Taylor Swift has released her hotly anticipated 1989 (Taylor’s Version) album, the latest drop in her continued work to re-record her previous albums.
In a love letter to Swifties everywhere, the prologue presents “with gratitude and wild wonder” her version of 1989.
The Lover songstress has taken the opportunity to write about the zeitgeist of the time when she recorded the original version of the songs, in 2013/2014.
She touches on the media’s obsession with her dating life, speculation around her female friendships – which ultimately has led to long-standing rumours around her sexual orientation.
“The voices that had begun to shame me in new ways for dating like a normal young woman? I want to silence them,” she says. “I had become the target of slut shaming – the intensity and relentlessness of which would be criticised and called out if it happened today.
“It became clear to me that there was no such thing as casual dating, or even having a male friend who you platonically hang out with. If I was seen with him. It was assumed I was sleeping with him.”
In an attempt to silence critics and move away from being subjected to “the harsh moral codes of the victorian era”, she “assumed I could fix this if I simply changed my behaviour. I swore off dating and decided to focus only on myself, my music, my growth, and my female friendships”.
It was during this time that great speculation was drawn to who she was dating, with the media questioning her sexuality. She explained how: “If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn’t sensationalise or sexualise that – right? I would later learn that people could and would.”
Ultimately, Taylor rounds this snapshot of her life off by saying: “I learned lessons, paid prices, and to tried to” of course said it “shake it off”. Yes Taylor – we love to see it!
1989 (Taylor’s Version) dropped on 27 October, the same date its original version was released nine years prior in 2014.
1989 is critically acclaimed as one of the most influential pop albums of all time.
It spent 11 weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart in the US, where it sold a staggering 1.287 million copies in its first week alone – a career high for Taylor until her 10th studio album, Midnights, opened with sales of 1.57m.
It became the birthplace of Taylor’s biggest hit-to-date ‘Shake It Off’, which debuted at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and has since been certified diamond in the region, amassing sales of more than 10m.
Taylor’s first three re-recordings, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version) and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), have all been praised as improvements to their original renditions.
Reputation (Taylor’s Version) and Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version) are now the only two re-recordings left to be announced by Taylor.
Her decision to re-record her first six albums was made in response to their masters being sold to Scooter Braun, which led to a highly publicised conflict that has resulted in Taylor being credited as an advocate for artists wanting to own their work.
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