Taylor’s Version (and the Eras Era): A Memoriam
Part 1: The History
On May 30, 2025, Taylor Swift regained access to her master recordings, defined as “the original, definitive recording of a song or piece of music”. The whole journey began about 7 years ago on November 19, 2018, when she signed a new record contract with Universal Music Group and Republic Records after her old contract with Big Machine Records expired. Part of this new contract entailed obtaining ownership of Swift’s new studio recordings under Republic Records, starting with her seventh album Lover.
Soon after, on June 30, 2019, issues became apparent under the transition between labels. It was announced that Scooter Braun (then-manager to Justin Bieber among many others), through his company Ithaca Holdings, bought Big Machine Records, therefore buying the rights to Swift’s first six albums: from her 2006 self-titled debut album Taylor Swift to 2017’s reputation. This action caused a flurry of controversy from the Swift fans, the news, and Swift herself. The conflict was characterized by a public “he said, she said”: Swift claimed that she had no true ability to buy back her master recordings, whereas Scott Borchetta, the CEO of Big Machine, claimed otherwise, that Swift had every opportunity to buy them back. Big Machine proposed that for every new original album Swift would create for the label, she would receive a master for an old album in return.
The truth remains somewhat unclear due to contrary reports and industry rumors; however, artists, politicians, and many other public figures were adamantly in support of Swift’s efforts.
On August 22, 2019, Swift announced a solution: re-recording all six of her studio albums and releasing them for public consumption under Republic Records. By doing so, Swift could own the new master recordings and control the synchronization of the music for use in visual media.
Now, in June of 2025, Swift has bought her masters back from the private equity firm Shamrock Holdings for an undisclosed sum. This raises a question for fans of Swift and the general public: How do we perceive this period and decision?
Of course, a whole lot of good came out of Swift’s re-recording era: 4 “Taylor’s Version” albums (Fearless, Speak Now, Red, and 1989)- all of which topped the Billboard charts, and all of which feature the entirety of the album painstakingly re-recorded between 2021 and 2023, with an added series of “Vault Tracks” (previously unreleased songs from each album). Swift also embarked on the record-breaking Eras Tour (2023-2024), the highest-grossing tour of all time. These releases and the Eras Tour resulted in an excess of sustained publicity and acclaim for Swift from the music and entertainment industries.
Part 2: The Narrative Additions to the Swiftian Canon
If Swift had not gone through the re-recording process, we wouldn’t have gotten some of the fan favorites that helped define so much of her recent sound. Tracks from recent albums were inspired by the masters conflict, such as "My Tears Ricochet”, “Happiness”, and “Closure", while others specifically target the “villains” of the situation, like “Vigilante Shit” and “Karma.”
During Swift’s re-recording stage, we also received 2 albums that pose alternate perspectives on the stories this songwriter has told in the past. Even Midnights was deemed in her Instagram announcement as “13 sleepless nights scattered throughout [Taylor’s] life”. Because of this, we can place songs in the Swiftian timeline: “Midnight Rain” about an old relationship choosing between marriage and fame, “Maroon” set during the Red era about a relationship in New York, “Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve” about a certain age gap romance that inspired “Dear John.”
Meanwhile, The Tortured Poets Department (abbreviated as TTPD) delves into a relationship that originated years earlier, reigniting upon the demise of another. This relationship had not been touched on in the Swiftian canon, putting doubt in fan interpretations of the identification of the subjects of certain songs.
In addition, the re-recording process gave fans an excess of “vault” tracks (~26 songs across the four albums). Based on the love fans have given these songs on the Eras tour, social media and elsewhere, the Vault Tracks are undeniably relished by the public.
These vault tracks give further dimension to the context of Swift’s songs, especially evident in Red. Within the original deluxe edition (released Oct. 22, 2012), we have two (or more) songs discussing the same romance: “All Too Well” and "The Moment I Knew”. However, the new lyrics found in Red (Taylor’s Version) (released Nov. 12, 2021) enhance the narrative of the original album. For example, in “All Too Well (Ten Minute Version)”, in an extended verse 4/bridge extravaganza, includes the moment where Swift’s dad is waiting for the boyfriend to come, and says “It’s supposed to be fun turning twenty-one”. In this part, we have an alternate look at the birthday celebration in “The Moment I Knew”. In the latter, Swift only discusses the perspective of the boyfriend’s close friend. However, in “All Too Well”, she provides more poignant background context: her dad was there, and it was her 21st birthday. Maybe you’re thinking something…21, that’s right before a certain famous Swift age. Yes, you are correct, as the very next track in the standard Red album is “22”! The segue into “22” is a sharp departure from “All Too Well”, into excessive, radio-booming happiness- makes for a great single.
Now, “22” makes complete sense: the overcompensation, “making fun of exes”, the “miserable” and “magical”. As we further examine the thread of the album, the narrative of Red is all coming together. The tracks that follow are “I Almost Do”: with the lyrics “It takes everything in me not to call you”, and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”, which is very self-explanatory.
For her 1989 album, Swift made the narrative clearer through the mashup of “Is It Over Now” and “Out of the Woods” on the Eras Tour, both songs presumably about the same subject. During the Eras Tour’s surprise song sets, Swift also merged “Is It Over Now?” with “I Wish You Would”, which deepens the context of such a relationship.
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) features the track “I Can See You”, a sultry song, showcasing an unexpected side of the songwriter, especially when placed in the context of Speak Now’s original release period. (In 2010, Swift’s image was much more squeaky clean, given the fairytale imagery of the album.) In addition, the recurring vocal riff of “uh-uh-uh” is remarkably similar to the vocal opening of "Mine”, the opening track of the album.
Due to its thematic placement at the beginning of Swift’s career (and first re-recording released), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) includes vault tracks that provide additional canvas to her songwriting mindset but do not play directly into the “lore” aspect of Swift’s music. The sole exception to this is “Mr. Perfectly Fine”, which targets the person who also inspired “Forever and Always”. In addition, because of Fearless being Swift’s second album, our contemporary perspective recognizes her musical skill during that time, and also how far she has come since.
Part 3: Reflections on Discography
This analysis brings up the age-old conflict between Swift’s musical prowess versus the “lore” aspect. She is known for telling introspective stories drawn from her personal experiences, so much so that fans immediately try to place the songs within the context of what they know of the artist’s life. It becomes clear that fans delve into the historical and emotional context of the song. Nevertheless, the vault tracks give us a more complex understanding of the enigma that is Taylor Swift.
This collapse of existing albums onto the new albums feels surreal. New fans don’t have to wait 2-3 years between Swift’s albums anymore. The re-recordings feel like the content is constant!
With that, the fans were viewing two separate timelines: the past and the present of Swift’s musical career. I’ve observed that the production of the OGs is incredibly dynamic. You can really delve into the differences between each album and song. For example, drum-and-guitar uptempo “Holy Ground” does not sound like the brooding and electronic “Look What You Made Me Do”.
Compared to now, Midnights’ sparkly production has seeped into the 1989 vault, Tortured Poets Department is definitely a smorgasbord of different things, even leaning into Fearless-inspired instrumentals for “But Daddy I Love Him”. Unfortunately, there’s far too many piano ballads to have it stand apart sonically from other albums.
As such, the decline of the artistic style (production-wise), has really just become apparent in these last two albums.
Another thing! Successful Swift songs have powerful melody, lyrics, production, and emotional performance.
One of Swift’s successes is the capability to rely on her vocal cadence to portray heartbreak, sadness, happiness, fear, anxiety. It has become her second biggest asset, after her lyrics. In a sense, she has become an actor, roping the listener into an intimate experience, full of emotion and ups and downs. Upon reading numerous reviews and fan analyses of the re-recordings, people say that she has allowed the music to be more technically proficient, yet has neglected to perfectly recreate the pathos behind it. This is unavoidable in some cases, as a 32-year-old Swift would not have the same mindset as her 20-year-old self singing “Never Grow Up”.
Luckily, this superpower has not left her within recent music.
A tough thing I have been unable to work around is the relationship between the lyrics, the syllables, and the melody. This worry had crept in upon the release of Midnights with the songs “…Question?” And “Bejeweled”. They are some of the first examples of the songwriter trying to fit in too many syllables within a lyric, resulting in a clunky, perhaps one-note melody. This trend continued within Tortured Poets Department, across many songs: the title track, “But Daddy I Love Him”, “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart”, “Thank You Aimee”, and “The Manuscript”. Note: she has not lost her storytelling technique, but maybe a bit more editing would help.
Lastly, I have noticed the eschewing of the usual song structure (verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus). Recent outputs from Swift have achieved one of these three options (verse-chorusx2), (verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge), or (verse-chorus-verse-chorus-outro). It depends on the song and the story she is telling. “I Look In People’s Windows” ends abruptly after the second chorus, effectively leaving the listener in a mysterious state. Meanwhile, both “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” and “Fresh Out the Slammer” neglect to include a final chorus, ending on an outro. “Fresh Out the Slammer”’s ending is particularly striking, employing a bait and switch on the line “now pretty baby I’m running”, previously the starting line of the chorus. Instead, Swift (and producer Jack Antonoff) subverts the audience’s expectations, leading us into a slowed down ending. We have previously seen the absence of a final chorus in songs like “False God”, “Labyrinth”, and “Midnight Rain”.
To this, it appears peculiar that only after the sixth album (and label switch) did Taylor begin to alter the song structure in a few tracks. Within the first six, all of the songs feature 2 verses and 3 choruses (bridge depending). By releasing the vault in 1989 (Taylor's Version), it shifts that hypothesis. “Now That We Don’t Talk” and “Suburban Legends” resort to a building outro that resolves through instrumental means and a final line, thus that does not constitute a final chorus.
Would the exclusion of these songs depend on their song structure (i.e. not having one final chorus as resolution)? Who’s to say, but it is an interesting question to ponder. As well, the alteration of song structure coming later in Swift’s career suggests a new element of creative freedom.
Part 4: The Spotify Streams
The “Taylor’s Versions” initiative’s main goal is to “devalue” the original recording, most impactful through music streaming.
As we analyze the difference of Spotify streams between the original version to the re-recorded version, there are striking differences.
Fearless (Taylor’s Version) features numerous songs either having nearly identical number of streams, or far exceeding.
“The Way I Loved You (OG)” has 76 million streams (as of June 21), while Taylor's Version has 505 million streams.
“You Belong With Me (Taylor's Version)” is at 908 million streams, while the original sits at 731 million.
The trend follows for the remaining three albums, with notable exceptions for singles, and internet-trending songs. For example, the singles of 1989 have reached a billion or more streams on Spotify, aided by frequent playlisting by users.
“Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)” is at 904 million streams- released in September 2021, a full 2 years before the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version). It was originally teased in the animated film Spirit Untamed. In an effort to buck a TikTok trend with the bridge of the original version (section beginning with “see me in hindsight, tangled up with you all night”), Swift released the Taylor’s Version to great success. As of June 21, 2025, “Wildest Dreams” (2014) sits at 1.08 billion streams.
The most prominent case of the re-recording project is of “All Too Well (Ten Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”, which is the longest song to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify. The new version has brought far more awareness to “All Too Well” than in the 2012 version, to say the least.
And now, with the updated Spotify statistics, “Love Story” (OG) has achieved 1 billion streams, with “Love Story” (Taylor's Version) following suit soon after.
Furthermore, “Cruel Summer” off of Lover was released on August 23, 2019 as part of the album. Because the Lover era was truncated due to COVID, effectively ending hopes for the Lover Fest, “Cruel Summer” didn’t become a single. Many wondered how such a critically-acclaimed and fan favorite song did not reach further heights. That is…until the Eras tour. “Cruel Summer” was included as the second song on the tour- the first showstopper in the Lover section. It grew in immense popularity within the general public, with its Spotify streams skyrocketing. Thus, on June 20, 2023, Swift and Republic Records commissioned “Cruel Summer” as a single- nearly 4 years after original release. As of June 18, 2025, “Cruel Summer” stands as Swift’s most streamed song on Spotify, and the 30th most streamed song of all time, with 2.94 billion streams.
Part 5: Curation and Marketing
In the letter on her website, Swift mentioned that she has access to all the unreleased music, the album covers, and the photography.
What I have thought about her earlier albums is the element of curation. She had a set number of songs, a curated aesthetic, it just felt neat- even with the bonus tracks, that we now know were selected from a collection of songs.
Lately, she has faltered on this front.
folklore and evermore are the exception- perhaps because evermore is a continuation of folklore’s world, so it is easy to just make a complete album of those songs.
Lover had 18 songs, almost all of them are bangers, save for a few. But 18. That’s a lot of songs to have on a studio album. Of course, there are blatant exceptions with other artists. But on a Swift album, where it feels so emotionally charged, Lover feels like whiplash. Delightful whiplash, but whiplash nonetheless.
Midnights, while the standard edition stands at a slim 13 tracks, has a “3am Edition” to add on 7 more songs, released a mere 3 hours after the original release. On May 26 2023, two further editions entitled “Till Dawn Edition” and “Late Night Edition” each featured another original song, as well as two remixes of album tracks. This album was notorious for featuring alternate editions with different songs, spread out from Target-exclusive vinyl editions, digital editions, and concert-exclusive CDs. Not until November 29, 2023 was there the digital release of a deluxe track “You’re Losing Me”, previously available only on the physical-only “Late Night Edition”. To date, there has not been one complete album of Midnights.
Lastly, The Tortured Poets Department is 16 songs. Then…she decided to surprise us 3 hours later with another sub-album of 15 more, entitled The Anthology! To listen to it all in one sitting is an incredibly daunting task, especially for the somber tone of TTPD.
I have noticed fans saying they want more music, more albums. Taylor has fed into that fact, by including more and more songs on each album, most strikingly felt on the Taylor's Versions. (Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) contain 26 and 30 songs, respectively.) At that point, Swift has made the Taylor's Versions more of a collection, rather than an album.
It is perfectly understandable that she has 2 sections of the re-recordings, the original tracks, and the vault tracks. However, the presentation of the album as one whole is confusing.
In terms of the marketing, Swift announced both Speak Now (Taylor's Version) and 1989 (Taylor's Version) at stops of the US leg of the Eras Tour. The 1989 announcement was preceded by a surge of theories, due to the US leg ending on August 9, 2023 (8/9) and…1989 was released 8 years, 9 months, and 13 days prior on October 27, 2014.
Swift subverted expectations for the album cover and artwork- remixing what we know and love to something new.
Each cover has Swift looking in the opposite direction as the original (Fearless and Speak Now OG looking left, while their respective Taylor’s Versions look right). Red switches from a shadowed close up of her face, to a more zoomed out shot- with her surroundings more visible than before. Lastly, 1989’s original cover is a Polaroid, mysteriously obscuring the top half of Swift’s face. 1989 (Taylor's Version) is much more colorful and happy- depicting Swift with a large smile in a beachy atmosphere.
Aside from 1989, none of the re-recordings include the album title on the cover, instead relying on the associated imagery (and the album’s reputation- pun intended) to sell the concept. Swift’s choice to include the handwritten “1989” on the cover is puzzling, considering the Polaroid aspect is retained.
Where this leads me to is the prevalence of aesthetics within Taylor’s music, further proven in the Eras Tour. Each album has a defined color scheme, a defined set of concepts. Recently, it has become a bit more obscured, but for the most part, it is easy to tell which song or photo is from which album.
In terms of the re-recordings and the aesthetic “remixing”, Taylor utilized both original photos, and photos from the original era. Take Red for example. The back cover includes a photo from the Red Tour, while the rest of the photoshoot reframed the album to be autumn-centered, contrary to the original. This is perhaps related to the vault tracks production, specifically “All Too Well (TMV)”.
1989 (OG) is best represented by New York City, neon, exciting, free- even including a song called “Welcome to New York”. 1989 (Taylor's Version)’s photoshoot switches it up, focusing on a beachy atmosphere: Taylor dancing around in the sand. This decision seemed surprising, considering how anchored the 1989 aesthetic was in 2014 and 2015.
Like Red (Taylor's Version), the 1989 vault tracks were perhaps what defined the photoshoot’s atmosphere. The dreaminess of “Slut!” and the mysteriousness of “Is It Over Now” certainly evokes the album cover. We can see the genesis of 1989 (Taylor's Version) via the seagulls of the sweatshirt on the original album cover.
Buoyed by folklore and evermore, Swift found that the surprise drops/ albums where people had not heard a second of music are the trick for album releases. The re-recordings had been helped by the reputation (sorry for the pun) of the original albums: the context, the success, the songs. Therefore, the pattern of these (+ Midnights and TTPD) have aligned with this system:
announcement (album cover and date)
1 or 2 weeks before release, track listing, back cover
album release
Again, the big part is that the public does not hear an element of music before the release, so everything is a mystery, especially for the brand-new original studio albums.
The result of this is the public wonders what music she is making, but this can also hinder the critical response upon release. Midnights and Tortured Poets Department were speculated to be wildly different genres than what they were going to be, thus people considered them “same old, same old”. Swift has become so famous, that her albums leading with Lover have not included her name on the cover. Even solely including her face on the album covers brings the same level of recognition. Moreover, since folklore, the artist has abstained from pre-release singles simply because she doesn’t need to. She knows that her music will achieve commercial success, no matter what.
I would be lying if I didn’t want a lot more Taylor Swift music. Yet, I do want cohesive albums, concise track listings that tell a story, and don’t have musical duds in the mix. With the re-recordings, Taylor put it all out there, with songs like “Suburban Legends” and “Run”, which I appreciate the existence of. Still, I can’t help but understand their absence on the original records.
Now, Swift begins a whole new stage of her career. Yes, it is a bit anticlimactic that she didn’t complete her re-recordings. She deemed the Eras Tour as a “celebration of ten eras”, making it seem like a close on that chapter of her life. This is furthered by releases like Midnights and TTPD, which close on climactic songs, “Dear Reader” and “The Manuscript”- the latter featuring the lyric “the story isn’t mine anymore”. Even folklore and evermore close on “the lakes” and “it’s time to go”, which delve into themes of escape and leaving a life behind.
I am very excited to see where she goes next, artistically, and lyrically. I hope that we can see her look to the future, made much stronger by her revitalization of her past. I would never have suspected that “22 (Taylor's Version)” would be so popular to listen to in 2022! Maybe there are some more upbeat songs in our midst!
Part 6: Some hopes for the future
Apple Music has a recent audio setting called Dolby Atmos- it allows listeners to fully absorb themselves in the sonic atmosphere of the music. Thanks to YouTube, you can find some “Dolby Atmos mixes” online- which separate the vocal and instrumental tracks, one by one. It is really fascinating. In the context of Taylor’s music, the albums since Lover (including the re-recordings) have received this Dolby Atmos treatment. You can hear random background vocals and production elements (for example, a car driving in the background of “I Think He Knows”, off the album Lover). And now, with her regained catalog, it would allow for a lot of creative freedom and fan engagement for her to release Dolby Atmos stems for the existing six albums. I am unaware of all the catches between recording to remastering, but it is a pipe dream! Perhaps this can lead to a higher prominence on remixing those albums.
On Red, 1989 and reputation, Swift worked with the Swedish pop music juggernaut Max Martin. Martin is known for collaborating with Ariana Grande, the Weeknd, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, and many others. If you listen to any of the songs he has produced, try Ariana Grande’s “Into You”, and The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears”, you will notice that Martin has a deeply impressive feel for music production and mastering; his “pop sensibilities” inhabit the songs with tight, catchy and melodic lines, and you can not forget about the booming choruses! Since those three albums, Swift has strayed away from these truly exciting sonic atmospheres. Compare “Dancing With Our Hands Tied”, off of reputation, and “Fortnight”, off of T.T.P.D.. No, we can’t give the production and melodic strengths to Martin alone. Swift, with her country background, had been making tight, melodic lines since day 1. However, the melding of her lyrical prowess and his production alchemy makes for something amazing.
Martin avoided working on Swift’s re-recordings, with only his protégé Shellback producing a few songs - this sparks an analysis into the importance of mixing within pop music. Many Swift-Martin-Shellback compositions lose their spark when remade (Style and We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together are the most dubious examples).
His absence in the later Swift catalogue means we can try to wonder what Midnights would have been with Max Martin producing- more importance given to hooks and perhaps a different sonic atmosphere. I hope that Swift reunites with Martin for the next album, however, if she chooses to take a different route, it would be artistically satisfying if she “remixes” the pop songwriting style once again.
Maybe Swift will work with new producers, some unexpected. The possibilities of her artistic growth are endless, and she loves proving people wrong.
To quote “The Story Of Us”, “next chapter”.
We have now seen the presumed end of the true over-exposure of Taylor Swift. Never had there been a month without headlines about re-recording theories or album announcements, and, on top of that, she had been on tour for nearly two years. Her absence in the news cycle is already felt- with whisperings of a “comeback”, an interesting word to use. The public has now dug up the Swiftian lore and storylines twice now, once originally and second with retrospection. With the vault tracks, there are no gaps in her story, no questions left unanswered.
The “Taylor’s Versions” prove to us that the old Taylor has never left, and will always come back.