the monday roundup
it's all coming up Taylor's Version
Hi, happy Monday! This week is big - tomorrow night I’m seeing Patti Smith AND the new season of Love Island USA premieres. I am an equal opportunity cultural consumer!
In major pop music news- last Friday, Taylor Swift announced (via a letter on her website) that she purchased the masters to her first six albums. So, as of last week, for the very first time, Taylor Swift owns the rights to all of her music.
When Scooter Braun bought Big Machine Records (which at the time included the rights to Taylor’s first six albums) in 2019, Taylor went full mad woman/vigilante shit and pledged to re-record these albums in order to regain rights to the music.1 To this end, she released Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) in 2021 and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in 2023.
I am, through the good and the bad, a massive Taylor Swift fan. She has meant a lot to me since I was fifteen years old. So, when she announced that Fearless, my favorite Taylor album, would be the first re-record, I was thrilled. The rollout was so fun; it felt like hearing those songs for the first time. She followed this up with the most commercially successful re-record, Red (Taylor’s Version), and her eighth Number 1 hit, “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)”.
As the re-record project continued, however, it lost its steam. By Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version), it was clear that the re-recorded songs were going to sound the same [or - due to producer Max Martin’s absence from the re-records - in several tragic cases WORSE than their original counterparts] and that the added “Vault Tracks” were incredibly hit or miss [sometimes, songs are cut from albums for legitimate reasons!]. It felt more and more like a cash grab because, let’s be real, it always is with her. The re-records had officially reached diminishing returns.
In her letter, Taylor addressed the fate of the albums she has yet to re-release, reputation and Taylor Swift. I was surprised to learn that she hasn’t re-recorded all of reputation; I assumed she’d spent a few months knocking out all six albums at once then moving on. But apparently she hasn’t even re-recorded a quarter of it. Frankly, GOOD! reputation is less than ten years old and I can’t imagine how you could improve upon it [justice for reputation]. On the other hand, she has finished re-recording her debut album, Taylor Swift. And I’ll be honest, I don’t want it! I don’t want Adult Taylor singing those songs. Those songs are magic because they are by a teenager, for teenagers. However, next year is the 20th anniversary (omg) of Taylor Swift, so I can see her releasing the re-record at that point. She can’t help herself.
Right now, I do feel a bit like, “what was all that for?” Get back at Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun? Of course. Devalue the original masters? Sure. Raise awareness about music rights and ownership? Great. Sell albums and merch and market a world tour? Obviously. I’d always assumed Taylor would eventually buy back the original masters - money is no issue and the private equity firm who bought the music from Scooter Braun would surely love some good PR by selling it back to Taylor - so why not just wait it out? Because she’s terrible at waiting. And she knows she has an ultra-loyal fanbase who will buy and stream and defend anything she releases, so why not fill the time while she waits?
I’m happy for Taylor; I know it means a lot to her to own this music. She’s proud of her work and protective of her legacy. And she should be! However, Taylor has seemed stuck on and obsessed with the masters debacle since it began in 2019, and I’m hopeful that this really is the end of an era and the start of a new, different, exciting one. As frustrating as she can be, I’m always going to root for her.
Anyway, go listen to The Perfect Pop Song and arguably her best one, “Style (Original Version).”
Also, if you’re going to be all, “I don’t like Taylor Swift,” boy, do I have the mix for you!
Yes, I’ve been listening to a lot of Taylor in this past week. But I’ve also been enjoying new/new-ish releases from Wednesday, Lorde, Olivia Dean, Ben Kweller, Alex G, Laufey, and more! Would love to know what you’re listening to!
I am not going into all the details here- this is a good explainer if you somehow missed this entire ordeal.
Been listening to loads of Taylor this weekend. Honestly forgot I liked a fair bit of Speak Now and couldn’t believe the lyrics from the debut album were still in my head. Happy she got what she wanted all along!