine Records, owned by Scott Borchetta, before it was sold to Scooter Braun for over $300 million. This deal meant that Swift didn’t own the first six albums of her catalog.

Swift highlighted that her success with re-releasing her old music comes from the support of her fanbase. Since the main reason for the new album is to diminish the financial value of the mastering records and reclaim artistic liberty to her original songs, she is  relying on her fans to stream the new songs over the original masters.  

“I love that she’s deciding to re-release previous songs because I feel like they’re truly hers now and she can record them how she wants. It makes her old songs even more special because they feel genuine now. I’m excited for her to release the album and to see what changes she makes to it!” senior Isabella Reyes said.

Many enjoy the nostalgia of Swift’s original songs and people are excited to hear the change in her voice and her growth as a singer. 

“I was very interested to hear how her voice would sound compared to the old one and was very pleased with the outcome,” sophomore Danelly Pena said. 

However, not everyone seems to be thrilled about the new version of her old hits. While Swift’s voice has matured significantly throughout the years, some people enjoy the original take to her albums. 

“In the chorus of “Love Story,” the original, I think it’s a lot more uplifting and powerful while the re-release is more soft. My preference is the original but the re-release isn’t that bad. It’s cool to see what would’ve been an alternative take on the re-release of her older songs,” sophomore Allison Landa said.