Taylor’s Reimagination and “Lost in Translation”
By now, you’ve probably heard about Taylor Swift's “ground-breaking” album re-recordings. Swifties—Taylor Swift fans—are beyond excited to listen to Taylor, now 31, recreate songs her teenage self wrote. With the release of Fearless on April 9, fans eagerly began to wonder what Taylor album would come next.
After the release of Fearless (Taylors Version), fans were very eager to figure out what album may be next. One hint some fans could’ve caught was a tweet about her love for her fans after evermore's return to number 1 on the Billboard 200 back in June. She ended the tweet with four red hearts, leading fans to believe Taylor was giving them a hint to the next album because Red was her fourth album, and the hearts were also red.
Swift released Red on November 12, along with a 10 minute version of hit song “All Too Well”. A short film accompanied the song, starring Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien. Taylor did not disappoint on that one.
But why did she suddenly decide to re-record all of her old music?
Scott Borchetta, the founder of Big Machine Label Group (Label), sold Label to Ithaca Holdings, run by Scott Braun. Scott “Scooter” Braun, an American media proprietor, record executive, and investor paid about $300 million to acquire Big Machine Label Groups, along with the masters to Taylor’s music in 2019. Taylor’s deal with the Label ended last November, leaving the rights to her music with Borchetta once she left the company.
Taylor did not know Borchetta sold her music to Braun, though. She wrote about him in a Tumblr post about the purchase in 2019, claiming Braun had bullied her for years.
graphic by mia wurster
Braun had managed Kanye West—who you may remember took the mic from 19 year-old Taylor at the MTV Video Music Awards as she was accepting the Best Female Music Video award for love anthem “You Belong With Me”. Kanye grabbed the mic from Taylor as she was giving her acceptance speech, saying he appreciated Taylor but Beyoncé had one of the greatest videos of all time. As you can see, Kayne may not be Taylor's favorite guy. Taylor also mentioned in her Tumblr post how back in 2016, Justin Bieber posted a photo on Instagram, Facetiming with Braun and Kanye. He captioned the photo “Taylor Swift what up”.
"When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them," Taylor said in her post. "Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter.”
Taylor signed with Republic Records in 2018, in an effort to keep the rights to her music. She owns the rights to newer albums Lover, folklore, and evermore. Taylor also owns the rights to newly released, Fearless (Taylors Version) and Red (Taylors Version).
Taylor has recorded two of the six albums so far, leaving Taylor Swift, 1989, Speak Now and Reputation left. Fans are highly anticipating the rest of the re-releases. Avery Bock, 9 believes Speak Now will come out next.
“She may release enchanted first because when wildest dreams went viral she released that.” Avery said.
Of the 60 students that responded to the Wind-Up survey, 30 believe 1989 will be the next album re-recorded, 9 believe Taylor Swift will be next, 15 think Speak Now will be next, and 6 think Reputation will be next.