Taylor Swift took the world by storm when she released her first album named after herself through Big Machine Records in 2006 and grew steadily over the next decade. So with such a successful ongoing career, why is Taylor Swift rerecording her albums?
Let's start from the beginning. She dreamed of becoming a country singer most of her childhood and she was only sixteen when she debuted in the industry.
Her family moved to Nashville permanently when she was 14 so she could pursue her dream of landing a record deal. In 2005, while playing her own song in BlueBird Cafe in Nashville, Taylor caught the attention of Scott Brochetta who signed her for his own independent label called Big Machine Records. That's how her first album, Taylor Swift, came into existence in 2006.
After her debut album, Taylor’s next album Fearless came out in 2008 and she broke numerous records. While receiving an award and giving her speech, she was very rudely interrupted by Kanye West at the show which turned into a decade-long feud, both the artists bringing it up in the music that followed.
Taylor released her second country album in 2010 named Speak Now. She then experimented with her music and began dominating pop as her sound evolved. Red was released in 2012 and was immediately linked with many famous names such as Jake Gyllenhaal, Connor Kennedy, and Harry Styles.
As she saw success, so did her record Big Machine Records.
The owner, Scott Brochetta, was the one to spot her talent and give her the first record deal with her own songs. It seemed as if Taylor and her label had a good relationship throughout the years they were in contract.
However, it was slowly revealed that it wasn’t all happy families as it looked from the outside. Once Taylor’s agreement with the record label ended, she became more vocal about being denied her right to her own music. Under their contract, Red Machine owns all the master recordings of her music and will continue to profit from it.
In November 2018, Taylor announced that she was leaving Big Machine Records and signing with Republic Records and Universal Music Group, signing a contract that gave her complete freedom to own all her future music.
Meanwhile, Scott Brochetta sold Big Machine Records to Scooter Braun, someone who has a history of bullying Taylor. With the label went Taylor’s entire portfolio, and she was once again kept from buying her hard work and career back.
Taylor took to Tumblr to announce that she has been asking to buy her own records for years but Scott Brochetta maintained that she can earn one album back at a time at the cost of a new one.
After releasing three more albums, Lover, Folklore, and Evermore, Taylor announced she will be rerecording her own songs so she can own all the work she has done for the past two decades. To the fans’ excitement, she also announced that many songs which couldn’t previously make it to the albums will be released as well.
This has caused a ripple effect in the music industry. Artists are becoming more aware of how important it is to own their own music and how record labels can end up being conniving and cruel to them, exploiting their eagerness and passion towards music.
Her decision to re-record her discography received an extremely positive response from the public as well as other artists. Especially since she has been very honest and raw about the whole experience.
Taylor Swift has since released her own versions of her previous albums, which featured many tracks which weren’t released previously such as Mr. Perfectly Fine, Right Where You Left Me, You All Over Me to name a few.
In November 2021 she released her much-anticipated version of Red which also had the original, rumored ten-minute version of All Too Well which charted number 1 on both, the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, changing the landscape of music trends. The All Too Well short film was written and directed by Taylor herself featuring Sadie Sink and Dylan O Brien.
Her I Bet You Think About Me video was directed by one of her best friends, Blake Lively, and had the fans squealing for more. So what do you think about how Taylor Swift rerecording her old albums has affected music and the music industry?
