Taylor Swift's

Taylor Swift’s Quest for Justice

Swift seeks to reclaim control in her business affairs and in matters of the heart.

"Red (Taylor's Version)."

In the beginning of her career, Taylor Swift made gradual transitions from young country performer to international pop star. She gradually changed both her voice and her appearance, employing an approach that seemed to be more about personal traditionalism than genre adherence. Swift has always been a rule-follower—a conscientious songwriter with a wholesome image—which made her a type of outlaw in a brash, hypersexualized pop world (she didn't start cussing in her music until she was in her late twenties). She dipped a toe into modernism on "Red," her fourth album from 2012, which was her first. She made a homage to the aggressive and current sounds of E.D.M in the song "I Knew You Were Trouble" by included a short dubstep drop before the chorus. Although it was a subdued flourish by most pop standards, for Swift it was like an earthquake. She used sexuality in her lyrics for the first time in "Treacherous," singing, "I'll do anything you say / If you say it with your hands."

Swift also experimented with larger sounds on "Red" that worked better in arenas, where she had already started to sell out shows. "State of Grace," the album's lead single, is more U2 than Emmylou Harris; it's a dramatic song with colossal drumming and echoey electric guitars. Her voice also rises above the range of her favored conversation. She provides a brief statement of doctrine at the song's conclusion: Love is a merciless game, unless you play it well. It sounded like an innocent assertion, as with much of Swift's music, but it also contained a warning: follow the rules, she suggested, or else. When it came to matters of the heart, Swift was a moralist; if someone betrayed her confidence, all bets were off. She would respond with scathing lyrics to anyone who dared to hurt her, as many of her romantic interests seemed to do.

Swift's desire for justice has recently permeated his economic dealings. When she was a teenager, Scott Borchetta, the head of Big Machine, a little indie label in Nashville, signed her. She switched to Republic Records, a major company, after releasing six albums. But as she gained popularity, the value of her back catalog—which Borchetta owned—rose. Swift, the daughter of a stockbroker who reportedly predicted to her young classmates that she would work as a financial advisor when she grew up, made an attempt to repurchase the master tapes. In a Tumblr post from 2019, she detailed a vexing offer from Borchetta: if she went back to Big Machine, she could get her masters back; for every new album, she would get possession of an older one. (In a statement, Borchetta gave a different account of the proposal: "We were working together on a new type of arrangement for our streaming world that was more closely related to a period of time than it was to 'albums'.)

Swift declined the offer, and shortly after, Borchetta sold Big Machine—along with the six Swift albums—to one of her rivals, Scooter Braun, a music executive who had previously worked with Swift's longstanding foe Kanye West at the height of their dispute in 2016. Swift, who is a skilled storyteller, could not possibly have imagined such a treachery. She writes about Braun, "All I could think about was the relentless, manipulative bullying I've been subjected to at his hands for years." In essence, the fate of my artistic legacy will soon be in the hands of those who tried to destroy it. (Braun denied bullying Swift, adding, "I'm totally against anyone ever being bullied. Everything that happened has been incredibly confusing and not founded on anything factual. I constantly make an effort to lead with respect and empathy. Since then, he has sold the catalog to Shamrock Holdings, a private equity company owned by the Disney family.)

Swift, a fearless tactician, discovered a pleasing solution. She started rerecording the six albums last year. Her sophomore album, "Fearless," received a fresh recording in April, and this month, "Red (Taylor's Version)," was published. The goal of the new recordings is not to reinvent the music. Instead, with the purpose to replace the originals and therefore diminish their value, the records have been faithfully rerecorded note for note. Swift's huge finances and devoted fan base are the only ones that could make it possible for her to complete such an ambitious endeavor. And it's the kind of sentimental act that Swift seeks out—a backlash meant to punish her violators while bolstering her legend.

New cover art for "Red (Taylor's Version)" depicts an older Swift donning a subdued dusty red page-boy cap. The album's music is quite similar to the original. Like on a recording of a live performance, some of the instrumentation is a little more aggressive. Swift worked with brash pop songwriters like Max Martin and Shellback on the first version of "Red." Some of the tracks, like "Stay Stay Stay," had the sense of corny jingles, and Swift has taken this opportunity to make them slightly more sophisticated. This gave birth to some of her most cherished songs, including her first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." The new recording is nonetheless more of a facsimile than an addition. The record has a similar after-washing feeling to a beloved item of clothing.

If "Red (Taylor's Version)" contains any disclosures, they can be found in the previously unreleased additional recordings that Swift dug up from her vault. Phoebe Bridgers, a rising star in indie music, was invited to record alongside Swift for "Nothing New." The song, a somber acoustic single, seems more in line with Swift's most recent albums, "folklore" and "evermore," which feature folky poeticism, than with "Red." Swift and Bridgers write songs about how time is passing and how their relevance will eventually become irrelevant. Lord, what will happen to me after my novelty has worn off? Swift queries. How is it that at age 18, a person knows everything, yet at age 22, they know nothing? Swift's trademark wrath, which has since softened, can be heard in exciting bursts in a few of the new tracks. She returns to a favorite topic on "I Bet You Think About Me": the contempt she has for the arrogant, pampered guys she's dated. She sings, "I bet you think of me when you're out / At your hip independent music shows every week." In your home, on your million-dollar couch, wearing your organic shoes. The ten-minute epic rendition of "All Too Well" on the album is another noteworthy addition, for which Swift made a dramatic short video. She lets her scorn go on the lengthier track: "I'll age, but your boyfriends will remain my age." A decade later, lines that may have seemed unnecessary at the time become delectable.

Perhaps no performer of the contemporary age has a more instinctive grasp of pop stardom and its requirements. All the components, such as songwriting, music licensing, and social networking, have been perfected by Swift. She joined TikTok this year as part of her catalog-reissue endeavor, which is a requirement for an artist whose fan base crosses the millennial-Gen Z split. TikTok is renowned for catapulting undiscovered artists and tunes into overnight success, but it also frequently resurfaces classic songs in odd new configurations. Young TikTokers struggling with parental divorce recently were interested in the Mountain Goats' 2002 song "No Children," which later went viral. It was a wise idea to join TikTok as a marketing strategy. The platform wasn't as playable as Swift would have anticipated, though; it relies on chaos and chance. Swift's 2014 album, "1989," included the song "Wildest Dreams," which TikTokers began utilizing as the background for ridiculous movies in which they gently zoomed in on their own faces in September, as she was getting ready to reissue "Red." Swift posted her freshly recorded version of the song after noticing the buzz. If it wasn't Swift's original intention, it must have at least partially been fulfilled: using the platform of the future to reflect on her past.