Why Taylor Swift Decided Not To Re-Record Her Albums In Chronological Order

Highlights

• Taylor Swift is rerecording her albums out of order to prioritize her hottest releases.
• Fearless and 1989 had been chosen as the primary rereleases due to their large luck and Diamond certification.
• Swift's debut album might be rereleased final, finishing the full-circle narrative of the "Taylor's Version" sequence.

Taylor Swift has been spoiling her fanatics. Not handiest did the musician drop a record-breaking album of latest subject matter, Midnights, in 2022, however she's been recording and rereleasing her old albums with prior to now unreleased songs. It's greater than any Swiftie will have asked for, however some have noticed an inconsistency in regards to the "Taylor's Version" unlock time table.

The inconsistency being, Swift has released her new variations out of order. She's stored to a mostly linear rollout, but she's omitted two cherished albums so far, which has led to speculation as to why. Are those albums harder to rerecord? Are they not getting the "Taylor's Version" remedy? The answer is surprisingly simple.

Taylor Swift Is Rerecording Her Albums Out Of Order Because She Wants To Prioritize Her Most Popular Releases

Taylor Swift introduced that she would rerecord her first six albums in 2019, in a while after her catalog used to be bought by means of skill agent Scooter Braun. Swift described the acquisition as "worst-case scenario," given the disagreements that she'd had with Braun and his shoppers through the years (Kanye West being the most notable offender).

Instead of re-recording her debut album first, on the other hand, Swift decided to kick off the "Taylor's Version" collection with her 2nd album, Fearless. She defined her decision to prioritize her sophomore effort right through a 2021 interview with Republic Records:

“I at all times gravitated towards Fearless as a result of I believe that, as an album, it was once an actual coming-of-age. And I look again on that album and it fills me with such pleasure, and it was once an album about hope, and courses realized, and the effervescence of youth early life and all that. What more amusing than to return and explore that?"

The thing that Swift didn't mention, and what further spurred her decision, was that Fearless is her most successful album to date. It's the only Swift album that has been certified diamond by the RIAA, which means it has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. From a marketing POV, it made sense to lead with her most popular product, and the decision paid off. The rerecorded version of Fearless debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200 charts.

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Swift has continued to prioritize her most popular albums during the "Taylor's Version" rollout. 1989 is Swift's second-biggest album, so it seemed like the obvious choice to rerecord next, but a copyright lawsuit over the single "Shake It Off" meant the album was, for a time, legally off limits. Swift moved down the pecking order and chose Red and Speak Now, her third and fourth most successful albums, as the next releases in the series.

By the time Swift released Speak Now, the lawsuit involving 1989 had been dropped, so the singer could double back and fill in the gap. NBC News confirmed the lawsuit ruling in 2022, and chief among the outlet's takeaways was the fact that Swift could begin rerecording the album. Sure enough, 1989 was the fourth "Taylor's Version" to hit stores.

Taylor Swift Will Rerelease Her Debut Album Last To Bring The 'Taylor's Version' Series Full Circle

Taylor Swift's debut album does seem like it's been dealt a bad hand in the "Taylor's Version" rollout. The album used to be a wreck luck upon its release in 2006, and in the end went seven occasions platinum in the United States. The choice to repeatedly skip over the album is two-fold.

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Firstly, the album has the lowest streaming numbers of Swift's first six albums. It's still wildly popular, but it pales in comparison to the gigantic numbers that Fearless and 1989 put up, so there's less incentive to push it to the front of the "Taylor's Version" schedule. Its ranking on Spotify's most-streamed albums of all time list, relative to the other five, speaks for itself:

T. Swift Albums

Spotify's Most-Streamed Albums Of All Time Ranking As Of December 8th, 2023

Taylor Swift (2006)

1,011

Fearless (2008)

420

Speak Now (2010)

237

Red (2012)

207

1989 (2014)

30

Reputation (2017)

40

Ironically, this has allowed the album to take on greater significance in the "Taylor's Version" story. According to the Taylor Swift Fanon Wiki, the self-titled album is scheduled to be the last of the six albums to be rerecorded, which means it will provide a full-circle narrative for both the singer and her fans. The final "Taylor's Version" that fans will hear is the album literally named after her.

The phrase "narrative" is an important one for Swift, who discussed the rerecording process during a 2023 profile with Time Magazine. "It’s got any such narrative, there’s a reason for it," she noted, before pointing that her main response to adversity has always been to create:

"[I] stay making art... If you take a look at what I’ve put out since then, it’s extra albums in the last few years than I did in the first 15 years of my career."

Taylor Swift Had To Wait 5 Years To Rerecord Reputation Because Of Her Previous Record Contract

Taylor Swift confirmed that Reputation would be the fifth album she recorded during her Time Magazine profile. She admitted that the album had a polarizing reception from fans and critics when it was released in 2017, but that it holds a unique place in her catalog for that very same reason.

"[It used to be a] goth-punk moment of female rage at being gaslit via an entire social structure," she told the outlet. I think a lot of people see it and they're just like, 'Sick snakes and strobe lights.'" The extra fascinating quote, however, got here when Swift used to be requested concerning the "Taylor's Version" procedure as a whole. She drew a comparison between her musical journey and the journies of characters from The Avengers, Harry Potter, and The Lord Of The Rings:

"I'm collecting horcruxes. I'm collecting infinity stones. Gandalf's voice is in my head every time I put out a new one. For me, it is a movie now."

If we're to suppose that the albums are infinity stones, then Reputation used to be the trickiest one to reclaim. It was the newest of Swift's authentic six albums, and as such, she had to wait the longest time prior to she may legally rerecord it.

2:13 Related

Why Taylor Swift Waited Six Months To Release One 'Midnights' Song On Streaming Platforms

Taylor Swift likes to make her music accessible, but there may be one bonus monitor that is been purposely exhausting to to find.

According to Rolling Stone, most list contracts prohibit the rerecording of tune in the aftermath of its initial release. There are two stipulations in which it is eventually applicable:

• The artist waits two years after their contract has expired
• The artist waits 5 to seven years after the release date of the unique

Reputation grew to become five years previous on November 10, 2022, which means that Swift has already been onerous at paintings on its rerecording. She didn't offer too much in terms of musical perception, however she did inform Time Magazine that the new songs on "Taylor's Version" of Reputation shall be "dope."

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