Thirteen years after her sophomore album Fearless was released, Taylor Swift has dropped the re-recording for her hit single Love Story. If you’ve kept up with her for the past few years then you most likely know about her ongoing battle with Scooter Braun and Scott Borshetta over the ownership of her masters. This has been particularly painful for Taylor since she has been stripped of usage and profiting rights when she’s done the majority of the writing on her albums. Taylor brought her feelings of desperation onto Twitter back in 2019 when she posted a screenshot from her notes app explaining the lengths the opposing party was going through to stop her from using her own music during the 2019 American Music Awards. In the tweet, she mentions how she is essentially being blackmailed into not re-recording her old songs in exchange for permission to use the original tracks. She denied.
During the pandemic, she has kept herself busy by releasing the two record-breaking albums, Folklore and Evermore, but there is even more on her agenda; while the strict contract prevented Taylor from using her original tracks, it also stated that she would be free to re-record her previous albums beginning in November 2020. The first song she has chosen to re-record and release is Love Story which brought many fans back to an era where they first grew interested in the artist. The new recording, which she calls “Taylor’s version”, is nearly identical to the original despite the thirteen-year gap in recording dates.
This release marks a new beginning for Taylor as she continues to re-record her previous seven albums under her ownership, allowing her to gain legal rights over her work.