Nearly 10 years later, Taylor Swift’s Grammy award-winning album, 1989, has been re-recorded and re-released, along with 5 new added songs, and Swifties are loving it.
1989, Swift’s 5th album, was released in 2014 and is objectively one of Swift’s most popular albums, as it includes hit tracks like “Blank Space”, “Welcome to New York”, “Shake it Off”, and “Style”. This album won both Album of the Year and Pop Album of the Year in 2015. In case you do not know why Swift is re-recording her albums, her old manager, Scooter Braun, has full ownership of her first 6 albums, including 1989, which was a deal allegedly made behind Swift’s back. In order to regain ownership and make money off of her own work, Swift is re-recording her first 6 albums and attaching the name “Taylor’s Version” at the end to show that she now owns it. Now on October 27th of this year, Swift re-released this hit album and fans have a lot to say about it.
1989 ruled the radio in 2014, as everyone was singing multiple songs on the Billboard 100. “Blank Space” is arguably one of her most popular songs, as it has 1,584,829,197 streams and a memorable music video. Hearing Swift re-record these popular songs from 2014 creates feelings of nostalgia for many people, since many Wayne Hills students were around the age of 9 when the album was originally released.
1989 (Taylor’s Version) also included 5 “vault tracks”, which are songs Swift wrote during the production of the original album, but didn’t make the final cut. When asked which vault track is her favorite, Lucia Nesbitt, a junior at Wayne Hills High School, said, “I love ‘Now That We Don’t Talk’. I like her vocals in it and I love the beat of the song.” Taylor’s vault tracks have taken the world by storm, as the most popular track “Is It Over Now?” already has 107,049,546 streams on Spotify.
Taylor Swift was 24 years old when 1989 was originally released, and now being nearly 10 years older, her vocals definitely sound different. Miyuki Dan, a junior at Wayne Hills, shared her feelings on the topic: “I feel that her vocals are much more confident in the re-release.” Swift is now 33 years old and it is so much fun to see how much her vocals have progressed from the original albums versus the re-releases.
Most students at Wayne Hills High School were quite young when 1989 was originally released in 2014, so this re-release in a way feels like fans have grown up with Swift. Being older, fans have new perspectives on each of her songs on 1989, yet have feelings of nostalgia from when the album as originally released in 2014. Taylor Swift’s mature vocals and intelligent songwriting allowed her to dominate the charts with 1989 (Taylor’s Version).
