On February 11, Taylor Swift took to instagram to announce that she will be releasing her first re-recorded album “soon.”  Why is Swift re-recording an album?  It goes back to 2019, when Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings agreed to acquire Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine record label group.  Swift recorded and released music under Big Machine for several years, so when Braun acquired the label for over $300 million, he also acquired Taylor’s first six studio albums.  Thus, Swift no longer has ownership of those albums and is now choosing to re-record and re-release those albums to “regain ownership,” or reclaim, them.  

Based on her recent announcement, Swift is not releasing her re-recorded albums in the order of their original counterparts’ releases.  Instead, she’s starting with her second album, Fearless, which she’s calling Fearless (Taylor’s Version) to reclaim her music.  The original platinum edition of Fearless contains 19 songs, however Fearless (Taylor’s Version) will contain 26 songs.  Six of those songs will be released from “the vault,” which means that they have never been heard by the general public before.  To excite fans even further, Swift released the re-recorded version of her popular hit, Love Story, which is titled Love Story (Taylor’s Version), on February 12th.  New and old Swift fans alike were beyond excited to hear these announcements.  Love Story (Taylor’s Version) created a sense of nostalgia for long-time Swift fans. It was a trip back to 2008 for many fans, the year that Fearless was originally released. Long-time Swift fans said that getting to listen to Love Story (Taylor’s Version) was like getting to listen to your favorite song for the first time again.  Of course, when Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is released, fans will once again get to experience the nostalgia, but they’ll also have a unique listening experience because of the 6 new songs.  

There is a fan theory that Fearless (Taylor’s Version) will be released on April 9th, 2021 due to the cryptic instagram post that announced the re-recorded album.  Swift is notorious for giving her fans subtle clues and easter eggs about her upcoming albums and music videos prior to their releases, so it’s no surprise that Swift may want to give the fans some clues about her first re-recorded album’s release date.  In her Instagram post announcing the release of the re-recorded album, Swift only used lowercase letters.  However, a few random letters were capitalized.  Fans quickly noticed this and put the capitalized letters next to each other, creating a message that spelled “APRIL NINE.” Thus, fans believe that Fearless (Taylor’s Version) will come out on April 9th.  This has not yet been confirmed, so only time will tell what “APRIL NINE” really means. 

Despite using her re-recordings to reclaim her lost music, Swift is staying true to the original aesthetic of Fearless.  The new album cover features Swift in a similar pose to that of the original, and it also features the nostalgic golden colors. The same goes for her merchandise: Swift is keeping the original aesthetic, however, she is not reusing her original Fearless merchandise.  Thus, fans are extremely excited for Fearless (Taylor’s Version); it’s a perfect combination of nostalgia and anticipation for the new aspects of this Taylor Swift era.