On Friday, May 30, Taylor Swift announced that she bought the masters of her first six original albums, making her the owner of her entire musical catalog. In case you missed the saga, this was a long time coming: From 2006 to 2017, Swift made her first six albums — Taylor Swift (also known as Debut), Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation — with Big Machine Records, and the record label retained ownership of them, which was a standard industry practice at the time. (Although after signing with Republic Records at Universal Music Group in 2018, Swift has retained ownership of the masters of every album she recorded with that group, including Lover, Folklore, Evermore, Midnights and The Tortured Poets Department.) Swift attempted to buy her masters from Big Machine, but ultimately lost the battle. Then in 2019, music mogul Scooter Braun bought Big Machine, and he kept ownership of the masters until he eventually sold them to private equity group Shamrock Holdings. In a letter to fans, Swift said she was “endlessly thankful” to Shamrock for allowing her to buy back the first six albums she created.
After Swift shared this news, fans quickly took to social media to show their excitement — but also, their mixed emotions over the re-recorded albums Swift had already made in an effort to reclaim those albums she thought were lost to her forever. In solidarity with Swift, many fans committed to never listening to the original recordings of Fearless, Speak Now, Red, or 1989, following Swift’s rerelease of each album under the moniker (Taylor’s Version). By doing this, fans hoped her originals would lose their value to whomever owned them. But now that Swift owns all of her original albums, fans have been sounding off about how much they missed the four originals they had sworn off of for years — and which songs they secretly liked the OG versions of better than Taylor’s versions. As one TikTok commenter put it, fans “can finally listen to the originals again without feeling bad.” So, which songs are fans most excited to return to? Here are five of the most popular.
“Style”
The smooth guitar riff at the beginning of this song, combined with Swift’s raspy voice, a distinct style for the 1989 era, made “Style” one of the biggest hits of her career. The original song has amassed over 1.4 billion streams on Spotify, while the re-recorded version gained 347 million streams since its release in 2023. “Style” was one of the first songs fans jumped on to say they were excited to listen to it again. Swifities were excited about listening to the guitar riff that opens up the song, as some have pointed out that the re-recorded version couldn’t replicate the natural sound of the original “Style.” One video, reaching over 1.2 million likes says “welcome back original style intro,” with fans agreeing in the comments about how excited they are to listen to that guitar riff.
“Better Than Revenge”
Another song fans have been itching to get back is “Better Than Revenge,” one of the fan-favorite songs from the Speak Now album. As Swift herself notes in an Instagram post announcing the re-recorded version, she wrote the songs for the album between the ages of 18 and 20, and fans often cite their love of the teenage angst that’s so present in many of the songs featured on the album.
With Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), released in 2023, some expressed disappointment with “Better Than Revenge” because Swift changed the original lyrics, “She’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress” to “He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches.” Since releasing the song, Swift has said she no longer agrees with the sentiment of the lyrics. “That’s the age you are when you think someone can actually take your boyfriend. Then you grow up and realise no one takes someone from you if they don’t want to leave,” she said of her mindset when writing the song in a 2014 interview with The Guardian. Despite Swift changing the line in her re-record to better reflect her more mature views, fans missed what many jokingly dubbed the “misogynistic version.” Since Swift has won ownership of the original, fans have been making TikToks to show love for those (admittedly messy and arguably problematic) lyrics.
“New Romantics”
Another song from Swift’s iconic 1989 album, “New Romantics” was originally released as a bonus track on the album, and then as a single in 2016. It quickly became a fan-favorite due to its catchy tune and clever lyrics, and its music video, which highlighted her 1989 World Tour, has over 130 million views, an impressive feat for a song that was the seventh single from this album.
“New Romantics” quickly became another one of the original songs fans were most excited to get back. After the announcement Friday, many TikTok users posted themselves lip syncing to the pre-chorus of the original song. The “ah-ah-ah” Swift sings right before the chorus couldn’t be replicated in the re-record, according to her fans, so many posted to celebrate that portion of the song.
“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”
The Red (Taylor’s Version) era was a phenomenon for its popularity among both new and old Swifities. Between “All Too Well (10 minute version)(Taylor’s Version)” and the giant vault of new songs, this album is often referred to as her most successful re-recording project. Despite this, many fans were not happy with the re-recorded version of her 2012 hit single, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”
In the newer version, many Swifties pointed out the odd sound of the word “we” during the chorus. Rather than the natural and whimsical sound of the first version, the re-recorded has a strange autotuned sound, according to many.
“Haunted”
Another hit from her album Speak Now, “Haunted” has become one song fans were quick to reclaim the original version of. Similarly to “Better Than Revenge,” listeners missed the passion and anger that the original had. Many point to the fact that Swift was a teenager when she wrote most of the songs, making the emotion behind the songs off Speak Now impossible to replicate.
Fans took to TikTok over the weekend to show their love of the ending of the song, where Swift sings “You can’t be gone,” while the music dramatically builds. Swifities in TikTok comment sections agree that Swift caught lightning in a bottle with this song, and that the re-recorded version couldn’t mimic the intensity.