If you don’t know by now, Taylor Swift is my favorite artist. There is a big milestone occurring soon, and April 9th is a day I’m highly anticipating.
Let me tell you why.
But first, I need to back up a little.
On June 30, 2019, Taylor Swift shared a heartbreaking post on Tumblr about some business dealings associated with her old recording label, Big Machine. To sum it up, Scott Borchetta, Big Machine’s CEO, and Taylor’s old music manager Scooter Braun, who owns Ithaca Holdings, purchased Big Machine for $300 million.
Because Braun now owns the label, he also can profit off all of Taylor’s masters which equates to more than 10 years of songwriting and performances. It was doubly sh*tty because they didn’t give her any prior notice. Her work was ripped from her hands, and the blow was delivered publicly as we, the fans, found out simultaneously.
In Taylor’s words, “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.”
Utterly heartbreaking.
This article linked also does a fantastic job of laying out the events that followed this news.
So, what happens now?
Just one day before her release of 7th studio album Lover, on August 23, 2019, NPR published this piece about Taylor’s confirmation to re-record all her old work. EEEEK!
Lover, on August 24, 2019, was released through Republic Records, which is now Swift’s new label.
So although there was (and still is) an indomitable amount of spite in my heart for Braun and Borchetta, I had a fantastic new album from Taylor to listen to and the promise that her old songs would be given a new life.
And the wait has been hellish, although I’m sure it will be worth it.
Side note: “The Man” from Lover definitely throws well-deserved shade at these miniscule men with lyrics like
“I’m so sick of running as fast as I can // Wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man”
“They’d say I hustled // Put in the work // They wouldn’t shake their heads and question how much of this I deserve”
“If I was a man // Then I’d be the man”
Like, okay go off, Taylor. As you should.
Flash forward to July 24, 2020, just under a year from the release of Lover, when Taylor delivers us with the ultimate quarantine album of folklore. And then does it again 139 days later with evermore.
Side, side note: Fans, myself included, believe the lyric “And when you can’t sleep at night (you hear my stolen lullabies)” is in reference to the absolute robbery of her masters.
And you know what? I hope that’s true because not only are her songs beautiful enough to haunt days and nights, but her resiliency should be a reminder to those d*cks that they can steal her money but will never rob her determination to be heard.
“But Hannah, what does this have to do with April 9?”
I promise, I am getting there.
On February 11, 2021, Taylor made this Instagram post:
“when i think bAck on the fearless album and all that you turned it into, a completely involuntary smile creeps across my face. this was the musical era in which so many inside jokes were created between us, so many hugs exchanged and hands touched, so many unbreakable bonds formed. so before i say anything else, let me just say that it was a real honor to get to be a teenager alongside you. and for those of you i’ve come to know more recently than 2008, i am ecstatic that I’ll get to exPerience a bit of that feeling with you in the very near future. now that i can fully appreciate it in its whimsical, effervescent, chaotic entirety.
fearless was an album full of magic and curiosity, the bliss and devastation of youth. it was the diaRy of the adventures and explorations of a teenage girl who was learning tiny lessons with every new crack in the facade of the faIrytale ending she’d been shown in the movies. i’m thrilled to tell you that my new version of fearless is done and will be with you soon. it’s called fearless (taylor’s version) and it includes 26 songs.
i’ve spoken a lot about why I’m remaking my first six albums, but the way i’ve chosen to do this will hopefulLy help illuminate where I’m coming from. artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious is that the artist is the only one who really *knows* that body of work. for example, only i know which songs i wrote that almost made the fearless album. songs i absolutely adored, but were held back for different reasons (don’t want too many breakup songs, don’t want too maNy down tempo songs, can’t fit that many songs on a physical CD).
those reasons seem unnecessary now. i’ve decIded i want you to have the whole story, see the entire vivid picture, and let you into the entire dreamscape that is my fearless album. that’s why i’ve chosen to include 6 never before released songs on my version of this album. Written when i was betweeN the ages of 16 and 18, these were the ones it killed me to leave behind.
this process has been more fulfilling and emoTional than i could’ve imagined and has made me even more determined to re-record all of my music. i Hope you’ll like this first outing as much as i liked traveling back in time to recreate it. love story (taylor’s version) will be out tonight.
sincerely and fearlessly,
taylor”
And yes, I do feel it was necessary to include the whole post because….
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It was beyond beautifully written
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It shows the clue with capitalized letters that spell out APRIL NINTH
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This is my article and I can do what I want
This meant that in 56 days from the announcement, I would get to hear one of my favorite artists reclaim control of her beautiful songs. So naturally, I was hyped.
But let me tell you why this date is so swiftnificant, as I called this piece.
The release of fearless (taylor’s version) will allow the fans to fall even more in love with this artist and the era she wrote the masterpieces in. It will give us more anthems (SIX!!) to see ourselves in as Taylor’s writing has always felt like it’s ripped from my own diary.
We’ll get to hear some of our favorite songs with her musical range and depth that has developed in the past 13 years of performances and albums. That’s so exciting.
But more than that, we’ll get to hear how Taylor used her voice to stand up for herself. To be fearless in defense of her art, her younger self, her current self, her fans who look up to all versions of her.
And so, I will wait patiently for April 9th to roll around so I can fearlessly blast this beacon of hope that true voices cannot be silenced or stolen. And I hope that day comes swiftly.