Taylor Swift’s wavy blonde locks and golden hue made a reappearance from her original Fearless album cover as she announced that her re-recording of the album would be released on April 9th.
Swift had a heavy dispute with record executive Scooter Braun, who bought Big Machine Label Group and Swift’s first six albums, and then sold them. Following the selling of her albums leading to the loss of her rights to them, Taylor Swift made the decision to re-record each of her first six albums, and make them her own, beginning with Fearless.
She initially released one of the most iconic songs from the album-- “Love Story”-- on February 12th, the night after she announced the release of Fearless.
These re-recordings, which Swift calls “Taylor’s Version,” aren’t just duplicates of what she once sang thirteen years ago. They’re a tangible representation of the way that Taylor has grown up, and the way that her fans have grown up with her.
Fans will get to relive the way they felt at eight, thirteen, or fifteen, when they get to listen to Fearless (Taylor’s Version). They can listen to “The Way I Loved You” for the first time again after going through an adult heartbreak. They can dance around their room again listening to “You Belong With Me” and feel like the teenager they once were. And, they can listen to the six unreleased songs she’s adding to Taylor’s Version, and really heard songs from Fearless for the very first time.
Even the new album cover is a symbol of nostalgia, hope, and change. Fans pointed out that the new album cover looks like Taylor is wearing a top similar to Romeo’s in her original “Love Story” music video. It’s a symbol that she’s grown up, doesn’t need a man to save her anymore, and has become her own strong woman, undefined by men as she has been for so much of her career.
Not only is the re-released album a symbol of growing up, it’s a symbol of strength and independence. While Taylor would still be hugely successful if she didn’t re-record her albums, doing so gives her ownership of them, literally and figuratively. The music will be fully hers, and she will reclaim what should have been hers in the first place although it was taken over by men. She asserted her strength and persistence by re-recording her albums, unwilling to allow her hard work to be taken away from her.
On April 9th, fans and Taylor will get to relive what life was like thirteen years ago--and reflect on how things are so different now. We may want to never grow up, but with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) we may just have to realize that we already have.
