Why I’m freaking out about an album that came out in 2008
It might make me “basic,” but I’m going to say it: my favorite music artist is Taylor Swift. My favorite genre of music is not even country or pop, where Swift started, but her music is just so different from any other artist in those genres.
You don’t have to be an expert to notice that her songs are genuine.They’re written by a teenage girl turned grown woman and perfectly express feelings anyone could relate to or look back on her personal experiences. There is no indication of studio executives writing songs for her and imposing catchy lyrics that would sell.
That’s why it was so strange to think that songs written by the heartbroken teenager were not owned by that teenager, now a grown woman, but rather by a bunch of rich, old men at Big Machine Records, an independent record label distributed by Universal Music Group.
In June 2019, it was announced that record executive Scooter Braun agreed to acquire the record label Big Machine Records, which owns Swift’s first six albums. Swift has not explicitly stated why she has a bone to pick with Braun, but has taken advantage of her standing in the music industry to criticize its imbalance of power and argue that artists should own their work.
To, in a sense, take back what is hers, Swift has plans to re-record all of the albums she originally recorded with Big Machine Records, the first of which was released on April 9: “Fearless (Taylor’s Version).” Listening to it has brought me back to the time when the original album was released in 2008. I vividly remember sitting in the nurse’s office at my elementary school during recess while my arm was broken and listening to the album over and over on my Barbie MP3 player.
I had no idea what heartbreak meant and thought it was gross to have a crush on a boy, but the lyrics were groundbreaking for me—telling me that I’m actually way cooler than the popular girls in “You Belong With Me,” giving me advice for high school in “Fifteen” and relating to “The Best Day,” a love song to her mom any 8 year old could connect to.
Along with reminiscing about my childhood, the re-record of the album gives me an excuse to listen to it simply because it has good songs that I enjoy even now, as a 20 year old. Instead of making me think ahead to high school, “Fifteen” makes me think back to high school when it would be played on the loudspeakers on the first day of school. I can now drive while listening to the album and angrily screaming the lyrics to “Tell Me Why” and “The Way I Loved You.”
When I heard that Swift was re-recording her albums, I was expecting them to sound completely different, since she has moved away from the country era that “Fearless” started out in, to a pop era to now an alternative/indie sound.
However, I was pleasantly surprised that you can hardly tell the difference between the re-recorded album and the original. The only difference is that Swift’s voice has gotten so much stronger than the 18 year old just starting her career. While the singing in “Fearless” is not very challenging, her albums since have involved more and more high notes and belting, making her singing on the re-record sound effortless and more clear, making me understand lyrics I hadn’t before.
A pleasant surprise from the re-records is the six “(From The Vault)” songs, songs Swift wrote back in 2008 that never made it to the album. They go right along with the 2000s country vibes in the rest of the album, and it astounds me that she had so many quality songs that she had to limit what made it into the relatively long album. These songs bring the album up to 26 songs. One hour and 46 minutes of nostalgia and teen angst.
I don’t mean for this to make Miss Swift feel old, but being born in 2000, I don’t remember a time when Swift’s music wasn’t a part of my life. Listening to the re-records has made me want to listen to other albums that I grew up listening to that remind me of a simpler time and that can be of new meaning to me as an adult.
