After Five Long Months, Red (Taylor’s Version) Has Finally Arrived
Art by Daniela Brigatti
On November 12th, 2021, Taylor Swift released her highly anticipated re-recorded studio album, Red (Taylor’s Version), after announcing the project five months prior in June.
Red (Taylor’s Version) is a re-recording of her 2012 blockbuster album Red, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 album chart with a record-breaking 1.21 million copies. Swift is, notably, the only artist to debut with one million copies with four different studio albums in four different tracking weeks. Red (Taylor’s Version) also boasts a whopping 30 tracks, including nine “From The Vault” tracks that failed to make the cut during Red’s original release (some include “Nothing New [feat. Phoebe Bridgers],” “Run [feat. Ed Sheeran],” and the ten-minute version of fan favorite “All Too Well,” whose standard-length version lands at track five on the tracklist of Red).
Back in 2012, the release of Red marked a significant transition period in Swift’s primarily country-based career. With singles like “I Knew You Were Trouble” and the twenty-second birthday anthem “22,” Swift began to explore radio pop before fully diving into it with 1989. Red also marked her first collaborations with Swedish producers Max Martin and Shellback, notorious in music communities for their involvement in many of the most recognizable songs by artists such as Britney Spears and Katy Perry. But aside from the creation of immaculate pieces of radio-groomed dance-pop, Red also introduced Swift (and country music) to a new audience outside of the United States. The Red Tour became Swift’s highest-grossing tour effort at the time, garnering her the title of highest-grossing tour by a country artist in history, as she earned $150.2 million across 86 different shows on four different continents.
Nine years later, however, Red (Taylor’s Version) marks another significant career point for Swift, as 2021 marks her fifteenth year of releasing music. Red (Taylor’s Version) is the second in a saga of re-recorded studio albums, which have only reinforced Swift’s seemingly omnipotent presence within the music industry. Fearless (Taylor’s Version), which was released in April earlier this year, became the only re-recorded album in history to reach #1 on the Billboard 200. Red (Taylor’s Version), however, boasts a plethora of its own impressive chart feats as well. On November 21, 2021, Red (Taylor’s Version) opened atop the Billboard 200 with 605,000 album equivalent units (the third biggest debut of the year), and the aforementioned ten-minute version of “All Too Well” debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. With the debut of Red (Taylor’s Version), Swift became only the second woman in history to earn 10 number-one albums (behind Barbara Streisand’s 11 number-ones), while earning the “fastest accumulation of four no. 1 albums by a solo artist.” The ten-minute version of “All Too Well” also marked Swift’s eighth number-one single on the Hot 100 and broke the record for the “longest No. 1 by run time in the Hot 100’s history.” The popularity of these re-recorded albums is undeniable, but Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) ultimately leave their largest influence on the practice of artists owning their own master recordings.
In 2019, Scooter Braun acquired the rights to Taylor Swift’s master recordings, against Swift’s will. On top of not receiving proper financial compensation for commercial and private uses of her past work, the loss of Swift’s master recordings prevented her from controlling the use of her songs in other media, while also limiting what she could sing during public performances. For these reasons, Swift quickly announced her intention to re-record her first six studio albums in order to create new masters for her to own. “It’s going to be fun, because it’ll feel like regaining a freedom and taking back what’s mine,” Swift told Billboard in 2019. “When I created [these songs], I didn’t know what they would grow up to be. Going back in and knowing that it meant something to people is actually a really beautiful way to celebrate what the fans have done for my music.” The resulting media attention around Swift’s decision has highlighted one of the many serious flaws within the music industry, all while encouraging a new generation of musicians to take ownership of their masters early on.
Ultimately, Red (Taylor’s Version) is a testament to the importance of owning one’s life work, all while reminding listeners of the chaotic freedom that comes with being “happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time.”
Edited by Sha Frasier, editor of News
Cover art by Daniela Brigatti
