On August 10th of 2023 Taylor Swift finally announced the re-recording of her most famous album, “1989”, that so many fans have been anticipating. At the 2016 Grammy awards, “1989” won Album of the Year as well as best Pop vocal album, as it punctuated Swift’s bold transition from country music to pop music.
“Surprise!!” Swift exclaimed in her Instagram post introducing the re-recording of the album. “’1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ is on its way to you soon! The ‘1989’ album changed my life in countless ways, and it fills me with such excitement to announce my version of it will be out October 27th.”
The announcement had fans thrilled, as they will get to relive the album that has changed lives in significant ways. Sophomore Jackie Eveleth shares her excitement.
“I am more than excited for the album”, Eveleth said. “Words can’t describe how happy I am. I knew it was coming but it’s so surreal for me because I grew up listening to that music, and the fact that I get to experience that all over again is so cool.”
Similarly, Senior Violet Doyle shared her thoughts.
“I love Taylor swift and I think she is such an inspiration,” Doyle said. “ I love her music, I love her character, and I just think she’s such an impressive human being. I’m very excited, ‘1989’ is one of my favorite albums, my favorite song is ‘This Love’.”
Many of Swift’s fans have a sense of nostalgia when they think about the album “1989”. With Swift’s main fan base being people in the stage of adolescence, the album helped many express and understand their emotions of young love, heartbreak, and the excitement and despair of growing older. Eveleth describes the nostalgia she has felt before with previous re-recordings.
“The first two Taylor Swift albums I ever listened to were Fearless and 1989 and she has already re-recorded and released ‘Fearless (Taylors Version)’. Listening to that compared to the stolen version of ‘Fearless’ brings me back to my childhood because I grew up on that. It’s so surreal.”
Swift has been re-recording her first 6 albums, which were stolen from her by her previous business partner, Scooter Braun. In November of 2020, less than a year after Braun had acquired them, he sold them to Shamrock Holdings for over $300 million, without Swift’s knowledge. Since then, Swift has taken it upon herself to take back ownership of her work. Doyle shared her thoughts about Swift rerecording her music.
“I think Taylor re-recording her music is good because now she owns her albums and I think that people who hate on it just don’t need to listen. She’s making money!” Doyle said.
Eveleth has a similar opinion about this.
“I think Taylor is such a savvy business woman,” Eveleth said. “It’s really cool that she is taking this initiative and that people are supporting her through her journey of re-recording her music to gain ownership. Obviously she wrote all of the music that she’s re-recording, but Scooter Braun stole it.”
In addition to Swift’s re-recordings, she also has a pattern of releasing Vault Tracks, which are songs she didn’t initially put out in the first release of the album for a variety of reasons, one being that a song could be thought of as “too controversial.” Swift’s five vault tracks that will be released on October 27th are titled “S***!”, “Say Don’t Go”, “Now That We Don’t Talk”, “Suburban Legends”, and “Is it over now?”
Swift herself has shown a lot of excitement for these vault tracks in her Instagram post introducing the album.
“To be perfectly honest,” Swift said. “This is my most FAVORITE re-record I’ve ever done because the five Vault tracks are so insane. I can’t believe they were ever left behind. But not for long!”
Doyle shared what vault track she is looking forward to most.
“I’m so excited, I’m excited for “S***!” Doyle said.
Eveleth agreed.
“I’m really excited for ‘S***!’ I cannot wait for that song and I already know I’m going to love it,” Eveleth said. “I am also really excited for ‘Say Don’t Go’ and ‘Is it over now?'”
Swift’s re-recording of ‘1989’ has brought emotions of nostalgia and enthusiasm, fans couldn’t be happier or more proud of Taylor.
