After more than a decade since Taylor Swift released her album,“Fearless,” the singer released a re-recorded version of the album causing many students to reminisce about memories of listening to her album in their younger years.
Swift recorded the album in 2008 ,” which won four Grammys, including Album of the Year.
Swift was signed with Big Machine Records at the time of the original release, which gave the record label company ownership of the master recordings for her first 6 albums in return for helping her start her career.
In 2019, Big Machine Records was sold to music producer Scooter Braun.
Braun sold Swift’s discography from 2006 to 2017 to an investment fund over a year later. After this second sale, Swift took to Twitter to write, “This is the second time my music has been sold without my knowledge.”
The owner of the master to an album controls where that song can be performed, streamed and used for advertisement. Because of this, Swift decided to re-record her old songs and albums so that Braun would no longer be profiting off of her success.
“I was really excited when I heard Taylor was recording her album again,” Emily Balda, a freshman psychology major, said. “I think it’s really awesome that Taylor is getting the rights to her own music.”
Swift first rereleased “Love Story” from “Fearless: Taylor’s Version,” which racked up over 59 million streams on Spotify. Although the song trails the original in streams, the re-recorded version is the first result when searching for it on Spotify.
Neel Ganatra, a freshman biology major, said he enjoyed both versions of “Love Story.”
“My favorite song off both the re-recorded and original album is ‘Love Story’ because when I need a boost of energy and good vibes, it really helps with that and rejuvenates me,” Ganatra said.
Ganatra said that although he likes both versions of “Love Story,” he has started listening to the re-recorded one since its release.
Other fans found themselves reminiscing about the original recording while listening to “Fearless: Taylor’s Version.” Anna Soltys, a freshman biology major, said she felt nostalgic when listening to the re-recorded release.
“It didn’t sound too different than its original recording, and it brought me back to when I first listened,” Soltys said. “I also appreciated how Swift didn’t attempt to grow out of her old sound, but instead embraced it and showed her love for it.”
Swift confirmed that she will be re-recording all six of her albums for which she does not own the masters.
Alexa Toohey can be reached at alexa.toohey@student.shu.edu.
