Taylor Swift is, without a doubt, an absolute powerhouse of the music industry. Her journey to re-record her first six albums has overlapped with the release of newer music and I think we are taking her talents for granted.
In November 2018, Swift left her original label, Big Machine Records, for Republic Records and Universal Music Group. Fast forward to June 2019, and Swift’s master recordings were sold to Scooter Braun; it was alleged that she was not given the opportunity to purchase them herself. As of November 2020, Swift was able to start re-recording her albums.
Almost three years later, it’s easy to forget that Swift’s seventh studio album, Lover, was released about two months later on Aug. 23, 2019. It became the first album she owned since her first six masters were sold. While that release date had likely been set for a long time prior to the incident, Swift maintained her press events leading up to the album release and released the album’s third single “Lover” on Aug. 16, 2019. Swift simultaneously dealt with the controversy and released an album that had all 18 of its songs chart on the Billboard Hot 100, therefore breaking the all-time record for the most simultaneous entries by a female artist.
Unfortunately, Swift’s Lover era was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but less than a year after the album was released, Swift surprised the “Swifties” with folklore on July 24, 2020. She announced the album’s impending release the day before and suddenly there was a glimmer of hope in the gloominess of isolation. Just five months later, Swift once again caught everyone off guard by announcing she would be releasing folklore’s sister album, evermore, on Dec. 11, 2020. It was the perfect early holiday gift that no one knew they needed.
Only two months after evermore dropped, Swift started teasing the release of her first re-recorded album, Fearless (Taylor’s Version). On Feb. 11, 2021, she announced that the album was done and that its first single, “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” would be released at midnight Feb. 12. The full album, including six “From the Vault” tracks, was released April 9.
The gap in between Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) was about 7 months, but she didn’t leave the Swifties with nothing for that long. To celebrate the success of evermore vinyl sales, Swift released “willow - 90s trend remix” on June 3. The single “Renegade” by Big Red Machine (a.k.a. Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon) featuring Swift was released July 2, “the lakes - original version” came out July 24 to celebrate the one year anniversary of folklore’s release and “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)” was released Sept. 17.
All I’m saying is that Swift has been working hard to release a lot of music and it seems to be underappreciated based on the way people have been relentlessly asking her for the next re-recorded album on social media. Over the past three years, fans have not had to wait more than 11 months for new music from Swift.
Considering that, on average, she leaves around two years in between album releases, we all need to take a moment to revel in the latest music from Swift rather than sit around and complain that she hasn’t announced if the next re-recorded album she releases will be her version of Taylor Swift, Speak Now, 1989 or reputation. Let’s let her keep working on whatever projects she has up her sleeve and enjoy the excitement of the unknown of what she’s going to do next.
Tate Raub is a sophomore studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk more about it? Let Tate know by tweeting her @tatertot1310.
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