In a surprise appearance on Good Morning America earlier this month, Taylor Swift announced that the rework of her 2008 single “Love Story” would be released on Feb. 12. The song has been re-recorded by Swift to reflect a more mature sound and will be renamed “Love Story: Taylor’s Version.” In an announcement posted to social media, Swift also revealed that an entirely re-recorded version of her album “Fearless,” also featuring several previously unreleased tracks, will be released on April 9.
Swift isn’t a stranger to surprise announcements, as this one comes just two months after the release of her latest album, “Evermore.” “Evermore” is the sister album to “Folklore,” which Swift also released in 2020 with little promotion beforehand. Although Swift had a busy year, it doesn’t seem like she will be letting up any time soon, as she gears up to re-release her entire body of work in the coming months.
Swift’s ongoing feud with Scott Borchetta (CEO of Big Machine Records) and Scooter Braun (an entrepreneur who bought Swift’s body of work from Big Machine) over the ownership of her music sparked her idea to re-record “Fearless.” In the summer of 2019, Swift wrote a personal essay expressing her disappointment with the greed of Big Machine Records and her frustrations with her lack of personal stake in her own music. In August of that year, alongside the release of her first independent album, “Lover,” Swift publicly announced during an interview that she intended to re-record her first six albums to regain autonomy of her music. Swift has never been reluctant to express dissatisfaction with the music industry — dating back to her 2014 essay critiquing Spotify, which caused the company to take action by changing their policy regarding payment for artists.
The re-recording of “Love Story” was first teased in December 2020, during a Match.com commercial starring Swift and friend Ryan Reynolds. In a tweet, Swift thanked Reynolds for using her song, but told fans that she was still “working hard to get the music to you soon!!” Since then, Swift has remained quiet about the re-recordings until her recent Good Morning America appearance.
In addition to the song, Swift also released a lyric video for “Love Story: Taylor’s Version.” The video features pictures of Swift on tour with fans during her “Fearless” era, ending with the message “with love to all of my fans,” signaling her emotional connection to that era.
In her social media announcement Swift stated, “I’ve spoken a lot about why I’m remaking my first six albums, but the way I’ve chosen to do this will hopefully illuminate where I’m coming from.” Swift continued, “artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work.”
The lyric video documents her personal experience with her “Fearless” era through the pictures and videos. As she releases more music from her version of “Fearless” and her other albums, it seems that her fans will be the focus of each project.
Throughout her career, Swift’s versatility as an artist and businesswoman has set her apart from other musicians. Her idea to re-record and re-release her music as a way to regain artistic freedom and ownership is revolutionary and will surely inspire many other musicians to reclaim their work. Swift has demonstrated yet again that she is one of the most influential and innovative artists in the music industry.
