Taylor Swift is the moment. It is difficult not to be obsessed over the blondie after her “folklore” era, but she still has a long way to go to be able to control her own life work. You probably already saw a Swiftie on the internet getting crazy about TS re-recording her old songs and calling it “Taylor’s Version”, which you didn’t understand anything about. Do you know the reason why she is releasing her entire discography again? Let’s understand it from the beginning.
- Early Years
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Taylor Swift was only fourteen when she first signed a contract as a songwriter with Sony Music. The girl from Pennsylvania had just moved to Nashville to dedicate herself to her music career. At venues in Nashville, the girl performed many of the songs she had written and caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, CEO of Big Machine Records, getting a contract and releasing her first single “Tim Mcgraw” back in 2006.
At the age of 16, she made a splash in the country music world with her self titled debut album. From an early age, Swift was on top of the charts with her songs, such as “Teardrops on my guitar” and “Should’ve said no”.
In 2008, the Pennsylvania girl was nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Artist category and released her second album, “Fearless”, which led her to become the highest-selling country artist of the year.
She soon became an even hotter commodity with sold-out shows all over the United States and concert tickets selling out in less than two minutes. Her next studio album “Speak Now” was country-pop and with the following eras, “Red” and “1989”, she fully jumped into the pop world, stepping further away from her country roots.
Taylor was one of the biggest names on the Big Machine label and Scott Borchetta followed her through “Taylor Swift” to “Reputation”, having released 6 studio albums as she consolidated her name as one of the biggest singers of the present days.
- Lightning The Fuse
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In November 2018, Swift left Big Machine Records and became part of Republic Records, starting a giant dispute over the copyrights of her songs.
When starting at showbiz, the artist doesn’t own their released songs, and the masters belong to the label they are represented by. But, when artists consolidate themselves in the industry, they usually negotiate with their labels to buy the masters and start to be the official owner of their work, breaking any necessary bond with the record label.
In an open letter posted on Tumblr on June 30th, 2019, Taylor explained that she left Big Machine Records because she knew Scott Borchetta would sell the company, along with her lifetime’s work. Even more, the girl told the world that for years she tried to buy her masters, but Borchetta denied it, trying to make a nonsensical deal.
The Big Machine president proposed that for every new album the girl releases – with the label, of course – she would get to buy one of her previous albums back. So to get her entire old discography, Taylor would have to release 6 new studio albums and would have to compromise her future work. “For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work. Instead, I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in. I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future. I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums”, said Swift on Tumblr.
- It Is All “Out Of The Woods”
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She continues the open letter: “This is my worst case scenario. This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says ‘Music has value’, he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it.”
She came “out of the woods” because she knows how vulnerable women are in the music industry and even her, who is already powerful and has a great influence, is unsafe under men’s trickery. “Thankfully, I am now signed to a label that believes I should own anything I create. Thankfully, I left my past in Scott’s hands and not my future. And hopefully, young artists or kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation. You deserve to own the art you make.”
But the major reason that made Taylor tell her fans what was happening with her past was that the buyer was Scooter Braun – which she only discovered about along with the whole world through the media, with no one to consult her about negotiating of her work. Sooner or later her fans would find that now she needed permission to use her old songs, whether at shows or presentations. It was better for them to listen to her side of the story first.
- A Little Throwback
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But who’s Scooter Braun and why Taylor doesn’t like him? He’s better known as Justin Bieber’s and Kanye West’s agent, and Swift is not his biggest fan. She continues the exposed on Tumblr with an Instagram print of a post where Justin was on Facetime with Scooter and Kanye with the caption “Taylor Swift what up”: “This is Scooter Braun, bullying me on social media when I was at my lowest point. He’s about to own all the music I’ve ever made.”
But to know more about her hatred over Braun, we need to take a trip down memory lane to the beginning of Swift’s career. The lowest point, as quoted by Taylor, is related to the Kanye West and Kim Kardashian drama. At the 2009’ MTV Music Video Awards, Kanye invaded the stage while the 19-year-old girl was thanking her win for the Best Female Video award with “You Belong With Me” to say that Beyoncé should’ve won the award for “Single Ladies” instead of the country artist.
Later on, in the music industry, the scuffle between TS and Kanye West led to the release of the 2016 song ‘Famous’, where West calls Swift names and says that he was the one who made her famous. The internet was not very happy about the song lyric, neither was Taylor and her famous friends squad, who were all throwing shade at the guy. Taylor claimed that she never allowed Kanye to use her name in the song.
But the major point was when Kim Kardashian, Kanye’s ex-wife, released a manipulated video on her Snapchat stories, putting the girl as a liar, making it seem like she had permitted the song. The WHOLE internet canceled Taylor, she suffered massive bullying on social media with the hashtag #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty, which led her to disappear for a year to rest her image and take a break.
During that time, “Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked”, as reported in Taylor’s open letter. Later in 2020, Taylor’s team revealed the entire video, without any manipulation, and proved that the West family was lying.
In November 2017, she came back with the album ‘Reputation’ to tell her side of the story before leaving Big Machine for good. It was a good response after all the bullying she received online and a great comeback after her long break to rest her image.
It’s important to remember that Scooter Braun was a big part of the bullying she received and, years later, the person who had a great influence on that cancellation and “tried to dismantle her career” owns her 6 studio albums released by Big Machine. And she continues: “When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually, he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever.”
- Taking Partition
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Scott Borchetta tried to defend Scooter Braun on social media saying that he’s a good guy and that Taylor was given the opportunity to buy her masters but passed it, which she denies.
Celebrities began to take sides in the brewing feud. Scooter was backed up by his wife, Yael Cohen – who strongly attacked Taylor on Instagram – and his client Demi Lovato. Justin Bieber made an Instagram post directed to Taylor Swift saying that Scooter has always praised the singer and Hailey Bieber, his wife, defended him. Cara Delevigne – one of Taylor’s close friends and member of The Squad – called Hailey’s comment out saying that Mrs. Bieber should “spend less time sticking up for men and more time trying to understand women and respecting their valid reactions.”
The hashtag #IStandWithTaylor stayed on top of Twitter’s Trending Topics and musicians were thanking the singer for speaking out. Halsey, Brandon Urie, and even Katy Perry – who Taylor used to have a disagreement, but now she’s friends with – defended the girl on social media.
- Taylor Swift: Artist Of The Decade
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But in 2019, a new controversy was created. Taylor was preparing a medley performance at the AMA’S to receive the Artist of the Decade award, but a notification from Big Machine Records forbade her to perform songs for her first six albums. From that, TS could not perform her greatest hits at the show or use the songs on her Netflix documentary “Miss Americana”.
In another open letter, she updated her fans on the situation: “I’ve been planning to perform a medley of my hits throughout the decade on the show. Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun have now said that I’m not allowed to perform my own songs on television because they claim that would be re-recording my music before I’m allowed next year”. She continued by saying: “Scott Borchetta told my team that they’ll allow me to use my music only if I do these things: if I agree not to re-record copycat of my songs next year (which is something I’m both legally allowed to do and looking forward to) and also told my team that I needed to stop talking about him and Scooter Braun.”
Taylor also asked the fans to reach out to artists who work with Scooter Braun in hopes they could help get permission to play her songs. In the end, she got permission in time by a deal made by the label and the producer Dick Clark Productions.
At that AMA’S, Taylor Swift made history. In 2019 she received 5 trophies, totaling 29 in this award throughout her career, passing Michael Jackson’s record, who had 24 trophies. The polemic 2019 presentation was filled with references related to the Big Machine drama.
- The Man
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Taylor Swift is the Easter Egg Queen, and she did not miss the opportunity to throw shade at both Scooter and Scott in her first owned album “Lover”.
In the song “The Man”, Swift talks about the kind of man she would be if all her achievements as a woman wouldn’t be minimized or disregarded. Analyzing the lyrics, TS compares the differences of stereotypes between men and women: “I would be complex/I would be cool/ They’d say I played the field before I found someone to commit to/ And that would be ok/ For me to do/ Every conquest I had made would make me more of a boss to you”. And in the chorus, she says: “I’m so sick of running as fast I can/ Wondering if I’d get there quicker/ If I was a man/ And I’m so sick of them coming at me again/ ‘Cause if I was a man/ Then I’d be the man”.
But the real flagship is the music video where Taylor plays a man, who coincidentally, is very similar to Braun. Inspired by scenes of the movie “Wolf of Wall Street”, all stereotypes related to powerful white men are kinda ridiculed.
All tiny details are thought to represent the misogynist society. There’s also a scene where ‘the man’ is peeing and the wall is graffitied with Taylor’s albums such as “Red” and “1989″. “They’d say I hustled/ Put in the work/ They wouldn’t shake their heads and question how much of this I deserve/ What I was wearing/ If I was rude/ Could all be separated from my good ideas and power moves?”
- Taylor’s Version
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In 2020, with the situation far away from being resolved, Scooter Braun sold the TS albums rights to an investment fund called Shamrock Holdings, that tried to make a billion-dollar partnership about her albums with the girl, who denied the moment she knew that even if she bought masters back, Braun would still get profit from her work.
But what Scotter didn’t expect was that – like always – Taylor Swift bounced back quickly. At the program Good Morning America, she revealed that she would be re-releasing her six studio albums to devalue her old songs and to officially own her work. Her previous contract with Big Machine said that starting November 2020, she could officially start to re-record all her catalog.
April 9th, 2021, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) comes out with five unreleased songs called “From the Vault”. Swifties are excited to hear their old favorite songs without giving any money to someone that is not Taylor or took part in the song’s creations.
With this whole story, it’s possible to see how powerful women are still very vulnerable and warn new generations about the obscure side of the music industry. “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)”, “You All Over Me (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)”, and “Mr. Perfectly Fine (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)” are already out for you to listen!
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The article above was edited by Rafaela Bertolini
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