2023 has undoubtedly been the year of Taylor Swift. Swift embarked on her career-spanning Eras Tour in March, which became the event of the year. She then released “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and the film version of the Eras Tour, which is now the highest-grossing concert film of all time. Most recently, she released “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” on October 27, which hit #1 on the Billboard charts and sold over 1 million copies in less than a week. “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” also amassed 176 million streams on Spotify, making it the second-highest first-day streams for an album on the platform, which is behind Swift’s 2022 album “Midnights.” It’s even more impressive that this is not a new album, but her fourth re-recording in her quest to reclaim her music catalog.
The album “1989” is one of Swift’s most successful albums, catapulting her into stardom in the pop universe in 2014 and making the expectations for “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” extremely high. In the realm of streaming and sales alone, the album broke many records, including the most modern-era vinyl sales in an album’s first week of release, racking up 580,000 sales and surpassing her own album “Midnights” in the record books. Swift also became the most-streamed artist in a single day in Spotify history on the day the album was released.
The album features re-recordings of the 13 songs from the original album, 3 songs from the deluxe version, and 5 vault tracks. The deluxe version includes a re-recorded remix of “Bad Blood” featuring Kendrick Lamar. While the re-recorded versions of the songs are similar to the original versions, they have new sounds highlighted by Swift’s older and more powerful singing voice. The tracks also feature both newer and cleaner-sounding production, due to the more modern technologies being utilized in music today. Swift’s mature voice and higher-quality production are especially evident in “Blank Space (Taylor’s Version),” “Out Of The Woods (Taylor’s Version),” and “Wonderland (Taylor’s Version).” All of these songs featured strong vocal performances from Swift, as well as better sounding and stronger instrumentals as opposed to their 2014 counterparts. While her “Taylor’s Version” campaign has been met with worldwide encouragement, fans have critiqued the newer versions of the songs for not featuring the emotion and passion of the original versions. However, every song on the record received an upgrade from its 2014 version, with the entire album simply sounding better, cleaner, and smoother.
While the new versions of the original tracks are met with anticipation from fans to see what their favorite songs will sound like, listeners are always more excited for the new songs “from the vault” released with every Taylor’s Version album. The five vault tracks on “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” are “Slut!,” “Say Don’t Go,” “Now That We Don’t Talk,” “Suburban Legends,” and “Is It Over Now?” All five songs feature Swift’s trademark lyricism and storytelling, painting a clearer picture of her viral relationship with pop star Harry Styles. While the original “1989” songs call back to Styles, they keep her true feelings mostly under wraps. The vault tracks do the exact opposite. “Is It Over Now?” and “Now That We Don’t Talk” have the brutal honesty of Swift’s younger songwriting, making them intriguing and exciting to listen to for her fans. When announcing the album, Swift posted on Instagram, “The 5 From The Vault tracks are so insane. I can’t believe they were ever left behind.” Fans around the world would agree that Swift was correct in this statement. When each song is added to the collection of some of Swift’s best work with “1989”, they were added to an album in a way that it didn’t feel like it could get any better.
“1989 (Taylor’s Version)” is truly a beloved album from Swift, reaching and exceeding the success of the original record. By reclaiming “1989,” Swift only has to re-record her 2017 record, “Reputation,” and her 2006 self-titled debut album. Her re-rerecording campaign is making history in the music industry and is paving the way for artists to own their music in the future. Not only hasSwift reaped the benefits of a successful album with over 1 million sales, but she has also impacted the music industry, making “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” a highly successful album release.