By Ella Canavan
Notre Dame '21
In August 2019, due to her record deal ending with Big Machine Records, Taylor Swift announced that she would be re-recording and re-releasing her first six albums. Because of her deal with Big Machine Records, Swift only earns a percentage of the money that her music earns, and after the deal ended, was no longer able to approve that her music be used in other creative ways, such as movies or tv shows. Not only did Swift not get full creative rights after leaving Big Machine Records to sign with Universal Music Group, her work also ended up being sold to Scooter Braun, a big music executive and manager. Swift has opened up many times about the fact that Braun bullied her throughout her many years in the music industry. When learning that not only would she be unable to have ownership over her own work, but that Scooter Braun was the one who would, Swift attempted to get her albums back. Big Machine Records was quick to shoot her down and told Swift that she would only be able to get her albums back if she re-signed with the record, and even then she would only be able to get back one album at a time, for every new album that she produced for the record. The record also told Swift that she was no longer allowed to perform any of the music from her older albums, or post them anywhere online. Swift then decided after hearing this infuriating news, that she wasn’t going to be pushed around, and announced her plan to re-record so that she had rightful ownership of all 6 albums, and creative freedom over when and where they are performed or used.
Taylor Swift standing up for her work and herself, all while constantly in the public eye, is an inspiration to all. Swift showed her fans that she wasn’t going to be pushed around anymore by Scooter Braun, and she definitely wasn’t going to let him benefit so greatly from all her talent and hard work. Swift continues to be a leader and role model to girls everywhere, defying the odds to get what's rightfully hers.
Now, in April 2021, Taylor Swift has blessed the world with not only all 19 songs from her original Fearless album, but also 6 new songs that she recorded at the time, but didn’t make the album, known as songs ``from the vault.” This album has only been out for a few weeks, and has already shattered records. The most famed record recently broken by Swift, is one long held by The Beatles for having 3 number 1 albums in the shortest amount of time. Swifties everywhere are overjoyed with reliving hearing those 19 Fearless songs again for the first time that we all fell in love with in 2008, myself included. Looking to the next 5 albums, Swift has not made any official announcements of when these will be released or in what order, but fans everywhere are attempting to read between the lines to crack her famed “easter eggs,” anxiously awaiting what will come next.
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