We’ve all been waiting patiently (and not so patiently) for the latest in Taylor Swift’s “Taylor’s Versions”. At first, these seemed to be just re-recordings so that the pop icon could own her own music. But, as each album was released, small changes to the narrative of the album keep cropping up, leading to growing anticipation over what Swift is going to give us next and how that might change the way we’ve understood the album and the artist’s narrative.
Swift is on a journey to rerecord all of the studio albums released while contracted to Big Machine Records. This process is necessary because her original 13-year contract (signed when Swift was only 15) awarded all of the rights to her masters to the record company and not her. After several failed attempts to buy back her rights, Swift made the decision to re-record, remaster and re-release all ten studio albums released under that contract.
To avoid legal challenges from Big Machine the new releases need to be different enough to be considered new. This comes both in the form of the title change to include “(Taylor’s Version)” and in some instances subtle instrumental, vocal or lyrical changes.
