On November 12, Taylor Swift released Red (Taylor’s Version), just one album a part of her re-releases after the Scooter Braun legal battle over her music royalties.
Swift started her music career in 2005, signing on with Big Machine Records. She later changed to Universal’s Public Records, but Big Machine Records still owned her songs.
When Big Machine Records sold the original recordings to another group, Swift decided to speak out against them directly getting the revenue from her songs. At this point, she decided to re-record her songs so fans could support her directly.
Swift released her first Taylor’s Version album on April 9, 2021. In the first six months, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) got 498-million streams, according to Billboard.
After this initial release, fans got excited for the next Taylor’s Version album to drop. Fans had theories, looked for clues, and offered many guesses hoping to figure out which one Swift would release for her project.
As the release of Red (Taylor’s Version) got closer, companies, TV shows, and social media accounts started posting hints and lyrics to get fans excited for the release.
The night before the release, Swift was a guest on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, talking about the album.
“[It has been a] very busy two years for you. During the pandemic, you put out five albums, a documentary, and you won a Grammy,” said Fallon at the start of the interview.
Red (Taylor’s Version) was officially released during the airing of The Tonight Show.
Swift broke the record for the biggest debut by a female album on US Spotify in history, with 46.8 million streams of Red (Taylor’s Version), surpassing the previous record, the debut of her own Folklore album, that had 42 million streams in the debut.
Fans saw this impact at midnight as many people tried to access the new album, crashing Spotify. Many fans took to Twitter to share that their Spotify was crashing and they could not get to the new album.
The release of Red (Taylor’s Version) also provided fans with something to look forward to the next morning or that weekend, as many Starbucks around the country featured “Taylor’s Drink”, which is a Caramel Nonfat Latte and played Taylor Swift music the morning of the release in their cafes.
As fans listen to Swift’s new release, they turn to social media to talk about someone who inspired many of these songs, actor and Swift’s ex, Jake Gyllenhaal. Sour Patch Kids even posted on Twitter, “Good morning to everyone except Jake Gyllenhaal…actually where is he I just wanna talk,” with a picture of a red sour patch crossing its arms.
Swift not only released All Too Well in this album, which is directly about Gyllenhaal but a 10-minute version of it within her album. She also produced a short film with this song, leaving fans analyzing every moment in the film and every word from the extended song.
During her interview on The Tonight Show, Fallon explained he saw many easter eggs throughout the short film, which is something Swift often does in her songs. She started placing easter eggs and hints within her first album and continued with this tradition.
Fans continue to look for easter eggs in songs, videos, and posts as this is something Swift loves to do and fans love to see.
Red (Taylor’s Version) is available on Spotify, Apple Music, and more streaming services and is also available for purchase on her website.