Taylor Swift “Love Story” Re-release and New Music

In August of 2019 Taylor Swift announced that she would be re-recording her albums, and on February 12, 2021, Swift released the first single of her re-records: “Love Story (Taylor’s Version).” Her decision to re-record her previously released songs is due to contract restrictions she signed when she was only 15 years old. Part of these contract provisions were that Big Machine Records owned the master recordings to all of her songs. 

In 2018 Swift ended that contract with Big Machine Records and signed with Universal Music Group. She still will only own her future music, starting with her album “Lover,” due to Big Machine selling the rights to her albums without her permission. Her team found a way for her to legally re-record her masters, but she has to wait five years after their release dates to start re-recording, so only her first five albums are eligible.

From the release of “Love Story” it seems like Taylor Swift is trying to make the new recordings sound very similar to the old ones. Her first released song is slightly different in the tempo. It is rumored that she will make stylistic choices that she was not allowed to do under her old record label like, extended versions of songs. More importantly,  she plans to release some songs that were not previously released.

“Only I know which songs I wrote that almost made the ‘Fearless’ album. Songs I absolutely adored, but were held back for many different reasons (don’t want too many breakup songs, don’t want too many down tempo songs, can’t fit that many songs of a physical CD),” shared Swift in an Instagram post.

In her first album that she will re-release, “Fearless,” she has shared that there will be six of these unreleased “vault” songs. There are no names given for the songs yet, but there is an additional song that has made its way onto the album. In 2010 she released the song “Today Was a Fairytale” for the movie “Valentine’s Day” and a re-recorded version of it will be included in this album.

Swift has not given a clear indication of when her album will be released. She has only said “soon.” The post she made on Instagram on February 11 that announced the release of “Love Story” and the future release of “Fearless” had random capitalized letters. Put together, the letters spell out April ninth, which is assumed to be the release date of “Fearless.”

While fans wait for that and any future projects to be released, they are left with the recording of “Love Story (Taylor’s Version).” For many, this release brings a sense of nostalgia and memories of simpler times in their lives.

“The original ‘Love Story’ was one of my favorite songs as a child. It had a fairytale aspect that I loved,” said Megan Ashley, 11, “The old one will always have a special place in my memories, but I think the new one is much better quality.” 

Overall, there is not much change to dislike or like, but she has taken ownership of her music. Instead of the frail, heartbroken girl that she was when many of her songs were released, she is now a strong and capable woman. She has stood up to the people who have criticized her career and this is just another act of defiance against them.